Community | April 07, 2009 | 3 comments

The dark side of Dubai

source: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368...

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kinolina
Reporter Johann Hari contributes a sobering portrait of Dubai, a city of One Thousand and One Arabian Lights, for The Independent UK ("The dark side of Dubai", 7 April 2009). Behind the facade of steel and glass molded in all shapes and sizes soaring towards the skies above the sandy beaches and desert floor, Hari's essay peels back the layers to get a perspective of Dubai that lessens the loftiness of the city's urban planning dreams. The global economic crisis has hit this fast-growing city in the Gulf, and now, Hari writes, Dubai has become a "Creditopolis" or "city built on debt' entrapping many workers from abroad of all ranks who find themselves broke, homeless, or simply cannot leave because their passports have been taken by their employers and their salaries have been cut or denied. Numerical statistics on construction workers who have committed suicide have been documented, but not by the city's authorities who have dismissed these deaths as accidents, and have pressured consulates to stop counting. The larger view from the article is a dystopian one, befitting of a J.G. Ballard narrative ("High-Rise", "The Drought"). Capitalistic excess, socio-economic dysfunction between demographic classes and foreign workers, environmental degradation, and a line of credit that may be spread too thin combine to lend an impression of Dubai's looming demise.

Image: Construction workers in their distinctive blue overalls building the upper floors of the new Burj al-Arab hotel (Getty)
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    Capitalism,  Slavery,  Dubai,  Cities,  5 more
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3 comments // The dark side of Dubai

  • PoisonTheMonkey
    • 0
      PoisonTheMonkey  

    • This is the TRUE face of free market capitalism. It isn't freedom, it's shiny and beautiful but it's built with blood of slaves. That's free market capitalism.

    • 2 years ago
  • el_chivo
    • 0
      el_chivo  

    • This article is long but I just couldn’t stop reading. I was offered a work in Dubai just a couple of months ago and I said no for various reasons, but this is a reaffirmation to this decision. I have heard about the poor treatment to people of India and their position of almost slaves, but this article goes deep and deep.

      I think that Dubai is a little mirror of the world, all the sins of our way of living interacting in this microcosm.

    • 2 years ago
  • PoisonTheMonkey

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