# Kindly asking for your opinions..



## nuke (Sep 25, 2011)

Hi all, I just came across this article and I was curious if you'd agree with the author. Maybe not all, but on a few topics? or all?

I am getting ready to move to UAE for a new adventure, and reading stuff like this makes me wonder...so I ask your views please. It won't change the fact that I already quit my job  but it will certainly help me better prepare for the "shock" I may encounter..

Thanks,
Ray

The dark side of Dubai - Johann Hari - Commentators - The Independent


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## ReggieDXB007 (Mar 10, 2011)

Hmmm I suspect this is better located within the sandpit as it could ramble on and on...

What I always say to people, everything you read about Dubai is probably true, at the same time is probably it is also untrue. What I mean is that whatever is written has probably happened but it rarely presents the full picture. Although I like the article (it is the Indie after all) and found that it had at least made an attempt to provide some depth and had followed some element of research, the very nature of an article is that it a realtively short piece focusing on narrow view point.

If you want to have a more rounded view of Dubai you would be better placed to read a book - I found Jim Krane's "Dubai: The World's fastest City" (Used to be Dubai City of Gold) particularly illuminating and did a good job of explaining a great deal about what goes on behind the scenes.

Bottom line, this place went through changes in a few decades that took other countries centuries complete with revolutions, wars etc. One needs to take a longer term view, in my humble opinion.


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## nuke (Sep 25, 2011)

Thanks for the input Reggie. Interesting article, to say the least. I'll check out the book, thanks for the suggestion.


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## dizzyizzy (Mar 30, 2008)

That article has been discussed a few times before, if you do a search you'll find it. Basically many of us agree the article is crap and the journalist in question was discredited for making up quotes from imaginary sources.


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## Mr Rossi (May 16, 2009)

Johann Hari has disappeared from journalism after being found out for (and laterly admitted to) plagiarism, inventing copy (including quotes and characters) and revising wikipedia under a number of pseudonyms. That article is case-closed evidence of at least one of these factors.

A shame because the Independent is one of the better UK newspapers and I liked when Hari got stuck into the odious, sexist, racist, everythingist scumbag Richard Littlejohn on his TV show.


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## Guest (Feb 28, 2012)

That article was published in April 2009, and it has resurfaced a few times since then. I'm curious as to who keeps reviving it, and why.

I've seen other Dubai bashing articles, mostly in the UK papers. What's that about? Sometimes it seems almost like a vendetta. Dubai certainly has its flaws, but why is there so much negativity printed about it?


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## ReggieDXB007 (Mar 10, 2011)

nola said:


> That article was published in April 2009, and it has resurfaced a few times since then. I'm curious as to who keeps reviving it, and why.
> 
> I've seen other Dubai bashing articles, mostly in the UK papers. What's that about? Sometimes it seems almost like a vendetta. Dubai certainly has its flaws, but why is there so much negativity printed about it?


Bad news sells


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## indoMLA (Feb 6, 2011)

dizzyizzy said:


> That article has been discussed a few times before, if you do a search you'll find it. Basically many of us agree the article is crap and the journalist in question was discredited for making up quotes from imaginary sources.


+1.


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## Mr Rossi (May 16, 2009)

nola said:


> I've seen other Dubai bashing articles, mostly in the UK papers. What's that about? Sometimes it seems almost like a vendetta. Dubai certainly has its flaws, but why is there so much negativity printed about it?


Sadly the aim of a lot of UK media is to separate society on the bidding of the government, regardless of what party is in power. Expats and returning expats are yet another niche group to be shunned and vilified by the rest. Many of the articles are not an attack on Dubai as such but the people who left to make a life there. 

It's classic divide and rule tactics, break down strength in numbers and provide plentiful diversion tactics.

With the case of Dubai though there is also a healthy case of snobbery going on as well.


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## Guest (Feb 28, 2012)

Mr Rossi said:


> Sadly the aim of a lot of UK media is to separate society on the bidding of the government, regardless of what party is in power. Expats and returning expats are yet another niche group to be shunned and vilified by the rest. Many of the articles are not an attack on Dubai as such but the people who left to make a life there.
> 
> It's classic divide and rule tactics, break down strength in numbers and provide plentiful diversion tactics.
> 
> With the case of Dubai though there is also a healthy case of snobbery going on as well.


Interesting. Presumably it isn't all the UK media, but mainly the tabloids? I wander over to the Spain forum once in awhile, and have seen similar news articles trashing expat life in Spain, so it would seem Dubai is not the target, but rather the expats, as you say


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## Spen (Nov 29, 2011)

Mr Rossi said:


> Sadly the aim of a lot of UK media is to separate society on the bidding of the government, regardless of what party is in power. Expats and returning expats are yet another niche group to be shunned and vilified by the rest. Many of the articles are not an attack on Dubai as such but the people who left to make a life there.
> 
> It's classic divide and rule tactics, break down strength in numbers and provide plentiful diversion tactics.
> 
> With the case of Dubai though there is also a healthy case of snobbery going on as well.


That's interesting because the media from where I come from is a lot more rah-rah and positive about what the government is doing, but is seen by some as 'pliant' or even 'controlled'.

Personally I think editorial direction is driven a lot by market forces. It depends on which end of the political pool the bulk of readers swim in.

I'm pretty sure editors aren't out to piss off their readers to sell less copies, or get less eyeballs.


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## Mr Rossi (May 16, 2009)

Spen said:


> I'm pretty sure editors aren't out to piss off their readers to sell less copies, or get less eyeballs.


"The secret of successful journalism is to make your readers so angry they will write half your paper for you." C.E.M. Joad

Works well in the UK anyway, especially with the tabloids.


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