What the heck are you talking about? UAE has one of the highest living standards in the entire world. "Real living conditions"?! Their "real living condition" is -- most likely -- better than yours/the average American. Taxes are low/non-existent, education is virtually free, enormous welfare/entitlement programs, world class health care that is virtually free for citizens (even some foreign workers, at that), and a bunch of other things. Most of these smaller Gulf Arab states have first-world living standards, so what precisely are you talking about? There is a good reason as to why hundreds of thousands of Americans end up choosing to work/live in the Gulf. It's not easy, it's very competitive, but there are plenty of your fellow citizens who live and work over there, mostly to build wealth at a faster rate than they would've otherwise living in the States.
Can you people just quit arguing and talk about the structure the thread is about. I'm thinking this may get moved to D&D pretty soon if you don't but maybe that is what you guys want.
That looks amazing (hotel, not the arguing)... I actually didnt' think of Dubai at first, but it makes sense.... just $$ gone wild...
Right. Those are SE Asians who come over to the Gulf to make a living, not "good" living but just to make a living (they have nothing back home, so anything they make is comparatively better) doing work that no one else will (maids mostly). They're not treated very well, no, I've seen it first hand. What does that have to do with the UAE leaders sharing their wealth with their citizens? You said: They do! They invest heavily in the wellbeing of their citizens. Most Gulf states do, not just the UAE. So again, what are you complaining about? The SE Asian laborers? No one cares about them, they make subhuman wages (by local standards) and they still happily take those jobs and have enough money at the end of the day to send money back home. They are treated like crap, I will acknowledge that. But they're a dime a dozen and no one is going to throw money their way any time soon. It's somewhat akin to the role millions of undocumented workers serve in the U.S. economy, with similar living conditions.
My quote was referring to their foreign workers. I'm glad that the money gets reinvested into their citizens - and I agree that if you're a citizen of dubai, you're bloody golden. But I'm just saying that they could stand to look after their foreign workers too. If the sheik is going to spend all this money on charities of other foreign nations and do so much for "human development", why doesn't he give a little help for the foreign people in his own land?
Probably because he doesn't have much control over it, since those foreign workers are employed in the private industry (almost entirely). In many cases, individual families employ those poor souls, and that's when most of the manipulation/ill-treatment takes place. In some cases, the governments have actually tried and convicted citizens of ill-treatment/abuse of a foreign worker employed at their behest (in most cases it's withholding payments, beatings, etc). But generally speaking, governments are highly reluctant to try their own citizens in favor of a foreigner. Now may be they can employ a number of laws designed to provide recourse for those foreigners in local courts, and a number of them have (e.g. Saudi), but even with those in place it will be highly unlikely that a foreigner will resort to them in fear of losing their very livelihood/being sent back home.
I wouldn't stay there. I'm not a good swimmer. But this is a nice step towards a Rapture like city, so I'm cool with it.
For what it's worth, I think everything Dubai does/has qualifies as 'over-doing-it'. May be if they were trying to turn Dubai into Las Vegas of the ME then it would make sense (casinos and the such), but if Hong Kong or Singapore is their model of 'success', then they should follow suit and cool down a bit on the whole "outrageous project of the month" thing...they've been on a tear the last few years.
I agree. I had an idea about an underwater roller coaster, with a glass tube surrounding the coaster. I think it would be an interesting experience. Stop slacking Dubai and get to it.
1) He doesn't own those companies and he has set the laws that make not paying them illegal. If a company in the US doesn't pay its workers, does George Bush have to pay them? 2) The fact remains that EVERYONE is better off here. Even the laborors are better off. They are welcome to go back to their country when their contract permits, and they are welcome not to come at all. How about you stop listening to the media and actually get the facts straight. Why don't you come over here and ask the laborors if they want to quit and go back home? Free markets. We pay the price of labor as they do for the same labor ALL OVER THE WORLD. You make it sound oh so horrible. These people are making about $30 a month in their countries and living on the street (literally). Then they come here and compain about making $200-$300 a month, sharing a room with 3 other guys, and transportation to work. Get your facts straight. Sheikh Mohammed is donating to children in Africa who are eating insects off the floor and go days without food or water. Unlike you, we know the real problem is starvation in Africa rather than "political inequality" in whatever country in the Middle East. Instead of being able to say "that's a good thing he's done, improving EVERYONE's life" you prefer sitting here and picking on the laborers who get a 100-times raise when they come here.
Just to add to that... There is not ONE person in this city or country who can say Sheikh Mohammed hasn't earned every penny he's spent. He is LOVED. There are few leaders in the world today who can truly say they are loved by almost all their people, and I'm proud to say he is one of them.
Sorry, but if I understood you correctly then that may be the worst piece of swill that you've ever posted here. I mean, you're defending them with 'generally speaking, governments are highly reluctant to try their own citizens in favor of a foreigner? And you mention a numebr of nations have empoyed laws (note: not all) to protect the foreign workers, but the foreign workers don't resort to them anyway because of the downside ... so, it's somehow ok?? I don't get it. * * * For others here, as reprehensible as this situiation may appear, before indicting Dubai over this one issue let's look at the treatment of impoverished hurricane victims in this country before rushing to judgement on another country.
You don't get it because, once again, you are reading way too much into what I actually said. I didn't say it's "OK", I am actually saying it's regrettable and I wish ALL laborers around the world received better treatment...be it in the sweatshops of Asia, the Asian laborers in the Gulf, or the Mexicans in America. That being said, lower wages isn't a crime, it's a market-dictated reality because -- believe it or not, and I know it's hard for you to imagine it as a privileged American citizen -- the vast majority of these people would rather be stuck in the situation they're in than go back home and be much worse off; it's all relative, regardless of how you feel. So as long as they continue to flock overseas looking for a better living, they will continue to be a very, very low-priority. So it's a regrettable situation, but I know that passing laws that make it illegal to withhold payments from these lowly laborers -- which the UAE did, if I am not mistaken -- will likely have little effect, mostly because many of these workers are employed by individual families, which is where most of the 'abuse' takes place; it's very difficult to police, it would be like trying to enforce laws designed to prevent you from hiring an illegal to paint your house/do landscaping. [/end of derailment]
All I did was grab the first image I found on google after typing in Houston. Do you feel better now?
Wow, it looks cool, but it's like a giant middle finger to poor people. Aren't there like a billion people in the world who have to subsist on $1.00 a day? Crazy.
