Ugh. You know what, I give up. Screw Dubai!! Happy? You'll know the truth when you decide that passports, travel and culture are more important than capitalism. Sorry to waste your time, later!
He makes an important point regarding Dubai's reaction to criticism and suddenly you reply in this fashion, so unlike the rest of your posts in this thread. With all due respect, I find your response telling or, as Spock would have said, "fascinating." A quote from a science fiction series might seem out of place at first blush, but for the reality that Dubai's government is straight out of science fiction, or would be if it wasn't reality.
Everything you say here is true, which is precisely why Dubai should not be afforded the same privileges in the global community that states with decent labor laws are. Companies that do business internationally should not be able to take advantage of this race-to-the-bottom scenario, lest they allow Dubai to undermine the progress in labor rights enjoyed by the rest of the world.
My point is every country has blood on their hands, if we punish each other for the wrongs we do, we wouldn't get anywhere. Have you done any research on how rich countries expolit poor ones? .....just as an example: Africa's main agricultural products are coffee and cocoa, do you know that a few developed nations in the 'global community' don't place any tariff's as long as its unprocessed, we don't even allow them to add any real value!!! There are many examples such as this, where we don't let them compete, they stay poor and starving........ I love the double standard.....just because we are able to hide our own greed its all fine and dandy. Hell, look at what Iraq's all about. Yet you want to punish Dubai for its expolitation of its workers? Com'on now.
Your post, coupled with the article you posted, is misleading at best. In reality, it is probably the twist you wanted to put on it. The excerpt you posted was in regard to Dubai having no bankruptcy and having debtor's prisons. This is NOT what conservatives want. Your allusion to that is likely a knowing misstatement (ie a lie). The debt relief statute that conservatives want is what they passed in 2005. I have a ton of problems with BAPCPA, but it is FAR from no bankruptcy and the establishment of debtor's prison. Get real.
Thing is Deckard, I really don't care that much about Dubai's problems but it was getting twisted to make it look that way. I just thing the hypocritical criticism has gotten way out of hand towards the Arabs. It's quite frankly unnecessary and ridiculous that anyone will believe any newspaper article as long as it confirms their irrational thoughts. Suddenly the burden of proof dissapears and it makes total sense. Dubai has its problems for sure, but they are no different than the problems America had building itself. It's no different than any country trying to build itself. That's why Dubai doesn't care - it's the model for a big economy. Do the dirty work quickly, ignore it, finish up, then when it's all done condemn it. This has been the model in every major economy in the world. The level of mistreatment doesn't change, just the visibility and the politics surrounding it.
LOL. Keep making up worst case scenarios if it makes you feel better. Americans live contently in a pool of their own ignorance and your post reinforces this. At the end of the day the victims of this grand scheme are benefiting financially and are putting themselves in a better position for the future than they would be in their homelands. You have to pay the cost to be the boss, and people who don't have the luxury of being born in America have to go through extreme situations. Agreed - look at places like Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Mathloom, what percentage of revenue does your father have to pay the locals to act as middlemen? It's a good time to be a citizen of the UAE.
Let's not forget a lot of the uproar after Katrina was because people couldn't pop open a "nice cold Diet coke" while watching American Idol and drive around in their SUV's. Yeah, these people are really in a position to empathize with and judge the decisions made by the working class from developing countries.
The impact on the lives of those affected by Katrina was a lot more substantial than not being able to watch American Idol.
I had the possibility of working in Dubai a few years back. It didn't come through but at times I am glad that it didn't. I still would like to see the place though as it does have some amazing architecture but I definately have very mixed emotions about place.
Not sure about revenues as I think this is decided between the parties, but ownership generally has to be split with 51% in their favor. There are, however, several bubbles or free zones (I think that's what they're called) where the laws are different and I think my father is operating under this kind of system where the 51/49 thing doesn't apply. If you're really interested I could ask.
This idiotic argument keeps sprouting up in this thread like some invasive foreign species. So it's OK to enslave an entire class of people because they might possibly benefit from their own enslavement in the long run? As an ignorant American, this reminds me of a time when my country justified the enslavement of a people on similar grounds. Fast forward to today, after we fought a civil war over the peculiar institution, and we still are feeling negative effects from the racial tension and massive socioeconomic disparity caused by it.
I think its you who is ignorant to how weak and poor people/nations are treated throughout the world. Exploitation runs at different levels......not saying whats going on in Dubai is okay, its just that there are so many other problems that exist in the world, I put this problem quite low on the priority list.
How is this responsive in any way to what I posted? If you want to talk about exploitation in the rest of the world, start a new thread. This one's about Dubai. "Everyone else is doing it" is not a valid defense of slavery. Sorry.
IMHO I believe it is relevant to the discussion, you wanted the 'global community' to punish these people.....I just gave you a reason why it would be hypocritical.
I'm not saying they should be punished on some ad hoc basis. I'm saying there should be rules for participating in certain international processes, and that any country (even the most powerful) should be beholden to those rules. Whether or not that happens in practice is really a subject for a different thread.
Seems so. I do think there should be standards for labor rights on an international scale, and that there should be some incentive (positive or negative) for countries/businesses to meet those standards.
first of all the 'victims' of this often aren't benefiting anywhere near what they are promised. secondly, many times, the victims are held in virtual indentured servitude, which even if they financially benefit, is illegal according to various trafficking statutes. there's a reason why the TIPs report continuously rates UAE rather poorly, even though the TIPs is incredibly politicized. you are actually pulling the american bootstraps bs and enforcing them on others. just because these laborers are marginally better off, doesn't give UAE the right to flout international norms and laws and treat others like ****. for you and your kind to continuously defend that is egregious and disturbing. pray tell, does kuala lumpur have 80% of its citizens of foreign countries? does malaysia have a trillion dollar (well lets be hoenst its probaly 500 billion now) fund and 10% of the oil reserves? the point is, uae, because of abu dhabi, can afford to pay its laborers better. its not a enormously burdened nation with not enough money like india or even china. uae has tremendous wealth, and instead of adopting international laws, it chooses to treat its workers like crap.
