I'm sure you've all heard of the incredible and rapid development of Dubai. The city-state Emirate has some of the largest projects ever conceived:

 

Worlds largest hotel (complementing the world's tallest hotel already there)

World's two tallest buildings

Largest retail complex

Largest indoor ski resort

Largest entertainment complex ($20 billion Dubailand: 186 km² of theme parks, resorts, and more)

Largest manmade islands (gigantic palm-shaped, mile-long islands)

 

Add to that underwater hotels, collosal skyscrapers, the world's largest marina, giant business parks, one of the world's largest new airport terminals, a $5 billion train transit system, etc etc etc.

 

However, all this development is coming at the hands of hundreds of thousands of South Asian laborers who live in slums, are paid almost nothing, and had their passports taken away upon arrival. And there are many questions about Dubai's ecological sustainability and economic stability.

 

Will Dubai prove to be the world's biggest gold mine or will it collapse under the weight of its own hubristic opulence?

 

....... as long as they have plenty of oil money coming in, dubai will prosper. im quite intrigued by its development tbh, not that i could ever afford to live there!

I'm sure you've all heard of the incredible and rapid development of Dubai. The city-state Emirate has some of the largest projects ever conceived:

 

Worlds largest hotel (complementing the world's tallest hotel already there)

World's two tallest buildings

Largest retail complex

Largest indoor ski resort

Largest entertainment complex ($20 billion Dubailand: 186 km² of theme parks, resorts, and more)

Largest manmade islands (gigantic palm-shaped, mile-long islands)

 

Add to that underwater hotels, collosal skyscrapers, the world's largest marina, giant business parks, one of the world's largest new airport terminals, a $5 billion train transit system, etc etc etc.

 

However, all this development is coming at the hands of hundreds of thousands of South Asian laborers who live in slums, are paid almost nothing, and had their passports taken away upon arrival. And there are many questions about Dubai's ecological sustainability and economic stability.

 

Will Dubai prove to be the world's biggest gold mine or will it collapse under the weight of its own hubristic opulence?

 

well at least they are looking ahead and developing new attractions and businesses for when the oil runs out.

 

and as for cheap labour, its the way of the world, every country will try to get the cheapest employment.

....... as long as they have plenty of oil money coming in, dubai will prosper. im quite intrigued by its development tbh, not that i could ever afford to live there!

 

i so wont to go their to have a look.however dont think i could afford to have a look around let alone stay in Burj al-Arab ( برج العرب )

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/Burj_al_arab_01.png

 

would be cool though. look at the rooms!!! probably rated so many stars that champagne is pumped directly into your bath :lol:

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Burjalarab_inside1.jpg

Well 2 and a half years later and I think I got my answer...

 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Sofia, a 34-year-old Frenchwoman, moved here a year ago to take a job in advertising, so confident about Dubai’s fast-growing economy that she bought an apartment for almost $300,000 with a 15-year mortgage.

 

Now, like many of the foreign workers who make up 90 percent of the population here, she has been laid off and faces the prospect of being forced to leave this Persian Gulf city — or worse.

 

“I’m really scared of what could happen, because I bought property here,” said Sofia, who asked that her last name be withheld because she is still hunting for a new job. “If I can’t pay it off, I was told I could end up in debtors’ prison.”

 

With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.

 

The government says the real number is much lower. But the stories contain at least a grain of truth: jobless people here lose their work visas and then must leave the country within a month. That in turn reduces spending, creates housing vacancies and lowers real estate prices, in a downward spiral that has left parts of Dubai — once hailed as the economic superpower of the Middle East — looking like a ghost town.

 

No one knows how bad things have become, though it is clear that tens of thousands have left, real estate prices have crashed and scores of Dubai’s major construction projects have been suspended or canceled. But with the government unwilling to provide data, rumors are bound to flourish, damaging confidence and further undermining the economy.

 

Instead of moving toward greater transparency, the emirates seem to be moving in the other direction. A new draft media law would make it a crime to damage the country’s reputation or economy, punishable by fines of up to 1 million dirhams (about $272,000). Some say it is already having a chilling effect on reporting about the crisis.

 

Last month, local newspapers reported that Dubai was canceling 1,500 work visas every day, citing unnamed government officials. Asked about the number, Humaid bin Dimas, a spokesman for Dubai’s Labor Ministry, said he would not confirm or deny it and refused to comment further. Some say the true figure is much higher.

 

“At the moment there is a readiness to believe the worst,” said Simon Williams, HSBC bank’s chief economist in Dubai. “And the limits on data make it difficult to counter the rumors.”

 

Some things are clear: real estate prices, which rose dramatically during Dubai’s six-year boom, have dropped 30 percent or more over the past two or three months in some parts of the city. Last week, Moody’s Investor’s Service announced that it might downgrade its ratings on six of Dubai’s most prominent state-owned companies, citing a deterioration in the economic outlook. So many used luxury cars are for sale , they are sometimes sold for 40 percent less than the asking price two months ago, car dealers say. Dubai’s roads, usually thick with traffic at this time of year, are now mostly clear.

 

Some analysts say the crisis is likely to have long-lasting effects on the seven-member emirates federation, where Dubai has long played rebellious younger brother to oil-rich and more conservative Abu Dhabi. Dubai officials, swallowing their pride, have made clear that they would be open to a bailout, but so far Abu Dhabi has offered assistance only to its own banks.

 

“Why is Abu Dhabi allowing its neighbor to have its international reputation trashed, when it could bail out Dubai’s banks and restore confidence?” said Christopher M. Davidson, who predicted the current crisis in “Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success,” a book published last year. “Perhaps the plan is to centralize the U.A.E.” under Abu Dhabi’s control, he mused, in a move that would sharply curtail Dubai’s independence and perhaps change its signature freewheeling style.

 

For many foreigners, Dubai had seemed at first to be a refuge, relatively insulated from the panic that began hitting the rest of the world last autumn. The Persian Gulf is cushioned by vast oil and gas wealth, and some who lost jobs in New York and London began applying here.

 

But Dubai, unlike Abu Dhabi or nearby Qatar and Saudi Arabia, does not have its own oil, and had built its reputation on real estate, finance and tourism. Now, many expatriates here talk about Dubai as though it were a con game all along. Lurid rumors spread quickly: the Palm Jumeira, an artificial island that is one of this city’s trademark developments, is said to be sinking, and when you turn the faucets in the hotels built atop it, only cockroaches come out.

 

“Is it going to get better? They tell you that, but I don’t know what to believe anymore,” said Sofia, who still hopes to find a job before her time runs out. “People are really panicking quickly.”

 

Hamza Thiab, a 27-year-old Iraqi who moved here from Baghdad in 2005, lost his job with an engineering firm six weeks ago. He has until the end of February to find a job, or he must leave. “I’ve been looking for a new job for three months, and I’ve only had two interviews,” he said. “Before, you used to open up the papers here and see dozens of jobs. The minimum for a civil engineer with four years’ experience used to be 15,000 dirhams a month. Now, the maximum you’ll get is 8,000,” or about $2,000.

 

Mr. Thiab was sitting in a Costa Coffee Shop in the Ibn Battuta mall, where most of the customers seemed to be single men sitting alone, dolefully drinking coffee at midday. If he fails to find a job, he will have to go to Jordan, where he has family members — Iraq is still too dangerous, he says — though the situation is no better there. Before that, he will have to borrow money from his father to pay off the more than $12,000 he still owes on a bank loan for his Honda Civic. Iraqi friends bought fancier cars and are now, with no job, struggling to sell them.

 

“Before, so many of us were living a good life here,” Mr. Thiab said. “Now we cannot pay our loans. We are all just sleeping, smoking, drinking coffee and having headaches because of the situation.”

 

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/world/mi...tml?_r=1&em

 

Can you believe they still have debtor's prisons? And with the government cracking down even harder on press freedom coupled with a legal system straight out of the stone age... who would ever want to move here? I think it's clear that this experiment in super-wealth is a failure.

That's ridiculous. Most of the UK would be in prison if that was the law here...

 

I know this isn't a gay site per se, but I know there are a lot of gay people here so I'll get this off my chest - it scares me $h!tless that other gay people are going to start going over there and acting like they would in Brighton or Amsterdam. Not that they shouldn't - apart from homosexuality is punishable by death there :(

That's ridiculous. Most of the UK would be in prison if that was the law here...

 

I know this isn't a gay site per se, but I know there are a lot of gay people here so I'll get this off my chest - it scares me $h!tless that other gay people are going to start going over there and acting like they would in Brighton or Amsterdam. Not that they shouldn't - apart from homosexuality is punishable by death there :(

 

then they shouldnt go....

 

when in rome, etc, however unjust (by our standards) that country may be, it is THEIR country and they set the laws that they want to abide by. you HAVE to respect that countries laws.

 

debtors prisons? what will THAT achieve? its barabaric!

Just another fascist state treating the workers like sh!te really innit....? It seems the bubble has indeed burst.... Oh, and of course they have to come up with utterly draconian laws seeing as how the immigrant workforce FAR outnumbers the indigenous population, the powers that be certainly dont want the workers to become unionised or properly represented lest a revolution or class war take place..... :rolleyes:

 

Something I'd personally LOVE to see frankly.... :lol:

it is THEIR country and they set the laws that they want to abide by

 

Bollocks mate.... It might be their country, but their wealth has come mainly from the sweat and toil of the working classes over the years ... Did any of these fukkin' Sheiks get out there and graft...? Did these c/unts build the skyscrapers or dig out the oil....? Did they FUKK...... <_< These b/astards just sat on their fat arses and reaped the benefits, and NOW they treat the people who worked for them like sh!t.....

 

B/astards..... Hope they end up being rounded up and shot.....

 

 

Bollocks mate.... It might be their country, but their wealth has come mainly from the sweat and toil of the working classes over the years ... Did any of these fukkin' Sheiks get out there and graft...? Did these c/unts build the skyscrapers or dig out the oil....? Did they FUKK...... <_< These b/astards just sat on their fat arses and reaped the benefits, and NOW they treat the people who worked for them like sh!t.....

 

B/astards..... Hope they end up being rounded up and shot.....

 

i was refering to their laws on homosexuality, NOT workers rights.

i was refering to their laws on homosexuality, NOT workers rights.

 

It's the same difference though mate.... If you're talking about a case where there are more immigrant workers than indigenous, then you MUST relax the laws somewhat to accomodate others upon whom you rely on to create the wealth, because it really IS a case in Dubai that the indigenous population is a minority, they're also relying more and more on tourist income.... If every single non-Dubaian was to leave Dubai and nobody else came to take their place and no tourists came either, then Dubai would be completely fukked.....

 

Perhaps a compromise....? The laws dealing with homosexuality, etc should perhaps apply to Dubaians only....? Similar compromises exist in the likes of Saudi Arabia, where, for example, US and European workers are allowed alcohol and have their own bars, but the Saudis themselves are not.....

 

Becoming more and more draconian is simply not an answer to the problem....

 

It's the same difference though mate.... If you're talking about a case where there are more immigrant workers than indigenous, then you MUST relax the laws somewhat to accomodate others upon whom you rely on to create the wealth, because it really IS a case in Dubai that the indigenous population is a minority, they're also relying more and more on tourist income.... If every single non-Dubaian was to leave Dubai and nobody else came to take their place and no tourists came either, then Dubai would be completely fukked.....

 

Perhaps a compromise....? The laws dealing with homosexuality, etc should perhaps apply to Dubaians only....? Similar compromises exist in the likes of Saudi Arabia, where, for example, US and European workers are allowed alcohol and have their own bars, but the Saudis themselves are not.....

 

Becoming more and more draconian is simply not an answer to the problem....

 

i disagree.... by that premis youd be advocating 'home' laws for immigrants here!

 

no i dont accept that. whether we like it or not, its upto them to set their rules for their country. if we dont like it.... dont go... if that effected the workforce recruitment then they would have to change their minds.

 

a dual system? lol... barmy idea! how tf could you allow foreign gay men to behave in a manner like they do when at home (whatever that might be.... public shows of affection for eg) when the locals arnt allowed... thats gonna cause alot of trouble! tbh i think its best that in them circumstances gay men and women are kept in the closet for their own safety. i KNOW its wrong, but WE cant dictate what laws other countries enforce, and who would prosecute 'gay bashers' over there?

 

i dont think (and i may be wrong) that the dubai government would countenance a change in the law to make homosexuality legal. it took the swinging 60's and punk to hammer home equality here, i cant see that happening in an ultra-religious country.

 

Yeuch - I'd rather a 2-week all-inclusive to Afghanistan than a fortnight in the tacky hell-hole of Dubai.

 

A city in the midst of a desert filled with garish new hotel skyscrapers - no history, culture, very few natives - and laws on drinking and gay sex that are nothing short of simple and revolting.

 

You're welcome to it - looks like the last place on earth I'd care to go.

Yeuch - I'd rather a 2-week all-inclusive to Afghanistan than a fortnight in the tacky hell-hole of Dubai.

 

A city in the midst of a desert filled with garish new hotel skyscrapers - no history, culture, very few natives - and laws on drinking and gay sex that are nothing short of simple and revolting.

 

You're welcome to it - looks like the last place on earth I'd care to go.

 

TBH I agree with you 100%... Give me Europe/America/Japan any day!

Dubai is amazing....Ive been there more then 10 times...and I just let u know that they serve alcohol on every pub/club and u can by ho's male and female...even in streets....but more then 75% of population are Philipinnes.

I'd rather not buy anyone. I'd rather travel and live with my partner and not get put in prison for it.

I'd rather not buy anyone. I'd rather travel and live with my partner and not get put in prison for it.

 

 

of course not but I was just trying to say that its not like u guys describe.

 

but trust me its a beatiful place...even though during April/October is really hot, something that I cant stand personally.

I hate it when it's too hot too. Maybe I'm being closed minded about this, but it does seem for somewhere that wants to present itself as cutting edge, it's behind in many ways, even if they are based on religion...

i disagree.... by that premis youd be advocating 'home' laws for immigrants here!

 

no i dont accept that. whether we like it or not, its upto them to set their rules for their country. if we dont like it.... dont go... if that effected the workforce recruitment then they would have to change their minds.

 

a dual system? lol... barmy idea! how tf could you allow foreign gay men to behave in a manner like they do when at home (whatever that might be.... public shows of affection for eg) when the locals arnt allowed... thats gonna cause alot of trouble! tbh i think its best that in them circumstances gay men and women are kept in the closet for their own safety. i KNOW its wrong, but WE cant dictate what laws other countries enforce, and who would prosecute 'gay bashers' over there?

 

i dont think (and i may be wrong) that the dubai government would countenance a change in the law to make homosexuality legal. it took the swinging 60's and punk to hammer home equality here, i cant see that happening in an ultra-religious country.

 

Difference is mate, immigrants aint a MAJORITY here like they are in Dubai, so, in this sense you kind of HAVE to make changes to the law to accommodate the majority... And it seems like they already have done so (as Addy has stated), or at least are turning a blind eye.... And just how the fukk can these people talk about "preserving" their culture when Dubai has become so hopelessly Westernised anyway on the surface, with its skyscrapers and western-style Capitalistic business commerce, Dubai has no cultural identity, and frankly it's not even a "real" country, its draconian laws are more about keeping people and the workers under control than supposedly preserving some kind of "national identity" ..... Utter bullsh!t..... Even Japan has preserved its own cultural identity far more effectively than Dubai, which is really little more than a US protectorate.....

 

 

I hate it when it's too hot too. Maybe I'm being closed minded about this, but it does seem for somewhere that wants to present itself as cutting edge, it's behind in many ways, even if they are based on religion...

 

mate, these fukkin' sheikhs dont give anymore of a damn about religion than I do.... They're all pursuing the Yankee dollar, building their fukkin' Western skyscrapers..... Oh yeah, how incredibly "spiritual" and "islamic" of them..... :rolleyes:

 

Bottom line is that this is all about POWER and CLASS.... The upper class Sheikhs keeping down the working class immigrant workers who are the majority... Anti-union, anti-worker representation, anti press freedom..... They are a truly VILE regime, and surprise, surprise, the US and UK props them up because they're nice and 'pro-western'.... All the anti-gay stuff is just there to give the illusion that they're all "religious", when in fact the only "god" these c'unts worship is the Almighty Dollar.....