I worked in Dubai for 11 years until recently. In all that time, I drank small amounts of alcohol at bars and openly brought copious amounts of duty free spirits into the country. Never once have I been harrassed by Customs, any airport officials or Dubai police about any of those activities. I gained the strong impression that expats were given a lot of latitude about consuming and transporting alcohol, provided they never carried it in the streets or were clearly intoxicated and/or consuming alcohol in public. Yes those laws are there, but in my view, there was a lot of discretion in their application.

For this person to get the treatment she received, she must have been particularly obnoxious, imperious and insensitive to local customs. It is a common response which I have frequently seen exhibited at immigration by people who believe their country still has an empire. I can see the scenario. A usually polite and patient official has been pushed to the point of reacting to this person's behaviour and, rightly or wrongly has chosen to make an issue of her having consumed alcohol, however little. Strictly speaking, he is perfectly entitled to ask and to respond as he did.

From my experience, I would have to say that she has brought their reponse upon herself by an inability to hold her tongue, to admit she had made a mistake due to laziness, and failing to fix the problem before it became an issue. Where have Dubai officials behaved inappropriately? I do not see they have.

I hope our dentist has learned a good lesson. Drilling is only necessary if there is a painful problem.