4th world. By Léa GOIGOUX & Axelle HABAY

The first photo was taken on February 15^th in Dubaï in the United Arab Emirates. It was at the Marina of Dubaï, in a rich neighbourhood. It is in the centre of Dubai; all around are typical buildings of this city: very large, to accommodate many people. The berthed boats belong to the city or to individuals. It was about 6pm and it was still very hot, even if there isn't as much sun at this time of the afternoon. We could hear the birds singing, some people who were running or chatting and sometimes something fell in the sea. It was quite calm. Everything around me was very tall and really impressive. We could smell the sea and the atmosphere was heavy, there wasn't any wind.

The second picture was taken on February 17^th also in Dubaï. It was at the Deira souk, a market in the centre of Dubai, in a quite poor neighbourhood. We see small buildings. There is also scaffolding and a construction site (a wheelbarrow, planks). There is a man dressed traditionally, he throws his garbage and, in the background, there is a café. It was about 2pm and it was a sunny day. The temperature was around 30°C. We could hear people shouting, tourists taking pictures and carts which rolled up. Everybody was quite agitated. It was a very colourful place with people who were trying to sell a lot of different things to tourists. We could smell so many different things but essentially the smell of food.

In the first picture, we see beautiful, large, boats and tall, new, buildings, which show the rich side of Dubai. In the second image, we see an old man in flip-flops looking rummaging through trash in a neighbourhood with old, very modest, buildings. This shows the poverty of some neighbourhoods of Dubai.

Though only a few kilometres from each other, these two neighbourhoods are very different regarding their populations, architecture and standards of living. The first photo shows a wealthy neighbourhood where residents own boats and large buildings. While in the second picture, there is a small café, workers and modest buildings. It was taken in a disadvantaged neighbourhood, where the bins are very close to the houses. When we look at these two photos, one might think that this is not the same city or even not the same country. But this is the reality of Dubai.

For me, these photos show that within a same city, there are so many different neighbourhoods. In these neighbourhoods, people group together according to their origin. People also group together according to their social class and their level of wealth; we can see that, in the second picture, the environment is poorer than in the first one. These photos reveal that some neighbourhoods are older than others. We can see that the first picture was clearly taken in a more recent place than the second one. Because of this contrast, different activities are practised according to the age of the place.

For me, these photos show the inequality between two parts of the same town. On the one hand, everybody can see that people don't really have good life, the streets are quite dirty and seem to be perpetually under construction. And, on the other hand, there are people who have so much more than what they really need to live correctly, like yachts, for example. As I said in the previous paragraph, closed communities are also very present and I don't think that it is a good thing for social organization. In spite of these aspects that I find absolutely negative, I have to say that these two landscapes are quite impressive. In the first one, the buildings are really high and the space is well-built. In the second one, it's very interesting to visit a neighbourhood which is not perfect, nore has it changed for years. These two landscapes show the differences which exist between two neighbourhood within a same city.