‘The shine has been taken off’: Dubai faces existential threat as foreigners flee conflict (www.theguardian.com)
from Beep@lemmus.org to world@lemmy.world on 11 Mar 21:44
https://lemmus.org/post/20774062

Tens of thousands of residents and tourists have left UAE since the US and Israel started bombing Iran two weeks ago, leaving beach bars, malls and hotels eerily empty

#world

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comador@lemmy.world on 11 Mar 21:54 next collapse

Dear Iran, please bomb the currently under construction: Disneyland, Abu Dhabi south of Dubai. No one wants that shit.

xerxes@piefed.social on 11 Mar 23:19 next collapse

Dubai was always an economy built on a bubble. As much as I hate how they treat foreign laborers and as much as I hate their current leaders, I have some respect for how far they were able to get with this model.

But ultimately, they are a country with little land, little water, terrible weather, and surviving on a vast expat population that has no path to citizenship and will always just see it as a destination to milk for as much money as possible.

I don’t see how such a model could ever be seen as sustainable in the long run.

AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space on 11 Mar 23:55 next collapse

One could say the same about Singapore, yet it seems to be here to stay.

xerxes@piefed.social on 12 Mar 00:09 next collapse

I’ve lived in both and while the similarities are there, it’s a bit different. Singapore still has a majority non expat population while Dubai has only about a 10% local population. Singapore also invests heavily in local education with one of the highest densities of PhDs in the world.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 12 Mar 13:15 collapse

Singapore isn’t in the middle of a desert

mlg@lemmy.world on 12 Mar 11:30 next collapse

I’m kinda annoyed that even with infinite oil money, they proceeded to design a compleltly unsustainable city for as cheaply as possible.

I would have thrown that money into some next gen terraforming and serious civil engineering projects to make a technological hypercity.

Instead we just got the billionaire’s backyard of concrete, glass, and roads.

jobbies@lemmy.zip on 12 Mar 14:01 collapse

infinite oil money

You’re thinking of Abu Dhabi. Dubai doesnt really have much oil money which is why they went hard on the “sharia Vegas” thing. Abu Dhabi has actually bailed them out in the past.

jobbies@lemmy.zip on 12 Mar 13:49 collapse

Dubai was always an economy built on a bubble

You could almost say it was built on sand…

jobbies@lemmy.zip on 12 Mar 13:57 next collapse

Never understood the fascination myself. Dust bowl with no natural beauty. Authoritarian government. So hot you can’t even go outside for half of the year and worst of all legalised slave labour. Wouldn’t live there if you paid me.

TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world on 12 Mar 14:08 collapse

It’s shiny and wealthy.

Most people like shiny expensive things.

caboose2006@lemmy.world on 12 Mar 15:27 collapse

Couldn’t’ve happened to a better group of people. Free your slaves and maybe I’ll have some sympathy