THE OTHER SIDE OF D*BAI

i don't think i want to talk about my life in d*bai this time (do i hear sighs of relief? FINE ;p). instead, i want to talk about some other people's lives in dubai for a change.

i found this article while i was doing some uae blog-hopping on the net. i think it really captures the other side of dubai that the rest of the world is not familiar with:

Migrants and the Middle East: Welcome to the other side of D*bai For the people who visit, it is a world-class centre of finance and tourism. But for the people who are building it - mainly labourers from the Indian subcontinent - the reality is very different. Kim Sengupta reports on a rising tide of protest

Published: 28 March 2006

It is the fastest growing city on earth, a landscape of building sites full of workers feverishly constructing the highest, the largest and the deepest in the world.It's a neverland, rising out of the barren desert and fringed by beaches and a ski resort. There are no taxes. And it is the favoured destination of Britons wishing to work and play abroad. Fifty per cent of the world's supply of cranes are now at work in D*bai on projects worth $100bn - twice the World Bank's estimated cost of reconstructing Iraq and double the total foreign investment in China, the word's third-largest economy.

But there is also a downside to the glistening towers that soar above the shopping malls, the six-lane highways and the world's only seven-star hotel with suites that can cost $50,000 (£28,000) a night. More than 2,500 workers at the site of the world's tallest building, the $800m Burj D*bai, went on strike last week in a country where striking - and unions - are illegal. It is the latest manifestation of the deep discontent felt by the semi-indentured labourers from the Indian subcontinent who are building this glitzy oasis. Complaining of unpaid wages, and demanding better conditions, the labourers marched out of the cramped, stifling dormitories where they are corralled 25 to a room in violent protests which caused $1m worth of damage. They overturned cars and smashed up offices in a very graphic reminder of a problem which normally receives little publicity. Almost everything is for sale in this part of the United Arab Emirates. Those investing in this frantic construction boom are convinced there will be no shortage of moneyed buyers.

Among the developments springing up daily are Flower City, which aims to take over the international flower trade from Amsterdam; Hydropolis, an underwater hotel alongside another with revolving mountains; a Chess City with buildings in the shape of chess pieces; the $5bn Dubailand, which will become the world's biggest theme park - bigger than Manhattan and dwarfing Disneyland. Then there are the 300 manmade islands in the Arabian Gulf in the shape of different countries of the world .. Like some other Arab countries, D*bai's oil reserves are dwindling and the ruling family, the Maktoums, want to reinvent their personal fiefdom as a financial and transport centre using the profits, while stocks last, from oil at $70 a barrel. The state-owned D*bai Ports is voraciously buying up port complexes around the globe. There was a recent setback in the US when the company, being Arab, was deemed to be a security threat. It provoked outraged editorials in Dubai's government-controlled newspapers. But the reality is that the UAE, a bastion of rampant capitalism, cannot afford to alienate Washington. The search for acquisitions continues.

The one thing money cannot buy in D*bai, however, is UAE nationality. Around 80 per cent of the population are foreigners from no less than 160 different countries and the Maktoums appear to be prepared to let the foreigner-to-local ratio grow even wider. But however long the expatriates stay, they will not be allowed citizenship. Visas are tied to jobs, and there is always the risk of being thrown out when the contract ends. The people most vulnerable to this are the very workers putting up D*bai's glossy edifices. Thirty-nine of them died in building-site accidents last year - with at least some of the casualties resulting from inadequate safety provisions. Another 84 committed suicide last year, up from 70 in 2004. The average pay for an unskilled labourer is around $4 a day, and that is enough of a lure for the impoverished of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to flock to the UAE. The jobs are arranged through contractors and those who get them have to take out loans, often at exorbitant rates of interest, to pay for their passage. On arrival in D*bai, their passports are confiscated to prevent absconding while they are on contract. Details of how companies repeatedly abused the system have recently begun to emerge. Workers were often not paid for months as their contracts drew to an end and then promptly kicked out when they demanded their wages. (Their visas expired at the end of the job.) But now, in an attempt to become a serious commercial player, Dubai is negotiating with the World Trade Organisation and, as a result, is having to clean up its act.

A big sign at the arrivals lounge of D*bai International airport professes " D*bai Cares". The police and the labour ministry has set up a hotline for foreign workers with complaints; civil servants turn up at factories and labour camps to listen to grievances and have, on occasions, ordered restitution from the firms involved. But the problems have continued with a series of demonstrations and withdrawals of labour by workers who have become more aware of their legal rights and their market value in a society bent on expansion. The government was embarrassed a few months ago when the Indian consulate announced it would feed 87 of its citizens who had taken industrial action in response to not getting paid for several months. The same workers were living 25 to a room without any electricity throughout the summer months when the temperature reached 40C.

Two weeks ago, another group of Asian workers at Jebel Ali, adjacent to D*bai city, who had not been paid for a year complained to a labour court and won their case. Their employers' response was to stop providing them with food. "Thirty of us went to the Labour Court to get our wages and we got the verdict in our favour. The company has not yet implemented it," said Laxman, one of the workers. "We were getting food from the mess hall. All of a sudden the management said that the 30 workers who had filed the case will not be allowed any food." Last week's action by employees of Al Naboodah Laing O'Rourke, at adjacent towers to the Burj D*bai, was the most high-profile so far. They are accused of assaulting security personnel, smashing computers, sabotaging construction machinery and destroying around two dozen cars. The interior ministry began negotiations with the labourers but were left somewhat bewildered by this very un-D*bai mood of militancy. "They have no right to continue this strike. I don't know why they don't realise that," said Lieutenant-Colonel Rashid Bakhit Al Jumairi, a ministry investigator. "They came back to the site, but they still refuse to work. The workers are demanding overtime pay, better medical care and humane treatment from their foremen. The companies have agreed to some of the demands. But the workers agreed to their employment conditions when they signed." A carpenter from Andhra Pradesh in India, Mangal Prasad, said the action was taken as a last resort. "We just want to be treated like human beings. The way some of foremen behave towards us is very bad. If we complain they say we will get sent back. This is wrong," he said. "We have also got to work much longer hours than we were contracted to because they want everything finished quickly. So why shouldn't we get overtime pay? That's what happens everywhere else. Most of us aren't saving money at all. We are still paying back the loan we took to get here."

It is not just construction workers who claim to be used and discarded in D*bai. Nannies and maids brought over from south-east Asia, mainly the Philippines, also complain of mistreatment. In extreme cases they are badly beaten. Many end up without jobs after disagreements with their employers. Some drift into prostitution. Silvia, a 27-year-old from Quezon City in the Philippines, has been working as a call girl at the York Hotel in Dubai. She came to the emirate as a nanny and maid for a local couple and left, she said, after being verbally and physically abused by the wife. The York is very much at the low end of the market with the women mainly from the Philippines, China and East Africa. "This is not a nice life. The men I meet are not nice," said Silvia. "I have not got a visa at the moment but I hope I can pay to get one. I just want to make some money and then go home. I do not like being in Dubai any longer." Silvia says she has been offered work at a more upmarket club, Cyclone, where the women - Russians, eastern Europeans, Thais and Iranians - can make several thousand dollars a night. Of course, not all expatriates feel they are exploited or downtrodden. Peter Watts , a 36-year-old financial analyst, from south-west London, points out that Dubai offers a lifestyle which people like him would find hard to match in Britain. "I can go sailing and skiing in one day and I have bought a brand-new Audi for a fraction of the price I'd pay back in England. I pay no income tax, and I live in a safe, clean city where the cost of living is pretty low," he said.

But what about the citizens of D*bai? How do they see this influx of foreigners - many of whom, especially from the West, bring with them an alien culture which jars with Muslim customs. Jamal, who sells real estate, said he has done well out of the commercial boom. But, in the back of his mind, he said, there is a feeling of uneasiness. "Our leaders want to turn us into a modern, first-world country, and that is good. But the place has become all about money. Do you know, there wasn't any real protest here about the Danish cartoons of the prophet - D*bai was the only place in the Muslim world where there was no outcry. What does that say about us?" Meanwhile, Jamal pointed out, the D*bai stock exchange, along with the rest of the Gulf, experienced a spectacular fall in share prices earlier this month. "Maybe that was a sign. Maybe we need to slow down and think about things," said Jamal. "Everything is going too fast. Is it getting out of control? That is a big worry. END"

the news of ill-treatment of migrant workers have surfaced in the local newspapers a couple of times. and having stayed here for the last three months, the news does not come to me as a shock. it is really possible that these things are happening. they have been tricked and seduced to come here by the promise of a better life. who can blame them? dubai sounds like a place where non-tax-paying people work and play (at least that's how it was marketed to me before i came here). i feel like a victim too (eheh... drama sikit). but as much as feel victimised here, it measures up to nothing compared to what these people have to go through. and for that, i am grateful.

i am always awed by the development that is taking place when i pass through downtown dubai. but being the cynic that i am, i can't help but ask this question - 'what will happen when the bubble burst?'. seriously, the magnitude of the development that's taking place here is terrifying. from what i can see, downtown dubai (where most of the development is taking place) is at least 5 times bigger than putrajaya. but unlike putrajaya where development takes place in phases, everything is being developed at the same time. and everything is supersized (tallest hotel, tallest apartment, tallest god knows what). you know how nst would have property times supplement once a week? well the newspapers here have that supplement EVERY DAY of the week. everything is for sale. and some of the projects can be a little bit out-of-this-world (read: just downright bizarre and weird) as narrated in the article above. i, for one, am still trying to imagine the amount of influx of people required to fill these soon-to-be-completed development projects.

i have read somewhere that the government here is anticipating a signifant percentage (can't remember exactly) of population increase in the next few years. i guess the current development is carried out to cater for the anticipated increase in population. i really hope for the sake of this country that they get the estimation correct. because if it is not - things will get ugly. and i don't want to be here when that happens.