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!

OP, YADBU. The people who do not like Dubai have given plentiful and adequate reasons for their dislike of Dubai. If you do not get why people hate Dubai so much it is because of your own refusal to accept that other people have differing opinions to yours and that is very unreasonable.

Sadly, suicide is increasing the world over, how can you point the finger at Dubai alone????

Um, because the OP is talking about Dubai.

abayababe please don't tell me to wind my neck in. I'm contributing to a debate. I'll say what I like, thanks.

Anywhere that jails a woman for being a rape victim y'know just might attract my criticism....

As someone succintly posted about - the place is BUILT on slavery.

What's all this "hypocrite" stuff? Do two wrongs make a right now? Doesn't "how easy it is to avoid condoning [activity]?" count in the moral equation?

Besides, I always try to buy second hand, and when new, fair-trade, and I use my Good Shopping Guide (produced by these people www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides.aspx ) to identify the best supplier for any new purchases.

Now do I get to tell you that willingly, knowingly choosing to support slavery and human rights abuses over going to Butlins is wrong? Eh?

They may or may not be telling the truth freudian although I find it hard to believe they would make up the bit about Skyping their families most days.

My point, and the point of this thread, is why are you beyond reproach for holidaying in Sri-Lanka and I'm frowned upon for holidaying in Dubai?

theas18 as I understand it the woman was jailed for being drunk, not for being raped.

OP, I went to Dubai in 2001 and DH and I were actually quite unnerved by how shiny, soulless and empty it was THEN, so God knows what it's like now if you think it's got worse...

I don't like shopping and I don't do spa treatments, we only went there because it was an airmiles freebie. Would never, ever go back. Sure, the restaurants were amazing, but it was too damn hot to step outside the hotel. I spent most of the 4 days we were there lying in the kids pool under the big sail shade there, reading propped up on my elbows, as it was the only way I could be outside and not expire from the heat.

Also I felt deeply, deeply uncomfortable there. There's a real undercurrent there if you're a woman - I hated being on my own there, even if DH popped to the loo when we were in the hotel bar I found myself being 'cruised' by the locals like I was a prostitute (I hasten to add I was very respectably dressed, the aircon indoors was too damn cold to not wear sleeves!).

And to top it all, on the plane home some Saudi couple were sitting in our seats and even though they were in the wrong place WE were made to move (to single seats nowhere near each other) with no explanation other than 'they need them' - they weren't seats near a loo or an exit, or with extra legroom, just 2 together, for 2 fully-functioning adults who were incredibly rude and arrogant but had the attendants dancing over them like they were royalty.

So no, we won't be going back.

No bear it was extramarital sex, perjury and consuming alcohol without a license, if you mean the Norwegian woman who was jailed recently?

So they Skype last time I used Skype (2 days ago) it was free

Sri Lanka is a very different country it is poor Dubai is not far from it but it has it's own problems the biggest is poverty (which yes the west exploits that is being highlighted and changes made though not enough)

The discussion is about dubai and why the vitriol and many have explained why

Because Anthea Turner and Grant Bovey resided there.

Yes but animals don't generally have access to computers or Skype do they, so these workers are not all being treated like slaves.

I completely understand why some people dislike Dubai but this dicussion isn't just about Dubai, it is about why Dubai is so singled out for this vitriol, which no one seems to have a very good answer for

Oh, and there was NOTHING to do there if you didn't like shopping. We tried looking for stuff to do; they weren't running the desert safaris because it was too hot, the only bus from the hotel went to the Gold Souk, the hotel concierge told us it 'wasn't safe' to go anywhere else, especially not on foot, and as we were only there for 4 days we ended up vegging in the room or by the pool. It was incredibly restful, but incredibly boring. The local paper was delivered free to our door and we scoured it for something to do but all it seemed to be was a puff-sheet for the shops.

The human rights abuses are very well hidden while you're living it up in your 5 star hotel, but they're there - you can see it in the attitude towards the workers, like they were less than human. We thought that if they were like that in public, God knows what they were like behind closed doors. I'd never go back.

Yes, you all have valid points. I get that. However, you could also pin those accusations on a lot of holiday destinations (Jamaica...)

OP the last time I looked, Jamaica had a female Prime Minister.

And speaking as someone who has lived and worked Kingston, I can tell you that Jamaicans would be horrified to think that someone was comparing human rights in Jamaica to those in Dubai.

The thought of choosing to spend my money supporting a regime like Dubai is abhorrent.

have you looked at the links Bear

No my cat does not have access to Skype he can not use a computer

Lots of whataboutery strawman arguments on here.

Just because shite conditions in place X are not as bad as the shite conditions in place Y does not exonerate place X from criticism.

In the case of Dubai, it is, in my opinion worse as they are a phenomenally wealthy country who, if the political will was there, could bring in legislation and standards that protects workers form being exploited by unscrupulous employers and recruitment agents. Instead of this though, they imprison and fine journalists who highlight any of these issue and deport workers who have the audacity to ask for better working conditions, you know, simple things like being paid what they were promised, not having to sleep in a toilet or given adequate training and protective clothing to carry out potentially dangerous jobs. UAE is ranked 41 in the UN Human Development Index, Pakistan and Bangladesh (where most of the Dubai’s cheap labour comes from) are ranked joint 146, it is not as if they can’t afford, they just choose not to give a shit.

Live there.

You won't meet any nationals. So you won't be in a position to judge whether you like the 'real' Dubai or not.

There is no indigenous culture apart from a couple of bastakia buildings that were saved by non-nationals.

Oh, and some camel stuff for tourists. And the odd falcon.

And the traditional UAE sport of sand surfing.

When I lived there many moons ago it was peopled by not-very-bright Brits on the make who got themselves into marvellous knots justifying the slavery and racism, backed up in no small part by the majority population of subcontinentals.

Ghastly plastic place.

I am an expat living in Dubai which apparently makes me a "braying, sloaney wanker..." This is news to me since I was raised by a single mother in a council house...

OP, I believe the reason that people are so critical about the UAE (without actually knowing the first thing about it, as is clear from this thread!) is the fact that British ex pats pay no income tax. It's also one of the main reasons I moved here - I decided to spend a few years paying off my mortgage, which would have been impossible with the punitive tax rates in the UK. When I tell people where I live, I get the kind of wrath normally reserved for the likes of Vodafone....

The UAE is far from perfect and a great many of the comments above about migrant workers are true (but the more hysterical ones are not!) The fact is, it is their country and they have chosen to follow Shariah to some extent and to encourage foreign investment and tourism. It isn't our place to criticise this any more than it would be their place, as immigrants to the UK, to tell us to bin our own legal system and follow Eastern cultures and traditions. I firmly believe that ex pats should do everything possible to improve the lives of other people in their adopted country which is why I volunteer for a charity donating to and visiting work camps and fundraise for mistreated animals. I wish I could say that every ex pat did the same!

The fact is that Dubai is growing exponentially and will continue to grow with or without Western tourism - making snippy comments about their lack of culture and misogyny is not the best way to effect change.

personally I wouldn't dream of going to the Maldives either. I'm not a "rape the natural resources and play golf in an air conditioned desert" / "export everything to a dying ecosystem" sort of person. It would make me feel madly uncomfortable.
And while I was feeling madly uncomfortable about the appalling exploitation of the natural resources so that a tiny few rich people could have a cheap spa treatment, I could spend time pondering the stoning and imprisonment of rape victims. Or persecution of homosexuals.
A real holiday experience!
so all in, plenty to hate before you even scratch the surface of extreme vulgarity and what the other holidaymakers.

Young girl - lets hope you don't get into debt!

Some of the attitudes on this thread demonstrate exactly why there is no will to improve human rights abuses in the UAE.

When (if you are Emirati) your education is paid for through to doctoral level, your housing, fuel and water bills are heavily subsidised, even your wedding is paid for by the government, and, should you wish to work, a well-paid,not too demanding sinecure is available via the government-sponsored 'Emiratisation' programme, why would you put yourself in danger by criticising the status quo for those less fortunate?

Ditto, if you are an expat who earns a high, tax-free income several times what you earned at home, can afford a villa with a pool and a maid and gardener and a private education for your children, and your residency visa is linked to your employment, and your bank account will be frozen the moment you are fired...? Why would you raise your voice, when you are doing fine, and anyway, it's not your country?

Larry well said.

Younggirl don't get in road traffic accidents with a national either.

Are you suggesting most people criticising Dubai are doing so because they are jealous of its tax regime?

Several people on this thread have stated that they have been to Dubai and they have articulated their feelings on the place, are you arrogantly suggesting they don’t know the first thing about the place because their views do not reconcile with yours. If you love the place then great, good for you! Many people on here are just pointing out that in their view it is a plastic soulless artificial construct with a piss poor humans right record and ecological disaster in the making. I have been to Dubai several times in a work capacity, my first visit being back in 1998 and my last visit being in 2012 and I have to agree with many of the negative sentiments being espoused here.