Another Dubai hellhole story

Reverend

In the 90s someone in the UK was charged with blasphemy for wearing a Cradle of Filth shirt. This seemed outrageous and we were appalled. Once you met the guy, you quickly realised it could have happened to a more deserving person.

I suspect she may be cut from the same cloth.

stickyfiddle

EricTheWeary said:

I used to work with people who had holidays in Dubai ( I’ve only been to the airport - the air outside the plane was incredibly hot and I had an incredibly expensive cup of coffee ) and as far as I could work out they never left the hotel. Amazing value, amazing service, amazing food,etc. Sounded incredibly dull to me but their money. These were British Sikhs  - I think every Sikh I've ever had a conversation about travel/ holidays always love hotels. But Dubai was somewhere they also felt comfortable to be which wasn't necessarily true of some British/ European destinations. 

I think that's fair.

I wouldn't say Dubai is racist - quite the opposite in fact - if you aren't poor you can be treated like a king no matter where you're from or how you look. But it absolutely is classist, and "poor-ist", for want of a better word. And, because of socio-economic factors around where different types of people are likely to come from, that manifests as something that look like racism, but isn't quite, at least in the traditional European/American way (ie send the Romanian/Polish/whoever immigrants back to where they came from, or offence-intention references to chinkies and paki shops).

In my team of ~20 over the past couple of years, we have had a few Brits, a couple of lebanese, a palestinian, a couple of egyptians, loads of indians and pakistanis, a russian, a greek, a spaniard, an australian (bit of a tosser, not because aussie, just because tosser), a german, a dutchman, a bangladeshi, a half-pakistani-half-malaysian guy, a couple of Omanis, and probably some others I've forgotten. In almost 5 years working here I have honestly never seen race be a consideration with anybody - internally, externally, with clients, with friends, in shops, taxis, bars, restaurants, airports, etc. Though the mix of backgrounds and upbringings and whatever always helps keep the conversation going when you're in airport lounges and restaurants when working away from home or meeting random new people as you naturally do in as transient a place as this. 

FWIW I wouldn't want to do the hotel package holidays that so many enjoy out here, and frankly I prefer Abu Dhabi (where we actually live), which is a bit more middle eastern and genuine and less glitzy. But to write off anywhere as a simple shithole is really missing the point.

Snap

What I don't like about it, is what I don't like in life - rampant consumerism, materialism, boasting, showing off, one-upmanship, double standards and fakery. Dubai has all this, in spades. Its "thin" - all glitz and no substance.

You make an interesting point about classism not racism, I think I agree. Poor immigrant workers are treated badly all over the middle east and I don't think that is to do with race, but as you say, with social status. But that is definitely not unique to Dubai. I think that is more a product of the ubiquity of wealth in one small place.

If you like showy hotels, huge shopping centres selling over priced designer gear, big theme/fun/water parks, restaurants where you can't get a bottle of wine, beaches where you can't have a beer, boardwalks where you can't walk down holding your wife's hand....Dubai is your destination of choice.

I'd rather be somewhere where it's ok if I want to give my wife a hug and a kiss in public, as and when we please, or somewhere where I can lie on the beach, crack a beer, or go to a ramshackle beach café and have a couple of cold ones and a bite.

goldtop

stickyfiddle said:

I wouldn't say Dubai is racist - quite the opposite in fact - if you aren't poor you can be treated like a king no matter where you're from or how you look. But it absolutely is classist, and "poor-ist", for want of a better word. And, because of socio-economic factors around where different types of people are likely to come from, that manifests as something that look like racism, but isn't quite, at least in the traditional European/American way (ie send the Romanian/Polish/whoever immigrants back to where they came from, or offence-intention references to chinkies and paki shops).

And you're back with your usual blinkers and apologies.

Some examples (again, a couple of seconds): https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-be-a-non-white-or-non-Arab-white-collar-expat-worker-in-Dubai

https://bkpk.me/why-i-left-dubai-and-wont-come-back-part-12/ (especially the part about salary discrimination)

Every Western expat in Dubai has to find some way to not believe it. Same with the human rights violations and laws against many freedoms.

stickyfiddle

goldtop said:

stickyfiddle said:

I wouldn't say Dubai is racist - quite the opposite in fact - if you aren't poor you can be treated like a king no matter where you're from or how you look. But it absolutely is classist, and "poor-ist", for want of a better word. And, because of socio-economic factors around where different types of people are likely to come from, that manifests as something that look like racism, but isn't quite, at least in the traditional European/American way (ie send the Romanian/Polish/whoever immigrants back to where they came from, or offence-intention references to chinkies and paki shops).

And you're back with your usual blinkers and apologies.

Some examples (again, a couple of seconds): https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-be-a-non-white-or-non-Arab-white-collar-expat-worker-in-Dubai

https://bkpk.me/why-i-left-dubai-and-wont-come-back-part-12/ (especially the part about salary discrimination)

Every Western expat in Dubai has to find some way to not believe it. Same with the human rights violations and laws against many freedoms.

And you still have your own preconceptions and self righteousness. Fun this, isn't it? 

I'm out.

Fretwired

From the Times:

A woman who was detained in a prison in Dubai for three days after she argued with an immigration official, admitted having drunk a glass of wine and tried to use her Iranian passport. Ellie Holman, 44, who lives with her British partner and three children in Sevenoaks in Kent, also said that her nationality was probably a significant factor in her being detained with her four-year-old daughter. She was born in Iran, grew up in Sweden and has lived in Britain for almost 20 years.

She uses her fiancé’s surname, but the name on her passport is Elham Reza Sateei.

The dispute began when she tried to reuse a single-entry visa, which she had used two months earlier. One official advised her to get a transit visa that would allow her to stay in Dubai for the duration of her five-day trip. She said that a different immigration official then told her that she would have to get a flight home. “I did not swear and told him I was told I could get a transit visa. He just refused to listen and he was so close I could feel his spit on my face. He was jabbing a finger in my face and was rude and aggressive.

“He looked at me as if I was like the dirt under his shoes, and I think it was because I was from Iran. If it had been a European woman he might not have reacted in the same way.”

At this point she began filming him on her mobile phone, which is prohibited at immigration desks in Dubai as it is in Britain. She was immediately surrounded by other officials, one of whom asked her if she had drunk any alcohol on her flight. She admitted that she had accepted a free glass of wine on her flight.

Ms Holman was told that she had been arrested for consuming alcohol, swearing at an official and illegally filming. “I never swear in front of my children,” she said. “I had my four-year-old daughter with me and I would never use bad language in front of her. People in Britain film police all the time. I was doing it for my own protection.”