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Dubai a Miracle?? REALLY?

Reader comment on item: The Dubai Miracle Has Become Real
in response to reader comment: Dubai follows an Asian model, but not that of Taiwan and Singapore

Submitted by Peter Hall (Australia), Jan 19, 2018 at 08:04

I too have visited Dubai on a regular basis, and get the opposite impression. I feel Dubai will be a great Archaeological dig site in about 50 years.

Dubai talks itself up, but if you stay there for any period of time you see how truly messed up the place really is. It is the little things, well designed buildings using the best materials, but assembled by unqualified Bangladeshi and Indian slave workers, means even the new buildings are falling apart before they are finished. I am yet to encounter a Hotel where the plumbing or air-con is not constantly having to be fixed, or bits of buildings are falling off or cracking.

The food is expensive and poor quality, the shopping malls are manned by the same Lebanese and Filipino shop keepers selling the same goods as in Sydney, London or Chicago malls. The only difference is the local very effeminate Emirati guys walking around in their white nighties and red tea towels intently chatting on their mobiles, wandering pointless from one side of the mall to the other. It is virtually impossible to find a local who actually does anything.

The Dubai reminds me of being 50% a large brothel for the naughty neighbours who live next door but don't want to be seen play in their own neighbourhood, and 50% a pit stop for the tourists just passing by.

It doesn't really do anything well, it just happens to be in a certain spot, performing a certain role, that may stop at any time without warning. As soon as the oil runs out, the place will be empty within a week.

As soon as the Arab Neighbours no longer have the cash to fly into Dubai on Thursday night, to meet their Iraqi and Russian Hookers, for a few days of drinking and whoring, the place will fold.

All the guest workers will go home, and within a generations the Locals will be back living in reed huts and working a hustle over camels, or the price of dates.

I see a lot of wasted money, wasted by a few to impress the many, but there is no real thought or planning beyond the immediate deal, beyond the current scam.

Its not the lack of freedoms for many or the laws at issue, it is the very nature of the place, it has no soul.

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Reader comments (13) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Does Dubai manufacture anything or is it just a consumer of Western/Asian goods and servies? [216 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
AnkaraDec 20, 2017 08:44241627
1Dubai follows an Asian model, but not that of Taiwan and Singapore [273 words]Michael SDec 10, 2017 02:51241516
2Dubai a Miracle?? REALLY? [398 words]Peter HallJan 19, 2018 08:04241516
"No Soul" [127 words]Michael SJan 19, 2018 20:44241516
2Is Dubai a miracle? [144 words]dhimmi no moreJan 20, 2018 07:24241516
Torch Tower [8 words]Michael SJan 24, 2018 04:00241516
1For Michael S: The torch tower, Ibn Khaldun, and the Arabs! [102 words]dhimmi no moreJan 30, 2018 08:50241516
2Dubai: fragile? [170 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
johnDec 9, 2017 23:39241513
1The litmus test for all nations including Dubai. [93 words]PrashantJan 20, 2018 16:02241513
Sounds wonderful; especially for it's citizens, but.... [30 words]Michael RosenbergDec 8, 2017 12:41241501
2Oil's Curse. [34 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Ethan PerksDec 8, 2017 09:18241497
1Bannonism Under Trump [851 words]RobertDec 8, 2017 04:58241493
Premature comparison [59 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
CARLOS DESOUZADec 7, 2017 21:19241491

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