To not get why people hate Dubai so much?

[Cutitup]

What is there to hate?

I think it's a great place to have a holiday. Great restaurants, great service, fab shopping and spa treatments.

I do understand the problems of domestic and construction staff being exploited but this is not a problem unique to Dubai. I just don't get the vitriol, the 'it has no culture' etc.. I say get out of the bitter farm and play with the hay!

Of course one of the reasons the reports we read about poor conditions for labourers are several years' old is because there is no free press.

People slate Dubai because it is a very rich country which has no excuse for not doing better. And because, as it's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, we play our part in normalising this when we visit in our millions. Of course other countries have problems. But if I choose to visit a very poor country my money may actually do some good. Not the case in Dubai.

As far as I recall the mentions of Islam and sharia law came when talking about the woman being raped, where the opinion seemed to be overwhelmingly be that she should have known better

Trafficwarden, I know FGM isn't condoned in government hospitals, but it certainly takes place in private clinics. It's interesting that you didn't come across a single case, but it doesn't entirely surprise me, if you were working in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I started doing a bit of research when I lived there, working as a journalist, and my findings suggested it was primarily in the other, more rural emirates, and also that it was strongly tribal.

There was an article by an Emirati woman in a student magazine at the women's college at Al Qusais which was reprinted in The National last year, so is probably googlable. She surveyed 200 Emiratis and found over one third of female respondents had been cut.

I don't think there is anything at all 'fashionable' about criticising Dubai. It's a bit 'five minutes ago' if anything. And yes, things like banking regulation and business law are changing. What doesn't seem to change, however, is the blinkeredness of those benefiting from a corrupt system.

I don't live in the UK, and my dd's 2 best friends are Muslim. My anti-Dubai arguments don't come from a criticism of Islam. They come from a criticism of Dubai's human rights record. Built on the profits of trafficking/drugs/money laundering and a continuing reliance on exploitation and slavery of workers, whilst the rich live it up and pretend it is all lovely.

The point that you are missing whilst frothing at the mouth over 'victim blaming' is that these are the laws in an autonomous, sovereign state. It doesn't matter what what you or I think - they don't care.

But those laws are a pretty good reason not to like Dubai, which is what the OP asked.

No freedom to look up / watch what you want on the Internet (censorship)
No respect for women
Racism and locals are paid more and cannot be fired.
A huge motorway and some tower blocks and a few malls
NO solar power evident anywhere, but huge consumption of electricity / power.
Expats who get fired / made redundant and run up debts can be imprisoned.
Victim blaming in any case of rape or assault.
Huge problems of alcoholism amongst expats (bored, perhaps?)
Poor treatment of workers and limited employment rights, even for the Westernerswho flock there, never mind the Asians who are treated like animals.
Men there on "single postings" with a wife and children elsewhere who see the place as somewhere to get a shag and that any single woman in a bar is fair game.
Oh, and it is full of the worst types of holiday makers - orange tanned, braying and consuming everything in sight.

And I have been twice, and my sister lives there. Never again......

I love dubai. but it 'grew' on me. I avoid the malls like the plague and instead frequent parks and the very clean, safe and family friendly beaches.

What I love is the women's only beaches and women's only beach cubs/ water park nights. That swings it for me.

can I just say in my time in Dubai ( and couldn't live there but long visit) me and teen dds felt a lot safer and had a lot more respect there than in London.

just my experience.

no the UK is not pro islam or pro arab

strangely dubai is not pro islam either though it is an islamic country as islam believes that wealth should be shared and of good treatment of people that work for you. i know many arabs who are dislike dubai for the same reasons many do on here

It's racist aswell as sexist & other things. I was continuously asked to leave my bag & passport with the security guards when out shopping. When asked the reason; the arab security guard said it was because I was asian. The white shoppers where not requested to do this.

When out for a meal, it was the same experience all over again. I was at a well known american coffee chain, when I went to sit at a table seat the waitress came & moved me. When I asked why (as I didnt see any reserved signs) she said the window seats were rederved for international visitors. I said that I was a British visitor, she smiled and said "but you are not white". They are openly racist towards none white tourists.

OP here - I've just returned to this thread after being on it last evening. What a lot of comments!

For people who don't like Dubai because of worker exploitation, I ask: do you own an i-phone? Do you shop on the high street? Would you acknowledge that most of your goods come from the East where workers are horrendously exploited and often slave in factories far from home for next to nothing? Where suicide nets exist in factories? All for clothes on our high street.

For people who don't like Dubai because of the 'braying expats'. Do you not feel embarrassed to go to Spain/Prague/Portugal/ A.N-other/and see the shameful sight of British tourists who won't deign to learn a word of the local language and who drink so much that they fill the town centres with their awful hen and stag parties, partially dressed and showing off dreadful tattoos, and who puke and piss on the streets?

For the people who think Dubai is culture-less. Do you leave your resort in the Maldives or Jamaica to explore the country outside of your all-expenses resort? (yes, of course some of you do - pls don't answer that question!)

Dubai was not built on slavery. It was built as a trading route. As with most trading routes and, for example, gold rush towns, it attracted workers who were keen to make a profit/living.

So, I ask very sincerely to all you eco and conscientious shoppers and tourists, where can you reasonably go on a nice holiday and assuage your guilt at the same time?

That's interesting raisah - I wonder if those who are saying they absolutely love the place are White (?)

Scotland? That's where I go on my nice holidays and assuage my "guilt". If I want to travel further afield, I try England. I also go abroad but would not choose Dubai, or many other countries, as places to spend my hard earned money.

Sorry, Dubai was built onnthe proceeds of crime and worker exploitation. Most of the other points have been covered above.

People going on holiday and behaving atrociously is the fault of no one, or at least the repressed UK culture.

So, I ask very sincerely to all you eco and conscientious shoppers and tourists, where can you reasonably go on a nice holiday and assuage your guilt at the same time?

I like Wales.

"Dubai was not built on Slavery" - so targeting the poorest of migrants, promising good wages, removing passports upon entry and paying a fraction of the promised wage thus rendering them unable to reclaim their passports and becoming stuck, working for the employer, in Dubai, with no way of getting out, is not slavery?

No rights at all to even a basic standard of living for migrant workers forced to stay.

It is fucking disgusting and honestly I think your 'oh but you all buy from primark' argument is just you trying to assuage your own guilt.

Dubai, where a hundred thousand slaves pour sand into the sea.

I like to go to France personally. I know they have proper rules re wages and working hours there. Went to Cuba once. That was hard. Understanding that taxi drivers can earn more than doctors as they get access to dollars. Giving toiletries and hair bobbles etc to bar staff and room service. Made me sad.

Cornwall's very nice.

Places with no death penalty - rules out the US.

Fairy, I said Dubai, historically, was not built on slavery. That has nothing to do with what it became.

The fact is that a lot of labourers have great jobs there. They often live in labour camps with up to 12 nationalities, each one catered for in their choice of meals. They often have cricket pitches and volleyball courts. They have recreation rooms which show films from their home countries. They have clubs, music groups, religious meetings, the internet and access to comfort, water, A/C, and decent living quarters.

That is a fact for a large number of forward thinking labour camps in Dubai. Let's not forget that Dubai is a young country and growing at a huge rate. The best thing we can do is to encourage this humanitarian approach to providing labourers with good living conditions.

A large number of British expat women in Dubai do an enormous amount for charity and help with labourers who need assistance.

The labourers wouldn't go there if it wasn't a better option.

Think it can be good to travel to a lot of places - even places with a lot of poverty and human rights issues, I probably will visit Dubai one day, might even really like it - doesn't mean you can't acknowledge the not so nice sides.