Most people know Dubai for its massive skyscrapers and luxurious hotels, but few know that the city was built by modern-day slaves.Please watch the following video:
Ugliness hides behind the outward beauty of Dubai:
Dubai skyline from Zabeel park:
The Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest structure in the world:
Luxury hotel Burj al Arab, "the world's only seven star hotel":
Dubai skyline at night:
And bill Clinton is one of their best friends. Recall when he tried to sell the control of our ports to them?
ReplyDeleteMooselimbs, the religion of peace, equality, and don't forget Hope and Change ... Right Ducky Dear?
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't think Dubai os beautiful at all. It strikes me as monstrous. Why? Because it has an aura of artificiality about it -- like a very elaborate Theme Park -- or a temporary setting for a World's Fair -- and because it is in fact UNNATURAL.
ReplyDeleteDubai has no history, no tradition, and never had the chance -- as every other great city on earth has done -- to EVOLVE gradually over centuries from humble beginnings to greatness. It is entirely brash, lacking in natural beauty without a trace of wisdom or mellowness anywhere in sight.
The place personifies the mentality and temperament of a vulgar, hopelessly pretentious Showoff -- a Bounder -- a Johnny-Come-Lately.
It fairly shrieks nouveau riche!!! UGH!
___________________________
All that aside none of the historic achievements in architecture or empire building could ever have occurred without rulers and planners and artistic directors taking advantage of "the common folk." It's always been that way, and it always will be that way.
Think of what it took to build the Pyramids, the Sphynx, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Acropolis, the Pantheon, the Aquaducts, the Coliseum, the Gothic Cathedrals, the Castles, Fortresses, Palaces and Manor Houses, Sailing Ships, Plantations, and Factories and the means of developing, distributing an displaying products, etc. etc.
NONE of what-we-call Civilization could have happened without harnessing manpower and directing it with force and brilliant strategy.
It's just the way of the world.
The world is maade up of 0.1% players and 99.9% payers. Some payers are more vulnerable than others. Disgusting!
ReplyDelete@Opie --- Mooselimbs, the religion of peace, equality, and don't forget Hope and Change ... Right Ducky Dear?
ReplyDelete-----
Purely the functioning of Kapital. Religion has nothing to do with it.
A Worker Reads History
ReplyDeleteWho built the seven gates of Thebes?
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed.
Who built the city up each time?
In which of Lima's houses,
That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it?
In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished
Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome
Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song.
Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend
The night the seas rushed in,
The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves.
Young Alexander conquered India.
He alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet
was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?
Frederick the Greek triumphed in the Seven Years War.
Who triumphed with him?
Each page a victory
At whose expense the victory ball?
Every ten years a great man,
Who paid the piper?
So many particulars.
So many questions.
Bertolt Brecht
FT,
ReplyDeleteGreat description!
If the Vatican were, in recent history, doing something as Dubai has done -- literally enslaving those who work on giant and spectacular buildings -- would the Vatican get a pass? I think not.
ReplyDeletebunkerville, not quite.
ReplyDeleteThis is the guy who was in charge at the time of the Dubai port controversy.
Not quite???
ReplyDeletefrom Wikipedia...
In mid-October 2005, DP World approached the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to clear regulatory hurdles for a possible acquisition of the British firm P&O. The CFIUS is the multi-agency federal panel that passes judgment on deals with foreign corporations that raise antitrust or national security questions, Soon after, DPW began negotiating the terms of the takeover with P&O.[1] They were advised by former President Bill Clinton to submit to a 45-day review of the acquisition.[2]
Ooooops.
Talk about "cashing in" on the presidency...
ReplyDeleteLater disclosure statements revealed that the couple's worth was now upwards of $50 million,[239] and that they had earned over $100 million since 2000, with most of it coming from Bill Clinton's books, speaking engagements, and other activities.[240]
AOW,conflating the seat of the Church and a sovereign nation is false analogy.
ReplyDeleteAOW, you ever take a little trip to Walmart for some cheap Chinese made stuff?
ReplyDeleteYou know very well were this leads.
Duck,
ReplyDeleteFYI....I don't shop at WalMart.
As for cheap goods made in China, some products are not available American made. A few years ago, I found out that fact when I was buying an electric heater for my piano room.
Lately, when I've done a bit of clothes shopping after my weight loss over the summer, I was astounded to discover that every store I visited in the mall had mostly clothing with a foreign label.
As for my false analogy that you referred to, I was trying to make a point about how Christians are treated differently. The world rightly expects Christians not to enslave laborers; meanwhile, Dubai is committing an atrocity that is rarely covered in the media. Indeed, the media cover more about sweatshops in China than about misogyny and slavery in the Middle East.
WLIL,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that architecture is not evidence of a decent culture.
Years ago, I wrote a paper about the Islamic influence on the architecture of Spain. Of course, some of the paper covered material about the Alhambra. But the beautiful Alhambra doesn't change what the people of Spain suffered under the boot of the Moors.
BTW, are you familiar with the American author Washington Irving? In addition to his famous works (including "Rip Van Winkle"), he also wrote The Life of Mohammed. Irving loved some of the Islamic influence in Spain, and his works in that regard are fairly well known, particularly Tales of the Alhambra, a book often read by children and young adults; yet, Irving also saw Islam for what it is.
AOW,
ReplyDeleteTheir increased arrogance about their brutal islamic faith via their mega projects/buildings is another reason why there are in reality, so much ugliness and backwardness in their islamic influenced society.
I do not know much about Washington Irving. I may look up about his writings, if possible.
WLIL
WLIL,
ReplyDeleteWashington Irving was a 19th century American author. His works are typically easy to find -- some of his works, anyway.
Those buildings Dubai remind me of the Bible passage about whitened tombs that contain rotting bones.
Ducky Dear, it has everything to do with it.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I agree with Free Thinkie. I have no interest of visiting a place like Dubai. It's not just that it's artificial, Vegas is also artificial, but Vegas has a spark and a sense of humor. It's so artificial, it's genuine.
ReplyDeleteI suppose Brits go anywhere where there is sun.
Second, there is also female slavery in Dubai. They recruit women and tell them that they'll work as maids, then take away their passports and ship them to a brothel. They take away maid's passports too. When I worked in immigration, an employee from another agency told me that they had an Ethiopian maid run away from her masters, a couple from the Gulf visiting San Francisco. They took her passport. Once in SF, the maid told her masters that she was going to a church. At the church she found other Ethiopians who told her how to apply for asylum.
Linked.
ReplyDeleteA very revealing 1964 documentary on Slave trade in the "Arab" world confirms the West has ignored the reality of human rights violations for far too long. Slave">Slave Trade In The World Today, 1964 - Full Documentary “It starts with the open air market in a town on the Persian Gulf – black slaves, naked men and women for sale being examined. Then we are told the trade is not just of Africans. The film moves to Qatar where local girls (veiled) are enticed from their homes into the street to watch some entertainers. The slavers can then view the girls and decide who they will buy from their parents and who they will kidnap. Children are shown in an ‘orphanage’ run by a brothel keeper for his prostitute’s children. They are viewed by a party of Arabs and two small girls are taken off to be part of a harem or another brothel. On a flight to Jeddah children are being trafficked on one-way tickets. After a hard stint buying and selling the men of the trade relax watching a European strip-tease.
ReplyDeleteBased on the book: "The Slave Trade Today" written by Sean O'Callaghan (also published another book "The White Slave Trade" in 1965)
Movie Poster for English Version
Extensive comparison and Discussion about the 2004 "Digitally Remastered" & "Re-edited & Color Enhanced" version of this documentary notes selective editing was done when compared to the Italian version see here
Note: Film interviews a British female, Eve Kenneth, a British prostitute who spent 2 years in a sultan's harem, and is featured in another poster for the documentary film here.
Also consider the following details about founding father, Benjamin Franklin, and his efforts to abolish slavery as described by Theodore Parker (1810-1860) in "Historic Americans" (on pages 27, 33, 34,35,36) by using the actual words of Mr. Jackson of Georgia as delivered in Congress a few days prior, the text being taken out of the Koran.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/aa96dnm
More to chew on, given the rush to undermine our second amendment as it relates to slavery. . .from Ace's blog earlier this month:
ReplyDeleteThe US Supreme Court’s pro-slavery ruling in the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1856 enshrined the right bear arms for personal defense as well, when it noted that :
“… affording slaves full rights of American citizenship would include the right “to keep and carry arms wherever they went.”
Fortunately the newly freed slaves, after the passing and the signing of the 13th amendment, had the right to own firearms, thereby protecting themselves and their property from those who would prey upon them.