Trouble in the United Arab Emirates

[Pixy]

Seems Dubai is in more trouble than anyone thought.

Trouble in the United Arab Emirates: The perils of autocracy | The Economist (http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13988540)

Time to move on.

[Cyberbird]

There was never ANY doubt from my side, that Dubai is not even anywhere near the picture, they want to sell us!
it's all smoke and mirrors here- the world, the Palm Deira, and partially the Palm Jumeirah pretty much stopped their developments - the Burj Dubai Tower Area way over 60% down in value - if any - its rather price;:bored:

so my strategy: collect some more command hours under my belt, sent my family back to Europe, reduce my spending to less than 7000 Dirham/month in the UAE, and send the rest of the money straightaway out of the stricken country/ towards switzerland;
also i've got me a second passport/ all hush-hush habibi -you never know/, and don't keep more valueables & property on my hands than i can put in my two suitcases;:ok:
so - if i really have to - i can leave the sinkin' ship dubai in days - even tomorrow or this afternoon (!)- if i'd sign over my car to my friend - who is real estate broker &looking desperately for a new job, and had to sell his Porsche Boxster to pay his rent!:rolleyes:

Well - the party's pretty much over here - the last one standing (with property still on his hands) without a seat (sold it in time) is the loser in these greed driven property-flipping game.:eek:

I'm well prepared - and saw it coming since two years - see my older posts!:=

[jaadu]

Let's just sink our heads in sand until it all blows over!!!
And there is plenty of sand for everyones head!! or we can order some from next door on using the flexable friend:{!!

[ByeByeDubai]

http://7starsdubai.wordpress.com/ (http://7starsdubai.wordpress.com/)

Here is the real situation here. Little of this is fully reported.

A lot more pain to come.

These scandals and missing funds will shake things to their foundations.

Extreme heights were reached and now extreme depths will follow.

[InnocentBystander]

Here's another post. I first had it posted in it's own thread, but it's probably more suitable here:

Davidson on Dubai - Middle East Report Summer 2009

(Thanks Cuppa!)

From the Middle East Report issue 251 of Summer 09 written by Christopher M. Davidson, a senior lecturer in the School of Government and International Aff airs at Durham University. Mr Davidson is the author of Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success (Columbia University Press, 2008).

This article is very well researched and very neutral in it's findings and thus quite contrary to the usual "dark side" drivel in the UK papers. It contains quite new and previously unreported findings about the so called "bail out" by the Abu Dhabi emirate and the state of the Dubai finances in early summer 2009.

Also Mr. Davidson has written a very interesting book about Dubai, I'd like to include a link this as well:

Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success, Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Dubai-Vulnerab.../dp/0231700342)

[tonker]

Everywhere is knackered. Where do you flee to?

[Instant Hooligan]

Things are real bad!! Even the price of the book is down 20%

[Easy Ryder]

HAHAHA :ok:

[poina]

Cyberbird,
Kudos for being prepared. How many pilots do you know on their 3rd wife 3rd set of kids, no money in the bank and no hope of retirement.
May I suggest buying an ounce of gold per month and to spread your cash throughout several different currencies, not the US Dollar.

[Jet II]

Everywhere is knackered. Where do you flee to?

Well europe and north america are in the tank and will be for years - How about the Far East?

[tonker]

Exactly. If you are considering coming back to the UK then think again. There are Captains i know retraining as driving intructors(£10 per hour) for the inevitable cut backs. The market for jobs is completely saturated here.

Leaving a ship thats taking on water is one thing, trying to get rescued by the Titanic is madness.

As for the far east i just don't beleive enough of the future markets in Vietnam/Laos etc are well enough established to attract people from a 1st world background. Personally if i could look after my family adequately, i'd be off like a shot.

[Payscale]

The grass is only greener on top of a septic tank. Its just impossible to predict the future. I imagine the same guys that predict doom and gloom for dubai also said it was impossible for dubai to raise to what it has become a few years back... Stay under the radar, get your hours and when time comes make a qualified guess and act on it.

[Freo]

Sordid reality behind Dubai's gilded facade - Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6716543.ece)

[priapism]

Engineering friend just returned after 2 year contract will not be returning.
He described the place as like a movie set at Universal Studios - amazing facade - ****heap behind it.

I don't know why you people put up with it.

It will be interesting to see how this place will cope when the oil is gone and all they have to live on is sand.

[Cuppa]

I think it is easier to get the article direct from here,

http://www.christopherdavidson.net/files/Davidson_on_Dubai.pdf

[Gulf News]

there is a saying amongst my people for you

And your people are who exactly ?

[Lamyna Flo]

Greedy? If this: ...troubled state-backed firms owe British companies more than £400m. isn't indicative of the very greed of "your people", then I don't know what is.

Why don't you get your own house in order before you start the mud-slinging, "habibi"? :rolleyes:

[Mustapha Rex]

Now one may easily criticise the "locals" for what has happened here, however easy that maybe, it is simply shortsighted and baseless.

While the whole show was pumping cash into everyone's pockets, everyone took it and never complained, today the same ones who took, stand there pointing the fingers!

If anything it shows the breed of expats that have unfortunately made it to the sandlands over the las ten years or so, bringing with them the greed culture of the 90's and little benevolence for any value, and they are everywhere! Cockpit crew, cabin, real estate agents, door to door salesmen even the surly look of a department store clerk says it all: I am here just for the money, don't have any? I don't want to know you!

And this can only go on for a limited time, for the nature itself of these people ensures that they end up eating one another just as they are doing now.

This is a market economy, to what degree, maybe an issue, that does not mean that anyone can stand here and criticise willy nilly as if no achievements have been done.

Look at the roads, the infrastructure, the way business is done, the facilities, the schools, the hotels and errrr, I nearly forgot , yes, the Burj! And there maybe construction and there maybe traffic jams, but Dubai is a city with a life better than any other of the cities surrounding it, and we ar elucky to be here.

It will take decades for other cities to reach this level of urbanism and this standard of lifestyle, and for once it is happening in a part of the world where no one expected it.

Yes the UAE government can do more, but so can the expats, firstly by learning more about this culture and what it may add to your cultural wealth, you would expect the same of an expat coming to live in your country, why can't locals expect the same of expats coming to live here?

And have beer after you read this, maybe it is after all what is missing to this parody!

[OMDB-PiLoT]

@Mustapha Rex: Be prepared for a lot of bashing from British and American expats. I will add more spice to your message :-D

You see, things have changed around here. From the late 90s till the crisis, these white expats (oh yes, I mean European and Americans) were treated like kings. American/British farmers and toilet cleaners turned into managers, made loads of money in real estate, etc. But now things have changed. They are wiping Arab arse and still not getting free wine.

I think U.A.E. has made this very clear now - Leave the country if you dont like it and go back to the sh1t hole (Ya I think its appropriate if you are from the USA or the UK.) you came from.

It was nice havin ya .. bubye! :}


PS. Sorry for generalizing, but you got my point right?! :p *Let me get cover before the bashing begins*

[eklawyer]

Well I'll start

http://cache.wists.com/thumbnails/2/c0/2c0c6e62679b75a0542177955f548565-orig

Thats a picture of a Roman Sewage system 2200 years old. Lets move forward to 2009, ah yes Dubai forgot to add a sewage system to its amazing infrastructure and as a result they pump 10,000 usg a day from an outfall at DOSC. Sorry Algae bloom, that occurs in only one place, every weekend and smells of **** !

Oh yes forgot to mention, I am just here for the money, and yes I will be retiring to my dump in the North Island, 10 hectares of prime land, and 12m berth for the yacht in my own back yard.

[tonker]

The UK and USA might be **** holes but always remember one small thing..


You are always just passing through.;)

[Jet II]

The grass is only greener on top of a septic tank.

LOL - funnily enough wherever I have worked there were always the same unhappy people who kept telling me that the grass was greener elsewhere - once they finally grew some balls and left and went elsewhere they found exactly the same **** that they had left. :ouch:

[Lamyna Flo]

...go back to the sh1t hole (Ya I think its appropriate if you are from the USA or the UK.)

In your ever-so-humble opinion ;). Unfortunately this kind of post just serves to demonstrate ignorance about these two beautiful countries. Clearly anyone thinking along these lines has never explored the wilds of Scotland, or the majesty of Zion Nat State Park, to mention but two. Oh, I forgot... why would you bother, when you live in a dusty, man-made "sh1t hole" next to an ocean filled with effluent?

[Nightfire]

Alright, guys, can we all just calm down again?
It's not really a sensible argument to call each others home a sh1thole or to point fingers at one another.

Regardless of weather someone is a local or an expat, everybody came to DXB for the money, and was happy to grab as much as possible - waste it on a yacht, invest into a real-estate project or safely transfer it out of the country.
Now the game is over, everyone is upset about it, and either blames it on greed and irresponsibility of "the others", or comes up with "I told you so!".

[PorkKnuckle]

government can do more, but so can the expats, firstly by learning more about this culture and what it may add to your cultural wealth


Culture? Do you mean beyond: mobile phones, land cruisers and fast driving, desert safaris, malls and tall buildings? They used to have some nice old buildings in Dubai but they knocked them all down to make buildings that look old (eg: Madinat) or sound old (eg: "Olde" Town).

The only culture (I think) I have ever seen here is a bunch of guys in a line, all in white and waving miniature goat-herding sticks up and down, to the beat.

I wish there was more of cultural significance to see and do besides celebrate the new mall or indoor ski hill.


you would expect the same of an expat coming to live in your country, why can't locals expect the same of expats coming to live here?


Do you really need it pointed out to you that 'they' would be treated as a citizen in your country whereas 'they' treat the expats as a contractor who is welcome to LEAVE as soon as his usefulness expires... :rolleyes: Good for them though. Can't say I blame them really.

[Payscale]

Calm down boys, this is not worthy of proff pilots. We are here for our own gain. We were offered jobs dubais gain. One day dubai wont need us and ask us to leave. No problem. One day I will leave. No problem... thats the expat life.

[Jet II]

They used to have some nice old buildings in Dubai but they knocked them all down to make buildings that look old (eg: Madinat) or sound old (eg: "Olde" Town).

Oh come on - lighten up.

I've lost count of the amount of towns I've gone through in the US that have an 'Historic Quarter' that is younger than my Mother in Law.


Do you really need it pointed out to you that 'they' would be treated as a citizen in your country whereas 'they' treat the expats as a contractor who is welcome to LEAVE as soon as his usefulness expires.

Well 'they' treat people on work visa's in exactly the same way that people on work visa's are treated in Oz, US, NZ etc. - as soon as the work ends... sayonara ...

As for all this cobblers about pumping **** into the sea - well European countries have been pumping **** into the sea for decades and still haven't stopped.

Everyone just chill - we are in work, earning cash and the sun is shining - what more could you want at the present time?

[puff m'call]

Having just come back from my so call "sh1te hole" of a country it remains quite clear just what this place is:

A Third World country getting a very shallow First World "fake over":ugh:

This truly is the sh1te hole dump of a place with a nation a people to match. I've never in my entire life met a more disgusting race people as I have here. Two faced, arrogant hypocritical liars. :mad:

I for sure will be one of the first away when something comes along, and not a moment too soon.

For those who stay, you're welcome to it.

[EGGW]

Right the usual rubbish has surfaced, just like the stuff floating around at DOSC. Have a nice weekend gents.

EGGW

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