Hull or Dubai - What a choice

Wasn’t it Philip Larkin the famous poet who lived round the corner from me here in Hull that wrote - ‘hull, hell and halifax’, when writing about the city he loved to hate but never hated enough to leave?  Little like me it feels although today i write, ‘Dubai or Hull.  What a choice, between Larkin’s hell and hell.

What’s the difference between Hull or Dubai? well i know Hull, i love the chips here and the beer. Dubai? I love the Indian food, warm weather (although that becomes hell in summer) and mid-eastern food. The downside is that Dubai is like a large shopping centre in the desert with a mix of hopeless people looking to make ends meet. Hull isn’t so dissimilar these days.

But whats the story… the great British recession… Dubai crashing?

I feel an allegiance to  my city but can’t face the idea of filming here right now, maybe if i found a character quickly… but i always say that and it rarely happens. Besides which, as Dubai crashes it feels symbolic of capitalism as we know it today, and it is that that attracts me to the story. And then there is  the glimmer of hope provided by a charity out there that is helping abandoned Indian construction workers whose employers have gone bust and left them. On $4 a day they find it difficult to buy  a ticket home.

Although filming isn’t going to be easy and it may end up with me being kicked out. “Shrewdly” i hope to follow an Indian construction worker or workers home to India  as a way of filming freely, although my ultimate aim for the best film there is with a local, one of the few 18% (80% of people living in Dubai are ‘immigrants’) - I would love to find someone who can provide a sane voice to what is going on  in Dubai. Quite simple really, now all i have to do is find such a person.

This entry was posted on 14/04/2009 at 12:22 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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