Drysdale comments on Oman's relationship to Dubai.

Omanis are really very, very proud of their, their cultural heritage. And I think there is a sense of, actually I've heard over and over again, Omanis say we don't want to be like Dubai. And you know Dubai is very close by and Oman is really in its shadow.

Just for context: Dubai is absolutely an amazing place.…[I]t has kind of the energy of Hong Kong and the dynamism of Singapore, and the global connectivity of a brilliant major city. Very, very cosmopolitan, very glitzy, very brash. And Omanis sort of, some of them are a little bit enticed by that and also at the same time a bit repulsed and concerned about it. So there's a sense among many Omanis, that in Dubai, anything goes. And they're not going to permit that.

…[So] Omani's have a sort of ambivalent relationship to Dubai. On the one hand, they find it exciting. It has all the excitement that Oman lacks, so they're drawn to it in that sense, but they also have a feeling that they don't want Oman to become like Dubai. They don't like the flash, the vulgarity, the corruption, the sense that this society's changed too much, it's lost its roots.