• 19 May 2009 at 10:00 AM

The Trouble With Dubai

By

Dubai isn’t having the best day. Debt piles up. Their reliance on foreign workers, both of the white and blue collar variety, is just fine, until those workers begin to discover that the Western enclave in the middle of the Middle East lacks anything resembling a Western legal system. Now, more disturbing tidings:

In a surprise move, the Dubai government Monday removed Nasser Al Shaikh from his position as director general of the emirate’s finance department, raising questions about the stewardship of its economic restructuring.
No reasons were given for the decision, which comes just months after he was appointed as a key official in Dubai’s efforts to restructure its economy to cope with the global financial crisis.
A statement on the official Emirates News Agency said Al Shaikh was replaced by a royal decree from Dubai’s ruler by Abdul Rahman Saleh Al Saleh. Al Shaikh will assume a minor role as assistant director in the office of foreign affairs in Dubai.

Has anyone else noticed that the vast majority of skylines of Dubai one sees are artist renderings?
Dubai Removes Finance Director Al Shaikh [The Wall Street Journal]

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Comments (20)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:07 AM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjK2Oqrgic

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:08 AM

    There’s a lot of see through office space on Bakalakadaka Street.

  3. 3
    Posted by Anal_yst | May 19, 2009 at 10:11 AM

    Has anyone else noticed the increasing frequency of Dubai tourism commercials of late?
    Funny how they don’t have any shots of the fecal remnants floating around the formerly-clear waters near Burj al Arab…

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:12 AM

    yeah but they have indoor skiing :rockon:

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:13 AM

    it takes a village to raise a ponzster:
    “WSJ”- N.Y. Attorney General Cuomo removes J. Ezra Merkin from managing his funds.

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:16 AM

    4 aren’t they going to have that at that indoor amusement park near Giants stadium, Xanadu? (“Its better in Dubai, but cheaper in Jersey”)

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:20 AM

    I wonder if they would consider caning there?

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:21 AM

    Everyone in Dubai reeks of sweat and Drakar.

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:23 AM

    Fuck Dubai. Nothing makes me happier than seeing those guys rot in their misery.

  10. 10
    Posted by Anal_yst | May 19, 2009 at 10:28 AM

    @6
    If Xanadu ever actually, ya know, opens.
    F*cking retarded, horrendously-timed, even more horrendously-executed shipping container pile that is.

  11. 11
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:30 AM

    President and Chief Sultan of Dubai’s personal to-do List 5/19/09 or 751st day of Allah’s Year 256343:
    1. Remove Finance Director, replace him with Sheez-Er the Camel.
    2. Implore artist to use more pastels in the artistic renderings of our magnificent Dubai skyline
    3. Declare next Wednesday “National Falafel Day” and invite Special Envoy Marty Finkelstein to join the citizens of Dubai as a meaningless gesture of peace to those sorry bastard Infidel Crusaders.
    4. Look busy!

  12. 12
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 10:33 AM

    @9 Did you make a wrong turn at Townhall.com, or did some swanky Dubai business shun you? If it’s the former, please hit the back button 3 times. If it’s the latter…

  13. 13
    Posted by PatrickBateman | May 19, 2009 at 11:32 AM

    Interesting parallel between Dubai’s removal of the finance minister and a certain CEO being removed at GM. Where’s the legal precedent for that one??

  14. 14
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 11:42 AM

    The trouble with Dubai is that they’re Arabs.

  15. 15
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 11:56 AM

    Dubai is awesome, except for all of the swarthy, backward, inbred Arabs.
    Oh, and the endless burning desert and the groiling fucking heat that cooks your brain 365 fucking days a year and the fact that they harbor Michael Jackson.
    Oh, and the hairy women walking around in burlap sacks and the 90% of the male population who are into boy-rape and white slavery. Did I mention that?
    Oh, and did I mention the swarthy, backward, inbred Arabs and the proximity to Saudi Arabia, mother of all terrorist-breeding hothouses?
    Oh, and the “Call of the Muezzin” five fucking times a day that sounds like Hulk Hogan strangling Felix Unger in slow-motion at 5:00 in the fucking morning? Did I mention that?
    Oh, and $110.00 for a bottle of Whiskey? did I mention that?
    Other than that Dubai is awesome.

  16. 16
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 12:42 PM

    @12: Keep pretending that the folks in UAE are just “peace loving people.”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-Dd5Wm2kY0

  17. 17
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 12:51 PM

    #16 — THAT WAS SOME DISTURBING SHIT!!! FUCK ARABS.

  18. 18
    Posted by american bandersnatch | May 19, 2009 at 12:57 PM

    @ anal_yst: That was my first reaction when I saw it “why is there a big stack of shipping containers at the Meadowlands?”.
    @15 – And you can’t get a freaking drink before sundown during Ramadan

  19. 19
    Posted by guest | May 19, 2009 at 1:16 PM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm7jman3aQ4

  20. 20
    Posted by MoneyBoss | May 19, 2009 at 3:50 PM

    @15, I thought the King of Popping Children’s Buttholes was in Bahrain, not Dubai.

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