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Another article bashing Dubai....


DPS
I can only imagine that Dubai will one day be seen as a punctuation mark on the architectural follies of the past half century. This off-the-shelf city state has been built on laundering the profits of oil, drugs, arms and western aid.
Mohammed Al-Maktoum's failing has been his belief that megalomania is best when done big. He built a giant port and a giant airport, a giant stock exchange, giant finance sector and giant shopping mall. Dubai is a monument to big-must-be-beautiful.
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Read the full story here
Bora Bora Does this guy know that there is a recession going on all over the world. He doesn't say that the economic turmoil has an impact on Dubai, as it is having everywhere else. And did he begin by saying the first time he saw Dubai was from the airplane while flying over? Is that the closest he has been to Dubai? Another expert on Dubai who appears to have learned everything he knows from being outside of Dubai. If he wants to do good reporting, come to Dubai, meet with people who can provide information and see Dubai, and possibility some of his predictions would fall short if he experienced Dubai first hand. Crystal balls and tarot cards must be very popular. RobbyG
Different opinion than mine, but an enjoyable article if you put on the sarcastic hat for a moment.
I'll give an example, a truly tickling one in my case. RLMAO :lol:
[quote:]
"Just as visitors to the Middle East see half-built, mostly abandoned concrete housing blocks and barracks littering the landscape of Syria and Jordan, so the towers of Dubai will become casualties not of human greed but of architectural folly. Their lifts and services, expensive to maintain, will collapse. Their colossal facades will shed glass. Sand will drift round their trunkless legs. Animals will inhabit their basements ." [end quote]
:lol: If this would be the case, I know one little mutant cat that already inhabits one of them towers :lol: :lol: :lol:
8) BlackburnRovers There is a reason why there are so many doom and gloom articles about Dubai. Its because the official versions or PR Releases cover the other extreme, i.e. deny there are any problems and insist its boom time as usual. Throughout the world, retailers have been trying to attract consumers by price reductions. Here, everyone from schools to car dealers are trying to increase prices by pretending all is fine.... xdude LMAO..
Very entertaining, I must say..
"Rivals such as Dohar , Abu Dhabi and Bahrain - especially as they are now bailing out Dubai - may welcome its swift return to the desert ecology"
Doha + Qatar = Dohar.. :twisted:
Simon Jenkins seems to be enjoying the hardship suffered by Dubai... Snow God, some people love to pig out on pessimism. RobbyG
Like others do on optimism.... :roll: gtmash
Interesting and original line. You learn that at AUS? :lol: DPS Any coincidence that most of the Dubai bashing media is based out of UK? RobbyG
Probably because the majority of posts on DF about the negative talk are linked to UK newspaper agencies.
Maybe find a few Australian or American ones? Or from Europe, plenty left. All opinion editorial articles, as independant agencies don't view news from one side.
Those are mostly all Op-Ed articles.

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Snow
I see you not a big fan of AUS. Have I met you before? gtmash
Maybe. I was there till '07. Snow
Me till August 2006...which school? gtmash
The one with the worst social life, tucked far away beyond the new library. Snow
Lol. The Notorius SOE. Glad that you made it to shore. gtmash
Yeah, scarred me for life. I don't even practice engineering now. I became a driver. Snow
why...but you're probably getting paid less than your engingeering job I suppose... sharfraz
funny dude...,
i too drive ...
:lol: gtmash
People like me and Sharfraz, we are simple happy people.
bonk
He's pretty much repeating the Germaine Greer Dubai article (which was full of holes). Funny, that was also in the Guardian.
Jenkins needs to learn a bit of history. Sheikh Rashid initiated port Rashid (1972) and Jebel Ali (1979), Dubai Airport (1960). Sheikh Mohammed didn't become Crown Prince until 1995 and ruler of Dubai until 2006.
Dubai has been a trading center for over 100 years and a Guardian target for bulls**t for only a couple of years. Snow People like me and Sharfraz, we are simple happy people... I'm not getting what you mean by that. sharfraz
:lol:
if i may ask what is recession..
will you understand now...
we're simple...
:lol: Snow Recession...happy simple. Are you a gigolo? sharfraz is that what you ask ... or looking out.... :lol: there was a post about that before...a few members even replied and gave their contacts...go figure... :lol: gtmash
What if they get calls from men now? Del Simon Jenkins is getting a real roasting in some of the comments. I left my opinion yesterday. sharfraz
eh...
what were the comments and your opinion!!!
is it related to this post?
:shock: zonker Simon Jenkins may have a point. How many of you people posting here actually really feel that you are Dubaiites? I bet not the majority. You have to renew your residence visas every three years, dont you? You hope, Inshallah, you will have it renewed again in three years....or maybe not. Depends, isnt it? Maybe greener pastures bekon, and then you will have left. Or maybe, the economic recession deepens still further, or even worse, the Islamists begin to have thier way. Dubai is a fun city, but its definitely all glitter and tinsel. It does not appear to have a human soul, just a hollowness, which could go either way. sage & onion
Good for you and Canada Del
You find the comments if you click on Comments.
Mine started with: Loss-of-face is a big thing among the Arabs. Therefore Abu Dhabi will not allow Dubai to be consumed by dunes with wild animals inhabiting its buildings, as per Simon's wishes. zonker It has nothing to do either with me or Canada; everything to do with Dubai and the expats living there. Misery Called Life Simon Jenkins say that Dubai could survive as the playground of India! Indians will always be one the main drivers of demand here in UAE.....going foward I do see more innovation on the part of the authorities pertaining immigration! The policy of issuing long term visas on the purchase of properties, is the single most influential policy that could define Dubai's future! Snow
sorry...but what's happy simple and recession supposed to mean? sharfraz
hey, are you still serious?
anyways .. this is just going off-topic for the OP.....
:? bonk
There are practical reasons too. Like Dubai and Abu Dhabi are both part of the same country, not different member nations of the GCC. Like Dubai accounts for a third of total UAE GDP. Like non-oil foreign trade through Dubai is five times the level through Abu Dhabi. Del
That was my implication. immortal01 Sad to see some journalist just expressing his thoughts rather than speaking facts.. sage & onion
This is a very true comment, they just love to try and trash Dubai, I still believe that Dubai will get through this World Recession, because thats what it is, guys like this are just idiots pure and simple. RedKite I know Simon Jenkins of old. Never met him personally ,mind!! But I've been in touch with him, on and off , for about 10 years , in sending him information on what goes on in Wales.
For those that have not heard of him, ...... SIR Simon Jenkins,[ knighted about 2 years ago] is just about the MOST RESPECTED AND ABLE journalists in the UK. He writes in THE TIMES ; SUNDAY TIMES ; DAILY MAIL [sometimes] and GUARDIAN.
He is a genuine academic, the son of a Welsh Minister of religion. His hobby is walking the WILD MOUNTAINS OF WALES.......away from buildings and crowds !! No wonder he dislikes Dubai!!
Don't UNDERESTIMATE this very intelligent, perceptive man. His writing has huge following.......ALWAYS being quoted elsewhere.
Since he loves the lonely , natural Welsh hills, he HATES the useless wind turbines that are despoiling them.
About 10 years ago, he wrote ....after walking Pumlumon , the highest mountain [and very green] in Mid Wales , near Aberystwyth........."the view from Pumlumon is now akin to a Kuwaiti oilfield!"
He was referring to the 200 or so 150ft to 320ft wind turbines that are desecrating the unspoilt Cambrian Mountains of Mid Wales and visible from Pumlumon .
That is why I used to write to him. I sent him info on new wind farms in Wales, because I hate the useless follies too.Wind turbines will generate next to nothing.
Simon Jenkins is around 64 years of age and has travelled the world. He knows plenty about a lot of places.
VERY well written article !! Maybe overly pessimistic, but it COULD happen to Dubai if it did not get financial support!!
His point about India is interesting ! A richer India , not too far away, could really feed in people to Dubai. It is close enough!! RedKite Sir Simon Jenkins' reference to Ozymandias is the poem of that name by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley wrote:- Ozymandias - a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away." Jenkins is firing out a warning here of what COULD happen in time to Dubai. He points out that Detroit, once a thriving icon of American industry is now dying due to the decline in the American car. MANY cities have come and gone throughout human history. Carthage , Luxor, Babylon, Ephesus etc, were all great cities in the past. Beirut has suffered in recent years. The problem Dubai has , is that it has not only OVERSPENT , but it needs WESTERNERS TO FILL IT. Unless it becomes a thriving financial centre , they won't come. So the transformation needs to WORK. Tourism needs to be ATTRACTED !! MARKETING AGAIN !!! Otherwise, as he says, the people of India could fill it, quite easily ....but will they all be well-off people? bonk
Ah. So the Dubai article was just a temporary lapse on the part of Mr Jenkins rather than an indicator of a permanently high level of ignorance?



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