Dubai: Not what it seems

Wealth, paradise, dreams, endless possibilites... These are all words that you might hear when someone is describing Dubai. With tall glamourous buildings almost everywhere you look and more being erected everyday, the good times will never stop.

Large oil reserves originally sparked the initial growth but the absolute ruler, Sheik Mohammed realized the importance of establishing Dubai as a tourism hotspot. Dubai is full of malls, hotels, pools, restaurants, everything you could ever possibly need on vacation. He built a nation fuelled by mass consumerism and self-interest.

Dubai Night Skyline

(image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dubai_night_skyline.jpg)

Johann Hari, reporter for The Independent writes a compelling article called "The dark side of Dubai". During his visit to Dubai, he sits down with a 23-year-old Emirate male Ahmed al-Atar who describes his wonderful life.

"This is the best place in the world to be young! The government pays for your education up to PhD level. You get given a free house when you get married. You get free healthcare, and if it's not good enough here, they pay for you to go abroad. You don't even have to pay for your phone calls. Almost everyone has a maid, a nanny, and a driver. And we never pay any taxes. Don't you wish you were Emirati?"

Seems a little too good to be true, doesn't it?

That's because the reality is, for most of the people living in Dubai life is nothing like that.

Johann talks to a immigrant worker named Sahinal, who was promised work, money and a future full of hope... Little did he know that as soon as he arrived his passport would be stripped of him. He can't leave now, he is overworked and underpaid. He is a slave with no rights and no freedoms and he cannot ever leave. He came from Bangladesh to make money and send it to his family but this is impossible because he makes less in Dubai.

This is very common in Dubai and most people turn the other way because the very pleasures they enjoy on a daily basis are the direct result of someone else's labour. Sahinal tells Johann in his interview, "I miss my country, my family and my land. We can grow food in Bangladesh. Here, nothing grows. Just oil and buildings"

If your interested further in the issue, watch this.