Dubai vows to keep building despite global crisis

[T_i_B]

Source: Sunday Telegraph

In transforming a forbidding desert into a vibrant city of skyscrapers, Dubai has bagged several world records: the highest building; the biggest man-made islands, the Palm Jumeirah and the World islands; the biggest shopping mall, the Dubai Mall; the biggest indoor ski area, Ski Dubai; and the greatest number of seven-star hotels. There are more records in the pipeline - the even bigger Universe islands, the 1km-high Nakheel Tower and the QE2, the ocean liner that arrived last week to become a luxury hotel.

All questions about how this growth is being financed have been brushed aside. While the West has suffered, Dubai's extravagance has reached new levels: from its vast Terminal 3 at the international airport, which is due to be redundant when the even bigger Jabel Ali airport is built in 2015, to the $20m launch party of the Atlantis hotel two weeks ago.

But in recent weeks the cracks in Dubai's economy have become undeniable. Property prices have slumped, demand has dried up and, for the first time, the emirate is being forced to consider calling a halt to its expansion. Some analysts are claiming that Dubai could implode, weighed down under a pile of debt and, given that it has relatively small oil reserves, no obvious way of paying for it. One said: "This has been the most spectacular spending mission on Earth. But it's a mirage. If complex debt structures have brought the financial world to its knees, Dubai is the world's biggest toxic timebomb."

The possibility is absorbing Western firms. The Middle East, floating on a magic carpet of vast oil and gas reserves, was supposed to be the oasis in the global financial chaos. The hopes of the financial system, most obviously the banks, have been pinned on securing cash injections from the Middle East, while hundreds of thousands of City workers are looking to the region for new jobs. If Dubai can't pay its debts, much of which is owed to international banks, the emirate could turn from potential saviour to yet another big problem.



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3536012/Dubai-vows-to-keep-building-despite-global-crisis.html

[judasdisney]

1. Slave labor is plentiful & cheap in Dubai

They import workers by the thousands, and pay them pennies to work in murderous conditions, especially the heat.

[T_i_B]

2. If you read the article...

...you will see that the average wage is actually 800Dh per month, which is enough to tempt people from all all over the world to go to Dubai for work.

The question here is whether or not Dubai's growth is sustainable.

[annabanana]

3. There was a documentary on this recently.. I remember empty neighborhoods

of brand new houses. I wonder if anyone is living in them yet..

[judasdisney]

4. I have an American friend who works as a personal asst to a Dubai baron

Workers are abused, brought in as indentured servants, often to work-off their "fees" of being brought to Dubai, live in slum quarters, and have no legal rights.

Dubai's growth sustainability would be curtailed if there were any labor costs involved. Although considering the unlimited wealth disparity and untethered sense of reality of the world's wealthiest in Dubai's "wild west" unregulated capital, even the world's most onerous labor costs would likely slow-down Dubai's growth modestly.

[Submariner]

5. I lived across the road for them in Westerner's quarters in Qatar

They lived in old double-wides crammed in tight. When I was at sea on research vessels, I found some Indians and Filipinos that had not got off the ship in 2 years, even though it was the oil company policy to let them go home for a break after 14 months. They made about $200/month on the ships in the Persian Gulf.

[never cry wolf]

8. I have applied for numerous positions there and in the UAR

I am an architect in Chicago. I lost my small firm over a year ago, and at my new firm I have taken a pay cut recently and am only promised a position through April. An engineer in our office who was let go received an offer to work in Abu Dhabi for $9/month plus living expenses and it is all tax free, $108k/year take home. 4 weeks vacation paid with transport home paid, full family medical, retirement. That is over twice what I take home and I have been licensed for over 20 years. I could pay off my business debt, my personal bankruptcy, pay my bills, pay my kids college costs and still have some cash left over.

Damn straight I am interested!

[sledgehammer]

9. Life's good for some, and not so good for others...

For professionals, life is pretty good. Offers like the one you describe are pretty typical for skilled workers, especially from Western countries. Countries like the UAE have different payscales for Gulf Arab citizens, Western citizens, and citizens from other countries (including non-Gulf Arabs). They also have positions that only citizens from certain countries can ascend to. Although I have to mention that this workplace discrimination has improved in the last few years.

But it's the huge labor class that has enabled the boom to happen. They are paid quite poorly, have no legal rights, work long hours in extreme heat with little regulation, and live in pretty terrible conditions. But they are able to earn more here than they would back in their home countries (primarily Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines, etc.), and that's what drives them to Dubai and other places in the Middle East (although they are often in debt to those who sent them here, so it may be a while before they earn anything for themselves of their families).

Here are a couple of articles that shed some light on this:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/dark_side_of_du.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/08/middleeast.construction

[judasdisney]

11. Clearly I was referring to unskilled labor, not engineering or architecture

[Phred42]

6. Hallibutrton and Cheney's money have to keep busy

[pattmarty]

7. Keep on building and let's send all these rich, greedy fucks..........

..........from all over the world there for a let's call it a world rich fuck convention, and drop all the weapons that are in the world there and we will can do away with more than a few things that make the world a fucked up dangerous place.

[liberal N proud]

10. Build baby build