New Dubai and - deeply uncomfortable

[UnderTheStairs51]

There seems to be a new ad promoting Dubai as a holiday destination.

The one that starts and ends with 'swim first'.

I have been sad enough to pause it and hands are bare of rings walking through the market so no indication they are a married couple.

You'd run a risk to behave in the way shown on a public beach surely. They are not in swimming gear so what's the implication here?

I do think people should understand local rules when they visit other places but this seems to send out a message completely at odds with this.

Just me?

I live in Scotland. I feel about this advert like I would for a Visit Scotland campaign showing people heading up Ben Nevis in shorts, wild camping on the shores of Loch Lomond in summer and having a jolly good laugh with a bunch of Rangers supporters because they'd accidentally walked into an Ibrox bub on matchday wearing a Celtic shirt.

All of it is possible, you'd probably not come to harm and it's likely you'd get away with it and not find yourself in hot water with the law.

But none of it would be a good idea and X would have a field day ripping it to bits.

Cat on keyboard

Rrally, if that ad is as described, the only issue is the skinny dipping. Someone record it for us😂 I am well curious now.

It was the 90s so he is probably dead now as pretty old then.

100%!

I wonder what reasons people from other countries have for not wanting to come to UK.
I would guess mugging and phone theft - in cities, anyway.

Litter?

We're probably quite high on the international litter scale

Littler?

Yes all along the verges. It’s depressing.

Hahaha. You got the wrong country.

Brush up on your middle eastern Geography. Showing yourself up as ignorant.

Not visiting somewhere because you don't like the political establishment is a very closed minded way to live. Go to the places that make you uncomfortable - it's the only way to add light and shade to the beautifully complexity of other cultures. You don't have to like it or agree with it - but for heaven's sake stop bashing what you clearly know NOTHING about and judging by your own standards.

Edited to add: it is ok to visit somewhere and respect the local customs.

in what way is Islam matriarchal? You didn’t answer earlier.

LemonTT

At what point in the history of Western Europe were women treated the same way as in those other countries in the region you mention? You say it was before the progress made in 100 years. Do you know anything about the UK and Europe?
The scale and nature of abuse towards women and their lack of human rights isn't comparable to anything we've ever had in Europe.

Dubai is a city built on slavery. That new hotel being built? The people who are building it are lied to, they've been told there's a job abroad for them but when they het there they're housed in overcrowded sheds, they get their passports taken off them so they can't leave when they realise how hard the job is, working at the height of the day.

I cannot believe people don't think about that when they go to places like this. It's not just oh we can hold hands no so it must be an OK place to holiday.

I think this is a simplistic take. I don’t think it’s about Islam at all. If it was you’d see threads about a multitude of Muslim countries, however, you don’t, it’s always Dubai.

I think the reason is because it markets itself as a glitzy Mediterranean type destination when it’s not. People get confused and get into trouble. It’s false advertising.

Slavery, genuine two tier policing in favour of locals, sexism, racism. How can any tourist or ‘ex-pat’ with a conscience pretend they don’t know? I think many people who go to Dubai, want others to shut up so they can pretend they don’t know about this stuff.

What happened with that teen last year hopefully put a ton of young people off ever going. I would not want my kids going there at all. How can you eat your luxury meal in a 6 star hotel fully aware of the slavery? Dubai is rich, it can afford to pay and treat foreign workers properly.

Given we have a thriving modern slavery industry in the UK with regards to drugs running I doubt people are that bothered about whats going on in places like Dubai.

You see it on multiple threads here and in real life whenever the subject of drugs comes up, people shrugging their shoulders and 'its not as bad as alcohol'

Young people in their droves use illegal street drugs, which have all incurred abuse, exploitation, grooming of other children, both here and in other countries.

They're not bothered.

And for those interested just yesterday news run articles on it and how number of Brits in it is rising too

Oh yes, absolutely, I wasn't trying to be flippant about my hand holding comment, actually having looked at the Foreign Office advice it states that kissing in public is frowned upon. I suppose it is odds with the glitzy advert. I have absolutely no interest in going there.

Are they, how do you know this? I think you'll find there is a certain demographic of young people that have been forgotten, that are living in poverty, that has been made profoundly worse by 14 years of austerity by the Conservative party, that has been made worse by huge wealth inequality that started under Thatcher and has got worse ever since. I think you'll find many Brits care about wealth inequality as pretty much all societal problems lead back to poverty. Many Brits wouldn't be happy to have strict, draconian rules to control these problems, that has not been the case for a long time, there is a preference for tackling the root of the issues- poverty.

The people who are building it are lied to, they've been told there's a job abroad for them but when they het there they're housed in overcrowded sheds, they get their passports taken off them so they can't leave when they realise how hard the job is, working at the height of the day.

I have often read about these appalling conditions for workers in Dubai and they are shocking. However, does word not spread to the workers’ home countries about how terrible conditions are in UAE and put off people from taking jobs there?

@Barbadossunset these people already live in abysmal conditions in their homelands with no chance of making any money at all. They hope to work for a few years for their family's benefit.

@Coolasfeck Dubai is rich because it does not pay foreign workers properly.

"Dubai is rich, it can afford to pay and treat foreign workers properly."

One thing that stood out for me is how superficial it is. For CVs, you have to include a photo of yourself and the airline I used to work for would regularly weigh us and do image and uniform inspections before flights. They would put crew on weight management programmes and ground them until they lost the weight. If they didn’t they would be sacked.

I worked for a UK airline in the 90's / 2000s and it was exactly the same here - after returning from maternity leave having gone up a dress size I was told to lose weight and uniforms were not stocked above size 16. Uniform standards were checked every flight and I was once pulled up on not reapplying lipstick enough during a flight - so an industry thing at the time not an emirate's thing.

The comparative examples would be too endless to list. You are living in cloud cuckoo land of exceptionalism if you think we don’t have a history where people were exploited and within that women where treated as chattels. Hence the reason brides are given away and men ask fathers for permission to marry their daughters. Hence why rape within marriage was still legal until the 80’s or 90’s.

The UK and Europe were colonial powers you created a commercial global slave trade, enacted ethnic cleansing and genocide whilst stripping countries of their assets. And we took everything back home in the form of Fascism, the Nazis and communism. Who if my memory serves me right weren’t big on human and civil rights for anyone but did again put women in their place for special treatment.

I work with young people with the exact demographic you are describing and I can tell you that there isnt an appetite to consider the harm that comes to other kids either here or in other countries as long as they're getting their weed or ket

Generally speaking when the issue of drugs are raised, people are very nonchalant about weed in particular but also other class b street drugs even when it is explained that there are children being groomed, abused and exploited for them, they deny this and they always seem to get it from Dave down the road who grows his own. Its amazing how many people just buy it from Dave, no kids or exploitation involved dont you know

I'm puzzled why people don't understand the OP. They are promoting a couple walking hand in hand while not wearing wedding rings. In Dubai this public show of affection isn't allowed

In Dubai this public show of affection isn't allowed

Yes it is. No-one will stop you holding hands with a partner.