So yesterday I set off for Heathrow, to fly to Dubai for a few days to research an article. You may think well, that’s crazy - didn’t I look at the news? The unprecedented rains and subsequent flooding?
Yes, of course I had seen the news. But much of it focused on the actual rains, which had seemed to have stopped, and the weather going forward was showing continual sun, which is what Dubai is known for. I looked at the Emirates website, and it showed that flights were all scheduled as normal. So all round, business as usual.
I was being hosted by the Dubai Tourist Board, which yesterday morning said the trip was going ahead.
Then they suddenly cancelled the trip. And soon after that, day two of all the news coverage came out, showing widespread flooded roads and an airport still in chaos.
The annoying thing is that a fellow travel writer posted from The Palm today, an area of Dubai, showing an immaculate vista of perfect beaches and not a flooded road in sight. They said that yes, the airport was complete carnage, but where they were everything was calm.
That’s the striking thing about this digital age. We think that we have all the information at our fingertips, that with 24-hour news channels the situation is revised continually, and we’re always up to date.
Yet that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Also, the Dubai floods have been presented as a remarkable event. Yet the images of Dubai in this article were taken in 2011.
This is so true. Unless you can communicate with someone reliable who is currently where you are planning to go, you have no idea of how the situation is. But social media can help in this situation. When I got stranded in Vietnam, a country I did not know at all at the time, I got connected to friends of friends and quickly received all the information I needed.