Quote:
Originally Posted by Truthisgone
Because most people are jealous and hate what they can't have/shines. Human nature. Dubai's amazing, love it. And I'm someone who loves urbanity/cities. Dubai has plenty of walkable urban areas that are better than the vast majority of us cities. They're just not as well known. Agree about the metro, it's great. Makes the ones here seem...dilapidated to put it nicely. It's truly one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen.
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I've actually thought about this for some time. I think people fall into a variety of catagories:
Some hate it because its gaudy and almost like Vegas in its fakeness.
Some hate it because it lacks traditional urbanity. But as you mentioned, they probably have never taken the subway to the older parts of the city which have more streetlife than any American city besides NYC would envy.
Some hate it because of the traditional view that its an oil center and all that that entails(fossil fuels, acelerating global warming etc.). But this doesn't hold up well, as very very little of its economy is based on oil.
Some hate it because of its conservatism. If you are hating on Alabama or Georgia because of recent laws, you probably won't like Dubai. In fact, you might be a hyprocrite if you did like Dubai.
Gay folks- Can't blame them. Although gays get around Dubai fine(I shared a hotel with a gay guy two nights in a row), the very fact that there are laws against homosexuality could turn off people entirely.
Near-slave labor- I've talked with many of these people. They know what they are getting into going to Dubai. So why do they still do it? It beats being unemployed in India or Pakistan.
I think what most of these people miss, is that yes, there are real concerns in the city, but there are so many nice parts to it. It has the traditional city streets full of people, it has one of the most modern metros in the world, beautiful beaches, absolutely mind-boggling skyscrapers, which yeah, minus some of the ill-conceived ones, would make anyone in the US happy to see get built in their city. Its not for everyone, but the near universal hate for it on here is rather confusing to me.