The Collapse Of Dubai

[PsiKik]

It seems like Dubai is in more than a bit of trouble.
I have always thought the place sounded like a massive scam built on fakeness and greed.

Found these articles amongst many - rather dismissive and negative of the place.

I like the pictures in this one - one taken in 1990 then another in 2007 showing the insanely rapid growth. I imagine in 20 years another such comparison showing the city crumbling into dust.
http://sethstate.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/dubai-the-collapse/

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/03/24/2003439207


Part of this this following article touches on the horrors of the slave labour imported under false
pretences.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai_b_183851.html


In a few years Dubai will be looked upon as some kind of a monument and a reminder to this financial crisis
and the greed that caused it.
In the future I imagine I will be receiving powerpoint presentations
showing pictures of the place being reclaimed by the desert - much like I have received presentations
showing all the ridiculous skyscrapers being built, now to remain half-built until they crumble back into the sand
like the substandard concrete they were made from.

[YHWH]

Hater.

[ciphersort]

Good riddance.

[airjaw]

I wonder if I will get to visit before the city <drowns in dust storm | runs out of money | gov't is overthrown by militant slave labor uprising | struck down by God>

[MadamI'madaM]

I wonder if I will get to visit before the city <drowns in dust storm | runs out of money | gov't is overthrown by militant slave labor uprising | struck down by God>

Just be careful you aren't swallowed up by that sand lion from Aladdin.

[PenguinHunter]

Haha, awesome. There was another article in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/20/dubai-decline-middle-east) the other day full of epic metaphors for the fall of Dubai. The Gulf News did a bit of a rebuttal (http://archive.gulfnews.com/tabloid/Technology_and_Research/10297589.html) but mostly people don't care what a guy who saw Dubai from a plane and a bus tour thinks.

This one is pretty similar. I don't know if the Karen story is true or not but either way the couple are idiots (brain tumor or not) for going into debt in a foreign country. That's something to avoid in pretty much any country but your own.

I read through the rest of it and there are a few valid criticisms. The UAE as a whole has some human rights issues to deal with but I think the most valuable paragraph of the article comes at the end:


My mind is whirring and distracted. 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 two thousand miles away; is the only difference that here, they are merely two miles away, and you sometimes get to glimpse their faces?

He complains at the beginning of the story that there is a mantra of "the sheikh built the city" and nobody notices the lower class residents here - then talks to a bunch of idiotic Western expats as if to prove the point. You have to be kind of tool not to realize the debt this country owes to the imported labour. One thing that I really appreciate about living in the UAE is being able to see the entire world of labour in one day. It makes you much more careful of how you evaluate your position in life and what you do with it. Obviously the world is full of people who would rather not confront that issue even when they deal with it personally every day but that's about all I got from most of the rest of the piece.

I know that this article was about Dubai but I also think some of his criticism that he tried to extend to the rest of the country is pretty much invalid. Dubai is probably my least favorite city here in a large part because the "melting pot" is so chunky. In the city I'm in, you continually meet people from all over the world every day. Sure if you want you can huddle close amongst the other people from your country but if you make even the slightest effort you can make it feel like you're traveling around the world without even leaving town. As a sort of side not to that, there is a lot of Emirati culture beyond the shopping malls of Dubai but unfortunately most people who come here don't take the time to go looking for it.

As far as the economy is concerned I don't really think the UAE is any worse than any other country and it's certainly not being reclaimed by the desert. I have a few friends from different free zones around my emirate and they say that their international business sections are still doing really well. It's also worth noting that the government here has enough money to bail their country out of several Great Depressions.

[PsiKik]

As far as the economy is concerned I don't really think the UAE is any worse than any other country and it's certainly not being reclaimed by the desert.

Nice to get the perspective from someone there.

I got the impression the UAE was made up of several(7) states that are largely autonomous and that the wealth of Dubai was fueld by property speculation which has now collapsed whereas Abu Dhabi, for example, has plenty of oil.

Also I wonder if the rest of the UAE will want the Dubai people to reign in some of their excess in exchange for loans? e.g. banning alcohol consumption.

Reading further about the subject it seems that they do have more business to fall back on other than the real estate, such
as the airport and port which are major hubs.

I still wonder how much of that excessive, ludicrous construction will be continued now - seems like there will be left unfinished skyscrapers as monuments to folly.

Also I wonder how that massive order for those new Airbus A380's is going to be affected?

[PenguinHunter]

Nice to get the perspective from someone there.

I got the impression the UAE was made up of several(7) states that are largely autonomous and that the wealth of Dubai was fueld by property speculation which has now collapsed whereas Abu Dhabi, for example, has plenty of oil.

Also I wonder if the rest of the UAE will want the Dubai people to reign in some of their excess in exchange for loans? e.g. banning alcohol consumption.

Reading further about the subject it seems that they do have more business to fall back on other than the real estate, such
as the airport and port which are major hubs.

I still wonder how much of that excessive, ludicrous construction will be continued now - seems like there will be left unfinished skyscrapers as monuments to folly.

Also I wonder how that massive order for those new Airbus A380's is going to be affected?

Yeah, Dubai is a lot more than just real estate. It might now be the top Islamic Banking centre of the Middle East. They've set themselves up as a key stopping point for ships between Asia, Africa and Europe and they still provide very valuable tax havens for international companies.

Dubai is definitely the most liberal emirate but the others aren't as conservative as the articles make out. No one is going to ban drinking anytime soon, that's for sure. The only really conservative one is Sharjah and you can still find booze there without fear of repercussions.

I wouldn't call the emirates autonomous. . . they have similar responsibilities that states and provinces of other countries do. The governments of each emirate also have a hand in national matters but most of those issues are done through Abu Dhabi. They can operate independently in some international matters though - for example the comically expensive and ill-conceived RAK-Indonesia coal train plan (http://www.uaeinteract.com/docs/RAK_to_build_Indonesian_rail_line_/34901.htm). . .

As far as colossal construction it will probably slow a little but I wouldn't expect it to cease. . . it's just too appealing to people here. The reason so many construction workers have been sent home is because of all the halted apartment and residence construction that came with the real estate slow down - there just isn't a huge demand for living space like there was 6 months ago. But the sheikhs will probably keep a lot of crazy architectural and other bizarre projects going because, well, they can.

[thod]

Since 80&#37; are immigrant workers, mostly Indian, they should have a revolution and throw out their Arab masters. They could deport the Arabs to Abu Dhabi, rename the city to New Bombay, and live in the apartments they built.

[PenguinHunter]

A couple of other related articles:

If you think Dubai is bad (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/sultan-sooud-al-gassemi-if-you-think-dubai-is-bad-just-look-at-your-own-country-1666748.html). . .

A trend-setter (http://uaecommunity.blogspot.com/2009/04/dark-side.html) you say?

[MoneyJungle]

Anyone ever been? It is the strangest place I've ever visited (except perhaps Disneyworld). Seeing women walk around in burkas in such an ostentatious and cosmopolitan place is bizarre. I was there during Ramadan and was instructed not to drink anything except water in public as not to offend wackjob sensibilities. I ate at a restaurant during the day in a shopping mall (that had an indoor snowboarding facility) that was covered by a giant curtain because of Muslim lunacy.

[PenguinHunter]

Anyone ever been? It is the strangest place I've ever visited (except perhaps Disneyworld). Seeing women walk around in burkas in such an ostentatious and cosmopolitan place is bizarre. I was there during Ramadan and was instructed not to drink anything except water in public as not to offend wackjob sensibilities. I ate at a restaurant during the day in a shopping mall (that had an indoor snowboarding facility) that was covered by a giant curtain because of Muslim lunacy.

I live near Dubai in a smaller city called Ras al Khaimah. Obviously you didn't get much out of your trip. . . that's too bad.