Relative to the rest of the Middle East, yes, absolutely, by leaps and bounds.
> Asians in most Gulf countries including Dubai are treated like dirt and the labourers are almost modern day slaves.
This is also true in their native countries. The poorest Indian laborers live bad lives at home or in Dubai. They go to there because, in theory, you get paid 2-3 times as much for similarly bad conditions as back home.
> A lot of them have their passports taken away by the employer forcing them to stay in dubai.
This shouldn't happen, and it's criminal when it does happen. Hopefully they crack down on it and throw people in jail that do that.
That all said - yes, it's still one of the most liberal places in the Middle East.
> This is also true in their native countries. The poorest Indian laborers live bad lives at home or in Dubai. They go to there because, in theory, you get paid 2-3 times as much for similarly bad conditions as back home.
Not true. A lot of them were cheated. Dubai government turns a blind eye to these practices.
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From the guardian article:
"All of these men are part of a huge scam that is helping the construction boom in the Gulf. Like hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, they each paid more than £1,000 to employment agents in India and Pakistan. They were promised double the wages they are actually getting, plus plane tickets to visit their families once a year, but none of the men in the room had actually read their contract. Only two of them knew how to read.
"They lied to us," a worker with a long beard says. "They told us lies to bring us here. Some of us sold their land; others took big loans to come and work here."
Since the recession hit, they say, the electricity has been cut off in dozens of the camps, and the men have not been paid for months. Their companies have disappeared with their passports and their pay. "We have been robbed of everything. Even if somehow we get back to Bangladesh, the loan sharks will demand we repay our loans immediately, and when we can't, we'll be sent to prison."
This is all supposed to be illegal. Employers are meant to pay on time, never take your passport, give you breaks in the heat – but I met nobody who said it happens. Not one. These men are conned into coming and trapped into staying, with the complicity of the Dubai authorities
Dubai government turns a blind eye to these practices.
This is the real problem. Consider:
none of the men in the room had actually read their contract. Only two of them knew how to read.
This contract would not be enforceable in the United Kingdom (and probably the US, but I don't know how much common law the US applies to contracts) whereas Dubai's legal system doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the people it should be protecting the most (I admit, perhaps it shouldn't be.. I have a rather liberal Western viewpoint).
>none of the men in the room had actually read their contract. Only two of them knew how to read.
Only two of them knew how to read? Now, whose fault is that, Dubai's government, or India's? If so much of India's population is illiterate, they're screwed wherever they live, be it Dubai or Japan.
Vietnam's literacy rate is over 90%. India can surely do better.
Is this like the time you threw the paralyzed kid into the ocean and then blamed her drowning on her parents for not teaching her better car dodging skills?
i can't fathom how you interpreted the basic statistics presented in the article. do you think the enslaved migrant workers are a representative sample of people from india? do you think only 2 people from india can read??
In making the pro-Dubai argument you seem to consistently do so by letting it clear fairly low hurdles. (paraphrasing) "More liberal - relative to the middle east", "its better governed - then Laos".
Trying to just be better then the absolute worst is a rapid path to mediocrity. Perhaps, considering Dubai's lofty goals, its fair to compare it (as the author does) to something a bit more progressive?
People always say mean things about the Soviet Union, but in comparison to North Korea, a factory worker in the Stalinist era had a great degree of personal freedom.
Relative to the rest of the Middle East, yes, absolutely, by leaps and bounds.
> Asians in most Gulf countries including Dubai are treated like dirt and the labourers are almost modern day slaves.
This is also true in their native countries. The poorest Indian laborers live bad lives at home or in Dubai. They go to there because, in theory, you get paid 2-3 times as much for similarly bad conditions as back home.
> A lot of them have their passports taken away by the employer forcing them to stay in dubai.
This shouldn't happen, and it's criminal when it does happen. Hopefully they crack down on it and throw people in jail that do that.
That all said - yes, it's still one of the most liberal places in the Middle East.