[TV] Inside Dubai - anyone watched ?

[middletoenail]

I have a lot of friends that have lived in Dubai and they loved their time there. I wonder how many of the "its soulless" comments come from those that holiday in places like Tenerife and Lanzarote?

 

[Surf's Up]

I turned over briefly to see a wealthy British estate agent showing us his bland, tasteless house on the beach of the sterile Palm Island, saying a heartless goodbye to his indifferent wife and then as a complete afterthought another dismissive goodbye to his maid then jumping into his typical Porsche which probably only briefly distracts him from his soulless life.

Like something out of a J G Ballard novel - all a bit sinister imho.

 

[Bruntburger]

Dubai

Sunshine
English speaking
Tax free
Extremely safe
Good transport system
People smile
Religious harmony
Culture plastic

UK

Rain
Chav English speaking
Tax
Crime
Crap transport
People miserable
Religious bigotry
Culture cancelled

 

[Ding Dong !]

Played golf there in 1999/2000 when the courses weren't surrounded by those massive skyscrapers that you see today. Nice back then.

 

[highflyer]

Like something out of a J G Ballard novel - all a bit sinister imho.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/07/moneyland-oliver-bullough-review

'It was a temple of tastelessness, a cathedral of kitsch'

 

[highflyer]

duplicate post

 

[Live by the sea]

Dubai

Sunshine
English speaking
Tax free
Extremely safe
Good transport system
People smile
Religious harmony
Culture plastic

UK

Rain
Chav English speaking
Tax
Crime
Crap transport
People miserable
Religious bigotry
Culture cancelled

You are missing one huge difference., here you can openly criticise the PM & the govt in the street and nothing will happen , you do that in Dubai and you will be taken away by the secret police and put in prison for us long as they think appropriate. There’s not much in the way of human rights in Dubai . That’s quite a big difference for most people !

 

[Springal]

You are missing one huge difference., here you can openly criticise the PM & the govt in the street and nothing will happen , you do that in Dubai and you will be taken away by the secret police and put in prison for us long as they think appropriate. There’s not much in the way of human rights in Dubai . That’s quite a big difference for most people !

At least we have a government not looking to impose laws around the right of protest eh ?

 

[Live by the sea]

At least we have a government not looking to impose laws around the right of protest eh ?

I’m not in any way saying the Boris govt is a good one., it clearly isn’t but even if that law did come in for mass protests which I doubt , you can’t seriously equate the human rights in Dubai with the UK . If you miss a mortgage payment in Dubai you can be put in prison , if you start kissing your girlfriend or Boyfd in public, you can be put in prison !

 

[Springal]

I’m not in any way saying the Boris govt is a good one., it clearly isn’t but even if that law did come in for mass protests which I doubt , you can’t seriously equate the human rights in Dubai with the UK . If you miss a mortgage payment in Dubai you can be put in prison , if you start kissing your girlfriend or Boyfd in public, you can be put in prison !

I'm just saying - we're heading that way. The protest bill has already passed its first and second reading. Just a third to go in the House of Commons before a vote

 

[highflyer]

Dubai

Sunshine = unbearably hot a lot of the time outside

English speaking = rich bits are part of a global monoculture, where english is lingua franca but the majority of people that live there will not speak english (see below)

Tax free = tax haven

Extremely safe -= oppressive policing

Good transport system = a two line metro?

People smile = people smile at english people because a) they are making money from you or b) they are paid to do so. I used to travel in to Dubai on planes full of Bangladeshi labourers and believe me, they weren't smiling (they did smile a lot in the other direction, when going home). 71% of the Dubai population are Asian. They underpin the economy but have no rights to citizenship, no matter how long or hard they work there. The majority from Bangladesh, India and Nepal. You won't see much of them if you visit as a tourist and I suspect probabably even if you live there as a wealthy expatriate.

Religious harmony = Enforced? Maybe. I don't really know. But definitely don't try holding hands with your same sex partner in public...so I guess that harmony comes at a cost

Culture plastic = once upon a time there was a rich Bedouin culture. In the city a least that has gone, to be replaced by the plastic culture. Maybe something still exists outside the city areas and in pockets if you look hard. There's a disney-style version in the cultural village. And I guess the camps for tourists (I never did that).

UK
Diverse. Real. Beautiful. Historic. Imperfect. But, in some ways, at risk of heading in direction of Dubai so let's heed that warning

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Dubai


Religious harmony

UK

Religious bigotry

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha