Would you live in Dubai ?

[Lardlizard]

?

I've lived in the middle East and its not as bad as everyone is making out, yes it has its annoyances but doesn't everywhere? I enjoyed the money, the nice car the feeling of being a high earner, holidaying every school break.
But I missed being able to drink alcohol freely, the fear of being arrested for drinking too much, driving in a manner that annoyed the police, exiting the airport and worrying that something will come up and I can't leave, I missed things being sold at decent prices (l'oreal lipstick was about double the cost of uk, Oasis dresses almost twice the price) I missed being able to go for a pub lunch with my son. I missed being on the roads with other drivers that could actually drive properly, abd the cost of a, food shop was ridiculous. Its an experience and one day maybe I'd do it again. I say don't listen to all the haters as I expect many of them have never even set foot in the place.

In answer to the OP. Yes I would, In a heartbeat. Been many times and love it. Summer months very tough though.

Yes if I got paid enough.
I worked in Saudi Arabia for 2 years. There were a lot of restrictions and their attitude to Western women was horrendous but it was worth it to me. I earned £££'s and was able to buy a house when I got back to UK.

I've lived her for 14 years, so yes.

No, because of the Marnie Pearce case:
www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/mother-of-two-jailed-over-a-cup-of-tea/story-e6freopx-1225699420322?sv=2ee78224932d76a599e70c18a9122752

That told me all I needed to know. There was more press coverage at the time. Her husband had left her, a family friend went over to support her, husband used Dubai law and standards to get her jailed and deported meaning she could potentially never see her kids again. Hideous.

Be very careful about who you work for. I had a friend that went over as a graduate teaching kindergarten.

They wanted to take her passport and retained half of her wages for the first 6 months to see if she stayed.

She would have got her full salary at the end of the 6 months if she handed over her passport. She left after about 4 months, probably with less money she came went out with.

DH’s parents were trying to book a holiday for all of us to Dubai. Told DH there was not a snowflake’s chance in hell that I or DD would be going there.

I will not visit a country where there is a very real risk that they won’t let us leave for some arbitrary reason. I will not visit a country that thinks so little of women and people who are LGBTQ+. I will not give them money to support the slave labour.

No.

I think people who move there so so for shallow reasons - mainly the money side. I could never be comfortable living somewhere with such an awful track record for human rights just for my own personal gain.

I came on here as a firm ‘ no, don’t do it’ as I lived there myself a few years ago; then I read the thread and decided @Lardlizard, you really have to try things yourself ..
Yes Dubai, like many countries, has poor a human rights record; yes non-Emiratis are classed by colour and race, so it’s ‘better’ to be white Caucasian than a person of colour; but the thing you can gain is a broadening of your horizons and clarifying whats important to you. Personally I’d stay away from the drunk expat brunch crowd, but that’s me.

No.

I’m gay so it would be a very expensive way to kill myself.

I’m also not a fan of slavery or the way women are treated.

Makes me wonder how much people know about the British empire

Very fucking little if these threads are anything to go by.

Nope. Never. The general views and attitudes towards women there disgust me. Pretty sure that the book 'The War in Women' covered some horrific incidents in Dubai in great detail.

No? I wouldn’t even go for a holiday. I can’t think of anywhere less appealing really.

Fuck no.

No..I wouldn't visit either. Artificial and on very dodgy ethical grounds.

I have lived in the UAE for 27 years. It's been fun, interesting and wonderful.
It's nothing like the Daily Fail likes to portray it.
There are many people here who aren't chaps (to quote a PP). Emirates Airline employs 50,000 people. It's fair to say they are not 'chavs'. What an insult.
Many highly educated and successful people here.
Taking notice of small minded armchair warriors giving anyone advice is lunacy......especially if anyone bases their future on their 'knowledge'.
OP, if you are interested join the Facebook group 'Brits in Dubai' and if it pertains to you 'British Mums Dubai'.
You'll get a balanced answer to any queries there.

*chavs, not chaps

I don’t understand the British Empire point.

If you know all about the British Empire, why would you want to replicate it’s hierarchies ever again? Does a history of 200 years ago mean we can never have a view on anything? Does this apply to other issues?

Anyway, apart from anything else, I don’t want to live anywhere that relies on making a city out of a desert with huge implications for water and energy, heavy reliance on AirCon etc. I don’t go to Las Vegas for the same reasons. A vulgar, decadent use of the planet.

Dubai was a part of the British Empire 50 years ago. Not 200. If you all had lofty ideas about governance in 1971 you probably should have enforced it then.

No way in hell. I was once headhunted to work out there, excellent package etc, but no way in hell could I cope with living out there

Makes me wonder how much people know about the British empire
Very fucking little if these threads are anything to go by

I know a fair bit but I don't see the relevance. Are you suggesting that we shouldn't acknowledge Dubai's faults because British imperialism played a part in them? Or are we supposed to live there as some sort of penance?

Taking notice of small minded armchair warriors giving anyone advice is lunacy......especially if anyone bases their future on their 'knowledge'.

What would the morally-bankrupt 'I'm all right, Jack, 'cos I'm not paying income tax' UAE expats do without the 'armchair warrior' charge? They cling to it desperately, despite the fact that many critics of the UAE have lived there, perhaps because, like this wondrously self-revealing post from @BusterGonad, they literally have no capacity for actual thought, apart from the scandalous cost of L'Oeral lipstick and missing being able to drink 'freely':

But I missed being able to drink alcohol freely, the fear of being arrested for drinking too much, driving in a manner that annoyed the police, exiting the airport and worrying that something will come up and I can't leave, I missed things being sold at decent prices (l'oreal lipstick was about double the cost of uk, Oasis dresses almost twice the price) I missed being able to go for a pub lunch with my son. I missed being on the roads with other drivers that could actually drive properly, abd the cost of a, food shop was ridiculous. Its an experience and one day maybe I'd do it again. I say don't listen to all the haters as I expect many of them have never even set foot in the place.

That, in a nutshell, is your thought-process of a typical British expat in Dubai.

OP, if you are interested join the Facebook group 'Brits in Dubai' and if it pertains to you 'British Mums Dubai'. You'll get a balanced answer to any queries there

What you will get, if it's anything like Dubai Expat Woman was, is a lot of women frothing about schools, traffic and their livein maids ('I'd never have a Filipina again they all meet when they walk the dogs and give one another ideas'), boasting about how they dealt with their miscreant maid ('So I searched her suitcase and frogmarched her straight to the airport and cancelled her visa') etc.

It was quite entertaining, but 'balanced' is not the word I would use.

I wouldn't live in Dubai, no, or any of the UAE.

All countries are flawed and I know the UK has some appalling policies. I very much think that 99.99% of countries do.

However I wouldn't live in a country where homosexuality is illegal and where women's rights are officially, on paper and in law, less important than men's rights (and I do definitely struggle with the lip-service aspect to this in the UK). I also feel very uncomfortable with the death penalty and with reports of slavery (again, I know we have slavery here in the UK).

I have a list of countries I would not choose to visit or live in for various reasons, Dubai is just one of them. The USA is on that list right now as well.

Oh my @Canapes
How judgmental
And utterly ridiculous
I bet you'd be fun at brunch

I've thought about it as my job is easily transferable. I visited on holidays a few years back and I enjoyed it, although the treatment of Indian, Filipino and African workers doesn't sit right with me. Since then there's been a lot of negative ex pat stories and doesn't always seem like foreign governments can help. I don't think I'd risk it, especially with a family.