Beyond the Villa, Evenden started to see Abu Dhabi in a harsher light. Its man-made islands and museums were just distractions from a state that imprisoned anyone who offered even the tamest criticism. Evenden started to read local news stories about American expats being thrown in “debtors’ prison” because they were unable to pay their credit card debt. In traffic one day, he witnessed a bad accident in which an Emirati ran through a stoplight and collided with an expat. Though the accident was clearly the Emirati’s fault, the local police let the Emirati get away and dragged the expat into
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