There's a cafe I go to for my daily midday tea breaks. It occupies a street corner where you place an order through a window while peering into a kitchen slightly bigger than the size of a food truck. It sells a small cup of kadak chai for 1.50 dirhams. Across the street is a Starbucks which sells a medium cup of tea for 14 dirhams. The disparity used to shock me initially but now I don't bat an eye.
Laborers, delivery men, and hospitality staff frequent this cafe due its low price point. Sometimes I see a man in a suit. Seldom do I see foreigner. I like it because it's not pretentious and makes a killer chai.
The other day, at the table next to mine, a food delivery man was hunched over his mobile phone and sipping a cup of chai. His right leg was bouncing up and down. I could feel his tension. Between sips, he was signaled to by the waiter. The waiter was pointing at his delivery motorcycle. I turned my attention in that direction and saw a uniformed man checking license plates near the street parking and tapping away on his phone. The delivery man came sprinting into view. He exchanged a few words with the man in uniform which I couldn't hear. Then he walked to his motorcycle and signaled back to the waiter. He looked deflated. He drove away, leaving his chai unfinished.
On my way out, I asked the waiter what happened. 'Did the man get a fine?' He said yes. 'How much?' I asked. 200 dirhams. The waiter's final words stung: 'The man took a 5 minute break and lost 200 dirhams.'
While walking back to my building, I did the math. 200 dirhams is about 50 euros. It would've annoyed me no doubt, but I would've shrugged it off by evening. For that delivery man, it might be a week's income. It would probably sting him for days.
Income inequality has gotten worse around the world, but nowhere have I felt it more acutely than in Dubai. Here it's staring you in the face the moment you step out. With non-stop construction projects and an economy centered around convenience and tourism, I see more men like the delivery man than the average professional or tourist.
It used to bother me. The delivery guy and I both expend the same raw 'effort' in a day, and that's probably being generous to me. The difference is that society has decided that my 'effort' is more lucrative. Then I realized that me being bothered by it is not helping anyone. I've started to take these opportunities to feel grateful to Lady Luck for giving me good parents, raising me in a good part of the world, and introducing me to a trade at an early age which pays good money. Now I try to pay this gratitude forward in the form of tips and other acts of kindness while reminding myself that nature is inherently random.