The deal with locals..

Yes, I am local, don't get me wrong; but there's something really annoying about the majority of us (including me) that just has to be said.

Our school keeps us very aware of somethings that happen here in Dubai, and we are very fortunate for having that because most other schools/universities here do not, I realize that. Two days ago on Friday, I went to the annual Burjuman Breast Cancer Walkathon. It was through our teachers' efforts that many people signed up for the walkathon, and we were all excited about it. I hadn't gone to the Breast Cancer Walkathon before, and I thought that it'd be fun and interesting, and also beneficial in terms of breast cancer awareness and fundraising for research. So me and a few of my friends went. Emphasis on the few.

Yes, most of us signed up, yet only me and 3 other locals from our class actually went. Our friends of other nationalities? Almost all of them came. I'm not trying to put my friends down or anything, no one was forced to go, maybe they just couldn't come. Anyways, lets go straight to the point.

There were around 4,000 people there at the Walkathon, we really enjoyed the day. However, out of these 4,000 people, I saw absolutely no locals there! A few random moms taking photos and stuff probably for a certain purpose, thats it. I could honestly say that I felt like the locals from our school were the only locals there. It's our country, its us who should be doing these stuff, aren't we? And then everyone's all upset about having alot of expatriates in Dubai. They have a reason to be here, we honestly don't.

I mean were living in Dubai, where alot of people from all around the world would dream to be. Yet, all our lives are simply, boring, routines. We wake up, get to school/uni/work, come home, do whatever duties we have to do, we go to sleep. And yes, lets not forget to go to the mall whenever we're bored, because thats all we can do here in the desert we live in. Right? thats what we all do and think. We'll were all wrong! Dubai has so many things to offer, but we locals know nothing about the events going on all year long here. Why? We give nothing to the community, so we get nothing back.

Have you ever gone through expat websites and forums? read their magazines? You'd be amazed at all the thing's you've been missing your whole life. We, the people who've been here since birth, have contributed nothing to our community other than running the economy though endless shopping sprees. The expatriates who live here however, have built amazing organizations, and done great things for themselves and their own communities. They've built amazing relationship with people of all sorts. Thay're the ones who created the multicultural society of Dubai, not us. We've just taken the back seat, looked at whats visible, and criticized it at any opportunity we find; we never actually see what's going on, because we're not involved in it.

So all I'm trying to say is that, at least for us, the future generation, we need to step up and actually give to our community so that it would grow into a better place. Its no use staying the way we are, we'll all end up dying having done nothing noticable, nothing different. Even if its something small, we should all try to do something, even if its just taking part in events. Who knows, something might be triggered inside you, unleashing a passion you've never known you had. You never know anything until you try it.

This is one the photo's I took that day, I must say it was an inspiring morning.