Dubai, Dubai
I went to Dubai for the first time over the weekend. Dubai is a strange city. It's at once enchanting and depressing. The amount and type of construction there is staggering: a hotel shaped like a sailboat, a ski slope in the middle of a mall, and man-made islands in the shape of the continents. It's breathtaking.But I've never had the divide between rich and poor laid out so starkly for me. In contrast to scores of wealthy people, there are a lot of migrant workers there who don't get paid enough, or sometimes don't get paid at all. They give up being with their families to try to earn money to support their families and often end up alone and poor. It's heartbreaking.
More on this - and other things about Dubai - later this week.
posted by Travel Chick @ 10:47 PM
5 Comments:
What really bothers me is, people when they first arrive to Dubai, they can tell what you've just noticed, but after a while, it becomes so normal for them that they contribute to it.
Foreign workers are being exploited here, and I am not talking about the stores salesmen nor the hotel waiters, I am talking about construction workers, which make up almost 20% of the foreign labor in the country.
Somebody should do something.
I am looking forward to reading more about exploitation of migrant workers from your perspective.
As you say, the divide between rich and poor is so stark, that it makes you wonder where all the social agencies are, where the humanatrian groups are, what If anything they are doing!
Do people in this region have any rights at all? Is there a government agency where they can lodge a complaint for unpaid wages? or maybe they have given their passports to their employer so that they cannot even leave the country? Modern day version of slavery I would say!
Do write more about your views on your first trip to Dubai. It's nice to have a humanatrian perspective.
So you've been here ?! .... it will be interesting to see how things looked from your perspective.
I second Restless in Dubai, after a period of one year or so of living in Dubai, almost everyone turns into a Pharaoh, the contrast between different castes here is just stark.
Regards
restless in dubai ...why dont you start doing something about it? did you do any ? telling you the truth bro... no body will do anything about it..This is how it is here ,, and it will never change... am not planning to do anything about it...am not ashame of saying it straight forward instead of flying slogans in the air.
cheers man
Unions are banned here, human rights are non existent and the country's current legislature looks like it was written by a five year old; it simply cannot cope with so many of the issues here. The legislature does not even address many of the issues to begin with. The society here is stratified on lines of wealth and race. An Indian cannot even dream of getting the same treatment as a Caucasian resident here.
I have seen how my mother and sister have been ill treated by these camel humping dickwads and I assure you, its not pleasant. But then, since we're brown, we're expected to put up with such treatment as if it were the most ordinary thing under the sun. If I would never have gone to Toronto for my higher education, I may have lost my self respect forever.
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