Asian workers riot in Dubai

[LiviaOlivia]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/91C02709-1D7E-439F-B31E-F8AF2AB865EB.htm

Asian workers riot in Dubai
Wednesday 22 March 2006 7:10 PM GMT



Asian workers angered by low salaries and mistreatment have smashed cars and offices in a riot that interrupted construction of what is set to be the world's tallest skyscraper. The violence, causing an estimated $1 million in damage, illustrated the growing unrest among foreign workers who are the linchpin of Dubai's building boom.

The violence erupted on Tuesday night when some 2500 workers on the Burj Dubai tower and surrounding housing developments chased and beat security officers, then broke into temporary offices and smashed computers and destroyed about two dozen cars and construction machines, witnesses said.

~snip~

The riot was a rare outbreak of violence - but it was not the first sign of discontent among the foreign workers who form the overwhelming majority of private sector workers in most of the oil-rich countries of the Gulf.

There have been strikes in recent months in Qatar and Oman. In April, Bangladeshi workers stormed their own embassy in Kuwait, protesting against working conditions that human rights activists have denounced as "slave-like".

~snip~

[xultar]

1. oops!

[CottonBear]

2. Ruh roh. n/t

[underpants]

3. Ruh roh is right

Good for them hold on boys this could get rough

[shain from kane]

4. Nat Turner is alive and well. n/t

[AnneD]

5. When I interviewed for work in Dubai....

I learned several things. You are paid according to your passport. If you are American, you command a higher salary. They tried to pay my naturalized US citizen Indian hubby puny wages until he whipped out his US passport, then they didn't want to hire him. There is class and prejudice everywhere and Dubai is no different. There can be a demeaning attitude to the help (remember, Arabs were very active in the slave trade at one point and I sometimes wonder if there is still a trade albiet underground). Many Indians and Pakistani have the worst, most menial jobs but the pay is better than they can get in India, so they endure for their families. I am not sure of the Asian workers, but I bet it is the same.
Now, I like Dubai, and I met some very nice people. Dubai is much more enlightened than most of the UAE and I would consider a contract there. But I do not find this revolt surprising.

[daleo]

8. One wonders how they would run U.S. ports

If this is the case in UAE? Possibly U.S. anti-discrimination laws would over-ride any tendency to prejudice but you never know.

[AnneD]

10. They would own...

and not be involved in the day to day. They realize that oil will not last forever and they want to 'live off their investments' so to speak. I can't say as I blame them. They want a good investment and as they sit at a natural crossroads between east and west, they have done trade for centuries. It's what they do best. I loved it there and experienced Arab hospitality at it's best. I am sorry they have gotten such a bum wrap. They are all about the trades.

[file83]

17. You experienced "Arab hospitality" because you weren't an asian worker.

Just a guess. :shrug:

[AnneD]

19. True,

but there is a distinction between an employee and a guest. However, I am not aware of ANY verse in the Koran that says it is ok to be cruel or mistreat your servants or employees (I could say the same thing about the Bible too) and yet that goes on too. An Asian guest would receive the same 'Arab hospitality' that I received had they visited my host.

[lumpy]

21. Is it a true that Dubai citizens are

'well off' because their monetary needs are provided for by their government? I have heard that this is creating an indolent and unproductive society that requires cheap foreign labor to fill the necessary everyday jobs to survive. Input appreciated.

[AnneD]

28. That is more the case in Saudi Arabia..

Dubai has some oil wealth, but most of their money comes from other thing (tourism, commerce, trade, shipping, finance, pearls, and fishing). The pearl diver I saw were certainly locals. Dubai also has a large native Indian population that has been there stretching back to the spice trading days. It was a beautiful place, one which I hope to see again. It has a rep as the Moslem Rivera and is very laid back.

A few oddities I noted- gas stations did not post prices (wonder if it was free?), they have a huge mall for women only (boys under 13 can go)and more modest women can shop there veil-less. There is another mall that is mixed and they literally have the best in the world there. Women can wear what they darn well want and are not harassed. Every year they have new burka fashions and last years burkas go on sale but get there early(yes, you can tell a difference, my host trained my eye to spot the differences).

http://www.cityguide.travel-guides.com/city/business.ehtml?o=43&NAV_guide_class=CityGuide&NAV_City=43

[killbotfactory]

12. Racists too, huh?

So they fuck over workers, hate foreigners (except americans), AND are racists.

No wonder republicans love them so much.

[file83]

16. EX-fucking-ACTLY. $4 PER DAY? Those bastards have more money

than they know what to do with, and they pay the laborers only $4 PER DAY!?! Slavery, straight up.

[Turbineguy]

13. I stayed in Dubai for a week in 1988

85% of the population are "foreigners". They do most of the actual work. A lot of Filipino workers then. The waitresses in the hotel worked a split 12 hour shift over 18 hours. They signed long contracts. They lived in dormitories. Gruelling work schedules, very restrictive living conditions.

Even so, the UAE is probably the most western country of the Islamic area (except possibly Iraq before the W invasion).

[lumpy]

22. I have read that Dubai citizens

are so unskilled and dependent and that they could not function without foreign workers to keep the necessary ADLs (acts of daily living) of society running.

[RazzleDazzle]

6. I'll just bet the Middle East's labor plans serve as a model for

what Bush would like to see in his Guest Worker initiative.

[loveandlight]

7. scary thought but yes

Wow, I bet you are right about that. They are such close buddies, Bush and his oil friends in the Middle East, I would bet they are all teaching each other the best of their nastiest business tricks.

[lumpy]

23. Wouldn't work unless every US

citizen was guaranteed a sufficient government stipend in order to live. The US has frittered away any potential riches(agri, manufacturing, tech.etc.) that might have been developed to benefit a better life for it's citizens. Rich governments can afford to share with their citizens.

[Pacifist Patriot]

29. Might explain NCLB

[lovuian]

9. Dubai is a country who treats their workers horribly

this is proof!!!

They evidentally haven't read Karl Marx...

and the kicker they have NO Army to protect them but George Bush's

[JCMach1]

27. Workers rights are a problem here... many companies

take advantage of workers who don't even know their rights in this country. Heck, most don't even speak Arabic.

The Interior Ministry here does try to handle these problems with companies, but it is difficult in an environment where despite the low wages people still make 5-10x what they would make for similar work in their home country. So, many people don't speak out, or do anything until the situation is unbearable.

Please lay off some of the Arab-bashing... The company involved is South Korean...!

B.J. Kim, development manager for Samsung Corp., the South Korean conglomerate that is chief contractor on the Burj Dubai, said construction of the skyscraper was moving ahead, and not affected by the labour dispute, in which builders on adjacent towers are asking for better pay and employment conditions... http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2006/March/theuae_March773.xml§ion=theuae

[LeftistGorilla]

34. It seems to me....

The Dubai Gov. is letting foreign workers be exploited...

they have a huge part in it...

all in the name of progress...

[killbotfactory]

11. so THAT's why Republican love the UAE so much...

Despite their friendly relationship with Bin Laden and the Taliban...

They screw over the poor and foreign workers.

[file83]

18. Bingo. Bush likes the way the UAE can "git 'er done".

[Terran1212]

14. Pakistanis, others are brutally treated by this so-called UAE paradise

[file83]

15. Dubai pays these workers $4 per day. PER DAY!!!!

They get paid only $4 per day, and yet still...

But workers complain their employers often withhold pay. They enjoy few legal protections and no minimum wage, work in the extreme heat, and many of them live in military-style desert camps.

Nice. That is slavery. Is this the future of the American worker?

And WE are the ones that are "racist" for opposing the "Dubai Ports Deal"?
Sounds to me like the Arabs in Dubai are the ones that are racist against Asian Workers!!

[Just Me]

20. Slave labor, indeed. This is what BushCo seeks to implement here,...

,...in the good ole' USA; to revert to the robber baron days reversing over a century of democratic progress.

Greedy buttheads! :grr:

[lumpy]

24. The difference here is that serfdom

would include US citizens as well as foreign serfs. There would be no 'sharing the wealth' as happens in Dubai. Yes,in the US, it might just be a going back to the robber baron days. I guess we are well on the road anyway.

[PA Democrat]

25. Labor unions and strikes are illegal in Dubai

Foreign workers live in isolated work camps under appalling conditions.

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

[Norquist Nemesis]

26. Be damned! You Liberal U.S. Media!

Funny how these stories of workers uprising in AWOT countries are nowhere to be found in U.S. media.

[LiviaOlivia]

30. Yes indeedy.

You are so right.

on edit: I was given this link by a Brit friend.

[quiet.american]

31. So, y'all get the irony, don't you -- *slightly off-topic*

"World's tallest skyscraper" being built in the UAE, apparently by the bin Ladin group.

Oh, the irony.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1214667,00.html

A company run by Osama bin Laden's family has been shortlisted to construct the world's tallest building, according to officials in Dubai. The Saudi Binladin Group - one of the largest businesses in the Middle East - is the only Arab company bidding for the contract , the latest in a series of extraordinary projects in the tiny Gulf emirate.

[nicknameless]

32. So the Bin Laden family has disdain for the working poor just like

their buds, the Bush family.

Good catch! :thumbsup:

[closeupready]

33. I think a lot of people miss that irony, but

I also see it. :wtf:

[JNelson6563]

35. The Bush League Model

The divide between rich and poor there is HUGH!!!11!! Dubai contains two completely different worlds.