10 Reasons why Dubai sucks.
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I recently moved back to Dubai after five years in a university abroad. Don’t get me wrong, I have some amazing memories of my childhood here but the Dubai that I knew then to what it has become now is staggeringly different. The first reason for its sucking is something that you will encounter as soon as you exit the airport doors:
1.HEAT- the hot air literally slaps your face as an admonishment for ever having come here in the first place. It always scares me to think what would happen if we had a power cut because Dubai’s climate is un-inhabitable if not supported by air conditioning. The air conditioners hold the status of life support systems here-going out in your car if your ac is not working is inconceivable. Your life is limited to getting out of your air conditioned homes and into your air conditioned car and then into the air conditioned malls/workplaces etc. Stifling much?
2.EXPENSE- Dubai.is.expensive. The rents, the groceries, the education fees, and the eating out- everything costs major bucks. There is almost nothing you can do here for entertainment that does no cost money. Hey, it ain’t called the city of gold for nothing yo! Though, if your aim for being here is to only buy gold, then you’re in luck because that really is cheaper.
3.NATURE- or the lack of it there off. There is no plant life that can survive naturally in this desert and the only green areas that do are done so by extreme amounts of hydration provided by the government at all hours.
4.NO CITIZENSHIP- If you are not an Arab in Dubai, your chances of ever getting citizenship are zero. Forget about it. You are not worthy of such a privilege. It doesn’t matter if you were born here or if you spent your life working here, the answer is still a resounding NO.
5.THE LOCALS- Continuing the point above, the citizens of Dubai foster hate in us outsiders for many reasons. It could be because the government takes care of them and acts like their personal ATM machines from the time they were born. These golden children are paid to study, paid to work and paid for no reason at all as well. This sense of Godfather-always-watching-over makes these local kids turn into…well-brats. They are safe in their knowledge that they will get away with anything and are above the rules that we normal mortals have to follow.
6.ARTIFICIAL- Dubai should have been called the city of artificial. Almost 90% of its population is an expat and its local produce is hopped up on steroids. It sells the image of a perfect, safe society but in reality the government hardly ever allows any negative news from being published in its newspapers. If news of a crime is published, it is always followed by a report of the perpetrator being caught. Always. The people are mostly materialistic, vapid and devoid of original thought, while the islands are man-made and the grass is synthetic.
7.NO RAIN (all year round!)- This truly saddens me. The government has been known to provide artificial rain from time to time to placate its citizens but no one really goes out in them. What if it’ll make us grow another arm or something?
8. LACK OF CULTURE AND HISTORY- Really, where did you come from? And what do you stand for?
9.TRAFFIC- Finding Parking spaces for your cars is equal to finding the elixir of life. Dubai is a really small place and every piece of land that isn’t occupied my houses and flats is used for parking and roads and it still isn’t enough. It takes hours to get from one place to another because the roads are almost always packed!
10. CONSTRUCTION- Dubai is one big construction site. There are almost more cranes than there are people. Everywhere you look there will be cordoned off spaces where construction is underway. These eyesores have been around since …well actually I cant remember a time when there wasn’t construction sites every few feet away.
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CommentsLoading...
Dubai is:
- shrill
- braggy
- inelegant
- needless
- dead in the water
Thanks for the comments alizey and alfred..unfortunately i'm stuck here for the time being:s but its comforting to know others feel the same:)
Wow! Loved your article:D Keep writing!
Dubai has always intrigued me! I still want to go see for myself but your hub has painted a picture of the other side.
@purpleOne- Dubai on a time-limit is actually a pretty good place to check out ..as a tourist destination, i think that you should definitely give it a go..i was actually referring more to those who have to live here- then the scenario is entirely different.
thanks for the comment though, it gave me a reason to check out your hub pages, which i found really useful:)
I love the way you write!
i don't like the style of the building. i mean if it was cylindrical in shape and same width all the way up then i'd take off my hat. but this way, its kinda like kids lego construction, just a bit longer.
The attitude problem with the locals, they think there gods, yet they are ignorant people. They are so brain washed they live in a world of their own. The hipocracy kills me they market hospitality, yet they hate expatriates. Business is a waste of time, they give the sense of prosperity, yet their economy is pathatic, you can never make money there. They will make their best to take your money by any means, frequently by changing policies that impose on expatriate businesses to go bankrupt.
I am a local, and I believe that there are alot of bad locals, but not everyone is bad, right?
Hi koko and Ahmad..thanks for the comments guys..and i agree with both of you to a degree..
koko, yes, they do make it very hard to prosper for the expatriates, it's quite annoying how they change their policies to suit themselves, while the expatriates are left to flounder..
i think the special privileges that have been given to the locals has given some of them somewhat of a god complex, as you say..
but, obviously ahmad, that in no ways means that all the locals are the same..:)
well i have noo argumnts to say that you are wrong but still you gotta admit it is not bad as other countries. i dont knw for others. but i am kinda living my dream here and i am sure noo country can give me that much of things. ask your self.. CAN YU AFFORD a LAMBORGHINI anywhere out side Dubai?? and now again ask is it hard to afford a lamborghini here? phewww its jus another normal car here..branded cloths, dinners @ 7 star hotels.. you cant live a life like that anywhere on this planet unless you are super rich. soo you have to admit that place is just amazing..
I want to do a film about dubai. but i need stories - any gay people, jews expats have a story?
i wasted 8 years of my life in that stinky oven, i hate it. it has no soul. just buildings (hotels are fancy but public hospitals are very bad) their jails are full of prisoners for not paying their credit card bills which in some cases would be less than 1000$. child and women slavery is inhereted in the culture of the citizens. check www.ansarburney.org/videolinks/video-hbo1.html .
this is just a small example.
and the air quality is horrible
this isnt true i live in dubai and it rained, the heat isnt bad now, the fuel isnt expensive and the reason its expensive is that all food has to be shipped from abroad,and its artificial cause in the desert, they try to make dubai nice by adding some greenery so respect it,andshut up about culture go to dubai museum you idiot and you can se the forts, perling and of activity and also the traffic is because so many people go to dubai cause its better then other countries, and construction happens cause people need somthing to do and somewhere to live so shut the hell up about Dubai (an i aint arab)
I totally agree with these points!
People dont go dubai 'case it is a better country, people go to dubai because they pay good. And thats it. Who the fuck would like to live in a place thats 55 degrees on summer, full of hypocrates ready to screw you up, ugly city, shitair quality, plus no rights at all. Have you heard of, anything for money? Yeah thats dubais quote. Fuck this place!
I lived in Saudi for a while and all the negative comments and positive ones that have been posted, remind me of Riyadh. The locals are arrogant and that is at the top of my list!!! Heat you'll have to cope with, its not anyones fault, money is good, incentives are great, they don't know how to abide by a contract, a contract means nothing and when you have a family to bring over, it's a head ache because you will never get a contract that is longer than a 2 year renewable contract. it's soooo annoying. When you've uprooted your children from a good uk school to go to the middle east, the last thing you want to do is think that in 2 years time we'll have to come back to the uk (not that there is anything wrong with the uk, jst the wage). I have to repeat, the locals are sooooooooooo arrogant. And yes I am stereotyping and I have a right to. Just because I am an expatriate, trying to put my new born child into a trolley to go shopping, doesn't mean you locals' have a right to pull that trolley right under my nose!! huh manners? what manners? Just one example. I won't rant on about the racism that the arabs have which is the worst in the world unfortunately.
Great article! but I wonder when they are going to block this site! I still can't understand how the people of the UAE can't dare to speak anything negative about the country. There are so many issues that needs to be brought up for the sake of public awareness, like the unnecessary price increases of grocery items at petrol stations. The price always increase by 20 to 30% every 2 - 3 months and people just pay like its something normal! Another very important issue is the high rent price of many low quality apartments and the high cost of utility bills and hidden taxes. There is a financial crisis for Gods sake and yet Dubai pretends that everything is normal when 75% of those massive towers are vacant!!! I don't mind the price increase as long as its proportional with the annual salary increase. But nowadays, many companies are not providing their staff with salary increments claiming that rent prices have gone way down!!! I just hate this city because its simply full of hypocrites and the government is also trying to get as much money as possible from the expats through various means. Saudi is by far still a much better place to work in.
i agree, i live in Abu Dhabi, and it's the same !
I just spent two days in Dubai..and was shocked to see they blocked all VOIP sites. Nothing on my smartphone was working (no Skype, Viber, Tango). They even block sites like match.com and Craigslist. Who the F are these people imposing their stone age ideology on Expats living here (about 80 percent).
I totally agree with the post...they seem to act like they are somewhat liberal, but they are not that different than Saudi..at least in Saudi you know the rules up front and not shady like in Dubai.
The locals (you seem them working at the airport immigration and customs) all seem to be rude and bored with their jobs.
Thanks to the Indians working and building these massive buildings and malls these people are enjoying a so called higher standard of living. If it were not for these underpaid workers living in shit conditions and treated like slaves it would still be a desert.
I think the only reason anyone would go here is lack of opportunity elsewhere or just to make some money and go back to their home countries.
Get the hell out of here already, bro. No, you will not. Why, someone ask? .. Its the money, which you would not be making while enjoying rain and nature of your country. And those dozens of reasons for which Dubai rocks. You listed only 10, right? .. And, not able to find parking means, people (car owners, not labor) actually are here and the place is fucking busy.
Ever been to New York or Tokyo? ..
Dude, this city is feeding you and your family, love it.
No?
Most of these reasons does not make sense, its like you're trying to think of anything bad just to write while you have no idea what's really bad and what's not.
They don't give citizenship for anyone, not even Arabs that were born here, they just stopped it completely due to the insane amount of people who applied.
If you want good reasons why Dubai sucks:
1) even if you were born here and all your life is here, if you lose your visa (if you lose your job for example) they won't allow you to stay.
2) Etisalat is the worst communication provider ever! you're forced to use their shitty service and they won't allow cheap calls like Skype, and the internet censorship is insane that its essential to pay for a VPN service to access full internet.
3) Public health services are really bad unless you'd like to spend 500 AED on each visit to a private hospital.
4) If you have mental problems like ADHD and need medicine to be able to live normally then you better leave because ADHD meds are totally banned even if you have prescription.
I can write 100 more but I am bored.
Dubai city is a gr8 place but people suck cuz they r so narrow minded and locals r extremely racist towards expats. where ever u go in this world there r good and bad facts bout ppl and the palce but this list applys only to the Gulf States.
All expats should rally/march for equal citizenship rights every friday.
UAE locals will keep sucking hard working people's blood till the day they die.
1.HEAT Well that's what Dubai is, I like that it's like living on Mars. It's kinda fun to know there's a place in the world that is super hot. Would you complain about the rain in Seattle? The cold in Moscow? Sounds like you would.
2.EXPENSE I'm from Australia. I find Dubai unbelievable cheap. I go shopping at the supermarket and its 70dhm. That same stuff would come out to 300dhm where I'm from. I eat out at a restaurant, get a 300dhm bill that would be 700 in Australia.
3.NATURE See point 1. You can't eat at a chinese restaurant and complain there's no pizza on the menu. Well you can, but you sound like a retard.
4. NO CITIZENSHIP I would never ever live here long term, this is kinda like play life, so personally for me this has zero meaning. Dubai citizenship? Lol. BUT I can see why this one bothers you.
5.THE LOCALS I never see them. Very rarely. And when I do, in malls, they keep to themselves. The locals don't bother me at all. But when I do break a smile for them, and attempt to speak in really bad Arabic, they always smile back. Get a kick out of it.
6.ARTIFICIAL You're mixing two points. As for the artificial, WE'RE IN THE DESERT, BRO. If grass grew naturally, we wouldn't be in the desert. As for government control, well it's a monarchy. That's par the course for all monarchies. They rule by their rules.
7.NO RAIN No rain, really? You sound like someone who's eternally unhappy no matter where they are. Like a 15 year old girl.
8. LACK OF CULTURE AND HISTORY It's unique in that it doesn't stand for anything. It's such a wonderfully bizarre place. I like it for that.
9. TRAFFIC This I agree with you. Feels like the roads were all laid down without thought about how people would access them.
10. CONSTRUCTION There is a lot of construction. You could always move to Greece?
moved to the uk recently. come and live outside of dubai to realize what you get there and won't elsewhere! nothing else to say. Not denying though that there are a lot of bad points, but when was any place perfect!
wrong at all , smells from your article you are selfish .
tempreture and Desert is not meaning to heat place where you are my friend . it's god's hand created it . these people over there they try best to make it better and better daily . Artifically yes .. but u should know that biggest cities in world made this way ..including newyork .. for locals , i found them so nice and really trying to do help as much as they can (dont 4gt those are muslims also ) , which culture you are talking about so ? .. move to USA to know where is the culture there so ! IMMEGRANTS made all .. please it has disadnatages but more more advantages u mention above .
Are these cities bad as Dubai?:
Abu Dhabi (U.A.E.)
Sharjah (U.A.E.)
Doha (Qatar)
Lusail (Qatar)
Manama (Bahrain)
Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
Kuwait City
alizey rahman 20 months ago
so true!