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Posted by: martindv Apr 9 2009, 10:50 PM

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

Geez. As much as this sucks, it's a million times cooler as a setting now than the one in Corporate Enclaves.

Apparently the emir of Abu Dhabi bailing the emir of Dubai out wasn't obvious enough that the concept is systemically flawed. The article's a nice little jab in the eye.

Also, many of the expats are idiots.

Posted by: Draco18s Apr 10 2009, 12:23 AM

I know better than to sign a contract that doesn't match what was agreed upon.

In fact, that's why it took me three weeks to not-sign a work contract I'm working on right now (I signed it Tuesday): the guy wouldn't tell me how much he was paying me. Once he gave me a number ($12/hour, which admittedly half of what he should be paying me for the work, but the guy is 65+ years old and an ex-professor and the work isn't that hard, also the number was $2 higher than his verbal estimation) I happily signed it.

Posted by: AngelisStorm Apr 10 2009, 02:36 AM

That is atrocious, and I'm only halfway through the article.

Posted by: Backgammon Apr 10 2009, 03:14 AM

Wow..

Posted by: Demonseed Elite Apr 13 2009, 11:41 PM

The Independent article makes for a great cyberpunk setting, but there are some http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2009/04/13/dubai-bashing-a.html disputing http://desert-blogger.livejournal.com/2220.html.

Posted by: thetrav Apr 14 2009, 06:53 AM

Those blog posts don't appear to be challenging the facts presented in the portrayal, they mostly seem to say "yeah everyone is bashing dubai right now so you should probably ignore it"

Posted by: Dr Funfrock Apr 14 2009, 01:50 PM

For a long time now I've wanted to see Dhubai detailed in one of the city books. In fact my dream version of Cities of Intrigue would be Dhubai and London, but I know it will never happen because they have at least one bloody North American city in every book (can we see this editorial policy axed in the head please? Possibly sometime before you guys run out of North American cities worth actually detailing?)

Posted by: SpasticTeapot Apr 14 2009, 03:35 PM

This reeks of biased reporting. (I would know - I'm guilty of it myself, though on a much smaller I-need-stuff-for-my-resume scale.)

In this case, it's most definitely to the far, far left. They have an article condemning children's decongestants for crying out bloody loud.

And I thought that the people I work for were liberal to the point of madness...

That said, Dubai is a pretty horrible place (though exactly how horrible it is, I'd need to see for myself.)

Edit:
See here - http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/terence-blacker/terence-blacker-how-precisely-will-sting-save-the-planet-1668283.html

Posted by: Wesley Street Apr 14 2009, 04:59 PM

It's not "reporting" it's opinion writing. Plus, the Continent and the UK are always left of the American mainstream. From a European perspective those Op-Ed pieces are positively middle-of-the-road.

Posted by: SpasticTeapot Apr 14 2009, 08:41 PM

I suppose that this pretty much sums up why I dislike this particular brand of journalism:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/features/childrens-medicine-give-pills-the-push-1668189.html

I write for a radio station (WORT FM of Madison WI, if you really want to know) known for being left of left-wing. While the op-ed piece on Dubai is pretty reasonable, the piece on how harmful it is to give things like tylenol with ten-year-olds with high fevers is bullcrap. Sure, the siezures might not actually be harmful, but I'm willing to guess they're not very much fun.

They also neglect to mention that while a fever does interfere with the reproduction of many diseases and how it's unnecessary to physically cool a child with a fever, the neglect to mention that all of what they say is null, void, and bullshit if the fever rises much over a hundred. At this point, the brain starts to quite literally cook, which is a hell of a lot worse than anything acetaminophen can do. (And before you say "any idiot should know that", you'd be surprised at exactly how stupid people can be.)

Being liberal is one thing. Being stupid is just another.

Posted by: Wanderlust Apr 15 2009, 12:32 AM

Furthermore to the idea of Dubai being Cyberpunk...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7998505.stm

Posted by: Wesley Street Apr 15 2009, 02:13 PM

I'm not really sure what you're pointing out here other than that you disagree with the writer's assessment on how to treat fevers. That has nothing to do with political leanings and a comparison to such is a non sequitur.


How weird would it be to clone a pig you just ate?

Posted by: xsansara Apr 15 2009, 04:17 PM

Another case of something on the internet that I don't agree with, and I can't resist.

Since I just finished a trip to Dubai I feel somewhat qualified for a rebuttal of the claims. In short, yes, the article is probably accurate, but read the human interest stories of any first-world-country. They are probably worse.

I. The whole brain cancer story is very unfortunate. But I doubt you would have trouble finding similar cases in every country on this planet. In fact, I believe in most countries you would have less trouble, after all VAE actively tries to get rid of unfortunate people like that. In Dubai, you actually have to look for homeless people. In most countries you are too busy to ignore them. Even in Switzerland I saw a homeless person. And this woman from Dubai still had a car... I wonder how many people he had to ask to find her. And yes, the different rules and that there are no expat lawyers can be bitchy, but most of the rules are benign. And, sorry, but I heard about the In-jail-for-debt-thing in my first week, because I read about it in the papers. They hardly keep it a secret and, as far as I know, all you have to do to avoid it, is getting an affluent family member to sign some papers that they will cover your debt, should you fail to repay in due course. Well, let's just hope you have one handy. Most people simply leave the country before quitting their job, just in case.

II. Regardless of recession, there still is a large amount of building activity in the general Dubai area, eg. across the street from where I lived. It is just more concentrated than before. Real Estate in Dubai is handled tactically. In a string of newly built skyscrapers one house has to be filled to a certain degree before the next one is even opened. That can mean that a fully functional huge building is kept empty for years, before you are even able to purchase real estate in it. But that also means that if the sales in the first stagger, construction on number three and four might be halted in the middle to diverge to more lucrative and more time-pressing projects. As another consequence, areas that fall out of fashion in the market can quickly turn into construction graveyards, but so far (about a month ago) they are rare.

III. The treatment of the workers is really bad. When I was there, they had a scandal about workers "disappearing" when the company did not need them anymore. To save on the flight back home for them... In general, the working conditions are slightly better than what I have seen in India (on a pretty low scale). Outside of summer, Dubai has a nice 20-30 degree celcius. Depending on the agency, workers have the Friday off and if they pitch together, they can populate the beach or stroll the mall. The problem is mostly that people have different expectations of the country. But again, ask any immigrant from a third world country in your home town, if their expectations have been met. The answer is most likely: no. Poor Bangladeshi know eg. Europe only through Bollywood movies and that view is hardly accurate. Personal happiness is measured in contrast to your surroundings, which is part of why the workers are quarantined. Back in Dubai, the Emiratis have recognized the problem and are publicly discussing solutions. Some are more effective, like having workers wear helmets at all times, to cut on accident rates, some less, like the greenhouse buses. But again, who lives in a country where all laws are good? BTW, the official solution to the disappearance of the workers is to have the hiring agencies put up an amount of money with the government with which the flight home is covered. That should also solve a lot of can't-get-away problems.

In resume: The lady is right. Dubai is like Disneyland, kind of without the mouse. It is expensive, fun, everyone around you smiles and the locals wear a costume. It has funny rules and next to no crime rate. Most problems are solved by kicking the unwanted person out. It can suck to work there, especially in the lower tiers, but it can be fun, too, if you get in the right spirit. The big advantage over Disneyland: shorter queues, much better food (unless you love pork), more quiet places. Disadvantages: no flat-fee, the park map sucks and the slight tendency of the locals to bias against you, because you are white. Although, I have to admit, it could be that I am so used to have the bias on my side that I am overcompensating on that.

Posted by: Chrysalis Apr 15 2009, 08:56 PM

The issue I have with the article is about journalistic integrity and not its factualism.

The scene where the article writer goes to the work camps was plagiarised through some rewriting from Misha Glenny's Dubai chapter in McMafia.

This means the whole article and article writer are tainted with fictionalism.

Posted by: SpasticTeapot Apr 16 2009, 04:20 AM

It's an antipharmeceutical dogma. Most of the people who believe it generally get a similar or identical drug through some sort of herbal remedy (willow bark == aspirin, for example) except the herbal remedy doesn't have a regulated dose of active ingredients while the little white pills do. (If you worked in a hyperliberal radio station, you'd be more familiar with this silliness.) The sad part is that people often end up feeding something like aspirin, thinking it to be perfectly safe because it's "herbal" and "all natural, to their eight-year-old and mess them up rather severely.

There's also an article calling for the use of electric "quadricycles" like the Gee Wiz. This is stupid. The Gee Wiz, being a quadricycle and not actually a car, is not required to conform to safety standards: a 30mph collision with a Mini could prove lethal.

I support socialization of the government, believe that better funded public schools are superior, and enjoy homophobe-baiting. I am, by American standards, a pinko commie liberal. And even I think that some of the people I work with are loony.






Actually, this sort of thing - and worse - is common just about everywhere. There's quite a lot of it in southern califorina, if I'm not mistaken.



I knew I smelled something off.

It takes one to know one, I suppose - all I do for the radio station is re-write stories straight out of the newspapers so that they can be read on the air, and occasionally take an interview to accompany them. Admittedly, I have to do a lot of re-editing and the source material isn't much in the first place, but experience in journalistic plagarism is experience nonetheless.