Photos of Dubai from before the boom

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Foreign Policy has a gallery of photos of Dubai before its economic boom. Shown above:

Men gather in al-Naif souq, one of the oldest traditional markets in Dubai. It was partially damaged by a fire in 2008 -- but the fabulously wealthy emirate decided that this was one of the cultural landmarks that it wanted to keep around. The souq was rebuilt in 2010.

Once Upon a Time in Dubai (Via The Agitator)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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ChicagoD

I sometimes wonder about places like Dubai. I mean, if you think the West is worried about peak oil, how’d you like to be in a part of the world that was useful only for getting to somewhere useful before oil, and will revert to that status after oil?
ChicagoD

I sometimes wonder about places like Dubai. I mean, if you think the West is worried about peak oil, how’d you like to be in a part of the world that was useful only for getting to somewhere useful before oil, and will revert to that status after oil?
RadioSilence

These are my dad’s photos of Dubai in 1972, he was an engineer on an oil tanker at the time.
http://i.imgur.com/GrG15.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qcecP.jpg
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  Those are really nice photos, RadioSilence. I’d love to see more if you have them.
  - RadioSilence
    
    No more of dubai I’m afraid, and not much else scanned, I’ll have to nag him into digitising more.
    He has some great photos from his time at sea – him holding a cobra in India, my mum on deck in a very cool leather jacket with Table Mountain in the background (they didn’t go ashore ashore at Cape Town, not the done thing), and he’s always telling me stories of his adventures at sea; the time he inherited a parrot from his cabin’s former occupant, the time the second mate mistook Venus for the mail helicopter (he wasn’t popular in the bar that evening).
    I don’t envy the time he was bombed in the South Atlantic during the Falklands War though, and I’m glad the one bomb that actually hit the ship didn’t go off.
stupocalypto

@ChicagoD:disqus It’s a humanitarian crisis waiting to happen. Once the money stops, so will the water!
stupocalypto

@ChicagoD:disqus It’s a humanitarian crisis waiting to happen. Once the money stops, so will the water!
Narmitaj

My father used to fly for Kuwait Airways 1956-74 and a lot changed even between those dates. Here is one of KAC’s Viscounts at Dubai Airport in the early 60s – the parking apron and runway are made of compacted sand. I believe the airport has been moved/replaced twice since then.
sarahnocal

Wow, so much has changed in 50 YEARS..duh.
- ChicagoD
  
  Duh? From compacted sand airports to the tallest building in the world? I mean, that’s a pretty big change for a place that hasn’t had an industrial revolution or anything like it.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Kind of like serfdom/slavery to communism without industrialization and the development of a middle class. The long term results may be similar.
    - ChicagoD
      
      What could go wrong?
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        That’s why socialism worked in Scandinavia but not in Russia. How do you get people from starving to death to “Let’s share everything!” in one generation?
        
        Who knows how it will play out in the oil countries.
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  Yes, you are correct, Sarahnocal — things change a lot in 50 years. But I still think it is interesting to see how things change over time. Do you not find the photos fascinating?
koko szanel

What economic boom? Dubai has real economy?