To think most Dubai naysayers are hypocrites

[WhisperedLoudest]

Not at TAAT more a TAA lot of threads.

Repeatedly on MN people say they'd never go to Dubai because of Human Rights issues at the same time as announcing they'd much rather go to do yoga in India or sightseeing in Morocco.

It seems rather hypocritical and an attitude that is very particular to Dubai and I suspect something to do with being perceived as trashy not disagreeing there

So if you have objections to Dubai on moral grounds where do you go? Do you apply same strict standard to other countries.

I've often asked on those threads where people do go but never received much of a response.

Not at all. I think that making this thread about how it's good for an educated white person so it's all fine is really self centred and obtuse and completely misses the whole point, to be frank. I wasn't going to say that, but since you want to know, there you are.

The inequality gap has widened in Singapore in last 10-15 years. ( Has in UK too, mind you), so not sure how much they care about those that aren't the elite.
Just because neighbours have worse records doesn't mean we should ignore- should Mancunians stop fretting about knife crime because the death rate from stabbings is lower than London?

I'm not meaning to single out Singapore here, as I said, there's other places I choose not to travel to too, however kimann asked specifically.

Just so you don't think it's a one- person rant against Singapore!

Easy when to say that if you're not on your own and have someone or something to fall back on. some of us do not have that luxury. when you are looking down the barrel of poverty, things are a bit different.

anyway - you are welcome to the last word. you obviously need it.

Fauchevelent - I did read that post and wince. But assumed it was just poor wording rather than being as bad as it sounded.

I don't think people from countries such as the UK and America really have any right to be critical of other nation's for their human rights violations - Pot, kettle, black!

I wouldn't go to Dubai because it looks shit and there are places I'd way rather go.

How's that?

Dubai just doesn't appeal on so many levels.

Hot, dusty, fake, it's all man made, human rights etc etc.

TBH it's the heat and fakeness that puts me off the most.

As well as Dubai I'd neither go to India or Morocco -- all for the same reasons. Mainly the subjugation of women. Horrid places.

I had a much better time in Dubai than Morococ.

Morocco can do one. Horrible place.

Morocco was full of horrible pervy men hassling me and my mum whilst we were dressed entirely modestly covered from shoulders to toes in long sleeve loose fitting clothes. At times I felt v unsafe.

Everyone was super courteous in Dubai and I felt v safe.

I am happy to avoid any country where reporting rape to the police risks you landing in jail on 'adultery' charges.

35% of Saudi women in prison are there because no male relative will collect them.
A rape victim can be flogged; if she falls pregnant she can be stoned.
I'm not going to bother arguing with you any more OP. If shopping is that important to you, then just go.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

I have to agree with you on that moonrisekigdom!
I thought Dubai was just one great big shopping mall. is it now a holiday destination?

No one has mentioned FGM yet. Can I point out to the 'Dubai naysayers are hypocrites' brigade that FGM is legal in the UAE?

Government hospitals will no longer perform it because of the bad publicity, but it's perfectly legal to cut a little girl's clitoris off in other medical clinics, or indeed to do it at home. In fact, Dubai is becoming an FGM destination for foreign families who don't want it done by Granny with a rusty razor blade, but are fine with a 'respectable' medical clitoroidectomy performed by someone with medical training in a shiny clinic. (In fact, the medicalisation of FGM is a growing problem - for some people, having it done in a hospital is an acceptable compromise between tradition and modernity. That it involves mutilating a little girl's genitals is irrelevant, clearly.)

There was a hideous case when I was living in Dubai of an estranged American wife and Emirati husband - I think the wife and their little girl had left the country and were living elsewhere in the ME, and the little girl went back to visit her father in the UAE and was subjected to FGM on her weekend with Daddy.

Has no one else read this 😕

People turn up their noses at Dubai because it's new money.

If you have kids and want to go somewhere warm outside of the European summer, it's a good option. It's safe, clean, has a wide variety of food options, a few water parks and theme parks.

Ok, it might not be somewhere that you'd immerse yourself in the local culture (it's predominantly expats), but you're unlikely to do much of that in the Canaries, Caribbean etc..

Art Dubai, an international art fair, is on in a couple of weeks.. so it's not just the beach and going out at night to be surrounded by reality TV stars in glitzy bars and restaurants.

By no means would I suggest it to everyone, but there's no reason to be snobby about it if it's not your cup of tea!

Caring about human rights is being snobby?

As I think has already been pointed out, many popular holiday destinations don't meet an acceptable western standard of human rights.

You'd unlikely find the same people turning up their noses if a holiday to visit the Great Wall or St Petersburg was mentioned.. and China and Russia are hardly shining lights. There are numerous other examples.. how about the fact that homosexuality is illegal in the Maldives?

Kiroro did they always assume you were French as well? I lived in Ouarzazate and Marrakech and had this problem constantly, just because of the colonization.

Rocco so is apostasy not allowed in the Maldives in fact a young man who was working in air traffic control at Male airport committed suicide after coming out as atheist

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-case-per-hour-uk-nhs-circumcision-a7564571.html

What about this? FGM may be 'illegal' in the UK, but it's still widespread and not a single successful prosecution in the 22 years its been outlawed.

We're not exactly shining lights.

DJBaggy Why are you posting about Saudi. It is a very, very, very different place from the UAE.

Do you know they are different countries?

Whilst not the same as the west, women in Dubai can drive, do not need to wear the abaya, are well educated, are employed across all types of jobs etc. etc. Don't have to have permission from a male guardian to breath etc.

By the way all those people saying Dubai is hot - you ain't wrong, but go between November and April and the weather is lovely.

Rocco- did you read the thread? Plenty of posters said they wouldn't go to Maldives or Russia either.

I read the thread and appreciate that there are some people who are very selective as to where they travel, for a variety of reasons.

I think though that, as a generalisation, noses are turned up more often in relation to a holiday in Dubai than other destinations with similar or other issues.

Maybe it's a bit like a Benidorm for those who spend more on their holidays?

I wouldn't go to Dubai. I was meant to be going to America but changed my mind after Trump got in. Planning a trip to Greece instead.

I wouldn't go to Dubai for loads of reasons. I'm not a hypocrite. DS(10) went last year and was "meh". That was one more reason on my list.

Did anyone see the Tropic of Cancer programme on Dubai? They interviewed some migrant workers who had got a loan from a loan shark to get the visa to come over from Bangladesh to work. They lived in tiny dormitories in Dubai, hundreds of young men. When they arrived they worked for a month before being told the building project was cancelled. All they had been paid was £40 and they wouldn't be given any more. The presenter asked them what they would do. They said they would have to commit suicide because they couldn't return home -- the loan shark would break their legs or kidnap their sister if they didn't repay the loan. The presenter asked the translator lady in disbelief if this was a common occurrence. She nodded and said yes they commit suicide regularly, as if it wasn't even surprising. It was horrifying!

Even before I saw that programme there's no way I'd ever go there, oppression of women, slavery, animal abuse, I could go on. Such an artificial and tacky place and yes it does oppress all religions apart from Islam.