Dubai-- a Medieval Dictatorship

If you had no problems with it while you were living the high, tax-free, life, I think you should man up and suck it up when things go sour. I always got the feeling making good money in Dubai was like being a glorified indentured servant. Look before you leap.

 

Sure, if they manage to avoid: dying from overwork, having their passport stolen by their employers, or losing their paycheck when their employer leaves town. The article also suggests that the construction workers are paid a fraction of what they're promised by recruiters and forced to work longer days. They can't strike for fear of arrest or docked pay. They are slaves.

 

I've been to Dubai so many times I know it like the back of my hand.

This is absolute crap. A waitress can earn around $1000 plus accomodation. I know this because my father part-owns a restaurant there. Over 2 months this woman can leave the country easily. She just doesn't want to take responsibility for her ididotic spending by being a waitress.

It's true that Dubai is "soul-less" but that's because virtually the entire population are expatriates. Which makes it a huge necessity to have controls in place so that people who are in debt don't just leave.

There are so many falsities and exaggerations in the article that it's laughable.

For example, somehow Dubai is blamed for unskilled labor not being paid enough? The laborers from India and Pakistan were making lots of noise early on, but Dubai immediately said that "you're right, if it's unfair, you should go back." They immediately began sourcing laborers from the far East, mainly China. Suddenly, everyone stops complaining. When my father is promised an employee at a certain rate by a recruitment agency, he will clearly take the best available price - this is the nature of unskilled labor. When that employee arrives and claims that the recruiter BACK HOME lied to him, what's my father to do? The issue is BACK HOME between the recruitment company and the employee. Wth does Dubai have to do with it?

The employees know full well what's going on as do the employers. None of the employees ("residents") intend on contributing anything significant to the economy regardless of the conditions. All the money is sent back home, nothing will be invested other than what's needed to get by. Same goes with executives of large corporations. The woman at the beginning of the article is an aberration I suppose.

The city was built by slaves? Hardly. I suppose every king or president built their own castle? They can all go back to their countries, there is enough supply worldwide for this. I suppose the right thing to do is to enslave people in their own countries through sweatshops and whatnot. Dubai is paying them a real-life salary which is in accordance with supply and demand factors. Regardless of what anyone says, it is better than the life they'd have to live otherwise. MUCH better.

I understand that it's difficult to conceptualize a city where only 5% of the population are nationals. Imagine a state where only 5% were American. Think about that for a second. An entire state where 5% are Americans and the other 95% are complaining about their tax-free inflated income and now complaining that they spent too much and can't walk away or take responsibility for it. Boo-hoo.

Personally, I can't wait to move to Dubai.

 

Precisely. This is what happens when you just follow money.

 

You talk the talk, but still love jogging in your Nike shoes huh?

Have the decency to bring them over to your country and give them a salary bump rather than stuff them in a toxic warehouse somewhere in East Asia and have them mass produce for the entire world while you reap the profits.

This is what it's become for you maybe... If you can't see it, it's ok!

 

Mathloom will defend all things middle east........apparently the Middle East countries can do no wrong.



Debtors prison is so 19th century.....

DD

 

I guess minimum wage labor in the U.S. is slave labor as well? You seem to want everyone to be well paid regardless of what they do, and you expect U.S. standards of living to be followed in all cases. That is simply ridiculous and shows that you are a silly idealist looking for a global utopia. To those workers, it's relative: they can stay in Dubai and suffer the bad treatment for a few years while making roughly 10x or more what they would have back in their home countries, or just stay in their home countries and be stuck in destitute for the rest of their lives.

By the way, these poor construction workers are not the ones who fall into too much debt and end up like this poor (but misguided) woman. They tend to be some of the most fiscally responsible people around. It is just silly asking a country to allow a workforce made of entirely foreigners to allow those workers to unionize. As someone else said, if they don't like it they don't have to go in the first place, Dubai government has no supply shortage of laborers who are dying for the chance to go make a living.

 

And why do you think that is? Mayhaps because a lot of the countries over there have a lot of poverty?

DD

 

Well its as silly as California in which if you foreclose on your home all they can do is seize the asset and hurt your credit score!!

They can't even go after personal assets for a debt someone took on. Thats why people are just walking away from their housing debts as they are so underwater.

 

Obviously they can and often do, but from my brief time here you seem to fall on the other extreme of things.

 

Wow Mr. Obvious are you? How is that the fault of the Dubai government or even remotely related to the topic of this thread?

If you want to b**** about poverty and how rich countries exploit cheap labor elsewhere be my guest, start a new topic.

 

I think debtors prison is absolutely crazy, how does it help the debt get paid?

Honestly?

It is just stupid......

DD

 

If there are harsh punishments to getting into debt maybe you won't do it.

 

It probably would not and I am not saying it is ideal either. But absent multilateral agreements between different countries that would guarantee that those individuals owing debt in one country would be held responsible for it in another, I just don't see a good alternative here.

Again, what is your alternative solution? Forced labor to repay the debt? Or should the Dubai government make nice and lend this lady enough money to go back home to Canada?

I understand the human side of things here, but Dubai is probably the most cut-throat capitalist environment in the world. If you are not a citizen, you will simply be treated as an asset and nothing more. Some people are not up to it, in which case DO NOT GO! (same goes for Vegas)

 

Come on Air, people still get in debt, obviously.

DD

 

Well I agree there, and I think these people obviously were stupid, they should have said they were traveling for a weekend, and just left the country and the guy could have resigned by email.

DD

 

Yup. Stupid people.

All these expats who think Wow Dubai paradise, not too much tears from me.

 

Any more stupid than the people going over there to live in "paradise"?

 

Unclear, I understand the impoverished workers going there to make a buck, but anyone going there as an exec etc, should be well versed in the laws of the country.

And if they find themselves in a situation like this guy, they need to do whatever is right for themselves, screw Dubai...because clearly Dubai will screw them....

It is a screw or be screwed world ladies and gentleman....and Dubai was weilding craftsman !

DD