Jebel Ali, the second of Dubai's ports, is the largest artificial port in the world, and the Jebel Ali free zone is filled with companies from Japan, Korea, the US, China, and Russia. Reflecting the digital focus, the local English-language paper, Gulf News , is filled with ads seeking to fill IT positions. On a drive out to the Jebel Ali free zone, which is about 25 miles west of the downtown area, I pass the newly opened Dubai Internet City, the name displayed on the archway in English and Arabic. The Urim and Thummum of the Internet Age, Microsoft and Oracle, flank the gateway entrance. I've brought some papers.
Stamps is stamps and business is business.
But I don't really mind. Byzantium helps keep out the competition, who are overly intimidated by arcane processes. Myself, I hate bureaucracies, and so tend to move through them like a tank, careful however to destroy only what is absolutely necessary. It's easy to like Dubai. Yet when one finally shows up, the arab who is there first graciously offers to give up the cab to me.