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!

Ah well I'm not a saint though and never claimed to be. Hat off to Saint Beach.

Right off to clean several loos now as I no longer have someone to do it for me, alas how the mighty have fallen!

If the motivation was to help these women then just give them the money and let them stay with their families whilst campaigning against the UAE employment laws. Or join a micro lending organisation and help women set up business in their own countries. Or go to the countries they are from and volunteer or set up a local business with a local partner employing people locally.

You will find that actually a lot of expats in the ex colonies do exactly just that.
That's one poster said just above. The same one that eloquently said that most people back home do very little in their own community.

Well then that isn't who I'm talking about is it?

I don't assume all expats behave the same way - indeed I posted earlier about a member of my DH's family who is an expat and who employs a person locally under normal circumstances and not 'sponsorship'.

Good on you, unless i wrongly read that as self justification?

It is heartening to hear that Beach's family members are ethical expats when they employ maids, not like all those other shallow nasty ones, no siree!

Right someone tell me to fuck off and clean my loos - have a very anally tidy family member coming to visit this weekend.

Anyway...............................................

my objection to Dubai is simple. It's an ugly, soulless dump in the desert (in my humble opinion).

Grovel, it is that too.

And I genuinely never get why some people get so excited about the restaurants. The local produce is almost non-existent because of the climate, so everything is shipped in from distant countries, and is shrivelled and knackered by the time it gets to your plate. The top-end restaurants air-freight in their produce daily, so the whole thing is an air miles nightmare, as well as being an exercise in 'top chef brand name' distance-directed cynicism.

My sense is that the chefs who lend their names to these ventures can afford to not give a shit, because eating out in Dubai is more about bling than good food. The Al Mantaha restaurant at the Burj al Arab has a floor to ceiling aquarium in the middle, you are 'piloted' down to it in a fake submarine, and the first twenty pages of the menu are caviar.

Tea the rest of the menu is frozen fish.... Even the fresh seafood platter.

Grovel - stop being sensible and actually sticking to the point - no fun!

tea - see, you are really selling it to me now with the submarine an all. Off to look at flights...

Sorry.

The food is much better and exploitatively cheap on the beach in vietnam next to our capitalist tourist venture hotel

I have to say it was hilarious, and one of the oddest experiences I have ever had. Master, I believe you, though I'm vegetarian, and all I can remember is an underseasoned risotto with gold flakes in it, and a price tag high enough to make even our host, an insanely rich colleague of my DH's, blanch.

The other thing I remember is that our host's teenage girlfriend believed that we had in fact, been transported to our table by a real submarine, piloted by a girl in a cheongsam and heels.

Mango its ok, they paint the right picture.

So funny, Tea same sort of experience here.

BlingBang why the sneering about my DH's family member?

I have never said on this thread that I have issues with expats in general. Nor with people employing domestic workers be they expats or not.

My issue is with the conditions of workers in Dubai (and I would extent that to other areas of the world that use the sponsorship system).

Are you just going to sneer at me for knowing 'ethical expats' or are you going to sneer at all those on this thread who also employ people under decent employment law and conditions and think that is a normal humane way to act?

I am not accusing everyone who is an expat or everyone who employs a domestic worker of anything at all. I am taking issue with the system in Dubai and the people who perpetuate it and actively use it. The system has been condemned by various human rights organisations, journalists, the ILO, etc. Do you sneer at them too?

I'm sneering at you Beach, not your husbands family member (why do I have a vision of a penis in my head now). And only because of the amount of sneering, insults and criticism you have heaped on others on this thread no matter how much you try and deny it and act all hurt and offended. Is it time to give me another yet?

Read Expatwoman.com

It will put you off ever going to Dubai

FellatioNelson, thanks for clearing that up. I was talking about all the sponsorship aspects of live in domestic staff, not just the leaving of the country, in the post that you quoted. Hence my shock at your comparison - it seemed terribly dismissive of the situation of 'maids' who live in their sponsor's home. The fact that an employee's place of work is also where they live and that they live with their employer/sponsor was what I was talking about when I said that it created a situation of vulnerable dependence that is open to abuse.

Would an employer such as the one who employs your DH generally only allow an employee to leave the country or go on holiday once a year? Are the rules/agreements the same for all levels of seniority? Do the employers hold passports?

I ask because I was under the impression that domestic staff are exempt from UAE Labour Law and that appears to be to be a significant difference in the working conditions and rights of domestic staff and bankers for example.

I lived in this hellhole for 6 years. The expat women are a breed of their own, they get off the plane Mrs Smith from (fill in the gap) and change into Mrs Smyth-Jones within a matter of weeks. They slag off the UK yet they are only guests in Dubai, they have 3 weeks to leave of get another job if theyre sacked. Dont get me started on how the poor maids are treated. The ones that say she is like a member of the family are usually the worst.

The double standards are shocking, it really is not what you know, but who you know that matters there.

The houses are built with such bad quality and designed by a blind person.

I had food poisoning almost every time I ate out (5* HOTELS)

You pay for education there but the top schools are worse than sink comps

There are hookers in every bar,club, corner

The men are disgusting and leer at every woman that walks past.

I could go on and on