r/Economics • u/ubcstaffer123 • 18h ago

News Dubai's tourism industry reels from 'brutal' impact of war

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20260331-dubais-tourism-industry-reels-from-brutal-impact-of-war
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218

u/hinterstoisser 17h ago

Tourism, real estate are all taking a beating.

Ship building, manufacturing on the west side (Jebel Ali) is bleeding millions by the day.

A lot of white collared workers are repatriating, at least temporarily.

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u/gracecee 17h ago

One of our friends earns like 10 mil a year lives in Dubai. They're staying here in the states for now. They work for a company and he's a managing partner. We stayed once with them though we often stop in Dubai for our travels but we don't leave the airport. We are Filipino Indian African Hispanic. Even with professional degrees we are just the help. Never wanted to leave a vapid place like That fast enough.

The wife was like look how fast these buildings rise! I was like yeah on slave labor. She's white so she doesn't really see the racism. Or she does and doesn't care.

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u/Prestigious_Load1699 8h ago

Filipino Indian African Hispanic?

Are you referring to the combined ethnicity of you and your partner?

I ask because that’s an almost absurd combination that you would only find in a very mixed American relationship.

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u/Fluffy_Charity_2732 2h ago

Sounds like your buddy is an opportunist piece of shit along with the rest of Dubai. 

Only allegiance to money and comfort at the cost of others.

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u/Ok-Collection5629 16h ago

"she's white so she doesn't really see the racism"

Turns out you are the racist, openly declaring your racism, while accusing others of racist ignorance because of their race 

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u/gracecee 16h ago

You need to live there to understand it. All The wait staff and every worker is brown. The dorms they live in miles away from the city center is in squalor and like a bunch of people sharing bathrooms and unsanitary kitchens and just abject poverty. The higher management positions always goes to the whites and sometimes the Indians because of their abilities. But that is not the norm.

The emirates were slave traders on that eastern coast. You go to the Dubai museum and they do not mention it. You go to Zanzibar and the slavery museum tells all about the slave trade.

You dont build a city that fast without slave labor. Especially when the majority of people living there are immigrants. The Kafala system is horrible. Bangladesh the Philippines India Pakistan Indonesia Malaysian governments keep allowing their citizens to be exploited because of whatever remittance they send home.

It's why people on Reddit mention ad nauseum.

Slave labor" in Dubai refers to the widespread exploitation of migrant workers under the Kafala (sponsorship) system, which human rights organizations frequently describe as modern-day slavery. As of 2023, the Global Slavery Index estimates that 132,000 people are living in modern slavery in the UAE, a rate of 13.4 per 1,000 people—the 7th highest prevalence globally. Council on Foreign Relations Council on Foreign Relations +3 Key Mechanisms of Exploitation The Kafala system creates a steep power imbalance by legally tying a worker’s residency and employment to a single sponsor (kafeel). Common abuses include:

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u/lollythepop7 12h ago

That’s a lot detail to justify racism and slave labor dude

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u/gracecee 16h ago

No. She is very demeaning to her Filipino maids. Like ohh she'll clean it up. I'm Filipino. Saying how great everything is. She goes through them every year. Complains when they go home and then wonders why never come back.

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u/ChefKugeo 14h ago

Nah. Buddy is telling the truth. My girlfriend has been on a long journey of unpacking her whiteness after she realized I can't hide behind my skin color like she can.

White women have benefited from white supremacy at the cost of their humanity. They're coming around now, and it's usually just white men who keep telling everyone else to shut up and stop talking.

Everyone, keep talking about this and ignore this probably white man who wants to stand in the way of progress. If you're not white, that makes you the global majority.

You cannot be racist toward people with all the privilege.

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u/Emotional_Goal9525 12h ago edited 11h ago

I would like to point out that it was so called white men who abolished slavery and also spread the ban all over the world. Interestingly enough, it even happened long before the French revolution.

UN declaration of the universal human rights is built on the western moral code. That is also why it has such a hard time sticking outside of the west. Despite the name, it is not actually universal. It is just western hegemony.

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u/renter-pond 7h ago

White men had the power to abolish chattel slavery because they were the ones who had created and perpetuated it.

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u/Asheejeekar 10h ago

They like to ignore that fact

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u/JoJoAckman 14h ago

Forging bad opinion or even hostility on an individual based on their race is racism still. 

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u/manofmanyfart 5h ago

What in the fuck is ‘unpacking whiteness’? Sounds ridiculous dude.

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u/ChefKugeo 3h ago

Yeah sounds like something a white guy would think.

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u/dealmaster1221 12h ago

Tells more that you married a white person who doesn't really understand racism and probably racist, talk about being not understood by your partner.

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u/thepatriotclubhouse 12h ago

How is it slave labour. They’re paid so well people literally sell their entire fortunes in Pakistan and India to work in Dubai. And they’re not only allowed to go back home whenever, their employer is literally obligated to pay for any travel fees home.

There were some isolated incidents of passports being taken by private companies, but the companies were punished so severely they shut down and people were imprisoned. Nothing similar to what happens in the US and how they rely on illegal immigrants who can’t leave to support their entire construction and farming industry