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!

Sorry again. I could explain the reasons that I think poole is not a bad place but really that's another thread.

Beachcomber how about you Google every place you've ever been to or would like to visit and see what you can find, then see just how slippery your soap box becomes?

Your constant links to anti dubai propoganda are getting a bit tedious now.

Anyone can find pretty much anything on the Internet- that doesn't mean it is a balanced view and it doesn't mean everyone should boycott a particular place at all costs- each to their own.

If you take a tiny trip out of Dubai with your camping gear, you will find the most gorgeous places to pitch a tent and watch the sunset on the red sands and be mesmerised by it. It's not all about the bling, you know.

Go to Safa Park and see all the housemaids and their friends picnicking on the grass and it's quite lovely.

Can I please also add that the use of the word SLAVERY is quite wrong. These workers get paid a lot more than they would at home and they are not enslaved by Dubai. If anything, they are enslaved by the contracts that are imposed upon them by their own countrymen who send them there. These MIDDLE MEN are the ones who should be censured.

Torture - um... Guantanamo

Intelligence service abuse - um... Extraordinary Rendition (which, shhh I think we might have participated in)

And er um, try googling the abuses in Northern Ireland by British Intelligence

BTW you might not like suspect Arab regimes, but the UK Govt was perfectly happy to send suspects out to be tortured by them. Go on. try googling that

Beachcomber - don't want to give you a heart attack but I've holidayed in Israel, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and China to name a few.

Going to hell in a hand cart - yup, that's me!

Hey Bearbehind.

You know I think I'm just a curious kind of person and I like information and talking about stuff.

I might just do that - check out every place I've been to. I think I have a reasonable idea of most of them but no doubt there will be some surprises.

I didn't realise that Amnesty International was considered to diffuse propaganda - that's a new one to me.

Sorry if the links are tedious for you but I honestly had a much freer impression of the UAE than that and was surprised and thought I would say so.

And Beachcomber, it's the weekend - surely even you can take some time off from saving the world to have a glass of wine or two...

Checking out information and being informed is fine and really quite honourable, but trying to impose your opinions on those findings on everyone else is something else entirely.

As a Scot, will you be voting on devolution, even though it won't affect you as you don't live there? Somehow I get the impression that if you can, you will?

Meant to ask portofino how did your Facebook friend take it when you told her your feelings about the Middle East..........?

Bear
Only residents of Scotland allowed to vote in referendum.

In know, that's why I said if beachcomber could, I thought she would, as I don't know what her residency status is.

Please excuse the random 'n' in that post!

Sorry, of course... read too fast. Making a risotto with laptop in from of me

starwarslegoboy. Yes, I hear you on such appalling events as Guantanamo. Terrible and fucking unacceptable and to be condemned and spoken out against. Agree with abuses in Northern Ireland of British Intelligence too - same goes. Hence my cynicism of 'democracy' (I use scare quotes cos I'm cynical WRT the extent of democracy even in most free countries). And that cynicism goes twice over for dictatorships.

I'm just not sure of the point you are trying to make with your post though.

I am me with my moral compass and own personal ethics and code of conduct. I'm also a product of my society and in many ways that basically makes me a cunt (that word again!) because I have white privilege and western privilege and have a British passport in my grubby little hands (thanks Theodora for a wee lightbulb moment on that), and because I have a portable phone which I know has an inhumane history behind it.

I just think we have to all draw the line somewhere. Where we are able to, is a personal thing, and also a political thing - even though we aren't encouraged to think politicly, us westerners, with our material comfort and i'm alright jackism.

I don't think for a minute that I'm not a hypocrite and that I don't benefit from being white and holding the 'top trump' of passports (theodora lightbulb moment again). I just try to draw the line the best I can WRT the ravages of capitalism/money. And I know that it is a line that makes me a cunt (to use the vernacular of this thread!) - but god forbid that I step over it.

So hey! There you go - a wee bit of personal from Beach. I'm ok with being attacked on it, have been on MN long enough to not take much personally, wouldn't be here otherwise. I think if you post on serious controversial human rights issues you should expect a little heat....

Non-sarcastic .

If I tried to cook with a laptop in front of me it would be carnage!

" I said the 2013 figures put Qatar at the top of the world GDP rankings. I await your googling to tell me I'm wrong again"

This is the 3rd time I'm telling you this: There are no 2013 figures, because 2013 isn't over yet. You are not only wrong, but also a bit slow

USA is at the top of "world GDP rankings". Qatar is 53st. See World Bank figures

When looking at where people are richest, we consider GDP per capita figures, not . And in those, Principality of Monaco is #1 and Qatar is #5. Again, check World Bank figures.

ODFO cote

surely even you can take some time off from saving the world to have a glass of wine or two...

I live in France. Hence - am enjoying locally produced organic wine made by a mate as is fitting for Guardian readers, etc.

Can't vote in referendum as have been non resident for too long (I think). Will check though and vote if I can.

So glad you added it was Organic, I would have been dismayed to find otherwise. Enjoy your tipple!

i'M sure Wee Eck would enjoy your support.

Bear - You are not very good with keeping civil, are you?

Almost as bad as you are with facts and figures. And admitting you were wrong

It isn't actually proper organic (as in has a label). More like bootleg.

Poppydoppy you may well have given up on this thread by now (and I wouldn't blame you), but I'm intrigued by this post of yours.

poppydoppy Fri 27-Sep-13 17:06:38
Theo, do you know why the Qatari's have been on a world wide shopping spree ?

No pressure if you don't want to reply.

Ah my dad used to make his own Elderberry wine. Spent many an afternoon picking bleeding elderberries but was too young to drink it (which is no doubt a good thing as it was probably vile).

Beach
I think you will find I was pretty accomodating to your point of view upthread. I stopped reading for a few days, as I needed to do some work. And came back to all manner of snidey references to things I had written and 'research', asking everyone to justify themselves for daring to go to a country which did The Bad Things... Honestly, no offence, but keep your Google Eureka moments to yourself for a bit more than two minutes and digest the facts a bit.

My point is and has always been that there are so many Bad Things going on, it's almost impoosible to keep up with it. I have never defended Dubai in the Bad Thing but does that mean I have to stay at home and do my knitting?

I lived there. I did the best I could to those I met within my power. I am a reasonably ethical person. but I do acknowledge the limits of my reach. I object to being challenged when the solution appears to be just not to go, with no other solution. That's just laziness in my view. You are of course, perfectly entitled to feel differently and I would debate it with you, But is you lecture me, well, somehow that brings a reaction.

All the best to you

You are really pissing me off now cote.

I am quite happy to admit I am wrong, as I did a page or so ago.

You are getting increasingly boring now with your patronising comments.

I do still maintain that previous years data is irrelevant. It's like saying that a football club who won the league last year they are still top of the league, even though, after two thirds of the season this year, they have been relegated.

Statistics can be interpreted in a multitude of ways and there are many definitions of things like 'the richest country'

Please tell me what qualifies you to decree that your interpretation is correct? Actually scrub that because I really, really don't give a shit.

If you get your kicks out of trying to make out people are inferior to you then you fill your boots.