The grim reality of the global financial crisis is biting hard in Dubai, especially for the many living beyond their means. Of late, people have taken to measures such as dumping their cars at the airport and fleeing the country, with police having recently removed 22 cars from Dubai International Airport.
The National reported that last year 3,241 cars were reclaimed by banks, a 123 percent increase on 2007. Debt collectors report a boom in business as banks ensure loan defaulters do not get away with their “park and run” attempts. The reports of abandoned cars has created a lot of activity in the blogosphere with many living in Dubai blaming the phenomenon on the ease in which you can buy a car. As one blogger said, “It was so easy to buy cars in the UAE no guarantor required, no down payment, pay a minimum of up to 5 years, the car prices are all tax free and cheap.” Another blogger summed up the attitude in Dubai that has left so many in financial ruin. “To succeed in life I must lose all moral and ethical intuition, move to a foreign country, take out loans for assets, roll the dice, pop the champagne or book the return flight.”
However, for some the implications of the financial crisis go far beyond the mere ‘dump and run’. Sharjah Police reported the suicide of a Pakistani businessman — who had lost millions — by self-decapitation with an electric chainsaw. Police say they are expecting a rise in the suicide rate as the financial crisis progresses, thus it may be that abandon cars at the airport are among the more mundane symptoms of ‘crisis’.
