my niece teaches in Dubai. My Sis, her hubby and my nephew were recently there and seemed to enjoy their time there . however they did all comment on the class system and how poorly they thought the immigrant workers were treated

Sounds like Las Vegas. Everything is fake there too.

What a great article. I must admit that I bought into the Dubai myth. I believed that it was this magical place, and I never once considered where the money or labour came from. This puts it into focus & like a magicians trick it now seems obviously fake.

This entire article sounds like a nightmare. I just watched a really entertaining documentary about the restaurant, Le Cirque. They are opening a restaurant in Dubai. Not really relevant, but I thought I'd share.

While I'm happy to read that gays are pretty much protected here, I'm shocked (and naive) to learn that "all" Saudi men have sex with boys because the "women are locked away."

At least in Las Vegas you can get a fair trial.

Thanks for the article, BP. I had no idea.

Well, I never believed the myth, per se, but I sure am surprised at how quickly it's coming undone.

Great article. Thanks.

If something looks too good to be true - it probably is.

This made me sad - I'd heard about the ex-pat living in her car before. I hadn't heard of the slavery though, or of people stealing other's passports. It certainly doesn't sound like a sustainable city. Rather frightening, actually.

Oh wow. Thanks for posting that. It sounds like a shameful place.

A house of cards built on sand.

I've worked in Sharjah (emirate neighboring Dubai) and I used to go to Dubai for dinner and to get away for a night. It is a crazy city where so many value systems converge that it seems like everyone loses sight of what is going on beneath the surface. You have the traditional Emiratis (diminishing in number in Dubai, which is over 80% foreign born), the workers from Pakistan and India, then you have the legions of Western tourists and businesspeople, mostly (it seemed to me) from Russia, Germany, and England.
It's glitzier than 100 Vegases and the underside is 100 times seedier.

One thing that I found to be interesting was that as a westerner, you get the best of treatment while you are there spending money and everything is going ok, but if you step out of bounds by breaking a minor law or getting into a fender bender, your preferential status and your rights and any sort of privilege disappear and you and your money are worth nothing.
Working there, I was asked to be one of the drivers for our team, and I at first agreed. Then I read more and more about the penalties and seemingly arbitrary laws that favor Emiratis so heavily in the event any sort of accident no matter who is at fault that I relegated myself to the backseat. I just didn't ever want to be in the position to have to defend myself there.

Great article. I'm sending it to all people that need to read it. like dhartung, I never beleived the myth but I've gotten slack for it - its amazing what a great PR job they've done to have normally critical minds swallow the shiny image.