Brenster

You read this all the time in letter's pages and comments to news articles on the web but what I want to know is what would happen to Dubai if one day, we all decided to take that gem of advice? Would it be like that show on the History Channel, 'Life after People'?

Brenster

co durham boy

People are already leaving of their own free will . Of course there's still a great life to be had in Dubai for some but a lot of people have woken up and sniffed the bullshit wafting through the A.C ......and it wasn't coming from International City Shit Farm...!

Hello.Kitty

I think it'd be a bit more like Day of the Triffids, with people wandering around aimlessly, maybe wondering what to do with a mop or grouped around a petrol pump trying to figure out how it works...

No, I'm unkind - it wouldn't be that bad... but it's also highly unlikely that all the expat workers leave overnight.

soukie

If people leave they are quickly replaced by others in serach of the "high life" - I know lots of people in AD who are not making any money after they pay rent and school fees but they want to stay there as they don't want to go home! Madness.....

OleJanx

Perhaps more like I Am Legend/The Omega Man...

co durham boy

I can never ever get my head round that frame of thought , why would anyone live here without making money . The whole place is designed for people coming ,working , making money , leaving .

That's why people end up in the shite , everyone's got to go home eventually.

Norm_uk

I think it would be worse if all the Asian people left at once...there would be no one to fill the cars at the station, no construction workers, no housemaids to carry the kids while madam wanders around the mall, no one in stores and restaurants to serve them...nothing would get done.

And it will actually happen because most Asian countries are getting richer and richer as they develop. We already hardly ever see any middle class Chinese, Filipinos, Indians etc here except as tourists or for business...where will they get their slaves from when the GDP of India and China is the same as the USA?

Myself and most of my friends have exit plans for the next couple of years, it seems a lot of people on these boards are getting fed up too - it will be interesting to see the place after 20 years. Will we see the locals serving people in Starbucks?

N.

OleJanx

Seeing people who are bringing money from the UK to prop up their lifestyle isn't uncommon, just stupid and vain, but there are too many people who come out to the Gulf, and suddenly re-invent themselves, trying to prove to others that they are something they aren't, and never will be, hence the abandoned 4x4's when it all goes pear shaped.

A LOCAL serving in starbucks??!! The mind boggles....

Tockalosh

I am not sure it is madness to be honest as I know plenty of people in the UK now who are having their finances stretched to breaking point so it might be better to be skint in the sunshine than in the rain

Of course its not ideal and I personally wouldnt do it but I do understand why others do it

Norm_uk

Indeed, if you like the idea of no healthcare, no social welfare support system if you really need it and the fact that in "the rain" they don't put you in jail for not paying your credit cards.

I'd rather be poor in Britain - the poor in the UAE have even fewer rights.

N.

Meow

So who are all these people who are subsidising their lives here from savings & 'reinventing' themselves? I don't know anyone who does that, apart from for a time in the event of redundancy. I have spoken to hundreds of people in Dubai over the past few years and not one of them has subsidised their lives here, apart from perhaps in the first few months to get set up.

This criticism is bandied about all the time, especially the 'reinvention' part, but apparently no one on here is like that, nor are their friends.

Just wondering.


Edit> Reinventing yourself is not always a bad thing either. It can be for the good too.

OleJanx

Hmm! A bit of a raw nerve. perhaps?

Meow

Don't be silly newbie.

OleJanx

My apologies. That wasn't put to well, was it? Sorry.
Thing is though, not too many people are going to openly admit to bringing money out. To be honest, I've only come across a couple of people who have done this, so probably not as common as I implied

Meow

Well, people admit everything about their financial status to me. (And I do like to play devil's advocate on here sometimes.)

I just get tired of the same lazy stereotypes. I have had the misfortune to meet a few people who turned not to be quite what they claimed and those who have rather elevated ideas about themselves, but I don't believe it's as common as some like to claim. The fact is that you get delusional wankers everywhere.