This is a truly surprising and relevant article (especially as it was written pre-Brexit, as we now seem to have our brexiteers arguing we should become something like Dubai in economic terms)
I’m not sure why this has to be brought up every single time a successful middle eastern nation is mentioned. Why not appreciate the positive qualities of a country while recognizing that every country has flaws?
It’s not like all other countries are paragons of human rights. If your country’s justice system puts innocent folk in solitary confinement for three years without trial over a false accusation (Kalief Browder), or if your country’s law enforcement murders innocent people unacceptably often and rarely gets punished for it, then you need to “take the log out of your eye” before accusing others.
That's a valid point, but there are degrees of freedom.
You don't have to be a "paragon of human rights" to do better, or much better, than another country. And Dubai is pretty damn law by all standards.
That said, you do have a point in the hypocrisy of how not only some countries's citizens routinely paint something as uniquely outrageous despite the same or worse things going on in their countries (key word here being "uniquely", as in "look at what those savages do", or "this would never happen here at home").
But also on how some countries are praised by the same pundits (despite their abuses and absolute power) and others are condemned (because of theirs).
It's almost as if the concern is not with the abuses and power dynamics, but with the interests of the nations and the power elites that pay the journalist's salaries.
Disgusting. What they call "openness" is repressive law, with exceptions for the very rich wanting to park their money there. What they call "ambition" is princes and others born into wealth, living lavish lifestyles, beyond your dreams, on the backs of slave labour. I quote:
'Human rights organizations have complained about violations of human rights in Dubai.[2] Most notably, some of the 250,000 foreign laborers in the city have been alleged to live in conditions described by Human Rights Watch as being "less than humane".'
When can we stop glorifying these modern day fief lords for being "ambitious visionaries"? In a planet with still so much suffering, they contribute nothing, they leech resources to live obscene lives, they build nothing useful, they improve nobody's life... They are parasites.
Rich sovereign rulers from Arab states are perfect targets for grand project hustles. You need to convince only one very rich man that he is a visionary and that the idea you sell to him is his. If McKinsey provides $10,000 per page PowerPoint and pdf, it's all good to go.
Dubai did many things right to lure in business and traffic. Dubai's DIFC Courts (independent English language common law judiciary) [1] were a really good idea for example. Still the Dubai as a business is not sustainable. Of course you attract business and traffic if you subsidize it with lavish infrastructure, low bureaucracy and no regard for human rights.
Dubai is oil and gas subsidized business hub. The vision is to build something that lasts when the gas runs out, but there is no evidence that this enterprise will ever be sustainable. It's build on the sand both literally and figuratively.
[1]: DIFC Court is for business. The civil law in the Dubai is medieval.
Dubai is still an attractive location for people who are making money, because they don't levy income and capital gains tax. I know a few proven but relatively unknown entrepreneurs (people with exits in the tens or hundreds of millions) living there and doing well.
That might change in the coming years / decades (as I also believe VAT is being introduced) but nevertheless a good base if you're operating internationally.
It always surprises me why people choose Dubai because theres so many better countries you can effectively get this type of tax arrangement in with some basic legal advice. A few that come to mind: Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, England (non-domicile), Monaco and i'm sure there are others not from the top of my head.
It's highly personal. Maybe you don't like (the congestion of) Asian cities. Or the culture.
Maybe you don't like the gilded cage that is Monaco, or you think it is bad value -- $1m will likely not even get you a nice studio apt in Monaco, but it will go a lot further in Dubai. If you're renting $10k or 20k a month will get you a lot more in Dubai than it will in Monaco. But you do want the tax benefits of not paying any tax.
England is great as a non dom, but there are restrictions on what you can and cannot do. Perhaps you are British and you cannot get non-dom status. Perhaps your main business lies in the UK and thus you can't avoid UK tax.
Perhaps you want geographical proximity to a certain area, i.e. (Eastern) Europe, or Africa, or India.
There are many reasons why people opt for certain jurisdictions.
Simiar with dubai, it is desert climate which means a lot of activities are impossible or insufferable. Malls and luxury hotels are OK but at some point you 're going to get fed up of so many gilded poles.
This. I don't live in Dubai, but Dubai is good place to do business, meet Asian business partners, make deals and form holding companies under Dubai's independent English language common law judiciary.
Good things about Dubai: easy to travel, free trade zone, no taxes, and judiciary that meets western standards (for business, the civil law in the Emirate is medieval).
Some did, others didn't. Some have built their next company out of Dubai (and are doing well), others have opted to base it somewhere in Europe with the staff being based in Europe (and they commute a few days per week from Dubai).
However, they are all spending their money in Dubai (property, purchases, etc), so generally a net win for the local economy.
A lot of foreign brands (i.e. supermarkets, car manufacturers, certain fashion brands) are concessions that are held by local Emirati families granted to them decades ago by the Sheikh. So those profits mostly flow back to the local Emirati population.
Understand. I think Dubai offers a level of luxury due to abundant cheap labor, general safety and an abundance of of supercars, but not sure how it fares as an entrepreneurship center. Or how they are going to fare if other cities with similar "luxury" offerings catch up in asia. IIRC real estate prices are still falling in Dubai, but people keep on building new empty buildings, which sounds unsustainable and goes against the optimistic image painted in the article.
Dubai is also benefiting from the general tax and secrecy crack-down in all of EU and OECD countries like malta, cyprus ireland, switzerland, singapore (Dubai was until very recently non-cooperative jurisdiction) but it's not clear whether this will last forever. It will be interesting to see whether the UK will seek to lower taxes post-brexit.
There is one meetup for data science that I know of [0].
Cycling in dubai is.... well, uncomfortable.
The Dubai Roadsters are the only serious group that I know of[1]. The flats are really quite boring, and the dust really kills my appetite for air after a while. Also, cycling during the summer (8/12 months) isn't really recommended. If you can tolerate the heat, go for it.
OK to be fair most of the worlds largest banks including HSBC have laundered money for drug cartels, ISIS etc. at scale that dwarfs whatever is mentioned in this article and basically just got a slap on the wrist for it.
Drug cartels, sure. ISIS I doubt the money for its operation is even a blimp on those banks revenues. More like what a $10 is for Bill Gates.
If they do pass through them when laundered it just because its easier for some reason than some other banks (e.g. not American owned etc), not because anybody at HSBC and co collaborates actively with these people.
