To have little sympathy for people who've moved to Dubai?

[VaxMerstappen]

Firstly, let me say that say that I am not celebrating the fact that people have been killed in the latest conflict in the middle east in the slightest.

However, is anyone else struggling to empathise with all the influencers etc who for a long time have been lauding it up about how much better life is out there, and are now suddenly missing the safety and security of Blighty?

We have our problems, sure, but at least we're not in the middle of an active war zone. Nor is there much chance of us waking up to missile or drone attacks tomorrow.

It's been fairly well known for years that Dubai is a soulless hellhole with a frankly medieval attitude towards women's rights. Yet people still move there for tax reasons and then seemingly never shut up about how glad they are to have done so.

Maybe this development will make all those people realise just how relatively lucky we are to live in the UK?!

How smug and gloaty. I’ve never lived abroad or been to Dubai. I have friends who teach out there because they can’t afford the cost of living here on a sole wage. I can’t imagine gloating at their current misfortune. Really horrible post, OP.

This whole post is morally bankrupt given the situation in Dubai at the moment.

Pot meets kettle.

You don't engage much at all by the sounds of it.

I can't stand Dubai after a really bad experience when I was there a few days for work on the way back from SE Asia work trip. I would never go again and refuse to even use it as a flight connection point (or Doha etc).

But many people make a life there and it works for them. Its frankly pretty horrible to then take a smug attitude when there are bombs flying about!

I do not want anyone to be bombed anywhere. I cannot also imagine living or visiting anywhere with human rights like this region

...

If you don’t naturally feel concerned and sympathetic for innocent people caught up in a dangerous situation there’s obviously something missing your end. Wild horses wouldn’t drag me to Dubai but I feel very sorry for people hauled up there with missile debris falling around them. What a nasty post.

Dubai has never appealed to me personally but I think having no sympathy for people who have unexpectedly found themselves in a very frightening situation is weird.

Born in Saudi to working class boomer English parents who moved there for a better life with two bankrupted businesses under their belts already. Lived in Dubai for a time. Moved back to the UK as a teen. They did it for a better life which I have now. It’s very hard to make it in the UK if you are from a working class background. Their daughter ( me) was the first person in their family to go to university. I work in a medical proffesional for the NHS and have a nice middle class life as do their grandchildren, because of the years they put in the Middle East. You do what you have to do for you family. So who are to sneer?

Being smug is not a good thing in general, but in worldwide terms the UK is by no means backward in terms of human rights compared to other nations, and it hasn't particularly been backward historically either compared to others. Slave trading is hardly unusual in modern times.

No, I don't feel that way.

Worth looking at why you do? To be so jealous of others that you'd feel smug not to be in a warzone as they are? Do you feel the same smugness at those working there in poorly paid roles sending money home to families on other countries?

Possibly they don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons either.

As a genuine question, what level of “human rights like [a] region” would you be comfortable with? Practically every, if not all, countries have HRA issues.

It wasn’t a warzone when they moved there though. So yes I still feel sorry for them.

I think people who move there purely for tax reasons are rather selfish individuals who'd rather run away than pay in and contribute like we all have to do. Added to the fact that it's a place that has dreadful human rights, yet people happily overlook this because they value tax breaks and ghastly 'glitz and glamour' over human rights.

Someone has to live there, but people who actively chose to go there and are now finding extra money isn't worth compromising your family's safety and security for, no, I have little sympathy for them.

Well good for you.

Unable to imagine a world where you badly need more income and look for a solution and are willing to make sacrifices like being away from family and support system to try to make a living. Further a career or fund a child back home.

Well done you

There is nothing wrong with wanting to lower one’s tax bill and be able to actually afford one’s life. The taxes in the UK are quite substantial so even on an above average income you have to budget carefully.

This. My friend and her husband went to Qatar because they were in debt in the UK and barely able to keep their heads above water. In Qatar they live on one income comfortably and have been able to give their daughter’s a fantastic upbringing all while building up a substantial savings amount / nest egg. That was not possible in the UK.

“Pay in and contribute”…so, of the skilled migrants in Dubai, they’ve likely paid more tax in the UK than the average already. What level of tax contribution do those remaining in the UK have to hit before they are provided the luxury of safety or being repatriated from a war zone whilst on holiday or, say, from a dangerous situation in the UK?

A poster on another thread made an excellent post just now on the unforeseeability of war in Dubai. It’s not like they all moved to the Ukraine and thought “whelp!” Dubai isn’t your everyday aggressor or victim.

All the smug comments ignore this. Many on sole incomes in fields that don’t pay much (teaching, nurse) find themselves pushed to look overseas because the cost of living here is too high compared to incomes.

Do you think people living in Dubai won’t eventually pay tax? No they will make some money there then at some point put it back into the British econ when they move home. Life there is transient. They are just looking for a way to build up some cash to make a better life in a way it is impossible to do in the UK. You need money in the UK to make it. A wage is not enough.

I have to say that never in a million years would I go to Dubai, either to live or to go on holiday (the way they've historically treated women for starters) Give me a holiday in Wales in pouring rain any day over that. I struggle to understand people who are attracted to Dubai.
But, I still have empathy for the many normal people who are stuck there. I'm sure mostly perfectly normal people.
Actually, I'm currently house/animal sitting for a couple who are on holiday in Dubai. Absolutely lovely normal down-to-earth people who just fancied a bit of winter sun and a different culture. I was a bit shocked when I turned up and discovered they were going to Dubai, as they seemed more like south-of-France types. But, it just shows there's a huge range of people there. I know they're tourists rather than having made it their home; but still...
I'm very worried about them, and realise I'll probably need to stay on here for a few extra days. I feel very sorry for them.
Awful situation generally. Donald Trump is so evil. I know the regime in Iran is absolutely horrific; but illegal wars aren't the way to go about bringing change. Never ends well, as we saw with Iraq and Afghanistan. The Taliban are worse now than ever. I fear it might end up being even worse in Iran too. This crazy world.
Praying for peace, and for all innocents caught up in the midst of the situation 🙏

PS, sorry I went off on tangents 🤭

What a vile way to think considering the predicament they're in now.

Stomach-churning.

I feel the same unfortunately and have done way before the war. My opinion is to do with Human Rights and abuse. I think a lot of people that go out there are part of the plastic brigade in the sense that they do not think twice or even know or care about the reality of the place. It is a very dangerous place and I have always known that.