I don't know if there's any point me saying anything since in all likelihood I'm biased towards Dubai. I probably still will at some point. Rep points for anyone who can spot errors in the article. Plenty to go around.
I've never been there, and I admit that, but I don't think it's going to ever be the Mecca of finance or wealth or vacationing or whatever it's suppose to be.
Mathloom, I don't have the patience to fact-check the article. Please TELL us what is wrong with it. My dealing with Dubai is this: I used to work (briefly) for a diamond company based in Israel. We had an office there, but had to use Skype to call because direct long-distance from Dubai to Israel doesn't work. It's blocked. I believe we can call them, but they can't call us.
That's a funny story because voice over IP doesn't officially exist in Dubai . I've never tried calling so I'm not really sure if that's true. Maybe they are just cheapskates? lol Errors: - Pearl divers and bedouins, not goat herders. Sure there was goat herding going on, but that's not what they were lol. They were traders. - They are not all sultanates. - Everyone in the Middle East is from the continent known as Asia and therefore Asian. - The lifestyle doesn't require immigrants. The growth requires immigrants. - Laborers are not referred to as "expats". Generally, nonEmiratis in middle-class jobs are referred to as 'expats'. The rest are called laborers. (Really f'ed up.) - None of the laborers would ever be born in the Middle East. They generally don't stick around very long, and are not allowed to bring wives, and women are not allowed in the laborers camps, and extra-marital sex is officially illegal in the UAE. Obviously, they would not be eligible for citizenship. - Abu Dhabi doesn't "invest in and bail out" other Emirates as necessary. There is a constitution in place and the constitution dictates Abu Dhabi's contribution to the federal budget. There is no obligation to bail anyone out. - There's no subway system in Dubai (or the entire GCC for that matter). - There are parliaments and elections in the GCC - mostly in Kuwait and Bahrain. - Sail shaped hotel with $100 lunch? There's like 10 of those in the GCC. - Dubai never really had oil to transcend it. It was built on debt from day 1. - Sheikh Mohammed is not a Sultan. He's a Sheikh, an Emir by some accounts, a Prime Minister, a ruler. But he's not a sultan. - Grass and wildlife grow, both in the desert, just not in the white picket fencey way the writer thinks lol. My opinion: - how odd is it that Dubai is the citadel of greed while Las Vegas is the citadel of entertainment. - The Middle East needs Dubai, and that' all Dubai really needs. - Dubai never needed oil, and the whole point is to not need oil. The writer is stating the obvious, something that is being addressed starting over two decades ago. - If the GCC runs out of oil, the US and China are stuck with Russia, Venezuela and Iran for oil. Dubai would be the least of his worries. - Labor, residency and citizenship laws in the UAE need serious reform, but that's stating the obvious.
It works if you use a VPN (when Skype isn't down like it has been the past couple of days...I was like...damn, how did them damn mauslims manage to block me despite the VPN ...then figured out that it wasn't Dubai, but Skype...).
I did an image search of Kuwait. All I could see were medium sized buildings that looked like apartments, definitely nothing that was scraping the sky. Except for one building that they have planned to be the world's tallest. WTF is up with all these tall buildings in the ME? Why don't they start making tall buildings in India where they are running out of land space.
that was funny! rep for you! "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to trustme again."
Probably because pretty much the only high rise in Kuwait up until very recently were the Kuwait Towers, and even now, there isn't much in Kuwait besides hype and speculation around the Burj Mubarak and Kuwait Gate...
Yeah, I've heard it's overrated. I guess they think they're cool because they built skyscrapers. We did that in the 1930s.
