The Emarati Job

It was around 1 am. I was just chatting to some people on MSN when one of my friends called me up. She said something in the lines of "HOOR! THEY ROBBED GRAFF!" Naturally, I didnt believe her at all. Graff?! C'mon! An expensive diamond shop like that would never keep it's guard down. That's what I thought, being the part-realist/part-cynic that I am. To my own surprise, she sent me a video of the incident within the next few minutes. I remember thinking "whoah, it's like something out of a movie!" Within hours, word got around. UAE-based blogs were all writing about it just hours after it happened. It was the hot topic, raising many questions with it: Who could have done it? Were they armed? How much money (in diamonds) was stolen? Why the lack of security? Where were the police?

The local media reacted in different ways. For example, the incident happened on Sunday night, and it had front page coverage the next day on the british-owned tabloid 7DAYS. However, government-owned Emirates Today did not feature the story until Tuesday. Is this somehow related to protecting national security and reputation to an extent? Maybe. The UAE always boasted a relatively-low crime rate along with a reputation of being extremely safe. This sort of media coverage would not be helpful at all, especially since the country is relying on tourists to boost the economy, along with luring people from other countries to take residency in the Emirates.

The thing about this particular crime is that it was caught on camera by people, and footage was immediately distributed all over town. If this were not the case, the robbery wouldn't have gotten much media coverage, if any. It's no secret that crime (as low as it is said to be) is quite "covered up" here. An example of this is the Siddiqi store robbery just last year; it was just mentioned in passing, and the news died quickly. Since people were seeing the footage everywhere, the media was almost 'forced' to respond and cover the story, making it front page news. As for being honest with the audience, there really isnt much to say. They broke in, took about 2 minutes to get 50 million dirhams worth of diamonds, and broke out. These are all the facts on the table, nothing more, nothing less, so presenting this would be relatively simple. Of course I would broadcast the news since everyone else will be doing it (people would want answers to the video that was leaked). I would just lay the facts that the police provide on the table.

Would this hurt the country's image? I highly doubt it. One robbery doesnt mean anything. It doesnt bring down the safety percentage greatly. Its almost insignificant. It's not like anyone was shot (unlike in the US, where there seems to be school shootings on a regular basis now). Graff is probably insured, and the robbery would be a lesson to other stores to increase security. Even malls should consider increasing their own security. It would have been impossible for the police to reach there within 2 minutes, but mall security could have done something.

Overall, people living here had something exciting to talk about this past week while sipping their morning coffees. Why? Because some civilians were smart and quick enough to pull their phones out and take a videos of a shocking event. Would we have heard about it otherwise, if the robbery hadent been during working hours? Probably not, or maybe just in passing. In any case, I think people exagerrate when they start discussing issues of national security and the country's overall safety. It was a robbery, not a terrorist plot to unleash a nuclear weapon in the middle of town.