The dark side of Dubai
On my final night in the Dubai Disneyland, I stop off on my way to the airport, at a Pizza Hut that sits at the side of one of the city's endless, wide, gaping roads. It is identical to the one near my apartment in London in every respect, even the vomit-coloured decor. My mind is whirring and distracted. Perhaps Dubai disturbed me so much, I am thinking, because here, the entire global supply chain is condensed. Many of my goods are made by semi-enslaved populations desperate for a chance 2,000 miles away; is the only difference that here, they are merely two miles away, and you sometimes get to glimpse their faces? Dubai is Market Fundamentalist Globalisation in One City.
I ask the Filipino girl behind the counter if she likes it here. "It's OK," she says cautiously. Really? I say. I can't stand it. She sighs with relief and says: "This is the most terrible place! I hate it! I was here for months before I realised – everything in Dubai is fake. Everything you see. The trees are fake, the workers' contracts are fake, the islands are fake, the smiles are fake – even the water is fake!" But she is trapped, she says. She got into debt to come here, and she is stuck for three years: an old story now. "I think Dubai is like an oasis. It is an illusion, not real. You think you have seen water in the distance, but you get close and you only get a mouthful of sand."
As she says this, another customer enters. She forces her face into the broad, empty Dubai smile and says: "And how may I help you tonight, sir?"
a very interesting read! Thx. Like someone said, this will come to an end sooner or later. Sickening how extreme capitalism can be under certain circumstances.
Nice find, Mirc, this is a good read indeed. Although saturated with subjective opinions, it's an excellent showcase of a world made by shallow people with obscene amounts of money. Let's hope this will not spread around the globe, though you can see the sheikh extending their reach practically in every direction (as can be seen, for example, in professional football).
slaves always talk shyte about their masters.
anyway, the only reason dubai is there is because they can, and they dont give a sh*t.
and that comment by the 'philippino' (why is a person from the philippines called a filipino?) is total b.s. anyway, every week there are thousands of people in the philippines wishing they could work in dubai, they all camp out infront of the exporting job centres that sends them around the world, it's her own fault getting into debt to go there... *sigh* most of these workers cant see further than 2 months down the line. It's not all their own fault, but exploitation exists cos of the dissonance between the level of understanding between parties.
johann hari is entiteled to his views, but i do feel that he comes across a bit jealous that something incredible (even if it is quite flawed) has come out of an area he despises (mid-east) by the way he writes about it in a lot of his articles.
I personally dont like Dubai all that much, but I appreciate it for it's legacy, cos the world always remembers those insane and unnatural 'events' in history.
In 10 years time, we'll be discussing the next 'Dubai' anyway
Welcome to 21st capitalist dream, bitches... A combo of a utopia an 80s coked up champagne executive , tim leary's acid nightmare of corporate enslavement and plastic cocoons of bedsits "as long as we sell the idea of a box not a room , we can make millions... The worker wont need electricity or water... We'll condition him to eat at the factory."
if you want to see plastic smiles and hundreds of thousands of corporate drones on the brink of oblivion why go Dubai if you can be @ 8:30 @ London Bridge to witness it.
if you want to see plastic smiles and hundreds of thousands of corporate drones on the brink of oblivion why go Dubai if you can be @ 8:30 @ London Bridge to witness it.
cos the corporate drones in london bridge want to go dubai and have the feeling of home while they are away.
Im sure all the corporate drones ever wanted is to bang that blonde chick from that office and "more gak" since i stopped being a corporate drone all i want to do is relationship with (any but preferably brunette ) chick and to be a beekeeper in a nice and quiet village in Belarus. I dont know if the recession or continuous soberness is to blame. So instead i blame Madbringer nao. Mad would you please step out of the car and open your trunk, Sir
also Dubai is to heve nice building. Building and skyscraper m8s want join clan ?
thanks for the read Mirc. not sure if you can watch this link from outside of the uk, but its a great documentry about Dubai's poor working conditions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jqgww/Panorama_Slumdogs_and_Millionaires/
Now i am home in the comfort of my bed, Ive read this article. And all i can say is that state controlled media censorship exists in the majority of the world's countries, just some mask it with an illusion of democracy for a more discreet way to filter out the really contriversial "piece de resistance" style news. Like the amero monetary agreement between the 3 north american states. And slave labour is not exactly exclusive to Dubai only, the workers migrate from countries equally abusive towards the workforce. The passport thing however is a little Fucked up but good way of obtaining obedience though. And as far as pollution goes, every country in the world has industrial aspects that dirty up the earth. The ones that dont pollute have nothing to pollute WITH.
I don't think the atmosphere of being surrounded with cardboard cut-outs made out of gold and the feeling you get when being a inconsequential cog in a machine which vastness you can't even start to comprehend is exclusive to that region, but it would seem that it's definitely one of the strongest emanations in existence.
We're talking about people who could very well buy out entire countries. It's like they transformed their money into a reality of their own for everyone in a certain space.
Yea man i agree this has been going on for millenia and also can be observed in "new russians" after collapse of the soviet union and this is not the first time something this eccentric has been done and the slaves who built the pyramids (both egyptian and south american) along with 6 other wonders of the world, as well as turning a swampy marshland into St.Petersburg or made the trans-siberian and trans-american railways and pretty much every major city, fortress, castle, palace and outpost all were part of an international union and worked under global quality standards and had great health care and holiday packages and were not at all dying by thousands :roll: not to mention how down to earth and useful in everyday society the 7 wonders or millenia later having golden roofs on every major building in St.Petersburg proved to be. :roll: