Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
Cliffs: stupid americans get pwned.
Karen came here from Canada when her boyfriend was offered a job in the senior division of a famous multinational.
The World is empty. It has been abandoned, its continents left unfinished. Through binoculars, I think I can glimpse Britain, its sceptred isle left barren in the salt-breeze.
Here, off the coast of Dubai, developers have been rebuilding the world. They have constructed artificial islands in the shape of all Planet Earth's land masses, and they plan to sell each continent off to be built on. There were rumors that the Beckhams would bid for Britain. But the people who work at the nearby coast say they haven't seen anybody there for months now. "The World is over," a South African suggests.
All over Dubai, crazy projects that were Under Construction are now Under Collapse. They were building an air-conditioned beach here, with cooling pipes running below the
The projects completed just before the global economy crashed look empty and tattered. The Atlantis Hotel was launched last winter in a $20m fin-de-siecle party attended by Robert De Niro, Lyndsay Lohan, and Lily Allen. Sitting on its own fake island - shaped, of course, like a palm tree - it looks like an immense upturned tooth in a faintly decaying mouth. It is pink and turreted - the architecture of the Pharaohs, as reimagined by Zsa-Zsa Gabor. Its Grand Lobby is a monumental dome covered in glitterballs, held up by eight monumental concrete palm trees. It is unexpectedly raining, so water is leaking from the roof, and tiles are falling off.
Sheikh Maktoum built his showcase city in a place with no useable water. None. There is no surface water, very little aquifer, and some of the lowest rainfall in the world. So Dubai drinks the sea. The Emirates' water is stripped of salt in vast desalination plants around the Gulf - making it the most expensive water on earth. It costs more than petrol to produce, and belches vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as it goes. It's the main reason why the residents of Dubai have the biggest average carbon footprint of any human being - more than double an American's.
The new Tiger Woods Gold Course needs four million gallons of water to be pumped onto its grounds every day, or its grasses and sands simply shrivel and disappear on the winds.
The water quality got worse and worse. The guests started to spot raw sewage, condoms, and used sanitary towels floating in the sea. So the hotel ordered its own water analyses from a professional company. "They told us it was full of fecal matter 'too numerous to count.' I had to start telling guests not to go in the water, and since they'd come on a beach holiday, as you can imagine, they were pretty pissed off." She began to make angry posts on the expat discussion forums - and people began to figure out what was happening. Dubai had expanded so fast its sewage treatment facilities couldn't keep up. The sewage disposal trucks had to queue for three or four days at the treatment plants - so instead, they were simply drilling open the manholes and dumping the untreated sewage down them, so it flowed straight to the sea.
Originally posted by: Robor
Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
Cliffs: stupid americans get pwned.
Karen came here from Canada when her boyfriend was offered a job in the senior division of a famous multinational.
LOL!
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
This was a fascinating article. And I don't find it surprising at all that the most despicable and disgusting racists in the entire article are, of course, the British people. Typical euro-supremacist attitude. Sadly, this type of racist attitude is quote common in Europe.
Originally posted by: CLite
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
This was a fascinating article. And I don't find it surprising at all that the most despicable and disgusting racists in the entire article are, of course, the British people. Typical euro-supremacist attitude. Sadly, this type of racist attitude is quote common in Europe.
You are wrong. The most disgusting racists are the native Arabians in the UAE. They show knowing but utter disgust to the foreign workers who come from the Asian subcontinent. These workers suffer a fate somewhere inbetween absolute slavery and a Jim Crow laws kind of scenario. It's pathetic that all the businesses who base themselves in Dubai ignore this obvious violation of human rights.
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
Originally posted by: CLite
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
This was a fascinating article. And I don't find it surprising at all that the most despicable and disgusting racists in the entire article are, of course, the British people. Typical euro-supremacist attitude. Sadly, this type of racist attitude is quote common in Europe.
You are wrong. The most disgusting racists are the native Arabians in the UAE. They show knowing but utter disgust to the foreign workers who come from the Asian subcontinent. These workers suffer a fate somewhere inbetween absolute slavery and a Jim Crow laws kind of scenario. It's pathetic that all the businesses who base themselves in Dubai ignore this obvious violation of human rights.
Perhaps the Europeans in the article and the native Arabians are about the same...seems like they have the same disgust of foreign workers from the Asian subcontinent. Sad, but quite typical.
Originally posted by: CLite
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
Originally posted by: CLite
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
This was a fascinating article. And I don't find it surprising at all that the most despicable and disgusting racists in the entire article are, of course, the British people. Typical euro-supremacist attitude. Sadly, this type of racist attitude is quote common in Europe.
You are wrong. The most disgusting racists are the native Arabians in the UAE. They show knowing but utter disgust to the foreign workers who come from the Asian subcontinent. These workers suffer a fate somewhere inbetween absolute slavery and a Jim Crow laws kind of scenario. It's pathetic that all the businesses who base themselves in Dubai ignore this obvious violation of human rights.
Perhaps the Europeans in the article and the native Arabians are about the same...seems like they have the same disgust of foreign workers from the Asian subcontinent. Sad, but quite typical.
Also, it extends to Saudi Arabia / Kuwait/etc. They rope in poor muslims from other countries (Egypt/Iran/Pakistan/India, not just asian sub-continent) and turn them into essentially slaves. I think most of those countries only have a 10-15% citizenship rate with almost every single one of the natives not doing one iota of work. It's incredible that they have basically recreated "slavery" post-oil wealth and the world has not really caught on yet.
This abuse extends to the technical fields, though not as badly as the labor fields. My company has taught some ASME courses over in the middle east, the native engineers have no clue what they are doing, the engineers who actually do the work are all imported and paid absolutely nothing.
Not necessarily. That's a fairer statement in a country with a mature justice system.Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
just don't do anything stupid and you'll be fine. i gotta say tho, i don't see myself moving there or anything. i'll be going to visit my cousin there soon.
Originally posted by: Mardeth
Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
"OMG, Dubai is soooo scary!" :disgust:
I'd move there in a heartbeat.
Id understand if you had made this comment during the boom but now??? Why on earth would you move there?
Originally posted by: Aimster
Nobody is forcing those workers to work.
They were not kidnapped and shipped to the UAE
Originally posted by: Aimster
Nobody is forcing those workers to work.
They were not kidnapped and shipped to the UAE
Originally posted by: Aimster
Nobody is forcing those workers to work.
They were not kidnapped and shipped to the UAE
Originally posted by: Aimster
Nobody is forcing those workers to work.
They were not kidnapped and shipped to the UAE
Originally posted by: hydroponik
Originally posted by: Aimster
Nobody is forcing those workers to work.
They were not kidnapped and shipped to the UAE
Did you read the article? They are being enticed with great wages however when they arrive, their employers take their passports and pay them minimal wages, essentially locking them into slavery until their debt is paid off.
Originally posted by: Aimster
Originally posted by: hydroponik
Originally posted by: Aimster
Nobody is forcing those workers to work.
They were not kidnapped and shipped to the UAE
Did you read the article? They are being enticed with great wages however when they arrive, their employers take their passports and pay them minimal wages, essentially locking them into slavery until their debt is paid off.
One doesn't enter the UAE with debt to the UAE.
They cause the debt when they are in the UAE.
Those workers don't have any debt. They are renting apartments.
If you are talking about those wealthy people who bought investments and cars and borrowed the money from the UAE financial services, then the UAE is simply protecting their assets.
Originally posted by: Ns1
Originally posted by: Aimster
Originally posted by: hydroponik
Originally posted by: Aimster
Nobody is forcing those workers to work.
They were not kidnapped and shipped to the UAE
Did you read the article? They are being enticed with great wages however when they arrive, their employers take their passports and pay them minimal wages, essentially locking them into slavery until their debt is paid off.
One doesn't enter the UAE with debt to the UAE.
They cause the debt when they are in the UAE.
Those workers don't have any debt. They are renting apartments.
If you are talking about those wealthy people who bought investments and cars and borrowed the money from the UAE financial services, then the UAE is simply protecting their assets.
Are you fucking retarded or what? The workers go to the UAE, get shafted in jobs with way less pay than they are promised, work way longer hours than they are promised, get their passports taken away, and have an embassy that doesn't give a fuck.
So tell me oh great one, how does one "stop working" when you can't a. leave the country b. don't have any money and c. have an embassy that doesn't give a fuck
Originally posted by: Aimster
Originally posted by: Ns1
Originally posted by: Aimster
Originally posted by: hydroponik
Originally posted by: Aimster
Nobody is forcing those workers to work.
They were not kidnapped and shipped to the UAE
Did you read the article? They are being enticed with great wages however when they arrive, their employers take their passports and pay them minimal wages, essentially locking them into slavery until their debt is paid off.
One doesn't enter the UAE with debt to the UAE.
They cause the debt when they are in the UAE.
Those workers don't have any debt. They are renting apartments.
If you are talking about those wealthy people who bought investments and cars and borrowed the money from the UAE financial services, then the UAE is simply protecting their assets.
Are you fucking retarded or what? The workers go to the UAE, get shafted in jobs with way less pay than they are promised, work way longer hours than they are promised, get their passports taken away, and have an embassy that doesn't give a fuck.
So tell me oh great one, how does one "stop working" when you can't a. leave the country b. don't have any money and c. have an embassy that doesn't give a fuck
Learn how to communicate. You sound like a lunatic. Seriously you need to calm the hell down. Wtf is wrong with you?
Passports are taken away IF THEY OWE THE BANK MONEY.
What money do workers owe the bank? They are broke. They have no credit they can't take out loans. They have nothing to owe the bank.
The workers in Dubai were not previous millionaire investors.
They went there because they had no choice. It was that or starve in their home country
people who owe money in Dubai for not managing their finances properly, I have no sympathy for them.
Originally posted by: Aimster
Passports are taken away IF THEY OWE THE BANK MONEY.
What money do workers owe the bank? They are broke. They have no credit they can't take out loans. They have nothing to owe the bank.
.