Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

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Capetonian

Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#81 Post by Capetonian » Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:37 am

Ris :
You are correct, but you miss a point I tried to make.

Dubai sets itself up and wishes to be seen as a place for people to enjoy a hedonistic (lovely word of Greek origin) lifestyle in the sun and the kitsch and the glitter. Scratch below the surface and there is a barbaric, brutal, oppressive, feudal and hypocritical regime with a corrupt judicial system persecuting anyone whom they choose to pick on. A place where a packet of an everyday over the counter medicine such as codeine can get you a prison term.

Saudi Arabia does not pretend to be a holiday destination where people frolic half naked in the sun, drink sundowners, dance in night clubs, and pick up hookers imported en masse by the national carrier.

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#82 Post by Undried Plum » Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:42 am

Slasher wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:18 am
Similarly one has to really brush up on the dos and donts with the ragheads of each country, be it a Kingdom or emirate.
Amen to that.

I spent half a year of my life in a 10' x 10' white tile lined concrete box cogitating that one.

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#83 Post by Slasher » Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:54 am

Yes Plum I recall the story. Damn unlucky really. Can't blame you for hating the sand rats.

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#84 Post by Rwy in Sight » Mon Aug 26, 2019 12:02 pm

Capetonian wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:37 am
Ris :
You are correct, but you miss a point I tried to make.

Dubai sets itself up and wishes to be seen as a place for people to enjoy a hedonistic (lovely word of Greek origin) lifestyle in the sun and the kitsch and the glitter. Scratch below the surface and there is a barbaric, brutal, oppressive, feudal and hypocritical regime with a corrupt judicial system persecuting anyone whom they choose to pick on. A place where a packet of an everyday over the counter medicine such as codeine can get you a prison term.

Saudi Arabia does not pretend to be a holiday destination where people frolic half naked in the sun, drink sundowners, dance in night clubs, and pick up hookers imported en masse by the national carrier.
Capetonian, you are right about the Kingdom. However I think a due diligence is required just like any other aspect in life. They are located in the Middle East so that region and the life style associated with the Dubai adverts don't mix. Unfortunately most people can't be bother to make that due diligence. Most people just look at the price and off they go.

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#85 Post by Capetonian » Tue Nov 12, 2019 1:20 pm

Latest move from the dirtbags of Dubai :
Detained In Dubai

Risks remain after Dubai announces new rules on alcohol
Detained In Dubai - Oct 25, 2019 10:05 BST

After years of confusion and mixed signals over the official policy on alcohol, Dubai has announced new measures that claim to both clarify the emirate’s rules, and ease restrictions for tourists. Arrests of foreigners violating Dubai’s laws on the purchase and consumption of alcohol have been regularly reported in the media, with one particularly high profile case involving a woman arrested for drinking the complimentary champagne provided by the national airline on her way to the country.

The new law allows foreigners entering Dubai on tourist visas to obtain a license that will make it legal for them to buy alcohol. Previously, this provision was only extended to resident foreigners. It is being reported that tourists can now indulge in their favourite alcoholic beverages in Dubai without fear of arrest; but is this really the case? Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, who has represented numerous clients who fell afoul of Dubai’s strict laws on alcohol, says no.

“The new laws, as they have been reported, do not address the real issue which has landed so many tourists in legal trouble in Dubai.” Stirling explains, “Very few, if any, cases have to do with the purchase of alcohol; but instead have to do with the consumption of alcohol and intoxication. People are not generally arrested for buying alcohol, but for having alcohol in their bloodstream. Dubai has not specified a blood alcohol level to define legal intoxication, and the new law doesn’t clarify that. What the new law does is create potential revenue through the granting of licenses, and further mislead people into thinking that they can buy and consume alcohol without any risks. But the same risks remain as before. You can get a license, purchase alcohol legally, consume it legally, and the moment you step outside, you can be arrested for public intoxication based on a minuscule blood alcohol level.”

Stirling warns that many people are likely to be misled by the announcement of the new rules, particularly since bars and pubs are plentiful throughout Dubai. “There is a perception that, despite being a Middle Eastern Muslim country, the UAE is tolerant and accepting of Western lifestyles, including the drinking culture. This is particularly the case with Dubai, with its many nightclubs and hotel bars that appear designed for the tourist crowd.” She says, “This is a serious misperception, and countless foreigners have landed in jail because of it. The announcement of the new laws on alcohol will likely increase this false sense of security about drinking; but tourists need to be aware of just how easy it is to be arrested, jailed and convicted in the UAE. Without a defined legal blood alcohol limit, a tourist can be at risk of malicious arrest even when purchasing and consuming alcohol legally. Essentially, if a person has a license, they are allowed to buy alcohol, and are allowed to drink alcohol, but they are still not allowed to have alcohol in their bloodstream. Dubai’s announcement of the new rules, really, is just short of entrapment.”

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#86 Post by Capetonian » Tue Dec 24, 2019 6:02 pm

I think someone posted here recently about 'Totok', a messaging app for use in the dictatorship of the UAE where things like WhatsApp are blocked. I can't find the posting but if anyone happens be thinking of using it ........
Popular chat app ToTok is actually a spying tool of UAE government – report

Government reportedly uses ToTok to track conversations, locations and other data of those who install the app

A chat app that quickly became popular in the United Arab Emirates for communicating with friends and family is actually a spying tool used by the government to track its users, according to a New York Times report.

The government uses ToTok to track conversations, locations, images and other data of those who install the app on their phones, the Times reported, citing US officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and the newspaper’s own investigation.

The Emirates has long blocked Apple’s FaceTime, Facebook’s WhatsApp and other calling apps. Emirati media has been playing up ToTok as an alternative for expatriates living in the country to call home to their loved ones for free.

The Times says ToTok is a few months old and has been downloaded millions of times, with most of its users in the Emirates, a US-allied federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian peninsula. Government surveillance in the Emirates is prolific, and the Emirates long has been suspected of using so-called “zero day” exploits to target human rights activists and others. Zero days exploits can be expensive to obtain on the black market because they represent software vulnerabilities for which fixes have yet to be developed.

The Times described ToTok as a way to give the government free access to personal information, as millions of users are willingly downloading and installing the app on their phones and unknowingly giving permission to enable features.

As with many apps, ToTok requests location information, purportedly to provide accurate weather forecasts, according to the Times. It also requests access to a phone’s contacts, supposedly to help users connect with friends. The app also has access to microphones, cameras, calendar and other data.

Patrick Wardle, a security expert who said he analyzed the app for the Times, said that ToTok “does what it claims to do” as a communications app, which is the “genius” of the app if it is being used as a spy tool. “No exploits, no backdoors, no malware,” he wrote in a blogpost. The app is able to gain insights on users through common functions.

In a blogpost on Monday, ToTok did not respond directly to Sunday’s New York Times report, but said that with “reference to the rumors circulated today about ToTok”, the one goal of the app’s creators was to create a reliable, easy-to-use communications platform. The post said ToTok had high-security standards to protect user data and a privacy framework that complied with local and international legal requirements.

ToTok said the app was temporarily unavailable in the app stores from Google and Apple due to a “technical issue”.

The Times says that based on a technical analysis and interviews with security experts, the company behind ToTok, Breej Holding, is most likely affiliated with DarkMatter, an Emirati cybersecurity company that has hired former CIA and National Security Agency analysts and has close business ties to the Emirati government.

Emails sent to ToTok through its website and to the Emirates embassy in Washington were not immediately returned.

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#87 Post by Fliegenmong » Tue Jan 07, 2020 1:16 pm

Yeah....We don't go there....We don't fly Emirates..We avoid that kinda stuff....and We avoid that kind of entrapement....but easy to see how pople do!
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... Oscar Wilde

Capetonian

Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#88 Post by Capetonian » Tue Jan 07, 2020 2:50 pm

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/0 ... ssination/
British tourists in Turkey and Dubai have been warned they may be in danger following the US assassination of Iran’s top general.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news ... -and-news/
The deepening crisis in the Middle East has cast doubt over the safety of British holidaymakers in the region, with the Foreign Office (FCO) changing its travel advice for destinations including Iran, Turkey and Dubai.

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#89 Post by Woody » Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:46 am

Nearly 1000 bags in T3 baggage claim awaiting to be reunited with their owners. “ Short shipped “ by Emirats due to the situation in the Sandpit :-o
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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#90 Post by barkingmad » Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:12 am

What will happen to all those artificial little islands heavily developed with luxury buildings when the sea-level rises by a metre or so?! :-\

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#91 Post by Slasher » Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:48 am

Makes ya almost wish MM GW was real doesn’t it Mr Mad.

Glad to see the ragheads squealing with the low oil price. Hope the OPEC meeting today and tomorrow produces squat, zilch, and fukk all.

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#92 Post by tango15 » Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:02 am

barkingmad wrote:
Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:12 am
What will happen to all those artificial little islands heavily developed with luxury buildings when the sea-level rises by a metre or so?! :-\
My understanding, based on what I have been told by expats who live there, is that many of those luxury properties are unoccupied, but willing to stand corrected.

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#93 Post by barkingmad » Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:09 am

Hah! Let’s hope for the sake of those who’ve parted with their cash that the properties don’t require subsequent ‘correcting’?!

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#94 Post by Capetonian » Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:16 am

I know someone (as in acquaintance, not friend) who has bought one. I don't hope he gets his fingers burnt, but ..... just scorched!

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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#95 Post by Ex-Ascot » Tue Feb 04, 2020 1:06 pm

I think that I read somewhere quite a few overpaid British kick a ball around chaps have bought out there. Oh dear never mind.
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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#96 Post by Woody » Wed Feb 05, 2020 10:40 am

Some good news for all those who aren’t enamoured with DXB :D

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-dubai ... KKBN1ZZ0CS
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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#97 Post by ian16th » Wed Feb 05, 2020 11:06 am

Emirates seem to be mopping up business from Durban and the surrounding KZN.

They offer, I think, daily flights to Dubai with connections to many cities in UK & Europe.
It is easier to travel DUR - DXB - MAN than DUR - JHB - LHR - MAN and usually cheaper. Though now BA have, I think, 3 flights a week DUR - LHR.
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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#98 Post by Mrs Ex-Ascot » Wed Feb 05, 2020 11:29 am

I like the way that they are blaming everything apart from the fact that many people don't want to fly via Dubai any more. And that includes us! Indeed we plan to continue to avoid the Sandpit full stop from now on.
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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#99 Post by Woody » Wed Feb 05, 2020 11:34 am

ian16th wrote:
Wed Feb 05, 2020 11:06 am
Emirates seem to be mopping up business from Durban and the surrounding KZN.

They offer, I think, daily flights to Dubai with connections to many cities in UK & Europe.
It is easier to travel DUR - DXB - MAN than DUR - JHB - LHR - MAN and usually cheaper. Though now BA have, I think, 3 flights a week DUR - LHR.
That’s mainly down to SAA’s incompetent management.
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Re: Why Dubai is so vile, despicable, and reprehensible

#100 Post by Rwy in Sight » Wed Feb 05, 2020 12:14 pm

Mrs Ex-Ascot wrote:
Wed Feb 05, 2020 11:29 am
I like the way that they are blaming everything apart from the fact that many people don't want to fly via Dubai any more. And that includes us! Indeed we plan to continue to avoid the Sandpit full stop from now on.
I thought your transit experience was not bad after all. What make you change your mind that much?

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