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I would like to know, what is it like to be living in Dubai? I have seen this city on many documentaries and read about it many times and it seems to be like a city of the future. I was wondering what was it like to be in that kind of city?
I would like to know, what is it like to be living in Dubai? I have seen this city on many documentaries and read about it many times and it seems to be like a city of the future. I was wondering what was it like to be in that kind of city?
24-hour Shopping Malls.
For the most part, it is very car-centric, but they have two metro lines that take you the length of the city. The most popular places to get off the metro is at some of the malls. Burj Khalifa is fantastic, and a great place to spend your time.
The one walkable area is Deira. Which is mostly non-Emirates who are hustling and bustling about trying to make a living - mostly Indian, and some African and other Arabs/Muslims about.
If one would live there, you'd probably find yourself in a very car-dependent part of the city. There are clubs and drinking places, almost always attached to either Hotels or Malls. You won't find a pub on a corner, or anything like that. So, most often people drive to the nightlife areas. If you are an expat, you might even have a maid or driver.
Tons of Indian males everywhere in Dubai. I think it's something like 40-50% of the population. They do much of the work. Another ton of Filipinas, Indonesians, etc. who doing a lot of the other work.
Emirates have all the money, and do very little of the work. But you'll see Emirate in all the official types of places. Going through immigration, when you're dealing with police, etc.
Interesting you'd call it the 'City of the Future'. It's an interesting city, but largely unsustainable. I'd say a great representation of the 'City based on the Current System of Unsustainability'. Basically since it's basically a society that makes a ton of money off of OIL (which won't be around forever), and a society that almost has slave-like labor coming in from the developing world to work at much lower wages than where the cost of living is at to live there.
Last edited by Tiger Beer; 08-03-2014 at 11:23 PM..
For the most part, it is very car-centric, but they have two metro lines that take you the length of the city. The most popular places to get off the metro is at some of the malls. Burj Khalifa is fantastic, and a great place to spend your time.
The one walkable area is Deira. Which is mostly non-Emirates who are hustling and bustling about trying to make a living - mostly Indian, and some African and other Arabs/Muslims about.
If one would live there, you'd probably find yourself in a very car-dependent part of the city. There are clubs and drinking places, almost always attached to either Hotels or Malls. You won't find a pub on a corner, or anything like that. So, most often people drive to the nightlife areas. If you are an expat, you might even have a maid or driver.
Tons of Indian males everywhere in Dubai. I think it's something like 40-50% of the population. They do much of the work. Another ton of Filipinas, Indonesians, etc. who doing a lot of the other work.
Emirates have all the money, and do very little of the work. But you'll see Emirate in all the official types of places. Going through immigration, when you're dealing with police, etc.
Interesting you'd call it the 'City of the Future'. It's an interesting city, but largely unsustainable. I'd say a great representation of the 'City based on the Current System of Unsustainability'. Basically since it's basically a society that makes a ton of money off of OIL (which won't be around forever), and a society that almost has slave-like labor coming in from the developing world to work at much lower wages than where the cost of living is at to live there.
I think it appeals to a certain kind of person. Expat professionals can find jobs there, and sometimes they pay better than back at home. And if a person loves malls, shopping, and new stuff...than Dubai is absolutely filled with that kind of stuff.
The UAE may appear like a "modern" country but the mentality of the people is very much 3rd World.
I have a friend whose parents immigrated to the UAE from Sudan, he was born and raised there but he is not a citizen. The UAE does not allow people from other countries to become citizens, so essentially you have a country with majority foreign born people with no citizenship or equal rights
He showed me his drivers license and it actually shows "Sudan" as his "place of origin". I think it is very stupid and discriminatory to put someone's country of origin on a drivers license but that is the mentality of these countries.
He was explaining to me that if you get into a traffic accident with an Emirati, the police would always try to blame the "foreigner"- in his case, someone who was born and raised in the country.
I could go on and on about these Gulf countries but they really suck- the people are for the most part very shallow, materialistic, arrogant but deep inside, have a huge inferiority complex.
There is absolutely no shame in having a maid, a driver or some assistant-paying them crap and treating them like ****.
In Qatar, they had these stupid "family only days" at the mall- basically, it was a way to keep Indians, Pakistanis and other laborers out. Now if you were a single European, American or Qatari, you could walk in, no problem. These Gulf countries SUCK
Last edited by Repubocrat; 08-08-2014 at 02:48 AM..
I've visited quite a few times on business, never lived there, so factor that into my opinions.
As far as weather goes, it can brutally hot and humid.
Similarly to Las Vegas, it looks much better at night when you only see the glitter and can't actually see what's out there.
It feels like a very cosmopolitan city. There is a lot of money (I've seen more Ferrari's/hour there than anywhere else), but also a lot of poor folks who do all the menial labor. Very much a two class society.
I give the UAE credit for recognizing that they won't be able to sustain their economy on oil forever. Their plan is to create a major world trading hub out of Dubai, hence the major investments in the airline, the airport, and the surrounding tax free zone. This actually hearkens back to a time when they were on the major trade route from east Africa to the far east. I don't know whether it will work in the long term. Their challenge may come from social unrest, either driven by dissatisfaction with the intense class based society that is there today, or driven by something like ISIS. Bahrain, which is in a similar situation, has seen significant unrest over the past 4-5 years.
Avoid any nation with a majority population of Muslims.
agree
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agree
