Few want vote in booming Dubai

[T_i_B]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4724807.stm

"We live in the best democracy ever," says Samir Marzouqi, 19, who lives in a country where citizens never vote.

As a national of the United Arab Emirates, he lives in what is now the only country in the Gulf which has no elected bodies. Political parties are banned. But he points out that the sheikhs who rule the UAE attend regular open meetings where citizens can air concerns. And, as many of his peers stress, with free health care and education, a booming economy and political stability, few want to complain anyway.

While the US is ratcheting up pressure for reform in the region, it seems democracy is not a high priority for Dubai's young people, despite the fact that they are among the Middle East's best-educated and most-travelled.

"Everybody is happy, everything is going smoothly, and I don't think we should jeopardise that to be a democratic country," says UAE national Sharifa Maawali, 27.

[wli]

1. compare to Mother Jones' "Sinister Paradise" article

[T_i_B]

2. I'd happily do that....

....if a link was provided. :-)

[wli]

3. here it is

Sinister Paradise

[T_i_B]

4. Thanks

Hopefully I can have a good look at the article a bit later.

:yourock:

[T_i_B]

6. Just read it.

A lot of it seems to to be merely gawping at "the new global icon of imagineered urbanism". (what kind of cacky phrase is "imagineered urbanism anyway, the writer deserves a slap for that phrase alone)

This is the interesting part though,

"99% of the private-sector workforce are easily deportable non-citizens."

In other words Dubai has been expanding thanks to immigration, it has got wealthy by letting the huddled masses in.

[Missy M]

5. I believe the Mother Jones' article is the reality of Dubai....

and that is the rich get their paradise on the backs of the poor. Why is it that we only think of prosperity as who has the tallest buildings, biggest, most luxurious hotels, biggest theme parks and so on. Someday it will all come tumbling down.