
The dark side of Dubai - fiaz
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html
======
mallipeddi
Whatever the article mentions is more or less accurate. Also it's the same
anywhere else in the Middle East. I've a friend (Indian origin) who grew up in
the Middle East. He has lived in Dubai and Muscat (Oman). His father worked as
a finance manager for an American cola company (hint: it's not Coca-Cola).

Roughly this is how the society is organized:

1) Arabs - first-class citizens - dumb, don't like to work, but often hold
'mudira'/'manager' positions in companies. They don't have college degrees but
they hold senior-level positions in companies and are uber-slackers :)

2) Western expats - they get paid huge expat salaries and in general live in a
world of their own (read: huge gated communities where typical restrictions in
a Muslim country don't apply - alcohol, women, etc). There's very minimal
interaction between them and the Arabs, or the Indians, or the Filipinos.

3) Educated immigrants from poorer countries (mostly from Indian sub-
continent) - They do most of the work which their Arab bosses are not
interested in doing or incapable of doing.

4) Construction workers/other physical labour - mostly immigrant workers from
Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and other poor countries.

The western world seems to acknowledge this problem finally when their people
are starting to suffer due to the economic crisis. This is how Middle East
works and it has been like this for a long long time.

Middle-east is one place I won't move to even if Google offered me a job
there.

~~~
Tangurena
I'm not sure if things have gotten worse, or if I've become more aware of
things as I get older.

I'd modify your list to be a little more finely grained (although this might
be more KSA specific than other Arab countries):

1 - Members of the royal/ruling family/clan/tribe.

2 - Arabs (Sunni)

3 - Arabs (Shi'ite)

4 - White collar expats (westerners and what you point out as educated
immigrants)

5 - Blue collar workers (muslim)

6 - Blue collar workers (infidel)

Our family has lived in the middle east (at various times, my father worked
for Saudi Aramco and what is now called Honeywell), and the stories seem to be
getting worse over time, both in the slacking-off of the natives and the abuse
of the menial labor. The money is very lucrative for western white collar
workers, but I'd have a hard time collaborating with the abuse.

Part of the problem is that the locals don't feel that they're bound by any
contract they sign (and the Arabic language version is the definitive one, in
any case). Consequently, foreigners tend to get the dirty end of the stick.
The stories of workers getting shafted are quite often the results of this.

~~~
netcan
Much better list. But isn't it missing Arab foreigner/immigrants/refugees
category? Including 2nd or 3rd generation residents? 4.5?

Also, is a list the best way of describing it. #3 & #2 (to an extent) are
often a lot poorer then #4. I assume you are referring to rights rather then
financial position.

------
babul
Quick thoughts...

Much of this (debtors prisons [and people fleeing Dubai immediately upon
losing jobs and leaving behind luxury cars/apartments to avoid it], modern day
enslavement, under-classes [predominantly based on ethnicity] and lack of
civil-rights and liberty for most classes) has been publicised for a long time
among the ethnic communities.

However, it seems when times were good it was easy for western people to turn
a blind eye and what most people saw in the mainstream western media were
positive articles about how great Dubai was/would be (due to vested
interests?), even ignoring obvious issues regarding Arab law and culture and
environment.

Now that the worldwide financial crisis is catching up with Dubai it is good
to see these issues being brought out into the mainstream and exposed more
openly, but I cannot help but think it is predominately because Westerners
themselves are now being affected. Where was the outcry for the
Fillipinos/Bangladeshis/etc. in mainstream Western media before?

~~~
jonas_b
I don't mean to condone the modern slavery in Dubai in any way, but isn't it
telling about the conditions in Bangladesh and the Philippines that people
volontary leave them to go to the UAE and be treated like dirt.

~~~
nir
From the article it seems the foreign workers are given false information
before coming to Dubai, and then their passports are taken (and/or payment
withheld) so they can't leave.

~~~
g__g
That's exactly what happens. The "travel agencies" that give this false
information are like scouts, they constantly hunt for poor people who will
fall for this. It is common sight at the New Delhi international airport to
see workers going abroad in batches. Most of these people have never been out
of their villages before. They sit on the floor in groups and are moved
through the security procedure by a "manager" like a herd of sheep. They all
seem happy and filled with hope.

It's a global scam where the idea is to make money out of slavery and ensuring
profit to every person in the chain, from the sheikh to the so called "travel
agencies" and take away the right to complain from the only people who may
complain.

~~~
jonas_b
Oh, stupid me, didn't take into that into the calculation.

The things is that I wrote a school paper years ago on the UAE and back then
it wasn't exactly a hidden fact that many workers on the massive construction
projects were treated badly.

But then I forgot that not everyone has access to the internet and/or reads
human rights reports.

Shame on me.

~~~
rbanffy
"treated badly" does not even approximate the meaning of "indentured
servitude". Having slaves is unforgivable. Oddly enough, isn't the UEA in the
Human Rights Commission that wanted to ban free speech if it offends a
religion?

------
miked
>> Dubai is a living metal metaphor for the neo-liberal globalised world that
may be crashing – at last – into history.

Just out of curiosity, is that the same globalized world that the author used
to fly there while speaking only English the whole time? Anti-globo self-
righteousness, direct to you from the Dubai airport. Nice.

Also, having read the article, I'm missing the "neo-liberal" part. "Medieval
dictatorship" (as he himself put it)? Check. No rule of law? Check. No concern
for individual rights? Check. No constitution to hinder government expansion
of powers? Check.

~~~
AndrewHampton
The author acknowledges this in the third paragraph from the bottom:

"Perhaps Dubai disturbed me so much, I am thinking, because here, the entire
global supply chain is condensed. Many of my goods are made by semi-enslaved
populations desperate for a chance 2,000 miles away; is the only difference
that here, they are merely two miles away, and you sometimes get to glimpse
their faces? Dubai is Market Fundamentalist Globalisation in One City."

~~~
gaius
But Libertarians and even Anarcho-Capitalists don't differentiate between a
market for labour and a market for good and services.

------
adamhowell
Man, what a mess, it's hard to even find something to say about most of it,
but I found this interesting:

"In Saudi, it's hard to be straight when you're young. The women are shut away
so everyone has gay sex ... I need to find real gays, so this is the best
place. All Arab gays want to live in Dubai."

I'd never really thought about the fact that Arab teens would "go gay" in
response to their natural libidos being locked away, but it makes sense.

~~~
raheemm
This is one of the strangest contradictions in some Muslim countries. And a
fundamental reason it exists is because people are too uncomfortable to
talk/think about it. It does not help either that their are not too many
mediums for those interested to discuss, except for maybe on the internet.

~~~
gaius
In the West we think of the gender roles as male and female but in the Middle
East (and in Ancient Greece in our own cultural heritage) the gender roles are
"penetrator" and "penetrated". An adult (or older) male penetrator is not
considered homosexual in this culture, nor is an adolescent (or younger) male
penetrated. They would say that a homosexual is an adult male penetrated, and
only that is taboo.

------
sho
I have an old associate from uni who was arrested and detained in Dubai on a
tourist visit, for carrying Melatonin, an over-the-counter sleep aid. He was
locked up for a month in a filthy prison, strip searched, forced to give urine
samples and sign documents he did not understand, and was finally only
released after intense media pressure. His name's Cat "Diz" Le-Huy, if you
want to look up the story.

I'm never going to Dubai. And I don't have much sympathy for the expats there
either - ignoring basic dignity of others, spitting on their whole inheritance
of liberal democracy and hard-won human rights just to make a quick buck. The
whole place can disappear back into the sand as far as I'm concerned.

Before that happens though, after reading that article I sure wish I could
drop a few planeloads of small arms into one of those worker prison camps
first, for a very abrupt and entertaining demonstration of reaping what one
has sown.

------
TJensen
I was in Dubai a couple years ago and could not figure out how it could
possibly be growing the way it was. They really do a good job of putting on a
face to the world. I was working with a British expat who lives there, and he
couldn't stop gushing about how great it was, to the point that I thought it
might be an interesting "life opportunity."

I'm really glad I didn't take that opportunity. I remember seeing the buses
with the blue-coverall-ed construction workers. This article put that trip in
another light, that's for sure!

~~~
sbt
It's possible to grow quite quickly if you put ethical scruples aside and take
advantage of a large pool of what is effectively slave labor.

A middle eastern friend explained the situation: "we just stepped off the
camel and into the mercedes." It took Europe quite a long time to reach the
level of civilization it sports today, but there's no reason to repeat the
mistakes and not learn.

------
dawson
Excellent article and well written. I knew none of this until now! Six months
ago I was offered a job in Dubai for a Tech Dir position at a major
advertising company; I'm very pleased that I didn't follow-up on that
opportunity now.

------
binarycheese
Back in Moscow, there used to be a lot of Students from UAE and Saudi. They
were very rich (free scholarships), always drunk, never went to class and
refused to graduate (even if they could) because they didn't want to go back
home.

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jrockway
OK, so the guy at the beginning of the article knows that he will go to jail
if he doesn't pay his debts. Then he alerts the government that he is in debt,
and gets arrested. WTF? Why did he not leave the country _before_ the
government was notified that he was in debt? If he is a UK citizen, I doubt he
would be extradited for that. Even if he was, I think it would be easier to
fight the extradition in a UK court than it would have been to pay off the
debt in Dubai.

Am I missing something?

~~~
gaius
_Am I missing something?_

    
    
        he was getting confused. It was so unlike Daniel, I was 
        surprised. We got into a little bit of debt." After a year, 
        she found out why: Daniel was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

------
babul
This article is coincides with a lot of current UK media attention on Dubai
including many programs on UK TV (e.g.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jqgww/Panorama_Slumd...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jqgww/Panorama_Slumdogs_and_Millionaires/))

------
dschobel
Isn't there some international treaty which forbids companies from dealing
with other countries/companies which use slave labor?

It can't possibly be that companies are left to police themselves... can it?

~~~
TJensen
I don't think this would fall under a treaty definition of slavery. The people
are not owned, they are not bartered as property, they just have zero rights.

------
asciilifeform
See if you can get a hold of this book:

"Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism‎" by Mike Davis, Daniel Bertrand
Monk. (<http://books.google.com/books?id=TQRoAAAACAAJ>)

The chapter on Dubai is excellent.

------
wenbert
I think it is worth mentioning that most Filipinos who go to Dubai are college
graduates.

------
gilesgoatboy
what do you mean the dark side? it's all dark. fake money, wild overspending,
draconian laws against drugs and sex. next up: a provocative look at the dark
side of killing babies and eating them! you thought it was just a harmless
hobby, but oh no. oh no. turns out those babies are high in cholesterol!
_gasp_!

~~~
christofd
nice.

------
hc
this is the sort of thing that always happens when someone sufficiently
unprincipled realizes just how superficial the majority of people are, and
decides to exploit it.

dubai is windows vista.

------
raheemm
Dubai has its problems, but it is far better than many other countries where
the natural resources are exploited for the benefit of a select few and the
masses are left in extreme poverty. They are smart enough to have figured out
a way to shrink a 100 year development cycle to 30 years without massive oil
resources. I am sure they will figure out a way out of their current
challenges as well.

~~~
dschobel
Debt at 106% of GDP.

Wealth entirely based on combination of oil and slave labor.

Unsustainable water supply situation.

I don't see much cause for optimism.

