Interesting Dubai story in MOJO, 7/05: Sinister Paradise

[NVMojo]

The narration begins: As your jet starts its descent, you are glued to your window. The scene below is astonishing: a 24-square-mile archipelago of coral-colored islands in the shape of an almost finished puzzle of the world. In the shallow green waters between continents, the sunken shapes of the Pyramids of Giza and the Roman Coliseum are clearly visible.

In the distance are three other large island groups configured as palms within crescents and planted with high-rise resorts, amusement parks, and a thousand mansions built on stilts over the water. The "Palms" are connected by causeways to a Miami-like beachfront chock-a-block full of mega-hotels, apartment high-rises and yacht marinas.

As the plane slowly banks toward the desert mainland, you gasp at the even more improbable vision ahead. Out of a chrome forest of skyscrapers (nearly a dozen taller than 1000 feet) soars a new Tower of Babel. It is an impossible one-half-mile high: the equivalent of the Empire State Building stacked on top of itself.

You are still rubbing your eyes with wonderment and disbelief when the plane lands and you are welcomed into an airport emporium where hundreds of shops seduce you with Gucci bags, Cartier watches, and one-kilogram bars of solid gold. You make a mental note to pick up some duty-free gold on your way out.

more...

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/07/sinister_paradise.html

[Crazy Guggenheim]

1. Wow. This too.

"On the other hand, Dubai, together with its emirate neighbors, has achieved the state of the art in the disenfranchisement of labor. Trade unions, strikes, and agitators are illegal, and 99% of the private-sector workforce are easily deportable non-citizens. Indeed, the deep thinkers at the American Enterprise and Cato institutes must salivate when they contemplate the system of classes and entitlements in Dubai."

[NVMojo]

2. you know, I just read the other day that the longshoremen at Miami port

just won a big union contract. First thought that went through my head is that the Dubai company would break the agreements with US labor in the ports deal. Then I read this.

[wakeme2008]

6. Right and with L-1 Visas they can bring in as many ppl as they want

Read a little about L-1 http://www.outsourcecongress.org/USA/BusinessWeek/Business_Week_Siemens.html

[Binka]

5. The Entire ME Has Been Built On The Backs Of Indians, Sri Lankans,

Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Filipinos. Companies bring them in to the ME and then they OWN them.

[file83]

3. photo from the story:

[tocqueville]

4. read more about UAE here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=497821&mesg_id=497821

[wakeme2008]

7. And thanks US Taxpayers

"Today, Dubai's security is guaranteed by the American nuclear super-carriers usually berthed at the port of Jebel Ali. Indeed, the city-state aggressively promotes itself as the ultimate elite "Green Zone" in an increasingly turbulent and dangerous region"


from MOJO.

[NVMojo]

9. the US is already quite enmeshed with Dubai ...

[fujiyama]

8. ,

[PA Democrat]

10. Disgusting

I'm sure that the al-Maktoum family's appalling exploitation of labor is a neo-con's wet dream.

So, people who are OK with the UAE ports deal, please ask yourselves if you believe that Dubai Ports World once here in the US will not immediately begin lobbying to destroy the right of workers in the ports they will control. Just think of the money the UAE can pump into lobbying to buy anti-union, anti-labor legislation. They've already started buying lobbying services to shove this deal down our throats with the help of the likes of Bob Dole.