Over the past several years, Dubai caught the attention of the world. Major construction projects, the likes of which were largely unseen before, suddenly started popping up in this small UAE country. A country that went from having very little in the way of infrastructure to hosting the largest, free standing, man made structure in a matter of 15 years, things seemed to be heading in the right direction… Seemed…
It appears there the expansion wasn’t completely driven by the oil revenue the UAE had become accustom to. It seems a large part of the growth was also drive by, you guessed it, credit. Now that credit has dried up world wide, the construction has slowed or stopped. Major high-rise projects are virtual ghost towns as developers run out of money and labor is left to find for itself.
There is a darker, dare I say, more sinister side to Dubai that a British publication has decided to shine its journalistic light on, all brought out by the market crash.
Turns out that Dubai, the modern city of the UAE, really is what people could call a bait and switch. The expats who move to the country have no rights, the labor who go to work on construction are basically slaves, the government freezes your assets if you loose your job, public health and sanitation is non-existent…
This is a long story, one I cannot even begin to capture properly, but I do suggest you take the time to read it – even if you do it in bits.
One final thought on Dubai – I find it very funny that Detroit is a sister city.
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