The Dark Side of Dubai

yep, we all know about the dark side (some of us don't want to think too much about it) but just as Dubai has its bad side, other megapolises around the world have that, too. By the way you can ask Sheikh Mohammed about the efforts being taken to make labourers' lives better.. there's a new thread about this.

all that about people abusing their maids.. first, how many actually have maids - a few snobs, surely.. but most western expatriates in Dubai don't have..The author makes it sound like everybody has a made and a nanny.... do you really want to leave your kids with someone you abuse??

I've got the feeling that the author has deliberately sought after the "best examples" to support his arguments, there are also many factual mistakes in the article, to most of us who regularly travel to Dubai a lot of his examples are fake

In a nutshell, a very sloppy piece of journalism

Don’t believe the Dubai hype - neither the good hype nor the bad one. The truth is in between.

Guys, I found this, and would like to share it with you... these Filipino maids are slaves. If you are not in possession of your own passport, then you're a slave. They wanted to get their passports back!! Their own consulate cannot do anything... because the Philippines is weak, also India is weak and/or doesn't care about their citizens coz they are so many.... if it were US or UK citizens, you would see how quickly they would get their passports. Did you see what the US did to get their citizen back from the hostage situation in the Somalia??

Runaway maids lock up sponsor after pulling knives on her

By Nasouh Nazzal, Staff Reporter
Published in Gulfnews: March 03, 2009, 23:06

Ras Al Khaimah: Two Filipina maids locked up their sponsor in a bathroom and threatened her with knives as they attempted to get their hands on some money and their passports kept in a safe.

The incident was reported from Al Rams area of the emirate.

The sponsor in question is an Emirati woman. The maids, identified as Z.A.A and B.J.I, both 18 years old, were also accused of using a hammer and other steel objects to pry open the safe. However, the safe, which is secured by a code, survived the battering.

Yousuf Ebrahim, a son of the sponsor, said the two maids had chosen a time when his father ventured out of the house and his mother would be the only member of the family in the house.

The maids reportedly asked their sponsor to take a look at something amiss in the bathroom before pulling knives on her.

Ebrahim said the two suspects then tried to retrieve their passports and the money from the heavy steel safe but it refused to yield. When they lost hope of breaking the safe, they reached for the cupboard and, on forcing it open, found the passports of the Emirati family members.

The maids fled the scene, throwing the passports of the family members on their way out of the house.

The sponsor's cries for help were to no avail until other members of the family got back home unlocked the bathroom, by which time two hours had passed.

The Emirati family lodged a complaint with the police but once the passports of the family members were recovered in the yard and the safe was found intact, the complaint was withdrawn.

The family lodged another complaint with the emirate's Naturalisation and Residency Department about the absconding maids and the way they had manhandled the sponsor.

The two maids later landed up at the Filipino Consulate General which referred them to the RAK Naturalisation and Residency Department, which interrogated them.

out of curiosity, are there any positive articles ever published about the middle east, afghanistan, iraq, iran, pakistan?