Dubai Explained.
Everything wrong with it.
The Crashing Lie
Dubai, the shining beacon of our futurist humans, the land of modernistic infrastructure, traditional values, and prosperity for all.
More unpaid workers than America had in the 1860s, and mind-numbingly moronic infrastructure?
If you know anything about Dubai, you probably think the main issues are its human rights violations or the terrible infrastructure or something along those lines.
But I personally believe there’s something a million times worse lurking in the shadows of this shiny dystopian city — that being cringe influencers.
The Influencer Effect
Dubai opens its arms to anyone.
I have nothing but good things to say about Dubai.
It’s no longer the American dream; it’s the Dubai dream.
But essentially, we’re talking female Instagram models, usually from poorer backgrounds.
That flex that Dubai life while behind the scenes, they’ve been employed to commit some of the most disgusting degenerate acts known to man.
This is shockingly common for a city that alpha males like to claim has strict traditional values.
The Labour’s Reality
Yeah, yeah.
Also, if we’re talking core religious values, let’s talk about migrant slums full of Nepalese workers.
You know, it’s also interesting that in the UAE, it’s absolutely Haram to drink wine or beer or whiskey.
But when it comes to inhaling butane, now that’s all good, I guess they really just love fossil fuels that much.
Influencers in a way get paid to promote Dubai.
Promoted by Celebrities
Honestly, I wouldn’t care about this too much if these same celebrities didn’t pretend like they’re all progressive and forward-thinking.
For example, Will Smith and the YouTube channel Yes Theory, both staunch vocal supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Surely that means, by principle, they should be resolutely opposed to any form of slavery since that’s the root cause of this social issue they obviously care about.
They’ve both heavily promoted this pool on their large YouTube platforms.
Get Masked Writer’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
I do have a sneaky suspicion they might have been paid off by the tourism board since they’ve linked the state-run YouTube channel.
But I’m not gonna throw out claims I can’t completely substantiate.
This attraction is meant to be the deepest pool in the world.
Will Smith’s video has 25 million views, 1 million likes.
Broken Construction
Okay, imagine the amount of people he has brought into this silly pool, which on average costs 200 quid entry.
We’re talking big money generated for the owners of this establishment.
So, I thought I’d have a quick look at who owns and who built this pool.
That’s right, it’s your boy, Osama Bin Laden’s family’s construction empire, which now is owned by the Saudi Crown Prince.
Well, you wouldn’t be able to guess the types of practices that Bin Laden construction is employing in the current day, could you?
Here’s an example to give you an idea.
In 2017, a group of foreign workers, probably Nepalese or Bangladeshi, weren’t paid for six months.
Their wages were already probably around four dollars a day in one of the world’s most expensive countries, leaving them with no way to ever fly back home.
And on top of that, they most likely had their passports taken at the border and were effectively locked into slum housing surrounded by armed guards who escort them to work every day.
Oh, and this is all in 45-degree heat.
The protest was dispersed pretty quickly, and in return, they were not paid, instead sentenced to four months in prison and, I quote, 300 lashes in public.
The Real Hypocrisy
I genuinely think Dubai has the highest hypocrisy per capita of any place in the world.
Influences aside, I just want to make it clear how I feel about Dubai’s infrastructure and architecture.
And yes, Americans, before you all start crying, I am very qualified to talk about and critique car-centric infrastructure.
I can say for certain my hometown and Dubai share some similarities. Ugly, gray, dirty, smelly, inconvenient, noisy, boring.
Just in Dubai, there’s also a chance that you might get caught up in a traffic jam of doo-doo trucks.
This is the Burj Khalifa.
Doesn’t have an adequate sewer system, leading to this advanced method of CAC transportation.
I bet that smells great, bubbling away in the 50-degree heat.
I think Dubai’s infrastructure projects can be perfectly summarized by the world, a cluster of man-made islands in the shape of a world map.
