A 21-year-old student, Phillip Van Reeth shares his cultural experiences, childhood,and the first seventeen years of his life living in Dubai. Being raised in theforeign land of Dubai, Van Reeth witnessed many changes in his homelandthroughout his childhood.
“Dubai is very westernized. The percentage of locals is very low, making it very diverse,” said Van Reeth. “There are a lot of Westerners, a lot of British, South Africans, and a lot of Australians. You get a whole mix form all over the world really.”
Being a child of American parents, Van Reeth was brought up with western culture and beliefs. His parents moved to Dubai for the sole purpose of delivering better healthcare to the Middle East and to share western medicine. Van Reeth’s mother and father opened up the American Hospital of Dubai in 1996 for those exact reasons.
During his childhood, Van Reeth attended the American School of Dubai where he received his education. While attending this school, Van Reeth felt very challenged throughout his courses.
“Teachers want to teach in the middle east because of the benefits they get, the time off, the taxes and they are getting paid more than they do in the states. A lot of university professors come there and teach high school. A lot of my professors were American and Canadian.”
Van Reeth explains how the schools in Dubai are now switching from Mac’s to PC computers, unlike the schools in the states that are leaning more toward Mac’s instead of PCs.
“When I was in school in Dubai, every computer was a Mac, which is what got me interested in the Film and Media Arts Major,” said Van Reeth.
Van Reeth pursed his interest in film and media arts by attending the University of Tampa in Florida. He heard about this program through a college fair that was held at his school in Dubai.
“They have college fairs that come to the Middle East to showcase the American Universities, around 15 or so. You can’t really take a weekend off and visit a school like you can in the United States,” said Van Reeth.
He also admits that there is no presence of blogging in Dubai. He never even heard about it until he traveled to the U.S. Blogging has transformed into a huge media outlet for American’s and he explains how the media hasn’t explored this outlet.
Duabi’s transformation from a desert vast land to an international tourist hot spot was very visible through Van Reeth’s eyes.
“I remember for the longest time that the tallest building was only 25 stories high, since then it has just exploded and they have built some ridiculous stuff,” Van Reeth explains.
During Van Reeth’s junior year of high school the unprecedented indoor ski slope dubbed “Ski Dubai” was completed. The principle of one day having nothing but a desert to the next day waking up to see a ski slope is something that Van Reeth thought he’d never see. From what used to be a limited amount of activities for Van Reeth and his friends to the now never-ending list of local attractions, the transformation was astonishing. But not all change is for the good.
“The one annoying thing about all this change is that they started to take our beaches away. I have to be near the beach, and they are beautiful out here,” said Van Reeth. “The problem is they are building these huge, five star hotels right on the beach and you have to a member or guest to use them, and that’s frustrating.”
Being so westernized, it is not surprising that all the construction, expansion, and growth of western countries is visible in Dubai. While expansion does bring change and chance for large profits the local activities, people and some culture are unfortunately sacrificed.
