Anyone here live/lived in Dubai?

[ericofarabia]

Nice weather and tax free earnings is great but I would prefer to be near my friends and family. I suppose it depends what you value in life, each to their own.

 

I also don't like how these Muslim countries are often openly racist, homophobic and sexist. They make the BNP look like a intolerant bunch.

 

Thanks for the inferred character assassination

 

In this day and age of instant communications emails/texts/skype etc I have constant contact with my folks, and my children who are now at uni / working. In fact i can get home quicker from Dubai than my daughter could get to Eastleigh when she was at uni in Carlisle!! Coupled with a visit or two to UK each year and parents visiting here and kids out on hols a couple of times a year we see more of each other than many families probably do, after they had left the nest!!! Oh and many of my mates have been out here and stayed with us and loved the place. Not bad for a sh!thole I think is what most said as they left.

[aintforever]

Thanks for the inferred character assassination

 

In this day and age of instant communications emails/texts/skype etc I have constant contact with my folks, and my children who are now at uni / working. In fact i can get home quicker from Dubai than my daughter could get to Eastleigh when she was at uni in Carlisle!! Coupled with a visit or two to UK each year and parents visiting here and kids out on hols a couple of times a year we see more of each other than many families probably do, after they had left the nest!!! Oh and many of my mates have been out here and stayed with us and loved the place. Not bad for a sh!thole I think is what most said as they left.

 

I wasn't judging you just giving my reasons for not wanting to up sticks and live abroad. I'm like a hobbit, can't see any point in leaving the shire.

[dubai_phil]

I wasn't judging you just giving my reasons for not wanting to up sticks and live abroad. I'm like a hobbit, can't see any point in leaving the shire.

 

Which is the point after all.

 

When I came here it was the biggest gamble of my life. I look back to those days when NOBODY had heard of Dubai, I honestly thought it was the same as Saudi. I took a risk and I adapted and now from being a nobody making up the numbers in a village cricket team, Tiger Woods greets me by name and buys me a beer (had to get one in!) but MOST of all, I have been able to bring up the greatest most balanced and successful kids ANY man could dream of.

 

You wouldn't fit in and none of us is suggesting you even think about it. You have Political opinions and a view of your world. That's great. I learnt a great deal more from coming here. A simple fact. I had strong Political Opinions but I learnt - It matters not who is in power or what views you hold, us, the proletariat, workers or just humans will always get screwed and ripped off and given excuses by our superiors, the class or old school systems or even our elected representatives with their expense claims.

 

And you will never win an argument about the "Values" of Western Political Civilisation these days (go watch some of the Financial Crisis Movies), and versus this system down here - ha! Simply because a great deal of extreme Islam simply want to destroy it because it is alien to THEIR beliefs. Your only mistake in the "West" is to have been tolerant of the views of those (many millions) who wish to destroy you and to STOP you having opinions. There are of course billions of Muslims who are caring and sharing.

 

This place has many faults, I have many faults, and so does every damned place on the planet. You are NOT homophobic/racist etc. Sorry to shock you but one hell of a lot of the world still is. Go change the world. I hope you can, me? I'll just do my thing to promote understanding and enjoyment of the life that the Big Man upstairs granted us when he invented Branes/Big Bangs or String Theory or whatever the hell else Morgan Freeman is on about on telly at the moment

[hutch]

South Africa isn't a Muslim country...

Ouch!

[rpb]

Ouch!

 

Sorry about that, it was most unfair - I have a brother-in-law in Johannesburg and reading 'racist, homophobic and sexist' must have triggered something...

[rpb]

Will you be comfortable knowing that a large chunk of Dubai's prosperity is built upon a foundation of quasi-slave labour?

 

From Saturday's Guardian - well worth a read... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/14/dubai-liam-fox-fundamentalism-capitalism

[hamster]

Go with your head. after 6 months ask what your heart thinks. You'll have given up what? 6 months of your ire? It's nothing if you are curious. You might just discover the secret to phil's chiledoutedness, and eric's.

 

Sounds like you've got a ready made couple of mates out there already. You will always have us of course. That's what mates do for you int it. Always there to tell you when you're being a ****. Go on, tell us how you get on, Can't wait. Are you at the airport yet. Don't forget you're saints shirt. Hope you like Jaegermeister..

[dubai_phil]

From Saturday's Guardian - well worth a read... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/14/dubai-liam-fox-fundamentalism-capitalism

 

No wonder the world seems to take the p1ss out of Grauniad readers. That article is just so badly written and about 3 years too late.

 

She doesn't even have her basic facts right. >75% of the population are foreign workers not 25%. She fails to mention that the managers exploiting the workers or mistreating the maids are in most cases ALSO foreign.

 

What she misses AGAIN is that EVERY foreign worker in the UAE is OWNED by their employer. SOME employers are good and some are bad and some are downright criminal and corrupt.

 

(But of course exploitation lack of human rights, employment criminality and corruption never happens in the UK Tanya? Cockle Pickers in Morecambe Bay or this lot

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-12/world/uk.slavery.arrests_1_slavery-british-police-british-investigators?_s=PM:WORLD ) And of course, $150 a month with free food and accomodation is exploitation of someone who lives in a village in Nepal or Bangladesh and got by without any employment and any social security support)

 

Looks like she jumped on an incoherent rambling bandwagon to justify her expenses which she used to travel down here to see an old friend.

 

There have been hundreds of FAR better articles on the subject, some of them also in the Guardian

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/gallery/2008/oct/08/1

 

but written by people with some level of intelligence and who did some basic research

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7985361.stm

 

Is the first that came up on google. There have been major threads on this in the past. These articles were part of a bash Dubai because the Brit Blingers lost their money in the scams down here backlash. BUT they did also initiate change as they were at least articulate

 

This is much better quality journalism on the subject out there, it should not be new news to anyone. If it is then I better point out that the world is going bust, supposedly Democratic systems have corrupt politicians and Saints are top of the nPc

 

Oh and if this stuff worries you best just stick with employment in the Public Sector 'cos the real world ain't very nice anywhere

[rpb]

Oh and if this stuff worries you best just stick with employment in the Public Sector 'cos the real world ain't very nice anywhere

 

Slavery? I guess that it does worry me a bit - sorry about that. But, as you say, there's plenty of examples of evil in the world elsewhere so that makes everything alright.

 

PS I really thought your opening sentence was less than persuasive - after reading that I found it hard to take anything else that you wrote as being valid.

[dubai_phil]

Slavery? I guess that it does worry me a bit - sorry about that. But, as you say, there's plenty of examples of evil in the world elsewhere so that makes everything alright.

 

PS I really thought your opening sentence was less than persuasive - after reading that I found it hard to take anything else that you wrote as being valid.

 

Was having a pop at the article not you. Also I do not and will never defend the actions of a bunch of chancers and crooks and also a bunch of very nasty people who exploited and ripped off this city and the people.

 

The ISSUE is that the article is bad and it is preaching from an unstable moral high ground. Seek first to understand is the mantra.

 

People here DO work to try and stop that exploitation be they locals or expats or Foreign Embassies/Consulates. BUT the issue is much deeper than just some bimbo getting a free trip, and that is why I pointed back at some of the historical high quality work done in the past 5 or 6 years.

 

Exploitation of the lower paid workers BEGINS in their home countries. They pay (for them) fortunes to Illegal Recruitment Companies and Agents who promise them jobs in the UAE. They ship them in and give them to the crooked employers in this country. The agencies retain their passports and most of their salaries until those loans are "repaid".

 

They are illegal in the Asian home countries and they are illegal here. It is Human Trafficking, just they are doing labouring work not sex trade work. It is a global issue. Where Corrupt Capitalism exists so do the porr and the exploited who are desperate to have electricity in their villages and a future for their Children. Malaysia & Indonesia introduced legislation in their countries that tried to stop their poor being exploited but the people STILL find ways around it and STILL get hurt.

 

Writing poor articles to justify Business Expenses is as crooked as what these evil traffickers do WORLD WIDE. It glosses over the problem and does nothing to help those who are trying to do something about it. Did she mention the Bootleggers who supply alcohol into these camps and bury people alive in the desert for running up debts or trying to stand up to them? What Nationality are all of those exploiters. They use illegal immigrants to do their illegal work and leave them to their own when they are caught. Did she mention that?

 

All we can do is to establish businesses, give people a fair return for their value to the business and seek to develop them as people and in their careers. We can (and do) also refuse to do business with those companies blacklisted or even reputed to be exploiters.

 

We could AND DID also try and tell the hordes of idiots flying in from Europe that the Property system wa corrupt, built on sand, illegal and gave no rights or prrotections. Oh no we were idiots for not getting on the gravy train we were told as the Daily Mail gave away free flights to buy your dream home in the sun and zillion percent profits.

 

Again, NOT a dig at you but at that silly cow. I hate sloppy Journalism as much as I hate the skates & bankers. Greedy Europeans bought much of the property, and now THEY try and Preach? They fecking CAUSED much of it.

 

FFS talk about double standards, THAT is why I get annoyed at this stuff, and why I ROFL every time I hear another sob story