Fascinating article on Dubai

[RuntheDamnBall]

If you guys can stomach that this is from a publication called the "New Left Review" you'll find that this is a pretty well-researched and eye-opening profile on Dubai.

 

FEAR AND MONEY IN DUBAI

 

...each time you spend $50 to fill your tank, you are helping to irrigate al-Maktoum’s oasis. Fuel prices are currently inflated by industrial China’s soaring demand as well as growing fears of war and terrorism in the global oil patch. According to the Wall Street Journal, ‘consumers will [have paid] $1.2 trillion more in 2004 and 2005 together for oil products than they did in 2003’. [15] As in the 1970s, a huge and disruptive transfer of wealth is taking place between oil-consuming and oil-producing nations. Already visible on the horizon, moreover, is Hubbert’s Peak, the tipping point when new petroleum reserves will no longer offset global demand, and thereafter oil prices will become truly stratospheric. In some utopian economic model, perhaps, this windfall would become an investment fund for shifting the global economy to renewable energy while reducing greenhouse gas output and raising the environmental efficiency of urban systems. In the real world of capitalism, however, it has become a subsidy for the apocalyptic luxuries that Dubai is coming to epitomize.

[RuntheDamnBall]

Also, a book alluded to in the article that is riveting: Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta. I highly recommend it. The author spends time with some of the mob bosses and figures mentioned in this Dubai article (they were 'exiled' there), the law enforcement officials fighting them, and paints an amazing picture of what the nightlife is like there. It's as engaging as the Godfather or any kind of mob/crime drama, but not fictionalized. It's amazing the things we don't know.

[RuntheDamnBall]

One last quote from this and I'm done:

Dubai now enjoys high marks from Washington as a partner in the War on Terror and, in particular, as a base for spying on Iran; [26]but it is probable that al-Maktoum, like the other Emirati rulers, still keeps a channel open to radical Islamists. If al-Qaeda so desired, for example, it could presumably turn the Burj Al-Arab and Dubai’s other soaring landmarks into so many towering infernos. Yet so far Dubai is one of the few cities in the region to have entirely avoided car-bombings and attacks on Western tourists: eloquent testament, one might suppose, to the city-state’s continuing role as a money laundry and upscale hideout, like Tangiers in the 1940s or Macao in the 1960s. Dubai’s burgeoning black economy is its insurance policy against the car-bombers and airplane hijackers.

Which makes this all interesting. If Dubai is really such a haven for hedonism and capitalism, it would seem to be an easy target. This says to me what I've been hinting at all along. The war on terror is not about religion -- not for its major players -- it is about power (and the use of religion to maintain a hold on and increase that power).

[GG]

Which makes this all interesting. If Dubai is really such a haven for hedonism and capitalism, it would seem to be an easy target. This says to me what I've been hinting at all along. The war on terror is not about religion -- not for its major players -- it is about power (and the use of religion to maintain a hold on and increase that power).

 

Or people could have been listening to the dead guy all these years, instead of glossing over posts by a verbose old man.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

Or people could have been listening to the dead guy all these years, instead of glossing over posts by a verbose old man.

 

Indeed...

 

Though he now has a long neck, he certainly knew what the !@#$ he was talking about.

[RuntheDamnBall]

Or people could have been listening to the dead guy all these years, instead of glossing over posts by a verbose old man.

I'm not sure what you're getting at as this covers way more than just the DPW situation and I've never been critical of Paul's posts whatever I might have thought of his politics. He obviously was a smart guy in a position to know a lot more than most of us ever will.

 

I don't think that makes this any less of an interesting read, one for me that tells a lot about a place that's an abstraction for almost all of us.

[DC Tom]

And by the way...I'm still as hopping !@#$ing incensed over that Dubai Ports World bull sh-- now as I was back then.

[GG]

I'm not sure what you're getting at as this covers way more than just the DPW situation and I've never been critical of Paul's posts whatever I might have thought of his politics. He obviously was a smart guy in a position to know a lot more than most of us ever will.

 

I don't think that makes this any less of an interesting read, one for me that tells a lot about a place that's an abstraction for almost all of us.

 

The DP situation was a perfect example how a great opportunity was flubbed. On a grand scale, it was a minor event, but symbolically, saying yes to a Mid Eastern regime to play a role in the US economy would have been huge.

 

Dubai is a critical spot and a knee jerk tie to oil-rich Arab states, is wrong, because Dubai is not a major oil producer. Its sheik wisely realized that the future of the emirates is to be the center that ties East and West. So far, they've done a decent job of being a US ally.

 

Frankly, I didn't see much difference in the description of Dubai, than a flashier version of Geneva. (Well, except maybe more sand ___.)

[DC Tom]

The DP situation was a perfect example how a great opportunity was flubbed. On a grand scale, it was a minor event, but symbolically, saying yes to a Mid Eastern regime to play a role in the US economy would have been huge.

 

Dubai is a critical spot and a knee jerk tie to oil-rich Arab states, is wrong, because Dubai is not a major oil producer. Its sheik wisely realized that the future of the emirates is to be the center that ties East and West. So far, they've done a decent job of being a US ally.

 

Frankly, I didn't see much difference in the description of Dubai, than a flashier version of Geneva. (Well, except maybe more sand ___.)

 

Oh, come on. You can say it out loud. "Sand !@#$s". It's perfectly acceptable. It must be, since it's the only reason we !@#$ed over the Europeans that run Dubai Ports World.

[RuntheDamnBall]

The DP situation was a perfect example how a great opportunity was flubbed. On a grand scale, it was a minor event, but symbolically, saying yes to a Mid Eastern regime to play a role in the US economy would have been huge.

 

Dubai is a critical spot and a knee jerk tie to oil-rich Arab states, is wrong, because Dubai is not a major oil producer. Its sheik wisely realized that the future of the emirates is to be the center that ties East and West. So far, they've done a decent job of being a US ally.

 

Frankly, I didn't see much difference in the description of Dubai, than a flashier version of Geneva. (Well, except maybe more sand ___.)

Well, I'm sure you've been around more than me. I'm not sure that either is preferable. But that's just me.

 

Just because Dubai itself is not a major oil producer does not mean that it is not a place where oil business is conducted. I think this piece alludes to what you're saying though, in that the desire here is to make Dubai a place that survives on tourism and luxury and excess itself. Can that work, I don't know. I don't think it's any more sustainable than oil. Is it the kind of power base we want to support when there is a very angry and growing segment of people who are working to build such a place, and might have a stake in seeing those in power suffer? As with our dealings with the Saudis, I think that's a question that needs to be asked. Obviously there are distinct differences in btw the two societies and this needs to be considered.

 

I am not reading much into this essay as regards the DPW situation, and the essay goes so far as to mention that the reaction from US legislators was indeed racist as Tom points out.

[finknottle]

Well, I'm sure you've been around more than me. I'm not sure that either is preferable. But that's just me.

 

Just because Dubai itself is not a major oil producer does not mean that it is not a place where oil business is conducted. I think this piece alludes to what you're saying though, in that the desire here is to make Dubai a place that survives on tourism and luxury and excess itself. Can that work, I don't know. I don't think it's any more sustainable than oil. Is it the kind of power base we want to support when there is a very angry and growing segment of people who are working to build such a place, and might have a stake in seeing those in power suffer? As with our dealings with the Saudis, I think that's a question that needs to be asked. Obviously there are distinct differences in btw the two societies and this needs to be considered.

 

I am not reading much into this essay as regards the DPW situation, and the essay goes so far as to mention that the reaction from US legislators was indeed racist as Tom points out.

 

Having been to Dubai many times, I found that the article overstates the dark seemy side.

 

It also overstates the worker unrest angle. There are only now occasional rumblings, and I see no reason to believe it will threaten the regime. The difference between the UAE and the US is that there are no illegal aliens, and migrant workers must leave when their employment ends. If you are unhappy with the working conditions you will be returned to your country and replaced by someone who want to be there at that wage. This is clearly understood and universally enforced. So basically, I don't see that the angry masses can ever materialize. Something to ponder: we could easily replace our illegal workers with legal south asians who would be thrilled to make 1/3 the pay. If we are willing to turn a blind eye to the illegality on the grounds that the workers are necessary at those wages, why shouldn't we bring in even cheaper workers?

 

Just to dispell some pre-conceived notions, the migrant workers are not all south asians building towers on a dollar a day. I remember a cab driver from the Philipines (his father was US military) who was brought in after passing a competative training course - language, sites, etc. He liked it better than his time in San Diego. The hotel industry is a popular destination for western europeans in their post-graduate soul searching phase. I think it is fair to say that if you walk around Dubai, *nearly everybody* that you see - blue collar to white collar - is an expat.

 

Regarding the strategy, I think their foresight should be applauded. One need only look to Las Vegas to see that a city can survive in the desert on tourism and tradeshows. Dubai has surpassed Vegas as the premier entertainment center and is a top financial and commercial center to boot.