The sun is always shining in the UAE. There is hardly ever a chance of rain and never a chance of snow. In this barren wasteland, all that can be seen under the shining sun for miles is either sand or steel and concrete structures. Dubai, the so-called economic capital of the UAE, is a city where you can see tall buildings everywhere—this is a city they “think” will be more successful than Singapore and Hong Kong.
Dubai does not really have any established businesses except, of course, the property market and the financial help that it gets from neighboring Abu Dhabi. As these recent economic crisis hit Abu Dhabi, which is the seat of presidency of the UAE, sanctioned $20 billion to be given to Dubai for it to get out of the mess it has gotten itself into. How was Abu Dhabi not affected by these crisis and was easily able to roll out $20 billion? Well, the answer is simple: The west buys the oil that Abu Dhabi pumps out and it buys it at the price asked by Abu Dhabi.
I know I titled this post “the dark side of Dubai” but I just want to show here that if not for Abu Dhabi, Dubai probably wouldn’t exist in the state it does today to have any dark side whatsoever. All the slave labor and endless supply of money is sanctioned by Abu Dhabi that does not fear anything because it produces oil. Yes, oil!! Won’t we just about do anything for oil?!! The western governments have decided to overlook everything for oil. Before it was only Saudi Arabia that got a free pass to do whatever it wanted as long as the oil pipelines remained open but now Abu Dhabi is added to the list also.
What I am trying to refer to is (and I am doing my best as I am stopping myself from falling asleep—its 2:30 AM and I got work tomorrow!!) the “very recent” torture video (link below) that was released on ABC. Americans were outraged, there were demands for justice, some said they could not believe what they saw and others said it was inhumane. All these things were and still are true, however, for some reason this story has faded into oblivion. The mainstream media doesn’t care anymore. It is still more important to blame the Bush administration than to follow this story of a supposed ally of the US. This ally that sanctions torture on a government level still continues to receive US support. The US is selling state of the art weapons to the UAE and is also buying up oil.
All I am doing right now is repeating what has been said already but for some reason it lands on deaf ears. Any criticism of the UAE or the Muslim world is met with charges of Islamophobia, well, I am not going to shut up just because we have said this already. I hope we continue to demand justice. It does not matter whether the person that tortured was from the royal family or just your average Joe. What we see in this video is plain barbaric and whoever perpetrates these acts should not go unpunished! But sadly, I think that the call for a just punishment would remain for a long time just that…call for a just punishment. Leaders in the west are nothing but silent witnesses that would condone anything as long as they get what they want, namely, oil and business!
Here is the link to the torture video.
2 comments:
Darker side is not only for dubai,but it applies to every nation in the world.
What a load of Muslim sounding bull crap. Of course every nation has a dark side but most accept it and try to correct it unlike Muslim countries that keep on dreaming they are always right and when something is pointed out that needs to be corrected, they say, "Darker side is not only for dubai,but it applies to every nation in the world."
Just because people have been murdered before doesn't justify it if I murdered someone!
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