Interesting...
An interesting thread.
As a non pilot, but with family out in Dubai with EK, and having myself been born and brought up in a British Crown Colony with ex-pat parents and a servant to help bring up me and my sister, I have to say that "you gets what you pay (or are paid) for.." My parents returned to the UK, and I stayed in the UK after my education finished, even though I had a ready made professional job "out East".
There doesn't seem to me to be any point in going out to "the sandpit" and moaning about the heat - if you want "perfect"...go to Tahiti (and it even rains and thunderstorms there, so I'm told!).
Human rights issues are of course relevant, but not going there doesn't help to improve the situation - it just gives someone else the chance to take your place in the queue for a job...and Adolf Hucker - you don't have to treat people the way they are generally treated...it's entirely up to you. Go there and show those who don't treat people well, how they should treat them.
Take it for what it is - a chance to experience new things, fly different planes, go to new destinations, make some money, and get a new circle of friends. My relation and his wife are perfectly happy from what I can see, and are looking forward to bringing up their family there - good schools, opportunities all round and funding to enjoy it.
I think it is disingenuous to criticise someone just because they happen to like something you don't..but maybe (just as in my job) you get more disillusioned the older you get..!
I agree - it's probably not perfect, and it's not a "forever" place, but where is..??
If you don't try it, you'll never know...but if you do try it, do it with an open mind, I say, and you might even like it.
Good luck bob777...whatever you decide!