MataHari

mabrook habibi...

TGFKASE

Afwan, habibti...

scrubbedexpat141

Possibility....probability....likelihood....

Risks are different everywhere, bad / fatal car crashes here (I'm assuming) are more common than in say, London. But perhaps knife crime (I'm guessing) is lower than in London.

I don't like to live in fear, in fact, I don't actually, it would be miserable. I know where my essentials are if I wanted to leave in a heartbeat, but it would take something pretty unprecedented for that I think.

DXBtoDOH

The difference is that fatal accidents can not only happen anywhere but they're also not personal. Knife crime is also not particularly personal, the thief generally wants your money regardless of who you are.

When a terrorist attacks innocent western sunbathers, it's personal.

If a terror attack happened in the UAE it would make many western expats suddenly feel distinctively out of place, that there's people who hate every fibre of your being just because you're western and not Muslim, and they're not hundreds or thousands of kilometers away but right here in the same city as you. Without the protection of being in the majority as is the case for Brits despite the occasional wacko attack in the UK, you'd feel very invulnerable. It's a psychological blow and does affect your perception of being safe as a distinct minority in a region that is largely hostile to many of your core values.

As it is, I'm not claiming the sky is falling and agree the UAE is pretty safe even from terrorism, but just one incident could radically change the equation.

MataHari

I would probably feel more 'violated' by an attack 'back home' (supposedly safe country blabla) than I would feel if something happens here surrounded by people 'hating every fiber of my being, here in the same city with me'...

Standanista

The London comparison is not a bad one though. I reckon Dubai today is safer than living in London in the early-mid '90s with the IRA blowing stuff up, and I didn't feel particularly unsafe even then, although maybe that was the invincibility of youth.

Standanista

Yep. End of the day, we're only a quick plane ride out of here, Kuwait style, were it to go pear shaped at some point (not that I think it will).

Millhouse

on what basis do you make such a claim?

The fact is... not a single poster on here knows.

Standanista

I think you need to get your facts right. Basis: incident history, here you go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...0.E2.80.931999

The December 1992 bomb in John Lewis toilets I was stood two blocks away from. It sounded like an empty skip being dropped. You obviously get a better echo with Armitage Shanks.

Second basis: from spending months on nights searching for the things as part of my job (London Underground) during that period.

The stuff going on behind the scenes to prevent these sort of things is something we rarely hear about, and rightly so, but on the plain facts of actual incidents, Dubai today is many times safer from terrorist attack than 1990s London.

norsk

History is indeed the most popular indicator of the future, but it is also an imperfect one. It is only really useful on a high level (ie big movements and long term) and doesn't take into account factors such as current political significance of an attack, current geopolitics, modus operandi of choice for the flavour of the day terrorists and so on.

(Side note: If you are interested in learning more about using history to predict the future read up on cliodynamics. The concept looks interesting and a bit crazy to be honest.)

Not to imply that this is a pissing contest, but I was in Central London on 7/7/2007 and it was absolutely a pants-shitting moment. However everyone knew that London was a target of huge significance to Islamist terrorists (flavour of that day and today) and therefore it wasn't such a shock to the system and life went back to normal pretty quickly all things considered.

Of course things are going on behind the scenes. People are being watched and some arrested and convicted and like you say the people don't need to know the details, but if you publicly deny the possibility/risk of an attack and ignore the fact that you stick out like a sore thumb compared to your brothers, an incident will I think be very difficult to overcome.

scrubbedexpat141

You say that like it's not the same for EVERY other topic on here.

Millhouse

nah, Shiva is the authority on most shit.

Millhouse

We will probably never know.

Let's hope all the saudis driving over the border at Eid have good intentions. Unlike the brother who went to Kuwait.

shiva

typo

Meow

Don't most of them come here for the shopping and hookers? Doubt most would want to ruin that bit of fun.


No matter how good the intel, security systems etc etc I don't think you can ever be totally secure. There is always one lone nutter with a point to prove.