Here is the Nightline show that asked that very question.

It was a bit surprising that the women said EQUALITY and them men were saying that there are differences.

How can we ever hope that people will be able to get along, in a global context, just look at the mess in the newspapers.

We have terrorists, pirates, riots, political chaos and much more that all can probably be traced back to the simple fact that we don not care enough about the small things.

And how do I get to that conclusion?

How can we expect people to understand and accept difference on a large scale if we can’t make it happen on a small scale such what we wear as cloths in public?

This conversation is again happening in the UAE.

Why is it happening?

People do not care is the short and simple answer.

If we can’t dress with a bit of respect in the mall how can we expect people to deal with larger issues of state and ideological difference?

Here is the conversation from Nightline what is your view?

In this case Paul Kelly of Triplew joined me to introduce some homegrown Dubai musical talent.

We went from hip-hop to fusion to rock and we could have probably kept going.

What I find odd is that the UAE has not set in place local content quotas for the arts.

Radio, TV and why not something in the film industry that demands shorts or something are played at the cinema before the imported content.

Well this is really special.

Let me know what you think of this.

Well it is time to look at yourself through the inner mirror.

What has happened to your trust? Have you lost trust in your fellow man?

It would seem to me that more than ever we have gone from trusting people to figuring that everyone is out to soak us.

Well what does that mentality do to our creative industry, education, government…

We need a re-boot!

Here is the conversation from Nightline.

On Nightline we asked which rules we are willing to break and which rules we stick to.

It seems that when it comes to driving we are willing to cut a few corners.

But if we are willing to cut corners when it comes to rules of the road which other rules are we willing to break?

Even with all the signs to dress respectfully in Dubai people still chose to thumb their noses, amazing.

Worth, STILL, is tied to ethnicity.

We see this in bright colour when we look at the hiring practices in the UAE.

An Indian and an American doing the same job are likely to have very different salaries!

Why?

Some say it is not true.

Others say it is because of how far the salary will go in a persons home country.

Here is the conversation we had on Nightline, what is your take?

And yes they are a legal substance.

But given the health issues shouldn’t we do what we can to get people off of them?

And if we need to make it harder to buy smokes isn’t that a good thing?

Well, maybe not.

Here is a conversation from Nightline that has people suggesting that if we make it harder to buy smokes we are going to be hurting retailers!

Hmmm…. what are your thoughts?

But it is also odd how easy it is to live without actually engaging with the UAE culture.

A big piece of that culture is the language.

So many expats living in the UAE and so few making any real effort to learn Arabic, I include myself in that pile.

Why is Arabic not being taken up as a 2nd or 3rd language by expats?

Some suggest it has a lot to do with where we come from and our fear that by learning another language we are diluting our mother tongue, really!

Others say we expats are here for the cash and only the cash.

Others say we are just lazy!

So what do we do?

I have said it before and will say it again, we need to have some serious training on how to deal with conflict.

Why don’t we have any?

What is clear is that we are muddling through and maybe we could be doing a lot better.

Here is a conversation I had with folks in Dubai, lots of learning here.

The short and sweet is nip the conflict fast don’t let it develop!