A few days back I wrote about how Dubai is not exactly the paradise it is made out to be. The major cause for putting my thoughts down was a recent story penned by a British Journalist for the Independent.

It turns out some in Dubai did not like the criticism and attempted to turn the tables. Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi wrote “If you think Dubai is bad, just look at your own country” as a reply. Being a fairly neutral party, seeing I have no vested stake in either country, I think the Sultan’s response falls quite short – especially compared takes place in Dubai on a daily basis. Let’s break it down.

“The Dark Side of Dubai” in part stated:

• Pitched as an adult Disney Land when it is not
• If you cannot pay your debt, you go to jail
• Legal proceedings are only in Arabic, if you cannot understand Arabic you are out of luck
• City build largely by forced/slave labor
• Poor housing conditions for the forced/slave labor
• The “melting pot” mentality that is marketed is not true
• City built by no usable water, exhausting natural resources
• Sea water pollution is so bad the bacterial level is too high to count

“If you think Dubai is bad, just look at your own country” in part stated:

• 380,000 homeless people in UK
• 12,000 women to prison sent to prison in 2006
• Had Given refuge to 400 Nazi war criminals
• One in every 23 teenage girls had an abortion and in 2006
• Mortality rates from liver diseases due to alcohol abuse have declined in Europe in recent decades but in Britain the rate trebled in the same period reflecting deep societal failures

It almost feels as if Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is trying to excuse the actions of his country by saying others have done things as well, so it is quite OK for us to do the same. Furthermore a number of the items on the full list are from the PAST, almost 80 years in the past and have been acknowledge by the United Kingdom as errors and missteps. Dubai continues to live with their problems, in plain sight, acting as if there is nothing wrong.

Every country has problems, no one is perfect, but some are light years ahead when it comes to societal development. To me, it sure looks like the UK has the leg up in this race.

I was a life long Republican up until about 2 years ago.  All of a sudden the political organization I most associated with seemed very foreign to me.  The days of small government were gone, scientific progress was being blocked in the name of faith, and it appeared, universally, civil rights were disappearing quicker than any time in the past.  As if that wasn’t enough, the other party of choice – the Democratic Party – was equally as uncomfortable to me.  So what am I?

Let me be VERY clear about something, just because I was a Republican didn’t mean I had “blind faith” and simply voted as a Republican on every issue.  I did my best to judge each situation and compared the views of the candidates to my personal beliefs.  More times than not I agreed with the Republican but would break from the party line when I did not agree with the view presented.  The problem is that now, more and more, I simply don’t fit into any category.

So where do I stand? I believe…

• in the right to bear arms
• in climate change but not humanity caused global warming
• society should be investing in alternative energy, not because of climate change, but it’s the right thing to do for the environment
• that the government should not tell two people what love is
• stem cell research is a must
• that people need assistance but we should not simply give the needy everything
• the progressive tax system is a failure and those who deserve a tax break are those who pay the most
• that health care is not a right but a commodity
• we should take care of our own before we take care of others
• that the most qualified individual should obtain the position
• tax breaks for U.S. corporations are needed in order to keep growth in the United States
• a woman should have the ability to pick what happens to her body
• that every immigrant should come to the U.S. legally and not be granted amnesty

Does this make me a moderate or the ever-illusive “independent”?  I understand there will never be a candidate or party that will align to every view I hold but there has to be  a candidate, or partly, that doesn’t make me feel like an outsider.

I’ve said it a number of times in the past, I want to vote from someone I believe in and not simply vote for what I believe to be the lesser of two evils.