Priorities

Dubai is drowning in debt and defaulting fleeing expatriates, and across the United Arab Emirates rigid visa and labors law mean people who lose their jobs have to leave within a month. But how do the authorities react?

Yes, by clamping down on an apparent rise in lesbianism - cough - "masculine women".

BBC World: The UAE government has launched a campaign against what it describes as masculine behaviour among women.

Under the slogan "excuse me I am a girl", it has launched a series of workshops, lectures and TV programmes.

The aim, the UAE authorities say, is to help women avoid what is seen as "delinquent behaviour".

That is how the social affairs ministry in the emirates describes what would in some other societies be known as homosexuality or transvestitism.

Officials from the ministry told the local press that "masculine behaviour" among young girls was first spotted in special care homes.

Dubai, meanwhile, is concerned about the behaviour of the tourists that are no longer coming in droves.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A peck on the cheek in public? Probably OK. Steamy embrace? Get a room.

That's the message coming from Dubai authorities in their latest struggle to tame public behavior in this glitzy Gulf city state that sells itself as a place where the Middle East meets the wild West.

Dubai revealed the new behavior guidelines last weekend in the local media, though it remains unclear if they will become law.

The instructions — touching on topics from miniskirts to angry outbursts — could sharpen existing "suggestions" for modest dress and decorum and give police more leeway for fines or arrests in places such as beaches and malls.

Meanwhile, the real problems just keep on mounting. It's like Nero fiddling with public decency laws while Rome burns.