Dubai/UAE - where did you think you were?

[WhyamIinahandcartandwherearewegoing]

I’ll preface this by saying I wish the best for anyone out there, working or holidaying. I hope you are and remain safe.

but do people go there with next to no concern for where in the world it’s located? Do they pay no attention to news or the general geopolitical situation, it’s hnot exactly a secret.

are we really that dense that most people don’t look past the bling, the weather, the tax perks, the bloody influencers?

😳

It wouldn't be my first choice of holiday. I burn easily and I don't like shopping. But, its winter sun which some people are craving by February/March. A holiday like that for me would be a big one because of the price/distance. Forgoing it would be forgoing that years holiday, possibly the biggest holiday for several years. So I can emphasise with people who took the risk.

People did not expect Dubai to have been targeted because there is no US base there. Of course Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia Bahrain and Kuwait have been targeted due to US bases there (although some tried to avoid this outcome by banning the military from using the base to attack Iran, but sadly this didn’t work… )

So when will you be going back, hmmmmmm?

What? Some people have talents other than being geopolitically aware, and not everyone is Brain of Britain.

@FloofBunny jesus Christ. If you can book a holiday you can use google.

Did the Government warn passengers and crew on BA flight 149 that Kuwait was about to be invaded and it shouldn’t land there, in 1990? Sometimes, warning civilians is not compatible with political, diplomatic, economic and/or military strategy. It really didn’t require anyone to be a genius to see the obvious risk in 2026.

Bit of a bummer for you though?

Trump promised No more foreign wars!

Yet like most of your Presidents, can't seem to stop themselves attacking countries 1000s of miles away but the weak USA cannot do anything for the Ukraine Russia war, a real threat to the West, whatever Putin has on your guy, its obviously big.

Of all the times to have a Dubai-bashing thread.

The Middle East obviously, in which case you have to be willing to pick up the obligatory AK47, jump on the back of the obligatory Toyota pick up, waste a clip of ammo firing at the sky and ride off in a cloud of dust to get stuck in.

Can't wait for the outraged demands of all the 'millionaires', who deserted the UK because Labour, demanding to be repatriated at the UK taxpayer expense.

Nope, fuck off. (Although sadly we will pay for them to come back as all the Russian/reform ltd bullshit rhetoric aside, the UK is a decent country that looks out for its citizens.)

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are popular holiday destinations for my part of Scotland in Easter or October holidays. Probably because many oil workers have lived or worked there at some point and know it well.

I have many friends who's husbands do rotations in the middle East. They know exactly where they are working but the pull is the pay. They receive extra especially the ones who work out of Iraq.

I wouldn't visit or even fly through but that was due to a personal bad experience.
However I find threads like this very bad taste and a smugness which seems to leak through.
There are many places you could add to the list Poland as its next to Ukraine? Malta as it has a large British military base? Finland as its next to Russia?!

Ah yes, but remember, this will end up being another war Trump will end up claiming to have ended, number 9 or are we on 10 now....

I can see how some people think Dubai is its own country. It's an emirate, after all, which some people might just think is another word for country. It's not a case of looking at a map. Obvs your neighbours knew they were in the ME.

I would not expect many people to be able to name all seven emirates.

Don’t be so ridiculous.

This isn’t about supposed white western superiority but about the lack of protection for basic women’s rights and how badly women are treated in certain countries, and obviously that includes Trump’s America where they overturned Roe v Wade. Prior to Trump, it was a civilised western country!

How many posters here join their voices to complain about the UK/Muslim grooming gangs but happily holiday in various Islamic countries where these cultural values are positively supported. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I wouldn’t go to Dubai or the UAE, ME etc. because I won’t support those types of regimes that treat women, girls and Asian foreign labour as cheap disposable commodities with zero rights.

The sweet, sweet well of superiority is just too tempting not to draw from, no matter how many people are stranded in a war zone!

It’s exactly the right time to try and get the less worldly posters to wake up and stop looking at Dubai as some sort of fun holiday destination and see it for what it really is!

As soon as the flights are reinstated. My MIL is on end of life care.

So, because you went for a walk and felt safe, it is a safe country? Umm, what?

I bet those tourists who wandered into a favella some years ago also felt quite safe until someone killed them to steal their walking boots.

You think EAE and the like is in ANY way comparable in terms of human rights to the UK?

You're delusional.

Well fuck it, he didn’t win his Nobel Peace Prize so he might as well start WW3. That’ll show ‘em!

He is completely deranged.

There is so much crap on this thread. I don’t know any influencers living in Dubai but I do know plenty of highly educated professionals who live there or have lived there at some point in their career. They have all paid far more tax in the UK than the average person has and many of them continued to pay tax whilst they were based in Dubai as they rented out their UK homes.

Dubai is hardly a place you go if you are one of the sharper knives in the box.

It's a bit like Hong Kong used to be. "FILTH = failed in London Try Hong Kong".

I agree. ‘Feeling’ safe is just a perception, and doesn’t have any bearing on the actual safety of a place. I have a Ukrainian friend who came to the UK and couldn’t believe how safe it was. So much so that she would happily walk alone at 11pm through streets and parks where the locals would be vigilant even during the day.

She felt safe because she was naive, just as most of us are when we’re experiencing a new place.

Europe is well capable of doing something about Ukraine, they are not so go whine at the EU or whatever.

And from America’s POV Russia and MENA are both far away …