It is run by SEVEN ASSHATS IN THOBES who OWN EVERYTHING. They are free to exploit, because those who have the gold and power make the rules. This is a country, one of only three, that formally recognized the TALIBAN. They happily shipped heavy water and nuke materials to IRAN, while cooing sweetly at the US. They are NOT NICE PEOPLE, these seven jerks who inherited everything. They will do business with anyone, and sell our asses down the river if there's advantage to be taken.
Let's have a look at the UGLY SIDE of the UAE:
Stress and depression
But Dubai has another face. On the outskirts of the city, where the desert begins, are the concrete barracks where the workers live, thousand upon thousand of them. ...the men building it are migrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
They work for about $5 a day, sleep four or five to a room, and see their families once every two or three years because it's hard to raise the money to pay for a trip home.
..."We get 600 dirhams a month ($160)," said one. "They deduct 200 dirhams for our food and it costs another 100 for us to phone home. It's impossible to save anything."
"Many of the workers suffer great stress and depression," says KV Shamsudeen, an Indian businessman, who has set up a charitable trust on their behalf. ....Read the whole article--this is SLAVERY, most foul.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4903794.stmStill feeling the love for these bastards??? Read on:
“One of the world’s largest construction booms is feeding off of workers in Dubai, but they’re treated as less than human,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “It’s no surprise that some workers have started rioting in protest. What’s surprising is that the government of the UAE is doing nothing to solve the problem.”
Though the skyscraper strike was settled, the UAE government has been unwilling to make a real commitment to stop systematic abuses by employers, including the extended non-payment of wages, the denial of proper medical care, and the squalid conditions in which most migrant workers live.
Migrant workers comprise nearly 90 percent of the workforce in the private sector in the UAE. They are denied basic rights such as freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.
Human Rights Watch urged the UAE government to drastically expand its staff overseeing migrant labor treatment. According to government sources, the ministry of labor employs only 80 inspectors to oversee the activities of nearly 200,000 businesses...the UAE government should also reform its labor laws to conform to international standards set by the International Labor Organization, and become a party to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, Human Rights Watch said.
The UAE is not a party to key international human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights...The governments of the United States, the European Union, and Australia are currently negotiating free trade agreements with the UAE. Human Rights Watch called on these governments to require improvement of UAE’s labor practices and legal standards before signing such agreements. Human Rights Watch also urged these governments to include in any free trade agreements reached with the UAE strong, enforceable workers’ rights provisions that require parties’ labor laws to meet international standards, and the effective enforcement of those laws. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/03/28/uae13090.htmThe 'government' of the UAE is seven guys from seven emirates. They get together and pick one to be the front man. That's their "leader" but it's more of a PR job than anything else. Oh, and they have a SUPREME COURT, too!! Guess who's on that?? The same seven bastards. If you're related to these clowns, you'll do OK, so long as you don't dissent from their party line. They RENT half their damn army from Pakistan and elsewhere. They treat gay people in DRACONIAN fashion--by contrast, that dickweed Fred Phelps is a pussycat. Years in jail are guaranteed if they get caught, and the DEATH PENALTY is on the books for the "crime."
http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/uae/united_arab_emirates.htmI remain UNIMPRESSED with our nation's relationship with these despots. Why was it so crucial to bring "democracy" to Iraq, yet we ignore this kind of shit going on in places like Dubai and Pakistan? It reeks of hypocrisy.
Lou's reasons may be suspect, but he's right on this issue--these guys are NOT our friends.