Dubai’s work force…a side note on current events
Rdan
No Sweat adds another facet to the crisis in Dubai…mobility of labor and wages. I cannot imagine what conditions are like to produce a strike in this city. If the players default in high finance, do they go to debtors’ prison like most everyone else?
An estimated 700,000 Asians, mostly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, work as construction workers in the UAE, an oil-rich Gulf country experiencing an economic boom where only some 20 percent of the four million population have citizenship.
Sign of the times for the headlong pursuit of bargains?
For those with an interest in Dubai and its EX-Pat and innigrant Labor Force may be interested in reading this: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html “The Dark Side of Dubai”
Karen Andrews Story
“‘When we realised that, I sat Daniel down and told him: listen, we need to get out of here. He knew he was guaranteed a pay-off when he resigned, so we said – right, let’s take the pay-off, clear the debt, and go.” So Daniel resigned – but he was given a lower pay-off than his contract suggested. The debt remained. As soon as you quit your job in Dubai, your employer has to inform your bank. If you have any outstanding debts that aren’t covered by your savings, then all your accounts are frozen, and you are forbidden to leave the country.
‘Suddenly our cards stopped working. We had nothing. We were thrown out of our apartment.’
Karen can’t speak about what happened next for a long time; she is shaking. Daniel was arrested and taken away on the day of their eviction. It was six days before she could talk to him.
‘He told me he was put in a cell with another debtor, a Sri Lankan guy who was only 27, who said he couldn’t face the shame to his family. Daniel woke up and the boy had swallowed razor-blades. He banged for help, but nobody came, and the boy died in front of him.’
Karen managed to beg from her friends for a few weeks, ‘but it was so humiliating. I’ve never lived like this. I worked in the fashion industry. I had my own shops. I’ve never…’
She peters out.
Daniel was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at a trial he couldn’t understand. It was in Arabic, and there was no translation.
‘Now I’m here illegally, too,” Karen says I’ve got no money, nothing. I have to last nine months until he’s out, somehow.’
Looking away, almost paralysed with embarrassment, she asks if I could buy her a meal.
She is not alone. All over the city, there are maxed-out expats sleeping secretly in the sand-dunes or the airport or in their cars.
‘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.'”
Of course they are Arabs. ‘Nuf said.
Why not just remove the comment, if you don’t like it? Censorship ought to be honest and open. Say “comment removed by rdan”.
Saves the comment for posterity should someone want to read it and and keeps the transparency actually.
Additional Dubai info:
“The Dubai Debt Binge – second recession starting now?” http://ataxingmatter.blogs.com/tax/2009/11/the-dubai-debt-bingesecond-recession-dip-starting-now.html “Maybe banks should start paying a little more attention to what they are lending to support? Dubai has built an empire on shifting sand, out of slave labor, and with no concern for the environment.”
and here:
“A Morally Bankrupt Dictatorship Built by Slave Labor” http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-a-morally-bankrupt-dictatorship-built-by-slave-labour-1828754.html “The idea that Dubai is an oasis of freedom on the Arabian peninsular is one of the great lies of our time.”
Bangladeshi Farmer Sends “Aid” to Dubai Government
http://theeggplantpost.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/bangladeshi-farmer-sends-aid-to-dubai-government/