<p>[The</a> dark side of Dubai - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent](<a href=“The dark side of Dubai | The Independent | The Independent”>The dark side of Dubai | The Independent | The Independent)</p>
<p>A very interesting article!</p>
<p>Wow. I’ve never understood why someone born in a democracy would leave it.</p>
<p>I know a number of illegal immigrants who live in this area. They have no passports either. The life they live is not good either. They came to the US for the same reason many go to Dubai. Money. There are countries where you cannot make a living at all, and so the residents leave for a place where they can make money.</p>
<p>One point that was left out of this article is that the “agents” working in countries like Bangladesh, recruiting workers for Dubai companies, are from the same countries as the recruitees preying on the ignorance and need of their own countrymen. It doesn’t change the culpability on the side of the employers/government agencies but it is worth noting.</p>
<p>Further, whatever the percent of truth in this article, the naivitee of people on all sides of these issues is stunning. From the people who didnt investigate their legal rights and obligations, to the 24/7 party goers.</p>
<p>The saddest part of the Dubai story is the people who just want to go back home.</p>
<p>
There are plenty here as well but these people evade being sent back to Mexico and once they’re returned usually just turn around and come here again - many of them have done this repeatedly. They’re also coming here knowingly illegally as opposed to the workers in the article. I don’t think the two situations are very similar other than someone being drawn to another country in search of better opportunities.</p>
<p>My husband spent a lot of time working in the middle east, and did not have a whole lot of great things to say about it. However, while he was there, some story broke about workers being held in servitude, against their wills. There was a big to do with offers to send back anyone who wanted to leave. No one took up the offer. </p>
<p>The freedom issue is a big one, and I would not for a moment want to live in a place like that. But many, many of the people do so willingly. It’s when you get into trouble there, that things get very hot. The penalties for getting caught for breaking laws there are stiff. </p>
<p>My former roommate from college lives there and teaches at a university with her husband. She has house staff and has heard this issue many times. She has looked for someone who wants to be sent back to no avail. Lots of stories, but when push come to shove, they have no place else to go. I don’t believe that the stories are all rumors; I’m sure there are truly those there who want to leave for no reason other than abuse that they have sufferered. But not in the numbers some of these stories imply.</p>
<p>It is also interesting to speak to Arab women. Yes, there are many who feel the system is terrible for women. And I agree with them. But the vast majority would not want it changed drastically. Nor do they want to leave and try to make it on their own. Many are horrified with the way WE in the US treat women, family,elderly.</p>
<p>Frightening:</p>
<p>"Karen Andrews can’t speak. Every time she starts to tell her story, she puts her head down and crumples… I find her in the car park of one of Dubai’s finest international hotels, where she is living, in her Range Rover. …</p>
<p>Karen came here from Canada when her husband was offered a job in the senior division of a famous multinational…</p>
<p>Her husband, Daniel, bought two properties. … But for the first time in his life, he was beginning to mismanage their finances. … After a year, she found out why: Daniel was diagnosed with a brain tumour…</p>
<p>Nobody told her there is no concept of bankruptcy. If you get into debt and you can’t pay, you go to prison…</p>
<p>Daniel was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at a trial he couldn’t understand. It was in Arabic, and there was no translation. …"</p>
<p>Cheney’s Halliburton is very happily there. They love the benefits of real democracy.</p>
<p>^I know, NSM…sounds positively Dickensian!</p>
<p>I forwarded this link to a friend living in Saudi, who has lived there for 15-20 years and she commented it was a good article and, in her opinion, frighteningly true :eek: not exaggerated.</p>
<p>Seems pretty clear to me. Some illiterate Arabic man ended up making a ton of money on oil, and decided he was going to use it to boost his ego. So he created a fake empire that’s collapsing.</p>
<p>One thing’s for sure though-the rest of the world isn’t going to take Dubai seriously if they don’t operate with a bit of transparency, and because of that it’ll never become a major financial center like New York or London.</p>
<p>“Some illiterate Arabic man”
Hopefully while you’re at NYU you will learn to research before you speak or write. </p>
<p>The leaders of Dubai and the other Emirates are not illiterate by any means. Nor is Dubai like Saudi. The bubble is collapsing as it is in the US and other places, but there is nothing fake about what has been built. There are definitely large grains of truth, but also many inconsistencies in the article. For example, if the woman has a range rover, why not sell it for a plane ticket, or stay with a friend? Or if you were moving to another country for work, would you not read your contract and understand the environment you were going to? Translators are always available in the Courts, and prison for debtors in Dubai is until the debt is paid, not a specific amount of time, and this is well known. No one bounces a check in Dubai. Evictions can take years or many months, and rent is paid on a yearly basis, so it seems they were in a lot of financial trouble before they decided to run…which is what they were doing.</p>
<p>It is an unfortunate situation she finds herself in, but not entirely all due to the environment she is living in.</p>
<p>There’s some exaggeration in what I said, but that city seems to be about someone’s ego rather than some practical purpose.</p>
<p>Let’s see-a city built in the middle of the desert with no potable water, no proper sanitation facilities, 55C heat, and built by slave labour, supported by the very little oil produced in Dubai, and built entirely on debt-seems pretty fake to me. And the only reason Dubai didn’t go totally bankrupt is because Abu Dhabi bailed them out. Cities in poor geographic locations like this generally don’t last. How many major cities do YOU see in the middle of the Sahara?</p>