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?

People don’t see to give a fuck about the Sudanese. But what is happening to them is horrific. The footage I’ve seen is some of the worst, th torture and murder, and for what? Good? The UAE is being developed on their blood, but people don’t care because they can stay in fancy hotels or have cheap Philippine servants. It’s sickening.

I wouldn't put Majorca in the same bracket as Dubai for human rights abuse.
I agree locals in Spain generally do suffer from tourism.

Hmm..well pp could also go to somewhere in UK. Isle of Wight, as pp said.

Exactly, the UAE condone that. More than that, they're facilitating it.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/apr/14/leaked-un-experts-report-raises-fresh-concerns-over-uaes-role-in-sudan-war

Good point re servants too.

People talk about how good the quality of life is in Dubai, but ignore that that relies on low wages for migrant workforce

I heard that there is a pending court case against the UAE based on their involvement in it, but I don’t know more than that.

Weirdly, no one is talking about it. Palestine, Iran, Ukraine, lots of conversations. But so many are silent on Sudan. I think for some it’s so they can keep holidaying to Dubai and Abu Dhabi and not concern themselves with the atrocities their holidays are supporting.

Exactly.

Exactly.

I think also there's an issue with some Palestine protestors where they have a pan-Arab framework and the fact that Sudan's war is partly fuelled by Arab racism towards non-Arabs fits uneasily with that.

You're taking agency away from non-Westerners. UK & US policies have certainly had bad effects, but that doesn't mean they're tye only people reponsibls for Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan etc

In the case of Afghanistan, the Taliban restraints on women draw heavily on the pashtunwali tribal code. This is not due to West.

And pp mentioned India human rights abuses. Dalits and Muslims are not just abused in India due to West.

You're not helping other countries take responsibility if you just blame the West for everything.

@Carla786
I wouldn't put Majorca in the same bracket as Dubai for human rights abuse.
I agree locals in Spain generally do suffer from tourism.

I agree about Spain suffering from over-tourism and this is a problem in quite a few countries for the locals and in regard to damage to the environment.
A case could be made for avoiding these countries just as, for different reasons, many won’t visit Dubai.
Would you visit countries which are suffering from over-tourism?

Dubai was built very much in living memory on the stolen labour and deaths of slaves subject to horrific human rights abuses, the trampled human rights of many other people and a huge amount of ecocide. It reminds me of the capitol in The Hunger Games, built for hedonistic pleasure and fuck the costs to both humans and nature. It continues to be run on trafficked and enslaved labour. It's a fuck no from me.

How Dubai's Skyscrapers Are Built Upon Workers' Blood - Al-Estiklal Newspaper
The dark side of Dubai | The Independent | The Independent
The Real Human Cost Behind The Building And Maintenance Of Dubai
How Dubai's Skyscrapers Are Built Upon Workers' Blood - Al-Estiklal Newspaper
Modern slavery in Dubai: confronting realities in 2025
Dubai Expo 2020 offers conflicting figures on worker deaths | AP News

Problem is, most people who relocate to the UAE don’t care about this stuff. They want sun and shiny things and servants and they don’t care how they get it. Then they witter on about what an amazing tax haven it is about the UK is a horrible place.

I wonder how many will come crawling back after this.

The situation with child marriage in the US IS indeed disturbing.
Fraidy Reiss' Unchained At Last & others have done stellar work to end child marriage.

However, 4 states do still have no minimum marriage age , but still require either parental consent, court approval or both: California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. So theoretically, in these states a 15 or 14 year old or even younger could marry an adult, maybe one much older than them. Hopefully this is rare, but it is not right.

Now, let's check that quote . I suspect pp was referring to Republican Senator Mike Moon. He made a highly disturbing comment some time back :

The young man was 12; the girl was 11,” he said. “Their parents allowed them to marry. There was no forcing in the situation. But the parents wisely took the boy to their home, and the girls’ parents took her to their home.

“Eventually a child was born to the girl, and then years later, when they were able to support themselves and they were more mature, they were able to begin living together, and still living together today.”

What the hell? So a girl got pregnant at 11? Or what? Why on earth were they allowed to marry at 11 and 12?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-lawmaker-clarifies-remarks-letting-193729222.html?guccounter=1&gucereferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&gucereferrersig=AQAAAHxURGelBcJG6BisbNgcpnsu2Kabo4aNKyv-38fZL9vvWraiu6BsneV7uuiC0NJ52DdQeLljwRl3OlCFAumWa7Q-88amTWjGHFpk-kpwC92dJRcPd5Dxe8KKZgYSydBGS7xIwTxv1hzUz3sxNHrCGnEgPBhNReOGpxl5DxDVK

But in most of the US, this would not be legal. All states apart from the 4 I mentioned above have a minimum marriage age of at least 16. Mike Moon's comments were heavily criticised, thankfully.

I think it’s more the case that expats don’t know Emiratis intimately enough to know how much they’re immersed in their faith.

I would personally still visit Spain, for one, bit not a heavily visited area. I don't think over tourism, bad as it is, is on a par with criticism of the ruling family being illegal, no democracy, marital rape being legal, kafala system for migrants, deportation for various things (selling sex for one, meaning abuse of sex workers, including trafficked migrants, is very hard to report)

Gross. children aren't emotionally or physically developed enough to have children even with other children. And also children marrying children is a convenient cover for adult abusers anyway.

Yes, I thought from what I'd read that Emiratis themselves tend to be quite religious, hence the disconnect between the strict laws and Westernised expat population.

There are also several thousand U.K. military families and diplomats living in the ME. We were considering Bahrain or Oman for our next posting.

Exactly. I mean, in the case he was talking about, it sounds like an 12 yo gave birth? Why were 11yos having sex anyway? Unbelievable. 40 years ago would be 1983, hopefully wherever this happened it would be clamped down on now.
Minors under 16 can still marry in 4 states, which is worrying, but hopefully someone that young trying to marry would raise concerns.

It’s not the treatment of expats thats the danger. You’ve missed the point.

@Carla786 thank you for answering my question.

About your other point, was Mike Moon the Senator you were referring to when you said a US Senator had said 13 year olds can marry?

You do realise that Mike Moon is widely seen as a creepy fringe weirdo in the US?

And that it IS illegal for under-16s to marry in all but 4 states (Oklahoma, Cakifornia, Mississippi and New Mexico). That is still very bad, but you are incorrect to state that under-16s marrying is legal in most of the US.

Thank you!

That is my point, and every proxy and affiliate of Iran, all the militias and armed groups will now be lining up to close down the S of H to shipping.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/the-strait-of-hormuz-crisis-explained-what-it-means-for-global-shipping/ar-AA1XmiiY

No, that’s actually not what I said.

My book is: you don’t get to go to a country and say “how offensive are these laws when they’re not like my own?”. Instead, if you don’t like it, don’t go there. Don’t be a tourist. You want to protest and lobby from outside the country? Absolutely go for it. But don’t go be their guest and slag your host.

Wikipedia is not a legitimate source of history research 🙄 it’s a bunch of stuff made up by other people and put on the internet