
Dubai on Empty  - cwan
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/04/dubai-201104?currentPage=all
======
lionhearted
Despite the fact it's one of the nicer countries to live in the region and
reasonably well-governed, certain groups of people love to bash Dubai.

Never mind that there's mass atrocities, neglect, decay, rampant corruption
and idiocy and day to day violence in a lot of the countries of the world.

Laos is run by bandits? Who gives a shit, and where's Laos anyways? No, let's
talk about how Dubai is missing the mystical "culture" element. Class, yeah
man, dude, you can't buy class.

If you want to point out the problems in Dubai, go for it. There's problems
there, sure. But it's definitely one of the least problematic places in the
Middle East, it's got a lot going for it, and they'll be fine.

It's funny, because the people who don't like Dubai are the same who champion
for third world revolutions, but then don't want to point out how bad things
get a few decades later. I'm in Vietnam right now. If the South Vietnam/United
States/South Korea coalition had beaten the North Vietnam/Soviet Union/Red
China/North Korea coalition, it would be a much nicer, safer place to live.

Instead, it's a backward wasteland ruled by bandits that's barely - _barely_
\- starting to get its shit together.

Do people want to cover that?

No, let's talk about how Dubai is missing culture. Yeah, screw Dubai.

Edit: Downvoting isn't good. Take a moment away from the hatefest here and
think critically on these three points - First, Dubai is indisputably one of
the best-governed countries in the Middle East. Second, there's a lot of
places a lot worse than Dubai that could use the negative attention first.
Third, people that love to trumpet the failure of Dubai also refuse to draw
basic cause-and-effect relationships, like the fact that Vietnam is more like
North Korea than South Korea since the Southern side lost to the North in that
war - and it's ruined the country. Those are important points.

~~~
hasenj
Well, guess what, there's a lot of shit in this world. Go tell people to stop
talking bad about Husni Mubarak, because after all, he's much better than
Gaddafi and Saddam.

The fact is, people think Dubai is awesome. It's good journalism to uncover
the truth about this supposed awesomeness.

Your only problem is that there are other places that are worse. As if
suddenly everybody stopped noticing all the other bad places just because
there's an article about Dubai.

The fact is, rich gulf states treat foreigner workers like slaves.

An interesting thing to note is how their youth are practically bullies. The
same kind of bullies that PG talked about in his "nerds" essay[0], and his
analysis of why people become bullies applies quite well to Dubai's situation.
They are spoiled kids, they have no responsibilities, their lives are pretty
pointless.

(EDIT: Lest somebody thinks I'm being racist: I'm an Arab myself.)

[0] <http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html>

~~~
stretchwithme
I'm not even sure I'd call it rich. As I understand it, they've borrowed
billions from other gulf states to build their boondoggles. They even named
their recently completed Burj Khalifa to honor the emir of Abu Dhabi, which
bailed them out with billions when the financial house of cards collapsed.

~~~
hasenj
I said rich in reference to the gulf states in general (including Qatar,
Bahrain, etc). They're rich because they have oil.

------
luvcraft
Cripes. After the fourth "small penis" joke and the phrase "head-towel in
hand" I had to stop reading. And I will make a point not to read Vanity Fair
in the future.

I am interested in the future of Dubai, but this is not how I want to read
about it.

~~~
ern
I kept waiting to get something deeper out of the article, but I didn't. A
rehashing of descriptions we have seen a lot of in the last year or so: lazy,
bored Emiratis; rootless expats; South Asian serfs; vulgarity. No real
insights.

~~~
gurtwo
I've worked in Dubai. I found the article pretty accurate. So much, that I was
surprised to read on it the same analogies I've been doing myself to describe
the country to my friends (an adult Disneyland, a soul-less country, a spoiled
generation of young locals).

------
shazow
This article is a little older but offers an incredible perspective of the
separation in class/race, the state of poverty vs tourism in Dubai.

"The dark side of Dubai"

[http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-
har...](http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-
dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html)

~~~
gnosis
Previously discussed on HN here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=550719>

and here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=968439>

------
GeoffreyHull
If you take just about any other industrialized city, you’ll find that the
majority of people have moved there to settle down, build a life, invest in
their future; and as a result of that they work hard, they blend in to the
fabric of the multi-cultural society, they build strong personal
relationships, they develop a sense of belonging, they care about the city,
and the country, and they contribute to its growth and its cultural richness;
because it is home to them, and their lives and those of their children are
closely tied to it.

Dubai, on the other hand, is just considered a station by the majority of
people living in it; they go there and they’ve already decided that it’s going
to be only for a few years, and then they’ll be moving on to somewhere else,
or back to their home countries. That means that they’re not as involved, they
don’t develop a strong sense of belonging, they don’t really invest much into
personal relationships, they never really care enough.

And that makes a world of difference, and everyone visiting Dubai feels it.
Not everyone knows how to put it in words, but some of the things I’ve heard
most are that it feels ‘fake’, that it’s too materialistic, that it lacks
identity …etc

------
amitraman1
I've been to Dubai. It's boring, very boring. The shops & malls are too
expensive. The non-Arab "residents" are mostly people stealing from their
homeland and splurging in Dubai. It's really sad.

Don't get me started on the South Asian workers, it's a modern day slave
trade.

------
sp332
Kindof reminds me of the movie _Forbidden Planet_. When the leverage (money)
gets too high, all the unformed ideas that are normally too vague become
feasible. Like "Let's make the world's tallest building." Usually that's too
vague, but if you throw a few tens of billions of dollars at it, it might
happen. But it will happen in a vague, ugly way.

------
Qz
This reads like something straight out of Neuromancer, veracious or no.

------
elvirs
There are a couple of factors the author is wrong about. 1-dubai was designed
and built to become just a trade/commerce hub of the region in the first
place. The economic, immigration and even tax policies are designed to
facilitate economic growth, not formation of a culture or anything else.
That's what it was made for that's what you see there. Dubai was designed to
not have any culture, that's why it was not built on the top of an old arab
city with deep cultural roots but instead it was built on the beach of empty
desert.

2-those who planned dubai knew that they will have to bring lots of foreign
workers to fill the positions that will be created by enormous economy because
local people won't work either of not satisfying salaries, lack of expertise
or simply laziness. You can't create a culture of you bring thousands of
people from different parts of the world to work and create environment that
they don't want to have families in there and actually try push them out of
the country when you are done.

So let's not act surprised here, it has become what it was meant to be.

------
daniel-cussen
When I look at Dubai I think of Potosí, the silver mountain in Bolivia. It was
an equally hallucinated commodity adventure, where the streets would sometimes
be paved in silver. Four million dead natives later, after all the kinds of
luxuries of the world were imported continually, it's a shithole. All that's
left is, ironically, 60% of the silver and the architecture.

------
goombastic
Bored and entitled youth in these countries are going to screw up quite a few
things over the coming years. I remember walking around Kuwait and the only
thing some of these bums had as entertainment was spitting on passers by from
the first floor. That, and cars. Permanent squealing of tyres, and races on
the road at night. Sick.

------
johnyzee
Ugh, this is why print media and its web-based spin-offs are dying. What
stilted, conceited rubbish.

------
foobarbazetc
Dubai's not going to die. This article has some points, but they're very
poorly put across. Much better articles have been written on Dubai.

Dubai is the business and financial center of the Middle East, apart from all
the other stuff. The point is that they build up the services sector and
infrastructure before they run out of oil.

Let's take this bit of the article:

"It’s a holiday resort with the worst climate in the world. It boils. It’s
humid. And the constant wind is full of sand."

That's great and all, but what can they do about the climate? -- it's not like
they chose it. Don't like the climate? Don't go to Dubai.

The rest of the article is similarly vapid.

~~~
joezydeco
The point is: why promote Dubai as a tourist beach resort if nobody ever goes
outside?

------
benmichael
This article seemed to end a little abruptly, I thought it was an error. I'm
off to dubai in 2 months (stop over only), just to see the mirage before it
completely dies.

------
mmaunder
I spent 3 hours on a plane on Thursday sitting next to a guy who grew up in
Dubai and was arriving (from Dubai) in the States to study. I asked him about
the real-estate crisis and how the emirate is doing. He said not much has
changed, Dubai has plenty of money and foreign media are blowing the story out
of proportion.

------
jasonkolb
"Shortchanged by being given everything. Cursed with money." I actually loved
this quote, I never would have thought of it that way.

Really, if you're fueled by ambition like I am and I suspect 99% of the people
who read HN are, what would be worse than having nothing to win?

------
dr_
"After the horses have run, Elton John will perform".

As he did for Rush Limbaughs wedding, who is clearly a homophobe.

Take away for me is that Elton John will perform anywhere for money.

------
tastybites
Is Vanity Fair really the best place to air this kind of grievance against
wealth and decadence?

~~~
pkteison
Vanity Fair still does real journalism, where a reporter goes and finds
information to write an article about.

Have you read their article on Iceland's financial crisis?
[http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/iceland2...](http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/iceland200904)
I can't write them off as worthless hollywood fluff after reading that.

~~~
hollerith
>Vanity Fair still does real journalism

I do not disagree, but I think grandparent's point is that a magazine filled
with profiles of billionaires and ads for luxury goods is maybe not the most
credible publisher of criticism of materialism and the evils of the idle rich.

~~~
potatolicious
Maybe not the most credible, but perhaps the most appropriate - after all,
Vanity Fair's audience is also the type Dubai wants to attract.

------
LilValleyBigEgo
It's no surprise, slave labor only goes so far.

------
gcb
Sounded like he was describing Vegas

------
zaidr
Dubai, is not money!

What most "good journalists" point out, is the period of the bubble. This
period was powered by the wealthy wall street. Confused? Well, it is
confusing. The bubble period was 2001-07, in which Dubai thrived -- build 4
man made islands, the tallest tower, the biggest mall, the costliest race
track, etc -- to the point we know it today- a well built city. But what most
don't see, is that period before the bubble and that after the bubble. We know
the fact that Dubai served the rich in ways we can't imagine, but it was also
Dubai's leaders vision, to catch the bubble and make use of it. Without the
bubble, Dubai would be just another city. But this vision also include an
overlook state: to stay close to it's core culture.

If you go out in Dubai, the cultural difference is noticeable. You won't see
any racism, indifference, etc though. People living together. What was created
from this, a modern time marvel. You won't understand these lines, until you
have lived in Dubai. It is what a modern city should be like. And now, with
all the bubble gone, sure the real estate won't be like before, bu the bubble
left behind a glorious beauty. And it now cultivates other industries, apart
from just real estate and (ofcourse) its core oil. Dubai is now, the best city
in the Middle East/ North Africa/ Sub Continent/ Most of Asia.

So yes, Dubai is great, in its own way.

