Media & Lifestyle | Expat Brat | JULY 09
Expat Brat
What’s life really like? With Jenny Hewett. In Dubai almost nothing is done is halves, cars are big, diamonds are bigger and the infamous egos fuelling their demand can surely be seen from space. It’s no news here, big is in. Just take a look at poor Sammy in the Atlantis aquarium. But the buck doesn’t stop there. I have found another contender that fits the bill in the ‘how obscenely big can you get before offending a greenie?’ pile. Fast food packaging. To say the way they go about bagging a burger and fries here is extreme would be an understatement. Let it be said that if you want to pick up a fast food meal in this city, then well and truly prepare to look like you’ve been hitting the shops Pretty Woman-style and couldn’t find the recycling bin afterwards. I was first introduced to Dubai’s strict ‘green’ regime some months ago when, on a mid Friday afternoon, practically post mortem on the couch after a late night liquid session, we decided to hit the big M. Let me take you through it, we stopped by the golden arches, ordered two small
50
meals (I swear, I’ve been a cheeseburger meal kinda girl from way back) and ended up with a bag that would cover the entire upper half of my torso. It even had handles. My sister had it in one, “it’s like I’ve been shopping and have come home with the boots”. Say no more. Looking at our lunch loot, you would have assumed we’d maxed out the plastic, but a mere exchange of 30 dirhams and a bag full of grease later and I was hiding in the backseat quicker than you could say “supersize me”. Thank god for tinted windows. What’s more, one of the burgers was cased in st… st… I’m almost too afraid to say it… styrofoam. I thought that went out with Hypercolour t-shirts? As if a trip to Macca’s didn’t have me feeling guilty enough, now I had a whole other conscience on my hands. C’mon Dubai, what happened to doing your bit for the environment. I guess if I turned a blind eye and didn’t waste my time in the drive-thru line, then I would be none-the-wiser to the amount of waste I need to go through in order to cure a hangover. (Sigh). Sumo Salad, lock up your lettuce.