I'm going to sue!
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2007
1
24
72
Trip End
Jul 03, 2007
Dubai,
United Arab Emirates
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Ok, Dubai has a lot of construction and I was just out walking around at night because I had nothing better to do with my time, and I crossed through a construction zone.
No one stopped me.
So at one point--I'm not even sure what happened really--I conked my toe on something, and thought, "ouch". I just kept walking, cause it didn't even hurt that much. Then, all of a sudden, I looked down and there was all this blood on my toe, and the nail was ripped in half and just sort of hanging there. So I had to turn around and hike like THREE MILES back to the University, over the sandy dusty ground, and it turns out the doctor's office was closed anyway.
Lucky it hit my nail, though, or else I would definately have needed a doctor. However...I'm thinking that if this were America, what I would really need is...a LAWYER. So far, the US method of monetary revenge for all injuries and insults has not yet managed to penetrate the UAE...but, boy, the potential! Thousands of unguarded, unlabled construction sites, all merging together and ever-expanding! Lots of rich, bored people looking to get richer! An overbearing sense of entitlement! Mass advertising! The lawyers ought to be gathering like vultures.
But I suspect this won't be happening for quite a while. It would just be disastrous for this country, in ways I cannot describe. (Really. I can't describe them.) That, and the concept of "blood money" seems to take the place of suing. ("Blood Money" goes way back--if you kill someone, you owe their family a determinable amount of money, which defrays revenge and possibly a blood feud. It's like suing, only less warped, and not decadent. And it's a system of actual justice.)
This guy I know tried to tell me Dubai was getting really bad about lawyers and suing...but he has never been to the States. He does not know. He does NOT know.
