Castles in the sand

Dubai: A Morally Bankrupt Dictatorship Built by Slave Labor


Dubai is finally financially bankrupt - but it has been morally bankrupt all along. The idea that Dubai is an oasis of freedom on the Arabian peninsular is one of the great lies of our time.

Yes, it has Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts and the Gucci styles, but beneath these accoutrements, there is a dictatorship built by slaves.

[Sheikh Mohammed is just another US supported dictator]

The people who really built the city can be seen in long chain-gangs by the side of the road, or toiling all day at the top of the tallest buildings in the world, in heat that Westerners are told not to stay in for more than 10 minutes. They were conned into coming, and trapped into staying.

In their home country - Bangladesh or the Philippines or India - these workers are told they can earn a fortune in Dubai if they pay a large upfront fee. When they arrive, their passports are taken from them, and they are told their wages are a tenth of the rate they were promised.

They end up working in extremely dangerous conditions for years, just to pay back their initial debt. They are ringed-off in filthy tent-cities outside Dubai, where they sleep in weeping heat, next to open sewage. They have no way to go home. And if they try to strike for better conditions, they are beaten by the police.


Johann Hari - The Independent

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/27-4

I was always proud of Dubai that for the first time if one wanted to experience luxury they were not forced to go to western worlds to enjoy it. I was really hoping that they are investing their money wisely and they would never face this situation because the western world will be the first to laugh at them, happy to know that they are only ones that can maintain supreme worlds. I hope this is a minor setback and once again a non first world will outshine as one of the best places to visit.
And Bill for you information I don’t think there was slavery labour in building Dubai. We live in a world of choice. Those people were free to quit their jobs and go back home. But I think that first world countries used horrendous ways to build their wealth. And until today all nonrich countries are still suffering the effects of those ways.

Ticking time bomb indeed, and a sobering warning to everyone celebrating the end of this global financial crisis. Seems like Dubai-itis is going to blow away any recovery we've made, and the Sukuk bonds impact is going to hurt big time. And, yes, @Billy Hill, I agree with you: Dubai is built on the back of exploitative labour practices. A less well reported fact is the environmental degradation in that region. The two are linked. This does not bode well for the Emirates states.

I know a few people living and working in Dubai, and the Emirates exploitation of people in general to build their dream is pretty disgusting. @Bill above spot on, there have been numerous instances of peoples passports being seized and forced to work in inhuman conditions. The environmental consequences of some of the grand projects like the Palm Jumeirah have been devastating, interfering with ocean currents and destroying the ecosystem.

I was initially impressed by their grandiose schemes, but it seems the reality is somewhat different. What goes around comes around I guess, but unfortunately it will more than likely be the common people who will take the fall and lose their jobs, be discarded once their usefulness has expired, and the immoral policy makers will walk away.

The Sukuk "no interest" bonds made me laugh, people always find a way to ignore the tenets of their own religion in the endless hunt for wealth.

Billy boy, nice one dude. I am enjoying your odd comments. Senzo, Billy is completely spot on. Sure there are or might be a few "choice labourers" but the bulk are essentially modern day slaves. Actually Senzo, you sounded a little surprised by that comment. It is a very common and highly profitable form of labour. This is the primary reason we, and most "modern" societies, as you called them, are unable to compete on the labour markets without the rand being raped. (And that without the obligatory breakfast and taxi fare home) Set Lah, you too are correct, the financial crises is just about to get fcuken deadly. However, senzo, don't despair, I suspect the these sovereign funds will be somehow bailed out. They are too close to some other banks that can't afford for them to drop, RBS etc.

If ever there were a dull, useless, superfluous space on Earth it would be Dubai. Amazing that anybody fancy sitting in a high rise looking out on a hazy desert of concrete, glass, cement (built by slave laboures) and sand, if not a hazy sea. Takes all sorts.

Good stuff - at least the spuriousness of the benefits of globalisation are being shown in all its glory. But why limit it to the Arabs? There are entire nations in debt (ostensibly sustainable debt) whose productive structures are decimated, and only thrive to export to earn currency to pay of debt (most of which is structural), have economic decisions made "for" them by the US controlled World Bank or EU dominated IMF, and export roses while their people starve (remember Ethiopia in the 80s). The Paris Club of Creditors (the usurious financeers) organised a bail out of their over-extended private banks and vultured the debts and continue to demand payment. Nation-state-debt-slavery must also be brought to the discussion, it cannot be limited to the Arabs. Enslaved nations (slavers still the usual suspects from colonial days) are also a concern and this must be brought to the fore. After all these are the GLORY YEARS of liberalisation!

Well said bashar.

Full on basher dude.

Dubai should stop builing tall, fancy glass buildings or else they will eat those glasses and use the left-over (glasses) has a new currency to buy food locally.

What always was disturbing, was how many SA'ns, overwhelmingly white & coloured, jetted off to work in Dubai and the rest of UAE.
Something like 40,000.

I understand that they felt marginalized and sidelined by the new racist ANC BEE policies. They were gatvol of being told that they are not welcome to help the state provide services. They all had the skills: engineers of all kinds, artisans, electricians, teachers, nurses, i.e all the kind of jobs a developing country like SA and Dubai so desperately need.

Dubai was the winner hands down. They realized the excellent knowledge they were attracting at no cost to them. The ANC prefers to believe that somehow SA does not need its majority of skilled labour; race trumps a decent government service ....

My question is:
why these SA'ns preferred to take their rare skills to the highly racially stratified bling world of the Arab nouveau-riche?? Here, Philipinos, & Indians, etc. are the exploited workers. It is exactly like apartheid SA. They should have been disgusted by that exploitation! It's there for everyone to see. We have been thru' that; why on earth go back to a racist state!?

I hope they will come back - I hope that the SA'n government sees this as an opportunity to get back some of the excellent SA'n human resources they lost thru' their stupid racial exclusion nonsense.

I also hope that the returning SA'n realize that they were in Arab apartheid state. And that somehow they have overcome their racist tendencies.

If you see a spark for a far distance don't think that it's a light.