* Dubai *
(duty free)
Currently, I am in Dubai and I have finished shopping for souvenirs~ haha. I wanted to buy an Aladdin lamp, but I thought better of it because I suddenly remembered that I have already bought something else (surprise, surprise...cannot talk about it here)
When I first arrived, I had chosen to accompany Yue; who had to look after the bags while the rest of us went to refresh ourselves. While I was sitting, I had Yue on my right, a Bangladeshi guy on my left (did I mention he was singing? duh~) and a whole group of Indian (or maybe they were Pakistani, or Bangladeshi, or Sri Lankan, or whatever) men in front of me. The men in front of me were lying on the chairs with blankets pulled up to their chins, while some of them were just sitting on the floor in a circle; talking. All I could say is, that the situation really freaked me out. Forgive me for being so innocent and ignorant, but I never knew that Gulf countries had that many people from South Asian countries. I have to say that I have a concrete reason to freak out; for they were all around me, okay? Huhu...
I read an article once about Dubai and humans rights. It seems that the Dubai government never really took care of the labours they hired from South Asia. In the article, it stated that labourers had terrible living conditions and had to work under the harshest circumstances. There have been reports of death due to dehydration and many other factors. It was one of the most fascinating article about Dubai that I have ever read.
HowStuffWorks - How Dubai Works
Sudden City - National Geographic
***
Last but not least; this one is for you, Tasneem:
All in all, I am kinda sad that a few people here did not wish me farewell. Oh, well. We'll live through it, I guess.
(duty free)
Currently, I am in Dubai and I have finished shopping for souvenirs~ haha. I wanted to buy an Aladdin lamp, but I thought better of it because I suddenly remembered that I have already bought something else (surprise, surprise...cannot talk about it here)
When I first arrived, I had chosen to accompany Yue; who had to look after the bags while the rest of us went to refresh ourselves. While I was sitting, I had Yue on my right, a Bangladeshi guy on my left (did I mention he was singing? duh~) and a whole group of Indian (or maybe they were Pakistani, or Bangladeshi, or Sri Lankan, or whatever) men in front of me. The men in front of me were lying on the chairs with blankets pulled up to their chins, while some of them were just sitting on the floor in a circle; talking. All I could say is, that the situation really freaked me out. Forgive me for being so innocent and ignorant, but I never knew that Gulf countries had that many people from South Asian countries. I have to say that I have a concrete reason to freak out; for they were all around me, okay? Huhu...
I read an article once about Dubai and humans rights. It seems that the Dubai government never really took care of the labours they hired from South Asia. In the article, it stated that labourers had terrible living conditions and had to work under the harshest circumstances. There have been reports of death due to dehydration and many other factors. It was one of the most fascinating article about Dubai that I have ever read.
HowStuffWorks - How Dubai Works
Migrant laborers compose 60 percent of Dubai's population [source: National Geographic]. But the workers who make the city's growth possible suffer from treatment that the independent investigatory group Human Rights Watch calls "less than human" [source: Human Rights Watch].
Sudden City - National Geographic
There once was a sheikh who dreamed big. His realm, on the shores of the Persian Gulf, was a sleepy, sun-scorched village occupied by pearl divers, fishermen, and traders who docked their ramshackle dhows and fishing boats along a narrow creek that snaked through town. But where others saw only a brackish creek, this sheikh, Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum, saw a highway to the world.
***
Last but not least; this one is for you, Tasneem:
All in all, I am kinda sad that a few people here did not wish me farewell. Oh, well. We'll live through it, I guess.
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