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submitted 1 day ago by Beep@lemmus.org to c/world@lemmy.world

Tens of thousands of residents and tourists have left UAE since the US and Israel started bombing Iran two weeks ago, leaving beach bars, malls and hotels eerily empty

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[-] xerxes@piefed.social 34 points 1 day ago

Dubai was always an economy built on a bubble. As much as I hate how they treat foreign laborers and as much as I hate their current leaders, I have some respect for how far they were able to get with this model.

But ultimately, they are a country with little land, little water, terrible weather, and surviving on a vast expat population that has no path to citizenship and will always just see it as a destination to milk for as much money as possible.

I don't see how such a model could ever be seen as sustainable in the long run.

[-] mlg@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

I'm kinda annoyed that even with infinite oil money, they proceeded to design a compleltly unsustainable city for as cheaply as possible.

I would have thrown that money into some next gen terraforming and serious civil engineering projects to make a technological hypercity.

Instead we just got the billionaire's backyard of concrete, glass, and roads.

[-] jobbies@lemmy.zip 13 points 22 hours ago

infinite oil money

You're thinking of Abu Dhabi. Dubai doesnt really have much oil money which is why they went hard on the "sharia Vegas" thing. Abu Dhabi has actually bailed them out in the past.

[-] jobbies@lemmy.zip 6 points 22 hours ago

Dubai was always an economy built on a bubble

You could almost say it was built on sand...

[-] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 5 points 1 day ago

One could say the same about Singapore, yet it seems to be here to stay.

[-] prole 9 points 23 hours ago

Singapore isn't in the middle of a desert

[-] xerxes@piefed.social 24 points 1 day ago

I've lived in both and while the similarities are there, it's a bit different. Singapore still has a majority non expat population while Dubai has only about a 10% local population. Singapore also invests heavily in local education with one of the highest densities of PhDs in the world.

this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
133 points (100.0% liked)

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