Is she right about Dubai?
- Thread starter NordicSomali
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NordicSomali
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Taintedlove
Shaqo la'an ba kuu heysaata
Honestly it depends on the person. We are historically nomadic people. We move around and never stop and with better transportation connections, people will be able to move seamlessly to places. Maybe the age of settlements really is over and all countries are destined to be international hotspots someday.
Dubai is a dystopian hell hole.
Just read this article, these gulf arabs are petty.
I had several family members move to Canada around the same time, had business in the UAE worked and travelled there since the 80s with no issues, all of sudden we'rent welcome, lost contracts etc...
Shame, really. But I don't really resent the Emirati shacab themselves. The average Khaleeji in general is good-hearted like that Ajmani cop. And, from what I gather, both the Maktoum and Qassimi families of Dubai and Sharjah don't actually like where MBZ is taking the country politically but are just forced to go along given he has all the real money and political power. My grasp is that the other two big families would prefer UAE just be a neutral, business and educational hub and haven. A more affluent and bustling Oman, if you will.
But MBZ, imho, is jittery about the long-term viability of these monarchical families and has sipped the kool-aid that their model (autocracy) is the only viable one in the Greater Middle-East so he wants to plunge the rest of the region into similar autocracies, quell any revolutions and Islamist groups and generally pave the way for the Gulf State families to remain in power for generations to come whilst being influential in this new order he wants to cook up. Probably had an existential crisis when he witnessed the Arab Spring well over a decade ago now.
Man thinks he's becoming the new British Empire or something. Was better off just minding his country's business and gradually moving toward a constitutional monarchy arrangement, but that's just my opinion.
The average citizen of most nations are good people, sadly, power tends to attract the worst of society, lol the arab spring woke all these niggas up, made sure they kiss Israeli/American ring, UAE has only 1.4m people that are citizens, the remaining 9m are foreign workers, it's powderkeg just waiting to explode.
Lets be honest, most of the low income workers are basically slaves, they work in slave like conditions, for example in Qatar WC, so many foreign workers died building those stadium, you might regard it as a blood cup more so then anything, truly evil world, Qatar can save face and say it paid them, but it only paid the companies importing these workers and taking advantage of not paying them, many took loans to get enough money to travel over.
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@Shimbiris @NidarNidar @Hurder @NordicSomali @Taintedlove
The Gulf Economies (UAE, Kuwait, Qatar , Saudi etc) are doomed in the long run.
Oil is running out and at the same time fossil fuel is becoming less in demand.
The attempts diversify is not even working, they try to move away from it by building tourism, finance, and tech sectors but all rely on foreign labor and expertise.
Most of their "new industries" are still funded by oil money, meaning they are not self-sustaining.
They lack local human capital, most citizens are not involved in economic productivity.
You cannot "diversify" an economy that is 80% dependent on foreign workers. Local Gulf citizens lack the work ethic, technical skills, and industrial base to sustain these economies without oil.
Their extreme dependence on foreign labour & capital is their achilees heel. The Gulf economies rely almost entirely on migrant labor from construction to service industries.
For example 90% of Dubai’s workforce is foreign, what this means is that if the expats leave, the economy collapses.
Investors are already pulling out due to political instability, corruption, and declining oil revenues. Once oil revenues drop, these economies will no longer be attractive to investors or expats.
They also are losing influence and are weak innovators. Gulf nations have little technological innovation, they mostly import expertise from the West and Asia. China and India are developing their own energy independence, meaning they will not rely on Gulf oil forever. Western countries are diversifying their energy sources, weakening the Gulf’s geopolitical leverage.
They drive massive government spending into unrealistic mega projects , that don't create real economic growth. End up in-debt. Kuwait and Bahrain for example are struggling with rising debt.
Dubai and other Gulf cities are built on real estate bubbles, not sustainable industries.
Unlike countries like Japan, Singapore, or Norway, they did not build strong local industries.
I am also pretty sure they bit their own tail by entangling themselves into regional geo-politicial conflicts and threats, by playing manipulators and infighting. So it will all just converge into them once they don't have the wealth and influence defend against it.
Also Internal dissatisfaction will rise, since the native citizens are used to easy wealth but are now being forced to work harder. The elite ruling families will not survive and economic hardship will spread, they will all fall like domino.
The Gulf Economies (UAE, Kuwait, Qatar , Saudi etc) are doomed in the long run.
Oil is running out and at the same time fossil fuel is becoming less in demand.
The attempts diversify is not even working, they try to move away from it by building tourism, finance, and tech sectors but all rely on foreign labor and expertise.
Most of their "new industries" are still funded by oil money, meaning they are not self-sustaining.
They lack local human capital, most citizens are not involved in economic productivity.
You cannot "diversify" an economy that is 80% dependent on foreign workers. Local Gulf citizens lack the work ethic, technical skills, and industrial base to sustain these economies without oil.
Their extreme dependence on foreign labour & capital is their achilees heel. The Gulf economies rely almost entirely on migrant labor from construction to service industries.
For example 90% of Dubai’s workforce is foreign, what this means is that if the expats leave, the economy collapses.
Investors are already pulling out due to political instability, corruption, and declining oil revenues. Once oil revenues drop, these economies will no longer be attractive to investors or expats.
They also are losing influence and are weak innovators. Gulf nations have little technological innovation, they mostly import expertise from the West and Asia. China and India are developing their own energy independence, meaning they will not rely on Gulf oil forever. Western countries are diversifying their energy sources, weakening the Gulf’s geopolitical leverage.
They drive massive government spending into unrealistic mega projects , that don't create real economic growth. End up in-debt. Kuwait and Bahrain for example are struggling with rising debt.
Dubai and other Gulf cities are built on real estate bubbles, not sustainable industries.
Unlike countries like Japan, Singapore, or Norway, they did not build strong local industries.
I am also pretty sure they bit their own tail by entangling themselves into regional geo-politicial conflicts and threats, by playing manipulators and infighting. So it will all just converge into them once they don't have the wealth and influence defend against it.
Also Internal dissatisfaction will rise, since the native citizens are used to easy wealth but are now being forced to work harder. The elite ruling families will not survive and economic hardship will spread, they will all fall like domino.
This is why I watch from a distance, waiting for their collapse, when Somalia discovers oil we should focus on infrastructure projects, food security, education and health care, create a soverign wealth fund and model ourselves on Norwegian model.
This is why I watch from a distance, waiting for their collapse, when Somalia discovers oil we should focus on infrastructure projects, food security, education and health care, create a soverign wealth fund and model ourselves on Norwegian model.
Exactly. All the oil revenue would naturally go directly into a diversified self-sustaining local industries and public services. That's the major difference.
Somalia has such amazing economic upsides whenever i look at the raw data in comparison.
Even If you compare how the economy is structured today to the Gulf Nations you will immediately see the advantages it has in the long run:
A table i constructed:
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To be fair, they're building seemingly robust sovereign wealth funds from what I keep skimming and hearing but they may just nonsensical in the long run given what you rightly point out about their diversification strategies and their unsustainable economies. Don't know if I trust a guy who thought "The Line" was a smart idea to build a resilient sovereign wealth fund, for instance. Plus, no matter how lovely their portfolios are, you're not gonna run a country on a sovereign wealth fund. You need industries and a functioning economy in tandem with that.
It really is a shame. I hold a certain affection for the Khaleej. I was born and raised there of course and, at the end of the day, I see Arabians as a cousin people to our own Somalis and Horners. I mean, not only do we have actual ancient Arabian ancestry to some extent (~10% and Y-DNA T-L208) but even our pre-historic Egyptian ancestors would have had a very similar genetic profile to Arabians anyway. Not to mention the shared AA roots, the similar cultures and customs, the shared deen that came from their region... they fam as far as I'm concerned so it's sad to see how poorly managed their long-term affairs have been by these royal families.
If I were them, I’d have focused on desert greening—replicating and expanding on what China pulled off in places like the Loess Plateau or applying Allan Savory’s regenerative grazing methods to turn the deserts into marginal grassland for livestock grazing. The Khaleej could have been transformed into a sustainable agricultural powerhouse given time and even altered its climate for the better with all the added vegetation.
Could've even aimed to be leaders in next-gen alternative fuel research. They’ve got the perfect conditions for something like algae biofuel, for example—wide, empty land, endless sunlight, and water that doesn’t even need to be high-quality. If the tech were refined enough to be cost-effective, algae fuel could replace petrol and natural gas with a truly renewable, liquid-based alternative. Unlike solar, which depends on finite resources like lithium and bulky batteries that’ll never power a tanker or a plane, algae fuel could slide seamlessly into existing fossil fuel infrastructure. Not saying this would absolutely work out but illustrating that these are the sorts of alleyways they should have mainly gone down with all that shidaal money.
They could have further followed Oman’s lead with Omanization, handing their people control of the economy, then gradually shifted toward a constitutional model like Kuwait is kind of doing. But no—big buildings for foreigners, nightclubs, Desi slave labor... let’s change the topic, wallahi. Getting depressed.
I think the emirates/kuwait/qatar can survive since they're ultimately just city states most of their oil money is used to stuff around the world. The place where I see shit hitting the fan is saudi arabia. Who are funnily enough way more dependent on oil then places like Dubai. Most of their gobt revenue is from oil and if i rember correctly a lot of it used to pay off different influential tribes and factions in the royal family. In some type of patronage system
It's true Saudi is extremely oil dependant since 90 % of their GDP comes from it ,
but in reality all Gulf economies are highly dependent on oil and face serious long-term risks.
Saudi Arabia: 80–90% of government revenue comes from oil.
Kuwait: 90% of exports are oil-related.
Qatar: Over 50% of GDP and 90% of exports are oil and gas.
UAE: Still 30–40% reliant on oil despite diversification efforts.
The UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait are NOT truly independent from oil, they just have smaller populations and more global investments. What attracts those investments is the oil wealth
The claim that the UAE or Qatar “stuff oil money around the world” ignores that their entire financial strength still comes from oil.
Non-oil sectors are mostly funded by oil revenues, meaning “diversification” is still indirectly tied to oil money.
Dubai, for example, was hit hard during oil price crashes because many of its real estate projects rely on Gulf oil wealth.
People forget that Abu Dhabi bailed Dubai out in 2008 when the crash hit. They seriously could not complete the Burj because of it. It was meant to be called Burj Dubai originally. I remember when it was being built and that was the official name and the name on everyone's lips in town then the crash hit, Abu Dhabi bailed them out with oil money and they named it after the then Sheikh Khalifa in thanks. Abu Dhabi's oil wealth is often a crutch for all the other Emirates that it dangles over their heads.
The alchemist
VIP
I know of a Nubian guy who moved to the UK from the UAE with his entire family a half a decade back. Maybe it is common among the Sudanese as well? I have heard immigrants with European passports are treated better than their ethnic counterparts that come from less developed countries.
What they should have done is actually put the oil money into investing in their native human capital, local industrial base activity, and like you said improving their environment, eco-system etc to support life
But instead they did the opposite of that and built an unsustainable economy.
To put it simply they had a historic opportunity to build a truly sustainable, self-reliant economy, but they squandered it. Instead of developing their people, industries, and environment, they chose short-term, flashy, unsustainable projects that only benefit foreigners.
This is what they did wrong:
- Imported millions of foreign workers instead of training their own people.
- Created a welfare-dependent population that doesn’t work or innovate.
- Allowed expats to dominate their private sector, leaving locals without control.
What they should have done:
- Invest in world-class universities & technical schools for Gulf citizens.
- Encourage entrepreneurship so locals build businesses instead of relying on the government.
- Create a culture of innovation instead of a culture of dependence.
What They Did Wrong:
- Focused on real estate and tourism instead of manufacturing and exports.
- Became completely dependent on imports for food, technology, and consumer goods.
- Let foreign companies own and control their industries instead of developing local expertise.
What They Should Have Done:
- Develop local industries (steel, textiles, food processing, machinery, pharmaceuticals).
- Build Gulf-owned car, electronics, and defense companies instead of just buying from the West.
-Invest in local energy technology like advanced solar power, nuclear energy, or biofuels.
What they did wrong:
- Focused on building luxury cities in the desert instead of making the desert livable.
- Ignored water scarcity and food production, making themselves dependent on imports.
- Destroyed local ecosystems instead of restoring them.
What they should have done:
- Use regenerative agriculture to make parts of the desert green and farmable.
- Invest in desalination, aquaponics, and vertical farming for food security.
- Plant millions of trees to improve the climate and stop desertification.
What they did wrong:
- Built flashy megacities that consume more energy than they produce.
- Depended only on oil instead of diversifying early.
- Spent billions on Western military protection instead of creating independent defense industries.
What they should have done:
- Develop next-gen alternative fuels (algae biofuel, nuclear, hydrogen).
- Build a strong sovereign wealth fund that invests in productive industries.
- Manufacture their own weapons and defense systems instead of buying from the US and Europe.
If you compare them with the Norway example that @NidarNidar gave, it's like night and day. I think if they didn't have monarchies that dictated things with no regard for the citizens future because there is no local decision making, i think the trajectory would have gone differently.
They would have chosen long term sustainability over flash and glamour.
Oman is slowly trending in a different direction because it was influenced earlier on by socialism in the 1970s and is a constitutional monarchy in transition that increasingly allows for local decision making and inclusion.
This is very much true. I feel like Dubai is dialing this back nowadays and passports don't quite as matter as much anymore but I maybe out of touch since I haven't been there in 1.5 years and before that I worked with my fam in a fam business for 3 so I've been out of the job market there for like 5 years. But in "my day" and growing up, having a Western European passport or Anglo passport automatically meant a higher salary (significantly) even if you were not cadaan.
In fact, I had a relative who worked as doctor who left the UAE out of guilt, funnily enough. Was a UK Somali who was being paid like 2-4 times what an Indian colleague who was actually older and more experienced than him was being paid; the only reason being his passport. He felt disgusted, couldn't tolerate it and also fell out of love with the Khaleej in other ways and left.
