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Dubai, a Broke and Morally Bankrupt Mirage

Yes, it has Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and Gucci styles, but underneath is a dictatorship built by slaves.

By Johann Hari, 2 Dec 2009, AlterNet.org

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Dubai is finally financially bankrupt -- but it has been morally bankrupt all along. The idea that Dubai is an oasis of freedom on the Arabian Peninsula is one of the great lies of our time. Yes, it has Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts and Gucci styles -- but beneath these accouterments, there is a dictatorship built by slaves.

If you go there with your eyes open -- as I did earlier this year -- the truth is hidden in plain view. The tour books and the bragging Emiratis will tell you the city was built by Sheikh Mohammed, the country's hereditary ruler.

It is untrue. The people who really built the city can be seen in long chain-gangs by the side of the road, or toiling all day at the top of the tallest buildings in the world, in heat that Westerners are told not to stay in for more than ten minutes. They were conned into coming, and trapped into staying.

Beaten for trying to strike

In their home country -- Bangladesh or the Philippines or India -- these workers are told they can earn a fortune in Dubai if they pay a large upfront fee. When they arrive, their passports are taken from them, and they are told their wages are a tenth of the rate they were promised. They end up working in extremely dangerous conditions for years, just to pay back their initial debt. They are ringed-off in filthy tent cities outside Dubai, where they sleep in weeping heat next to open sewage. They have no way to go home. And if they try to strike for better conditions, they are beaten by the police.

I met so many men in this position that I stopped counting -- just as the embassies were told to stop counting how many workers die in these conditions after they figured it topped more than 1,000 among Indians alone.

Human Rights Watch calls this system "slavery." Yet the Westerners who flock to Dubai brag that they "love" the city, because they don't have to pay any taxes, and they have domestic slaves to do all the hard work. They train themselves not to see the pain.

Artificial bubble

But Dubai's bankruptcy does not end there. It is an ecological bust. This is a city built in the burning desert, where everything shrivels up and blows away if it is not kept artificially cold all the time. That's why it has the highest per capita carbon emissions on earth -- about 250 percent higher than even America's. The city has to ship in desalinated water, which is more costly than oil. When it runs out of cash, it will run out of water.

Today Dubai will be bailed out by the United Arab Emirates, the oil-rich country of which it is only one state. But the oil will not last forever. More importantly, there is no Bank of Morality that could provide a bailout for this sinister mirage in the desert.  [Tyee]

12  Comments:

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  • Jeffrey J.

    2 years ago

    Poster Child for a Sick World

    What a concise description of a perfect 'poster child' for a sick, sick world. Monopoly capitalism has stretched its perverse values around the world, running rampant without check. The chickens are coming home to roost, faster than anyone could have predicted. But sadly, many, many innocent people will suffer.

    A compelling article.

  • ME2

    2 years ago

    house of cards

    Dubai has made the brag that it will be the financial capital of the world, and that is what will sustain it.

    That should tell you something.

  • Urbanismo

    2 years ago

    Ummmm UAE . . . the slave state.

    Planners: arrogant, deluded . . .

    Was it not just a few months ago Big Larry was off brown nosing the Caliph of Abu Dhabi?

    He has yet to answer for the destruction at FCN etc . . . he cannot shut his mouth . . . the gall!

    And was it not he who encouraged an exodus of all those hot-shot city bureaucrats to decamp to . . . errrrr . . . that urban jewel in the sand?

    So what now?

    Will the hot-shot ex-pats flock home expecting their old warm seats to be awaiting? Sorry folks the cupboard is bare here too . . .

    Huh what a repugnant bunch!

  • Van Isle

    2 years ago

    Just another example that

    Just another example that shows that the psychopaths are in charge of the monetary insane asylum.

  • Jerry Munro

    2 years ago

    Dubai, The Real Sick Face of Global Capitalism...

    The "more money and power than brains" love child of the global ruling class of The New, actually very old, Capitalism-, in its sick and terminal stage of development.

    It's what's coming to a neighbourhood near you, including your low wage enslavement (just read DavidN in other threads here), if folks allow it, and don't move to rise and crush it.

    "The Masses" don't only get the kind of political governance they deserve, but also the kind of economy.

    And capitalism is sick, everywhere throughout its domain, and about to eat its own wage slave/consumers..

  • KWD

    2 years ago

    acts of desperation

    Forget Dubai, the city of Vancouver, one of the “wealth” capitals of the world, is going broke. In order to bolster city coffers the mayor’s grand scheme is to raise the price and extend enforcement time at its parking meters. Probably a good idea from an environmental point of view, but inexpensive, efficient, alternate commuter systems are lacking. Make it too costly and consumers will stay away in droves. Will the business core survive? Business and personal bankruptcy rates are already skyrocketing. Gregor Robertson could do with some help from the United Arab Emirates.

  • grahamlen

    2 years ago

    "decadant"

    I would just like to say how very sad but true this article is, but what does one expect from a country that has built a complete indoor ski hill in one of the hottest places in that area I believe, how much more decadent can we become. while 90% of the whole world is having a very hard time to survive.

  • Crescent

    2 years ago

    Dubai vs Vancouver Olympic Village, or the Olympics Itself

    Olympic Village cost $1.2 Billion, even if they sell 750 condos for $1 million each - then tax payers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of $$$$$$'s. The Olympics took a $150 million public asset (the land) and converted it into $400 - $600 million in public debt; WOW - cool trick. As for heavy handed tactics - draw your own parallel.

  • jwstewart

    2 years ago

    How dare you disrespect any

    How dare you disrespect any country that has a Hockey league.

    http://www.dubaimightycamels.com/

  • rac

    2 years ago

    KWD, I guess you may have

    KWD, I guess you may have missed the opening of the Canada Line. Plus, the city is continuing to improve cycling routes to downtown. Lastly, commuters don't even use the parking meters, they use parkades. It is cheaper and easier than putting quarters in the meter every hour.

  • freebear

    2 years ago

    Do Buy.....

    a house/condo in the desert while we import everything to serve you until the money runs out!

  • lynn

    2 years ago

    Do Buy....or Not To Buy

    That is the question.

    Everywhere.

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