Parking the back side?

When translating from one language to another, I will always remember this example. The computer was asked to translate from the Bible, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak". In Russian, the computer spewed out, "the vodka is strong, but the flesh is rotten".

I took this photo yesterday from across the Noodle Bowl restaurant. It should have read Park Behind instead of "Parking the back side". Well, at least I know how it reads, and not funny of course in any Middle Eastern or Asian language.

We have no problem getting around Dubai with just English. Such comical experience with public signages only tell me that there is another unfamiliar and perhaps larger world in Dubai that I am not aware of. A world where the folks do not use English, and if they are so well hidden from us, they are probably the poorer segment of the society here.

They say the rich and the poor the world over are the same. That is probably right. It is in the middle class that one society is different from another. There is no middle class in Dubai, a least a large one that you cannot miss. Dubai is unreal. It is filled with so many foreign expats that has arrived only recently.

Go up fast, come down faster. Come in quickly, rush out faster could well be the story of expats in Dubai. I shudder to think of such a scenario here. I hope it doesn't come true. EFG Hermes predicted that Dubai would lose up to 17% of its population this year. UBS put down their number at 10%. Do they grasp the implication of such numbers?