Las Vegas vs Dubai

Really this post is more about Dave Hickey's "A home in the neon" vs "Fear, sand and money in Dubai" by Mike Davies. Let me just say that this was like comparing a wonderful hot toddy made with the best Irish whiskey and sweet honey - warming, comforting and enjoyable, to - well, to a shot of whatever Russian knock-off vodka your local has stocked up on. Yes "Fear, sand and money in Dubai" is the bargain booze I speak of: alcoholic - TICK, consumable - TICK (at times), Guaranteed to get you pissed - TICK. It is cold, boring and uninterestingly informative.

Dave Hickey's writing is unapologetic. He gives himself over to the reader, telling us his emotions, his opinions, his doubts without fear of judgement. Honestly after reading this piece I feel like I know him as an old friend you might bump into in the pub. Someone you can have a chat to with no hidden agendas, no underlining meanings. He is telling a story, his story, unlike Mike Davies who is simply giving us facts. In fact he doesn't tell us much about himself at all. We learn nothing of the man, he is nothing other than facts and figures. Indeed if I were to try and imagine him as a person I find myself picturing something between an accountant and Simon Cowell and then I think to myself, why bother? I imagine I would either kill myself or IT (I've always been more homicidal than suicidal) long before I would have to listen to it speak ....... then again I was forced to read his "Fear, sand and money in Dubai", perhaps I have more self-control than previously stated!

Anyway, back to the task at hand, Davies' piece at least gets slightly interesting when he lists the problems, particularly in inhumane treatment of the workers in the construction industry, but really we already knew that! Or at least had a rough idea about it, not to mention that I still don't really care. Don't get me wrong, it’s shocking. We should care and it should stop. But it reminds me of a news report which aims to shock and shake you into action but fails to do so. Facts and figures never do. I wonder if Davies even bothered to interview or meet any of these workers he has wrote about, because quite frankly he writes about them as if they are non-human objects. To him they are faceless and so they are faceless to us. Hickey's writing is so enjoyable simple for me because he describes his characters, including himself, as people and that is exactly what they are.... they are people to us.