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. None of this has anything to do with the actual conduct of business that involves thought and muscle and widgets and skids and fork lifts and warehouse space and ocean-going vessels.
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. Everywhere people are courteous, efficient, and friendly without the excesses of either humility or arrogance. It's easy to like Dubai.