Don’t tar all Dubai teens with the same brush . . .
I’VE LIVED in Dubai for 34 years and travelled worldwide often enough to know that there are uncontrolled and sometimes tragic teenagers in every city. The instances cited for Dubai (Mail) aren’t typical or in the majority. Two of my grandchildren have grown up here and are now in their 20s. The girl was schooled entirely in Dubai, after which she took her first degree at the London School of Economics. She is doing her Masters at Cambridge. Her brother went home at 13 to a famous English boarding school, but didn’t find it superior to the schools he attended here. He got a First in his Master’s degree and is now training as a chartered accountant at one of Britain’s big four accountancy firms. I’m no smug granny: my grandchildren’s Dubai contemporaries are all high achievers who have gone on to the best universities in the U.S. and Britain. At school, they did the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, helped out in schools for the handicapped and staged excellent productions of Hairspray, Evita, Cats and Les Miserables. One friend had a prominent TV role in the last series of Spooks. When my husband encouraged the rugby team from his old school at home (stars of the Daily Mail’s school rugby tournament) to come to Dubai, they were roundly beaten by Dubai College — hardly the achievement of layabouts. If Dubai College’s exam results were inserted into the league table of both British state and private schools, it would never come below 13th.
AUDREY, LADY FLANAGAN, Dubai, UAE. THE claim that teenagers are ‘bored to death in Dubai’ (Mail) shows just how low the standards and morals of British youngsters has sunk. I’ve worked and raised children in Dubai, and my son and his family live and work there now, so I know a bit about the place. The lifestyle is fantastic, the pay excellent the leisure and education facilities second to none. Yet these pathetic little jerks, who behave like idiots with no respect or appreciation of the privileged position they find themselves in, complain they are bored. The authorities in Dubai should re-iterate to the parents of these adolescents that behaviour that is unfortunately accepted in the UK will not be tolerated in Dubai. A spell in a Dubai prison for these feral youths, mixed with a few parents having their contracts cancelled and being deported, should do the trick. Thank your lucky stars for what you have and show some appreciation for being in one of the world’s most exotic and exciting places.
CARL CASSIDY, Kingswood, Hull.