article about Dubai and PO

[pamela]

I think this article makes a good point about why Dubai was trying to build an economic and real estate center in the first place.
Peak Oil.

http://theenergycollective.com/TheEnergyCollective/52401

[fossilfuelfiesta]

The full article is at http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?p=8931.  It's interesting, but brief.

The one thing that never made sense to me about Dubai is that even though it was being built to specialise in non-oil-production-related ventures like tourism and financial services, both of those ventures are still highly dependent on cheap oil.  Simply removing it by one degree wasn't ever going to be sustainable.

Dubai is a big Ponzi scheme.  It's like a little metaphorical outpost of our whole civilisation.  The wealth and the glamour and the tall buildings are little more than a flimsy cardboard edifice that will, sooner or later, sink back into the sands from which it sprung.

But it is a fascinating place, no doubt about that.  Particularly fascinating is the divide that exists between its uber-rich inhabitants and the manipulated, exploited workers that built the place -- or were building it, until the economy started to shit itself.  Here's a particularly interesting article about Dubai which is definitely worth reading.

[pamela]

Dear God, that was shocking.
that poor woman in the SUV.
you're right, everyone should read that article.
you know what Dubai seems like now?
not just a trap, but a spiteful trap.
like terrorism, it's a terrorist act.

[HeyZues]

Dear God, that was shocking.
that poor woman in the SUV.
you're right, everyone should read that article.
you know what Dubai seems like now?
not just a trap, but a spiteful trap.
like terrorism, it's a terrorist act.

That didn't rhyme at all.

[pamela]

 

it's that free verse, non rhyming poetry. LOL

[HeyZues]

Dear God, that was shocking.
that poor woman in the SUV.
you're right, everyone should read that article.
you know what Dubai seems like now?
not just a trap, but a spiteful trap.
like terrorism, it's a terrorist act.

That didn't rhyme at all.

Okay maybe "trap" and "act".  But just barely.

[mtlouie]

Jesus Christ, Fossil, I couldn't even FINISH reading that article.  Those poor, poor people.  For god's sake this is like living in the dark ages.

I know of someone who is in Dubai.  She had the baby of a Dubai citizen and went to live there about five years ago.  She would write back to the office I worked in and tell everyone how wonderful it was.  I tried to explain PO to the people I worked with, but they didn't get it.  I knew what was in store for her.  They were all jealous of her, but I tried to tell them it was nothing to envy because her life was going to end up being hell.  A white woman in a Muslim country going down the tubes.  Not pretty. 

[pamela]

I hope people here read that article.
that was the awfullest most monstrous thing I've read in a while.
that one part where the writer is interviewing I think some British women and they are talking about how much they like the servants there.
some crap just never changes does it?

[mtlouie]

some crap just never changes does it?

And some crap changes everything. 

That's just around the corner, Pammy. 

[J.A.F.O.]

But it is a fascinating place, no doubt about that.  Particularly fascinating is the divide that exists between its uber-rich inhabitants and the manipulated, exploited workers that built the place -- or were building it, until the economy started to shit itself.  Here's a particularly interesting article about Dubai which is definitely worth reading.

That entire story is just horrifying..  now that Dubai is going (gone?) broke, there is going to be a terrible reckoning and comeuppance for the entitled bastards living there..  I hope there will be a massive slave-revolt, and soon.

Thanks, fossil, I've just added another entry to my list of "places better off nuked"

[sc]

I tried to prevent a female acquaintance from moving to Dubai last year...she thought that I was nuts....she was a teacher, going out there to live the life and have a grand adventure.

I wonder if she is still alive?

[pamela]

dang sc, I hope she's ok. maybe she has come home already?
is  she American?
I like to hope that our embassy looks after it's people better than some of those other ones.

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

Yikes, this is almost something out of some horribly frightening episode of the Twilight Zone, except for this woman it is 100% reality:

But for the first time in his life, he was beginning to mismanage their finances. "We're not talking huge sums, but he was getting confused. It was so unlike Daniel, I was surprised. We got into a little bit of debt." After a year, she found out why: Daniel was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

One doctor told him he had a year to live; another said it was benign and he'd be okay. But the debts were growing. "Before I came here, I didn't know anything about Dubai law. I assumed if all these big companies come here, it must be pretty like Canada's or any other liberal democracy's," she says. Nobody told her there is no concept of bankruptcy. If you get into debt and you can't pay, you go to prison.

"When we realised that, I sat Daniel down and told him: listen, we need to get out of here. He knew he was guaranteed a pay-off when he resigned, so we said – right, let's take the pay-off, clear the debt, and go." So Daniel resigned – but he was given a lower pay-off than his contract suggested. The debt remained. As soon as you quit your job in Dubai, your employer has to inform your bank. If you have any outstanding debts that aren't covered by your savings, then all your accounts are frozen, and you are forbidden to leave the country.

"Suddenly our cards stopped working. We had nothing. We were thrown out of our apartment." Karen can't speak about what happened next for a long time; she is shaking.

Daniel was arrested and taken away on the day of their eviction. It was six days before she could talk to him. "He told me he was put in a cell with another debtor, a Sri Lankan guy who was only 27, who said he couldn't face the shame to his family. Daniel woke up and the boy had swallowed razor-blades. He banged for help, but nobody came, and the boy died in front of him."

Karen managed to beg from her friends for a few weeks, "but it was so humiliating. I've never lived like this. I worked in the fashion industry. I had my own shops. I've never..." She peters out.

Daniel was sentenced to six months' imprisonment at a trial he couldn't understand. It was in Arabic, and there was no translation. "Now I'm here illegally, too," Karen says I've got no money, nothing. I have to last nine months until he's out, somehow." Looking away, almost paralysed with embarrassment, she asks if I could buy her a meal.

She is not alone. All over the city, there are maxed-out expats sleeping secretly in the sand-dunes or the airport or in their cars.

"The thing you have to understand about Dubai is – nothing is what it seems," Karen says at last. "Nothing. This isn't a city, it's a con-job. They lure you in telling you it's one thing – a modern kind of place – but beneath the surface it's a medieval dictatorship."

Full article: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

The modern version of the "American Dream", exported to the desert and magnified 100X:

Between the malls, there is nothing but the connecting tissue of asphalt. Every road has at least four lanes; Dubai feels like a motorway punctuated by shopping centres. You only walk anywhere if you are suicidal. The residents of Dubai flit from mall to mall by car or taxis.

[J.A.F.O.]

dang sc, I hope she's ok. maybe she has come home already?
is  she American?
I like to hope that our embassy looks after it's people better than some of those other ones.

Before I read the story of that woman, I'd have thought the Canadian Embassy would look after its people about as well as the US Embassy would..  so if they haven't helped her...

Embassies in general do not have a good track-record when it comes to things like this..  Australia's is notorious for throwing you to the wolves..

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

Okay, just finished the whole article. Worth reading the *whole* thing, and I don't say that about many articles. Good gawd . . .