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's all the filler and dreams of driving a Lambborghini addling some people's brains, isnt it?

Going Dubai, innit? Somehow this is now aspirational.

The desert is stunning, especially at night if you camp. A magical landscape. Also the mangroves which have been carefully restored in Abu Dhabi are a fascinating miniworld which you can visit either on kayaks or by using the network of wooden pontoon walkways.

I went a few years ago, and while I like to think my geography/current affairs knowledge is pretty good, it never occurred to me that Dubai’s proximity to Iran would put it in danger of retaliatory missile strikes

When my family was preparing to go, we were thinking about things like dressing modestly but appropriately for the weather, our health, being respectful of Islamic culture and taking advice about what/what not to do while there. Much like other ordinary people who go to the Emirates on holiday. We weren’t thinking for one second about the Americans starting a war with Iran and the UAE getting caught in the middle. I don’t think anyone predicted the Iranian response, attacks like that on Dubai are unprecedented, and to my knowledge there were no travel warnings issued by the UK government, so how would people have known?

Well there were some threads recently where people proudly said they don’t read books, don’t watch TV, and don’t follow any politics. I imagine they’d have no idea about the region and why proximity to Iran is risky.

that said, I studied international relations so I always knew that Dubai’s main problem is its location.

it USED to be a place you are super well paid and have no taxes to compensate for precisely that fact that it’s in unstable region and not as developed. Not as developed part has sort of gone away (unless we are talking about culture). So everyone seems to have forgotten about the first part 🤷‍♀️

Plus, Trump is nuts and no one could have predicted that he’d start a war with Iran out of the blue. Usually there are some signs and months of build up.

It seems you will need to add Cyprus to that list now too then…!

Which I don’t think anyone would have previously been avoiding due to proximity to Iran.

No it isn’t. You have zero clue.

Oh be fair.

they may not get signal or paper deliveries under the rock..

I've visited Cyprus four or five times as a child. You do realise that the army bases there were used during the conflict with Gaza? It was threatened many times during that so called war.

So yes, I would find it hard to sit there and pretend like nothing was happening and enjoy the beauty of the place when so close by atrocities were happening.

Sorry you find rape, violence and the second class citizens status of women boring.
It certainly is not rhetoric, it’s a fact of life for many women living in oppressive cultures where being a woman is definitely not safe.

We visited Cyprus for a family friend's wedding when I was in my late teens; I remember being in an all inclusive hotel where people were wasting plates full of food, and water was only available in bottles, and being distinctly aware that a few hundreds of miles away there was a conflict in Syria where people were starving.

This sounds ridiculous and it's not that I'm some very righteous person but it did have an effect on me. After that holiday I began regularly donating far more to charities supporting children affected by war in an attempt to alleviate my guilt, even though I know that's not really changing anything!

I think this says more about you than me

Where to even start. There is a huge difference. Rape needs to be recognised as a crime first.

You didn't say because of the bases though. You said because Gaza is 350 miles away.

ETA: Also not sure which Gazan conflict you're talking about now.

But you wouldn't go to Cyprus last year because Gaza's 350 miles away, and because there are bases there which were used in a previous Gaza conflict, is what I'm getting. I can understand not going now, obviously. But you stance last year seems unnecessarily rigid.

Would you go to the Greek island of Rhodes? It's 410 miles by sea from Gaza, and just under 500 by air. How far is far enough?

And the flora, fauna and particularly the birdlife is wonderful. Don’t write off the beauty of the desert.

Lots has changed recently in these comparatively new countries. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to update legislation with regards to the treatment of workers who have a much more solid legal framework to offer them protections. Of course it will take time - it was really a very short time ago that the Emirates were small Arabic towns and nomadic communities. The UK has had thousands of years of immigration and diversity and we still can’t always cope with different communities living together.

There is also a big drive to preserve the fascinating history of the area with the recent completion of another beautiful national museum. There is a great deal of work done to care for turtles, birds of prey and other victims of rapid development.

Of course there’s a long way to go but which countries can honestly say they have got it all perfectly right now?

Don’t write off the Emirates where many close and loving Arabic families are learning to change rapidly without losing what is great about their traditional cultures as well as the me y people from all over the world who live and work there.

There are horror stories about many parts of the world and here in the UK we have our own to sort out too. Lots of countries have ancient draconian laws which are an embarrassment (and often bypassed) that will hopefully change as they develop. It’s not right but it’s not the sum of a place.

I very much hope everyone, Arabic and more newly arrived populations stay safe and that this conflict is short lived. It must be very frightening for everyone.

really?

There were very strong signs. The armada build up for one.

Ehm. I’ve good news for you. The Northern Ireland conflict is over

This thread is full of people like that. It's quite horrible.

Basically as they are OK and feel safe, they have no problem with the oppression, lack of rights, lack of legal recourse, ability of the authorities to enforce laws etc. And the rampant misogyny.

Maybe that's the only way to live there? Ignore the horror as it only affects somebody else?

Think she meant ...close to Iran and Iran just bombed it....but left the last bit off because it was obvious?

Both are true. It would feel inhuman for me to sit in and all inclusive knowing that so close by those awful things were happening. It would be way too close for comfort for me and would have felt immoral.

Can you expand on this please. I’m interested as a resident of the Gulf for almost 50 years and you’ve surprised me.

There is a lot of snobbery around Dubai.

People travel to unstable parts of the world all the time, but the difference with Dubai is that there seems like almost a willful ignorance around what the region is actually like.

Certain kinds of people like Dubai for a holiday or to live and they are not my kind of people, but that doesn’t mean that they are any more reckless than me visiting India lots or even say Poland just after war in ukraine broke out . The world is unstable

There is still conflict and riots, mainly due to immigration.
Acrually, I am now adding pretty much the entire world to the list including the uk!

If you use army base criteria or any other military help to Israel you wouldn’t be able to visit half of Europe. You’d actually need to move out of the UK. Do be serious.

I agree, he’s highly unpredictable - a few weeks ago we were worried about Trump invading Greenland, then he backed off, but he also bombed Venezuela/kidnapped Maduro which most people didn’t see coming. I also agree that we’d expect more build-up. We knew that the 2003 War in Iraq was coming well in advance because it was debated in Congress, resolutions were brought to the UN, allies were sought and a coalition built etc.