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Dubai is terrible because.....

Dubai is terrible because.....

Old May 15th 2005, 5:46 am
  #31  
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Talking Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by Palm Tree
I suppose not everyone walks around with open eyes and ears and only gets to see and hear what they want to. Every single country on this planet has a history and culture but what do people consider culture nowadays, I have no idea.

I know plenty of people who aren't out here for the sunshine as they had plenty of it back home and what would be the percentage of construction and municipality workers that hardly worship the sun, sand and heat they are exposed to 365 days a year? I for once fall into the 1% category of not being here for the money on the contrary. I came here to find a multicultural society that will accept me for who I am and particularly my children and fill me/us with inner happiness. I left my husband behind in the UK, slaving away in his businesses and continue to pay his contributions and much loved taxes. I left behind a luxury home and swaped it for the local council estate of Emaar. We are paying for all bills including schooling and insurance ourselves and still manage to live a happier life even if there is a bigger hole in our pockets. I take my kids to the communal pool, free parks and beaches and keep away from shopping malls, beach clubs and bars. What a bargain of a life filled with interesting people to talk to and every day is a reminder of how fortunate I am compared to those who seem to have it all or nothing at all.

Well, at least Dubai has looked into the future and didn't allow greediness to eat away on them.

What you call luck, I call business marketing. Advertising isn't cheap but it pays huge profits. Why do famous fast food outlets and soft drink companies never stop to brain wash people? It pays to be reminded.

What's wrong with knocking down buildings and put something more-up-to date in its place? Would you wear the same clothes all your life and pass them on from generation to generation? Not only wouldn't they last but it would be a pretty boring scenery not to have a change.

PT half the knobs that bitch all the time...were saying that the earth was flat 300 years ago....let the saddo's get on with it....you have knocked the nail on the head...i have a great life here..my son loves it and yes there are down sides like you said but overall its a great place to live...
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Old May 15th 2005, 6:10 am
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by W10
I like Dubai. However, lets not pretend that there is any culture here. Not even close. Lets not pretend that people aren't out here for the sunshine and the money because 99% of us are.

Dubai realised it was running out of oil and realised it had to do something or it would be screwed in the long term, that's why it started recruiting businesses aggressively.

As far as I can see it was partly good marketing (but was that really working? I'll leave that to more informed people than me to answer. What was the population of Dubai in 1995 for example). It owes a lot to huge slices of good luck (in terms of world events) that has enabled Dubai to attract a huge amount of inward investment become a major player in the Middle East.

By the way, there were old buildings weren't there? I presume they just knocked them down

Culture isnt just about buildings and gallery's ect. obviously there isnt going to be vasts amount of "culture" as its just desert and there really weren't that many people living here to create one, but the ones that were have their culture which is just a valuble as our own... and maybe all of us living here from different cultures are creating our own here as I said before we are privillaged to be witnessing the birth of a new city...
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Old May 15th 2005, 6:18 am
  #33  
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by Palm Tree
I suppose not everyone walks around with open eyes and ears and only gets to see and hear what they want to. Every single country on this planet has a history and culture but what do people consider culture nowadays, I have no idea.
Culture? Interesting historical events combined with art & literature in all their forms, architecture, recorded history, things going on in the period 1500 - 1900 would be a good start.

Dubai is extremely lacking in this area.

You have to understand this is not a criticism, just a factual observation.
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Old May 15th 2005, 6:22 am
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by Don
Culture? Interesting historical events combined with art & literature in all their forms, architecture, recorded history, things going on in the period 1500 - 1900 would be a good start.

Dubai is extremely lacking in this area.

You have to understand this is not a criticism, just a factual observation.


Desert................ no cities towns ect just nomadic tribes I dont understand why everyone seems to have this snobbish attitude as to what constitutes culture and if its not as our understanding its there for a load of crap.......
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Old May 15th 2005, 6:41 am
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by Don
Culture? Interesting historical events combined with art & literature in all their forms, architecture, recorded history, things going on in the period 1500 - 1900 would be a good start.

Dubai is extremely lacking in this area.

You have to understand this is not a criticism, just a factual observation.
If I choose to live in a village/town anywhere on this planet I will also not be surrounded by the kind of culture that you seem to crave but I can go and visit those places of interest to me. Big poluted cities might give me an insight into my ansestors lifes but will not provide me with quality of life.

Dubai might be lacking what you are suggesting and so what? It certainly isn't lacking a lot of other cultural aspects of life. Every place just like every person is unique in its own right and that is the joy of life. Many people crave to visit places and never even get the chance to travel within their own country at least Dubai gives many a glimpse of what the world looks like with the effort in organising cultural events.
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Old May 15th 2005, 6:54 am
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Google: Although there is no standard definition of culture, most alternatives incorporate the Boasian postulates as in the case of Bates and Plog's offering, which we shall accept as a working version:

Culture: The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning (p7).

Originally Posted by Don
Culture? Interesting historical events combined with art & literature in all their forms, architecture, recorded history, things going on in the period 1500 - 1900 would be a good start.

Dubai is extremely lacking in this area.

You have to understand this is not a criticism, just a factual observation.
Don, I'd say you are talking about history, not necessarily culture.

To stay on topic, I'd say Dubai is terrible because:

1. traffic in Bur Dubai in the afternoon
2. Weather stops you from outdoor activities half of the year
3. it's a bit small. you can't hide here, very small community.
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Old May 15th 2005, 7:16 am
  #37  
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by Jamila
Google: Although there is no standard definition of culture, most alternatives incorporate the Boasian postulates as in the case of Bates and Plog's offering, which we shall accept as a working version:

Culture: The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning (p7).

Don, I'd say you are talking about history, not necessarily culture.
SOME DEFINITIONS
  • Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
  • Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.
  • Culture is communication, communication is culture.
  • Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning.
  • A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.
  • Culture is symbolic communication. Some of its symbols include a group's skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives. The meanings of the symbols are learned and deliberately perpetuated in a society through its institutions.
  • Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon further action.
  • Culture is the sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation.
  • Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.
I would argue that culture encompasses the art, the music, the development of philosophies, the literature, other artefacts including architecture - over time - that define a people.

Dubai is an empty sheet of paper in this respect, however vibrant today's culture might be.
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Old May 15th 2005, 7:26 am
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Talking Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by sassy
Desert................ no cities towns ect just nomadic tribes I dont understand why everyone seems to have this snobbish attitude as to what constitutes culture and if its not as our understanding its there for a load of crap.......
I,m with you on this one sass...half the wankers here dont even know about there own culture but are happy to slag others off!!!

bet there from North wales!!!
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Old May 15th 2005, 7:30 am
  #39  
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by Palm Tree
I suppose not everyone walks around with open eyes and ears and only gets to see and hear what they want to. Every single country on this planet has a history and culture but what do people consider culture nowadays, I have no idea.

Perhaps some kind of Arabic culture would be good. Even the Arabs have to look for it. Don't forget you're living in the Middle East in a city where UAE nationals make up around 10% of the population. Every single country I've lived in across the world I've immersed myself in their proper culture. It's made me more broadminded, well rounded and knowledgable about human beings. I'm finding it difficult to immerse myself here because 90% of everything in the UAE is western. Not saying that's a bad thing but Arabic culture is very much underground and not easily accessible to the outsiders (apart from a few obvious things)

I know plenty of people who aren't out here for the sunshine as they had plenty of it back home and what would be the percentage of construction and municipality workers that hardly worship the sun, sand and heat they are exposed to 365 days a year?

They fall into category two. Here for the money - and they aren't here by choice. They're being screwed over royally but have to do it because it's better than the alternative of staying at home. In this ultra capitalist city the little guy gets the worst deal and can do nothing about it. It's one of the most shamelessly exploitative places I've ever seen.

I for once fall into the 1% category of not being here for the money on the contrary. I came here to find a multicultural society that will accept me for who I am and particularly my children and fill me/us with inner happiness.

The UK is the most multi-cultural country in the world, bar none. You think Dubai is multi-cultural? Only in the sense that there are different races living in the same city. They certainly aren't living side by side. I see legalised slavery and ghetto-ism dressed up as multi-culturalism


I left my husband behind in the UK, slaving away in his businesses and continue to pay his contributions and much loved taxes. I left behind a luxury home and swaped it for the local council estate of Emaar. We are paying for all bills including schooling and insurance ourselves and still manage to live a happier life even if there is a bigger hole in our pockets. I take my kids to the communal pool, free parks and beaches and keep away from shopping malls, beach clubs and bars. What a bargain of a life filled with interesting people to talk to and every day is a reminder of how fortunate I am compared to those who seem to have it all or nothing at all.

Well, at least Dubai has looked into the future and didn't allow greediness to eat away on them.

Seriously? Greed is what this place is built on. It's all about the Benjamins

What you call luck, I call business marketing. Advertising isn't cheap but it pays huge profits. Why do famous fast food outlets and soft drink companies never stop to brain wash people? It pays to be reminded.

No, I'm pretty sure it is luck. You think so many corporations (especially Nakheel) would be here quite so aggressively if Kuwait hadn't been invaded and 9/11 hadn't happened? Dubai has directed benefitted from world events as it has become a more attractive place to invest as a result of everywhere else becoming less stable. Advertising does work to a certain extent but I'd argue that wasn't the major factor in Dubai's success.

What's wrong with knocking down buildings and put something more-up-to date in its place? Would you wear the same clothes all your life and pass them on from generation to generation? Not only wouldn't they last but it would be a pretty boring scenery not to have a change.

I refer you back to your first point about culture and history. The powers in Dubai made a conscious decision to chase the future at the cost of their past and culture. It's a decision they clearly regret or they wouldn't be building spanking new tourist villages attempting to recreate traditional arabic culture. People knock down buildings, but they should also try to preserve their heritage. It would be unthinkable in most places for them to raze ancient traditional buildings to the ground in the name of progress. I'd suggest you pay a visit to Beijing for the ultimate example of how it should not be done. But at least the people there didn't have a choice.
As I said. Don't get me wrong. I like Dubai and I like living here. The whinges I have I would probably have anywhere in the world. There is after all no such thing as a perfect city/town. And there is nothing wrong with being realistic about the place you are in. It doesn't mean you don't like it, it just means you can see it's faults.

I just won't pretend I'm here for anything other than sunshine, a better standard of living and the opportunity to travel and see some interesting places.

Last edited by W10; May 15th 2005 at 8:15 am.
 
Old May 15th 2005, 8:08 am
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

What's wrong with knocking down buildings and put something more-up-to date in its place? Would you wear the same clothes all your life and pass them on from generation to generation? Not only wouldn't they last but it would be a pretty boring scenery not to have a change.[/QUOTE]


I know. I reckon thay should knock Paris down and start again....Dont ya think?..I mean the buildings are getting old now
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Old May 15th 2005, 8:14 am
  #41  
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by W10
As I said. Don't get me wrong. I like Dubai and the whinges I have I would probably have anywhere in the world.
- Ditto, I would find it a little strange if I discovered Utiopia anywhere, I think it's human nature to find a little fault. You cannot set a definition of what is good. if you don't have an awareness of what is bad. It just my choice that as far as I am concerned the good far outweighs the bad.

Originally Posted by W10
I just won't pretend I'm here for anything other than sunshine, a better standard of living and the opportunity to travel and see some interesting places.
- Plus tax free salary.... . The other things such as friendships and an understanding of other cultures races just come as side benefit.... A bit like garlic bread with pizza
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Old May 15th 2005, 8:14 am
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Its full of arabs
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Old May 15th 2005, 8:18 am
  #43  
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by Palm Tree
If I choose to live in a village/town anywhere on this planet I will also not be surrounded by the kind of culture that you seem to crave but I can go and visit those places of interest to me. Big poluted cities might give me an insight into my ansestors lifes but will not provide me with quality of life.

Dubai might be lacking what you are suggesting and so what? It certainly isn't lacking a lot of other cultural aspects of life. Every place just like every person is unique in its own right and that is the joy of life. Many people crave to visit places and never even get the chance to travel within their own country at least Dubai gives many a glimpse of what the world looks like with the effort in organising cultural events.
I agree with the above statement



QUOTE=Palm Tree]If I choose to live in a village/town anywhere on this planet I will also not be surrounded by the kind of culture that you seem to crave but I can go and visit those places of interest to me. Big poluted cities might give me an insight into my ansestors lifes but will not provide me with quality of life.


I have to say.....Dubai is actually getting quite polluted and there are less regulations here than some countries....I have never seen so many people completely un educated in the art of putting their rubbish in the bin
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Old May 15th 2005, 8:20 am
  #44  
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

Originally Posted by lewis748
I,m with you on this one sass...half the wankers here dont even know about there own culture but are happy to slag others off!!!

bet there from North wales!!!

How rude....I'm not a wanker thankyou...and I know very much about where I came from...
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Old May 15th 2005, 8:25 am
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Default Re: Dubai is terrible because.....

I just thought of a new one.

....because Emaar don't seem to want to move away from the 'out of the box' architecture they seem to adore.
 

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