Oz comes to Dubai

Click here to see all images from Dubai.    

I have recently seen some amazing pictures from Dubai, which is an Arab country on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf. I am amazed by the enormous growth that it has experienced in the 15 years since I first visited there.

Dubai has a respectable oil industry, but that sector of its economy accounts for only 6% of its size. The leaders of Dubai sought to make it a modern commercial hub and not become a place that had only oil to offer. It doesn't have religious police, and women have rights that are actually respected. The growth that I am referring to is truly mind-boggling because 15 years ago, the city had at best a few high-rise buildings.

Today it looks like a city out of the "Stars Wars" movies. It is in the process of putting up the "world's largest structure" and has completed other land development ventures that are truly remarkable, including the world's tallest hotel, the world's largest waterfront development, and an undersea hotel and artificial islands that have been made in the Gulf. Dubai has also hosted major sporting events that have gained the attention of the world's sporting elite. It has taken a lot of foresight from the rulers of Dubai to achieve this kind of development in so little time. By diversifying the nature of business in Dubai, the nation has assured itself a place in the economy of the 21st Century.

P.S. I will be moving my blog within the next two weeks to my website www.kareemabduljabbar.com. Please follow me over to my site so you can continue sharing. 

Comments

[Rocky]

Amazing stuff. It's mind boggling how they've accomplished all that in such a short time. The scale of those projects...wow!

Thanks for the pics. I've never seen those.

[Youth Radio Los Angeles]

thanks for posting all those incredible pictures! It looks like it's gonna be huge in Dubai!

[Jon K.]

Umm... yeah... Dubai.

Yes, it is very impressive, but that kind of rapid growth is not sustainable and usually leads to an opposite reaction once over-stretched.

Beneath all that glamor is the shadow of a policy of human rights abuses towards hired foreign labor from places like Bangladesh and Phillipines.

In addition, I find it distasteful that so much of Dubai's growth is rooted in the banking industry when Islam specifically forbids lending money at interest (usury). So, in Dubai they just charge "rent" on loans instead of "interest", but we all know its the same thing.

I'm always a little suspicious when previously undeveloped countries endeavor to produce the largest, tallest buildings in the world, ostentaciously so. It seems like they're trying to hard or feel that they've got something to prove.

I'm not into blatant materialism for the sake of materialism.

[East Nyboer]

Jon K. is right: this "Middle East Miracle" is built on the back of virtual slave labor. I am all for fantastic architecture and indoor skiing, but Dubai has received reams of fawning press over the past five years; it's a bit surprising to see someone such as yourself, Mr. Abdul-Jabbar, come late to that bandwagon without mentioning the highly stratified and elitist society that makes Dubai possile.

It is also an environmental nightmare similar to Vegas: a water-hoarding wonderland built on a desert.

On a positive note, I love the blog and appreciate the fact that you listen to intelligent criticism from your readers.

[Tonya]

Thank You for sharing these beautiful pics. The advancement of Dubai is unbelievably impressive and leaves me speechless. I would love to share, personally, time with a fun buddy here..the sunsets would be amazing....

[Tonya]

@ Mr. Jon K and the rest of the ppl on the opposite side of love in regards to the uprising of Dubai....I am not a professor or Nobel Peace Price Winner on the history or current events on any country, but I do take my time in learning different factual events on the places I have developed a passion in learning..1st of all, it is soooo true that Dubai is growing at an amazingly fast rate and most of it is because of it's acceptance ..."ACCEPTANCE" of the resources...the beauty, the motivation, the brains that have made it happen...and the USA has contributed to the "pains" in the labor of building such a wonderland...but u have to remember also, there are lands in this world that are experiencing more pain because their resources are being STOLEN from the common man that own those oil filled lands...such as Nigeria, Africa. People in those lands aren't paid any money to be mudered over the oil being sucked out of their lands. In order to voice an opinion of what is going on in a land that u don't have a clue about the underlying truth means....u need to study the reasons u cry about having to pay more money in order to fill up your gas tank in your brand new SUVs...Dubai is obviously growing because it's blessed and if you took the time to appreciate the smallest amenities, you would see that without the smallest places, the smallest people are the ones suffering...have suffered...so u can drive the BIG SUVs U now depend on making run...check your news....here's a link...www.GETACLUE.COM....