Is Dubai nearing its end?

[PakLFC]

People associate glitz, glamour, money and fame with Dubai. I've heard from many people there that due to debt and human right issues it's all coming to and end now. What do others here think?

 

[LongHorn]

Nope.
Dubai and the Gulf countries have issues, and the local news never ever mentions negative stuff but what annoys is that every article or video about the true negative stuff also adds on a whole lot of untrue stuff, reducing their credibility

 

[proud_pakistani]

I live in Dubai. Some of these things might be true but all economies go though tough circumstances. UAE is highly dependent on oil and with oil going up things are again looking good for the Gulf state.

As per a report I read on Bloomberg the UAE needs oil to be at $72 to be able to manage its expenses. Currently the oil price is $84 meaning the government has a surplus, which in turn means the government will release new projects which means more jobs etc. Its a cyclical country, very high dependence on oil and external investment. External investment in the last few years has gone down due to the global economy falling but UAE will survive but they still have oil to fall back on. Governance is very good and the country is small.

 

[Sirris]

I usually avoid YouTube videos with overly dramatic thumbnail in urdu. The videos tend to be exaggerated. I guess same is the case here.

 

[DeadBall]

Have been hearing these doomsday prophecies for time immemorial. First of all people confuse Dubai with the UAE like the poster above. Dubai has literally no oil reserves, less than 5 percent, Abu Dhabi holds more than 90 percent of the Oil with a percent (or less) here and there to Sharjah, RAK etc. In fact Oil makes less than 1 percent of Dubai's GDP. Dubai mostly makes it money due to property development, luxury tourism, tay free ports and zones which attract the multinational corporations and charging the hell out of the expat community which make up more than 90% of the population.

In fact when Burj Dubai was being built Sheikh Muhammad ran out of money during the crisis and had to go to Sheikh Khalifa for a loan which he only gave on the condition that it be renamed after him (thus Burj Khalifa), they say it was later changed to honour Sheikh Khalifa but actual local populace, like myself know the true story. There have been many many other instances where Dubai had to bend over to AD for it's benefit be it political marriages, benefits for the locals (for eg when a couple get married in Dubai they get 70k Dhs, a house and a car but in AD it's double), security allocations etc. Beleive me I can really dish out the dirt but no point in doing that.

All in all Dubai isn't going anywhere as long as they abuse labour and human rights laws (considering the construction bubble doesn't burst but that has been predicted many times to no avail) and they have AD to bail them out if required, plus the now new taxation on the expats, tax free havens for multinational corporations, duty free zones etc.

 

[saadibaba]

Have not seen the video but agree with posters above calling the OP an exaggeration.

[MENTION=146530]DeadBall[/MENTION] Interesting to know that Dubai is so reliant on Abu Dhabi's help. Also, I thought you lived in Europe for some reason. Did you moved to Dubai recently?

 

[PakLFC]

It's okay if it is. Gwadar will be the next Dubai, insha Allah.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Have been hearing these doomsday prophecies for time immemorial. First of all people confuse Dubai with the UAE like the poster above. Dubai has literally no oil reserves, less than 5 percent, Abu Dhabi holds more than 90 percent of the Oil with a percent (or less) here and there to Sharjah, RAK etc. In fact Oil makes less than 1 percent of Dubai's GDP. Dubai mostly makes it money due to property development, luxury tourism, tay free ports and zones which attract the multinational corporations and charging the hell out of the expat community which make up more than 90% of the population.

In fact when Burj Dubai was being built Sheikh Muhammad ran out of money during the crisis and had to go to Sheikh Khalifa for a loan which he only gave on the condition that it be renamed after him (thus Burj Khalifa), they say it was later changed to honour Sheikh Khalifa but actual local populace, like myself know the true story. There have been many many other instances where Dubai had to bend over to AD for it's benefit be it political marriages, benefits for the locals (for eg when a couple get married in Dubai they get 70k Dhs, a house and a car but in AD it's double), security allocations etc. Beleive me I can really dish out the dirt but no point in doing that.

All in all Dubai isn't going anywhere as long as they abuse labour and human rights laws (considering the construction bubble doesn't burst but that has been predicted many times to no avail) and they have AD to bail them out if required, plus the now new taxation on the expats, tax free havens for multinational corporations, duty free zones etc.

How would bringing labour laws into line with the western world benefit them? Aren't they benefiting from cheap labour in the same way the superpowers did in the past when building their empires?

 

[DeadBall]

Have not seen the video but agree with posters above calling the OP an exaggeration.

[MENTION=146530]DeadBall[/MENTION] Interesting to know that Dubai is so reliant on Abu Dhabi's help. Also, I thought you lived in Europe for some reason. Did you moved to Dubai recently?

Yeah, I live in Germany but am half Emirati from my mothers side, was born and brought up in Dubai.

 

[DeadBall]

How would bringing labour laws into line with the western world benefit them? Aren't they benefiting from cheap labour in the same way the superpowers did in the past when building their empires?

They are not benefiting from cheap labour but slave labour. The payments are a pittance, living conditions worse than animals and they can't even leave (after being promised the world back home with most of them selling whatever they have to come to Dubai) as the companies hold their passport, which is technically illegal according to UAE law but it's ignored.

There is no way so many skyscrapers can be built in such a short time (all over the Gulf actually) without slave labour, I know because I am in the construction business. Apart from the thousands who are dying from the heat, exhaustion etc the ones who have lost all hope just jump in front of cars on the highway, because according to UAE law if you kill someone (even if they jumped in front of your car) you have to pay Diya (blood money) even if you did not intend to kill the person. Ironically it's the expats (most of whom can't afford it) who have to fork out this money, an amount the labourer wouldn't have been able to earn in 10 life times there, which goes to their families back home.

It's a sad and vicious cycle.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

I read your post wrong, I thought you were saying they would need to bring their labour laws in line to progress financially, just read it again and in fact you are saying they are taking advantage of cheap labour - or slave labour if you like - which is what made sense to me.