A Thousand and One Nights in Dubai
 

Artist's concept


Reality

The Dark Side of Dubai from The Independent:

"The thing you have to understand about Dubai is – nothing is what it seems," Karen says at last. "Nothing. This isn't a city, it's a con-job. They lure you in telling you it's one thing – a modern kind of place – but beneath the surface it's a medieval dictatorship."

To read the whole story, click here

Heartbreaking article but not surprising at all.

Wow, fascinating, and horrifying.

I almost got on board with a project in Dubai, but it didn't happen thanks to economic factors. I would have been 100% ignorant of any of this had I gone over there. sounds like I dodged a bullet. (Honestly, I hate malls, so Dubai would have been pretty hellish even in the best of circumstances.)

Same here, I was approached about some consulting work in Dubai but that dry heat makes my hair frizz and I hate that.

Then there's that whole thing about if you're seen with a female that isn't a relative that isn't your wife, then you're stoned to death stuff, that sort of turns me off. Sure, the mall is nuts around the holidays, but not usually quite that bad.

That's in Saudi Arabia, not Dubai.

I was exaggerating :p Actually you can't live with a member of the opposite sex in various parts of the UAE from what I understand, but it isn't really enforced in Dubai.

Okay, this one sentence bugs me:

Dear, Iceland is the pretty/nice one and Greenland is the nasty one.

But Iceland is the country experiencing financial ruination currently and recently proved be completely puffed up on the outer edge of a financial bubble.

Which I think (though it is overly flowery so I might be wrong) is the analogy they were going for. Being a British newspaper teh Icelandic financial situation is one that the British reader would be well aware of since Iceland's collapse came very close to bringing down the UK (Brits were putting a lot of money into Iceland investments).

Sweet, sweet irony.

Wow, what an article.