scrubbedexpat141

Quite a funny article in the Telegraph. Saw it flying around facebook including comments from Meow on somebodies share of it, which made me chuckle.

Telegraph article

What didn't make me chuckle in the article was this bit, about three-quarters of the way though;

This place isn't purely wonderful and it certainly isn't purely shite. I'm staggered that such an article even constitutes journalism.

Cypselos

At least Johann Hari got the bus tour.

It's clickbait isn't it, like pretty much everything on the Telegraph these days, which is a sad en for a decent paper.

What's more telling is that they're regurgitating the poppy seed and cannabis stories from nearly 10 years ago. Nothing like fresh material.

scrubbedexpat141

I did a bit of reading about the guy and his articles are deliberately aggressive and argumentative, it's obviously to create debate and be awkward.

DXBtoDOH

Appalling. I usually like Alex Proud's articles in the DT as he writes about London.

But this is especially bad. Never left the airport and knows all about the city already?

Dubai is expensive? So is ****ing London (which is even worse).

Dubai has modern day slavery, however it's interpreted? So does London.

I liked this declaration on Dubai expats:

"They’re a certain brassy subset of the middle-classes. The kind of people who love expensive mock-Georgian new-builds. The kind of people who drive SUVs with personalised plates. They have good jobs and they’re successful, but they probably don’t have many books on their shelves."

Can't argue with that. Yes, the expat population is much more diverse than implied, but is there still something wrong with the people Proud described? That's what pissed me off the most, that it implied something is wrong with you if you fit the stereotype.

Millhouse

well it worked on you

Millhouse

I don't have a book in my house - I do own a kindle and a massive collection of porn on my media box though.

scrubbedexpat141

I think I was being nice. I was giving his article some purpose. It might not be, it might just be a rant...

co durham boy

Which one have you got , the car or the house ?

iggle

Dubai is Dubai. It will be forever bashed by the jealous few that don't live here. As expats we all knew exactly what we were getting into when we moved to a Muslim country.

It's pretty simple, don't do anything illegal, keep on the straight and narrow, don't get your self into position where you might feel unsafe.

Other than that Dubai is fantastic.

Bahtatboy

Really? I think many didn't know what to expect, and many still don't understand how it actually works months or years after they arrived. It may be a Muslim country, but its very different from many other Muslim countries.

That turns it into an objective assessment.

iggle

I'd be very worried if any western expat was looking to move to Dubai and didn't do any reasonable research.

Obviously I am one of these people, so I can only talk about my own personal experience. Being a labour here, would be horrific, but my own life style is great here.

That article was clear clickbait, every couple of months the papers do a "Dubai bash". Daily Mail is the worst.

co durham boy

There's thousands of Westerners in DXB that do zero research before coming , it's been the same for years .

Bahtatboy

I think many just research on what their tax-free salaries are going to get them, rather than the deeper and potentially-nasty implications of living in a Muslim state.

Totally agree with the rest of your post. After 4 1/2 years I was glad to leave, even though I didn't realise it at the time. I miss some things, but the brazen and unremitting hypocrisy always niggled. I have great difficult taking any Khaleeji seriously.

scot47

I am sure Beckham researched extensively before buying !

DXBtoDOH

I'll have you know there's at least 20 travel guidebooks on my shelves.

They count, don't they?