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Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi: If you think Dubai is bad, just look at your own country




Friday, 10 April 2009

I recently figured that if British journalists such as Johann Hari (Tuesday, 7 April) who come to Dubai don't send back something sensationalist it won't get printed and they won't get paid. After all, sleaze sells.


I called a British journalist friend of mine and said: "I'm going to write an article about London, the same way your compatriots write about Dubai." By the time I was back at home I had come to my senses, it's not fair to London, a city so dear to my heart, or Londoners to be judged by the actions of a few. It's easy to generalise about a country when figures are manipulated to sensationalise and sell papers.

Say for example that I had written an article that states that, in wealthy first world Britain there are 380,000 homeless people, many of them mentally ill, starving and abandoned in sub-zero temperatures to live on the streets.

Say then that I wrote an article that states that Britain, the so called "jail capital of Western Europe" sentenced in 2006 alone a staggering additional 12,000 women to prison and that up to seven babies a month are born in jail where they spend their crucial first months.

I could have written an article that stated Britain, victor in the Second World War, had given refuge to 400 Nazi war criminals, with all but one of them getting away with it. Or one stating that the number of Indians who died while serving the British Empire, to build your Tube and grow your tea, is so large it is simply unquantifiable by any historian.

Or say I write an article about the 2.5 million-strong Indian volunteer army who served Britain during the Second World War, where 87,000 of them died for their occupiers' freedom and yet until recently those who survived continued to be discriminated against in pay and pension.

I could have written an article that stated that, in civilised Britain, one in every 23 teenage girls had an abortion and in 2006 more than 17,000 of the 194,000 abortions carried out in England and Wales involved girls below the age of 18.

I could have written an article stating that Britain, the human rights champion, not wanting to get its hands dirty, had resorted to secretly outsourcing torture to Third World states under the guise of rendition by allowing up to 170 so called CIA torture flights to use its bases. Or that Britain's MI5 unlawfully shared with the CIA secret material to interrogate suspects and "facilitate interviews" including cases where the suspects were later proven to be innocent.

I could have written an article that stated that the Britain of family values is the only country in the EU that recruits child soldiers as young as 16 into its Army and ships them off battlegrounds in Iraq and Afghanistan, putting it in the same league as African dictatorships and Burma.

I could have written an article that states that Britain either recently did or has yet to sign the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict or the UN's International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families .

I could have highlighted the fact that liberal Britain is responsible for the physical and racial abuse of hundreds of failed asylum-seekers at the hands of private security guards during their forced removal from the country .

I could have written about the countless cases of slave-like working conditions of immigrant labours such as the 23 Chinese workers who lost their lives in 2004 as they harvested cockles in the dangerous rising tides in Morecambe Bay.

I could have written about how mortality rates from liver diseases due to alcohol abuse have declined in Europe in recent decades but in Britain the rate trebled in the same period reflecting deep societal failures.

I could have written about how in "Big Brother" Britain maltreatment of minors is so serious that one in 10, or an estimated one million children a year, suffer physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect.

Or that according to Oxfam 13.2 million people in the UK live in poverty – a staggering 20 per cent of the population in the sixth richest nation in the world.

I could have written all that, but out of respect for Britain, I decided not to. Because when you stitch together a collection of unconnected facts taken out of context, you end up with a distorted and inaccurate picture: something that Britain's Dubai-bashers would do well to learn.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 66748.html

This has been posted and discussed already. Old news - moving on.

Nice to see that The Independent published his opinion/comment. I bet they are glad that he didn't write that article.

Chocoholic wrote:This has been posted and discussed already. Old news - moving on.

If it has been posted, I apologized but can you post the link because I cant find it

Mr Sultan had an excellent chance to refute the article but he didnt. Instead he went on a rant meaning: "Yes we have many bad things in Dubai, and theres bad things in UK as well"

So????

Just because London has ills doesnt mean Dubai should have the same. I am a Dubai wellwisher, I dont care about London. All I care is that Dubai should improve.

The fundamental difference between issues in Dubai and London is that in Dubai, local media rarely touch problems (that is changing though)....

All the problems in the UK were investigated by British journalists. I dont think the govt told them "so what if some Chinese cocklers died, many more people died in the US in 1800".....


In Dubai, the number one approach to any problem is:

1) Deny it

2) If its impossible to deny, then claim the victims are better off than in their home countries

3) If that fails, then point to Palestine, slavery in US, caste system in India, all fo which somehow magically justifies problems in Dubai....

Agreed, Blackburn. The "he's doing it too" excuse ranks only slightly lower than "my dog ate it" and "I didn't know she was a cop" as some of the lamest excuses imaginable.

BlackburnRovers wrote:Mr Sultan had an excellent chance to refute the article but he didnt. Instead he went on a rant meaning: "Yes we have many bad things in Dubai, and theres bad things in UK as well"

So????

Just because London has ills doesnt mean Dubai should have the same. I am a Dubai wellwisher, I dont care about London. All I care is that Dubai should improve.

The fundamental difference between issues in Dubai and London is that in Dubai, local media rarely touch problems (that is changing though)....

All the problems in the UK were investigated by British journalists. I dont think the govt told them "so what if some Chinese cocklers died, many more people died in the US in 1800".....


In Dubai, the number one approach to any problem is:

1) Deny it

2) If its impossible to deny, then claim the victims are better off than in their home countries

3) If that fails, then point to Palestine, slavery in US, caste system in India, all fo which somehow magically justifies problems in Dubai....

4) If you think Dubai is bad, just look at your own country

This reaction is purely to give Mr. Sultan Qassemi my view on this topic, without bias:


I see Mr. Qassemi sees the issues of Dubai merely as "sensational" in London, or in my own country... Sensational??

Instead of really writing an article about one of the problems of London he simply goes emotional and says people from all over the world should mind there own business...

How does this solve the issues that really matter!?
If Sultan Qassemi really cared about the problems 'caused by a few' in London, he could have just visited London and find out (Like Hari visited Dubai). He could write about one or more problems in the Independant about neglect, which he didn't, out of respect...of who actually?

I care about laborers! I'm interested! Write about it. Lets start a proper discussion and address some English issues or my own Dutch issues even. We have issues too. Better address them now, before it gets out of control and it becomes a real issue! Address instead of keeping it a mess would be my motto for starters.

If my interest would only reach as far as the entertainment holiday flyer, yes then I couldn't care less what happened in Dubai or England. But we do care about Dubai! Thats why lots of expats work in Dubai! We want to live our lives there. Contribute to growth and progression! But also raise everybodies standard of living!
Its us, Mr. Qassemi, not I or you! Its us together in a global society. They say that a donkey doesn't hurt himself twice by the same rock. Don't make the mistakes we made. Cause we were all donkeys at first. Looking with hindsight, the pace of growth that brings all these problems wasn't really necessary at all. Gradual growth suits everybody better I suppose, while some are now redundant and are sent back home...still with nothing...

Learn and React instead of Turn and Neglect.

Some people rather point fingers...

i quite like Sydney....

RobbyG wrote:This reaction is purely to give Mr. Sultan Qassemi my view on this topic, without bias:


I see Mr. Qassemi sees the issues of Dubai merely as "a" in London, or in my own country... Sensational??

Instead of really writing an article about one of the problems of London he simply goes emotional and says people from all over the world should mind there own business...

How does this solve the issues that really matter!?
If Sultan Qassemi really cared about the problems 'caused by a few' in London, he could have just visited London and find out (Like Hari visited Dubai). He could write about one or more problems in the Independant about neglect, which he didn't, out of respect...of who actually?

I care about laborers! I'm interested! Write about it. Lets start a proper discussion and address some English issues or my own Dutch issues even. We have issues too. Better address them now, before it gets out of control and it becomes a real issue! Address instead of keeping it a mess would be my motto for starters.

If my interest would only reach as far as the entertainment holiday flyer, yes then I couldn't care less what happened in Dubai or England. But we do care about Dubai! Thats why lots of expats work in Dubai! We want to live our lives there. Contribute to growth and progression! But also raise everybodies standard of living!
Its us, Mr. Qassemi, not I or you! Its us together in a global society. They say that a donkey doesn't hurt himself twice by the same rock. Don't make the mistakes we made. Cause we were all donkeys at first. Looking with hindsight, the pace of growth that brings all these problems wasn't really necessary at all. Gradual growth suits everybody better I suppose, while some are now redundant and are sent back home...still with nothing...

Learn and React instead of Turn and Neglect.

Some people rather point fingers...

i have to agree with some of your points in ur post ..especialy when talking about solving the problem insted of denying however when you talk about an issue which have been adressed according to the writer feelings and emotions its hard to give evidence to defend your self and back up your case .
in order to be realistc, both side should not be bais or stereotype, when some one acuse me with something based on my back ground or belive or religon , its worthless to replay back, thats why Mr Qasimi uses the techniq of pointing fingers toward others who are aiming to deceive the media and the puplic with false acusation based on emotions rathar than strong evidence, just to derive the puplic sympathy and shift the case to a level where anything that writer says is correct .

^ Imho, the best way to respond is to prove those critics that they're wrong, or admit that they are right, or at least show that dubai is really doing something to correct those observed wrongs- straight up.
THAT will stop them- and dubai can even earn those critics' respect.
Playing with emotions will just add more doubt and itch to write more about the bad stuff.
Again this is just my opinion.

your mother is a whooore, Due to the presence of many children born of non-legitimacy and birth without marriage in the west.which makes you illegitimate child

now can you bring evidence to defend your self.

naruto wrote:your mother is a whooore, Due to the presence of many children born of non-legitimacy and birth without marriage in the west.which makes you illegitimate child

now can you bring evidence to defend your self.

Shame on you!!!

Bora Bora wrote:

naruto wrote:your mother is a whooore, Due to the presence of many children born of non-legitimacy and birth without marriage in the west.which makes you illegitimate child

now can you bring evidence to defend your self.

Shame on you!!!

sorry , no other way to expain it to stubborns ppl

i withdraw my previous post..sorry

naruto wrote:

Bora Bora wrote:

naruto wrote:your mother is a whooore, Due to the presence of many children born of non-legitimacy and birth without marriage in the west.which makes you illegitimate child

now can you bring evidence to defend your self.

Shame on you!!!

sorry , no other way to expain it to stubborns ppl

There is always a better way to get your message across. How can you expect respect when you talk like that? I have to say that ALL the locals I have associations and friendships don't talk like that, they maybe amongst themselves, but never publicly.

Thats the problem with some people, you cant discuss things with them without them resorting to insults.......tells more about them than anyone else...

BlackburnRovers wrote:Thats the problem with some people, you cant discuss things with them without them resorting to insults.......tells more about them than anyone else...

As they say, there is a time and place for everything. Serious topics deserve serious discussion.

And I know that they can go off track and turn into humor, and I am guilty of that.

There are also some threads posted that are so off center that you have to poke fun at it.

hey guys cool off
I am sure naruto was a little ....k way out of his social interaction limits
but k he did withdraw
and yeah, this topic has been discussed earlier people have gone for and against it
so just keep you cool

naruto wrote:your mother is a whooore, Due to the presence of many children born of non-legitimacy and birth without marriage in the west.which makes you illegitimate child

now can you bring evidence to defend your self.

You should vote Taliban...

Obligated sex in every four days? with their wives while they don't even want their own men that often...

Can't blame those ladies for seeking pleasure elsewhere.

deadlife wrote:hey guys cool off
I am sure naruto was a little ....k way out of his social interaction limits
but k he did withdraw
and yeah, this topic has been discussed earlier people have gone for and against it
so just keep you cool

There is no problem and he was very humble with his apology. I don't think you have seen enough of him to understand him.

They say you get more with honey than you do with vinegar and if you talk to him nicely he can respond in kind and acknowledge what is being said.

Hey!.. who Said Dubai Is not beautifulll!.... It's to Much beautifull n NiCe!..........

Don't worry Naruto, only God is judging you (according to your signature). No pressure or anything!

Dubai is a wonderful place

I agree!!............

salvationdata-daniel wrote:Dubai is a wonderful place

If you are a local, an expat being paid a high salary or are a rich person with money burning a hole in your pocket. For a lot of poor people from India or Asia Dubai can be hell for them. I guess it all depends on where you come from or your current position in life.

All ears.

The Title says it all

depends on where you're coming from!

lifegauge wrote:depends on where you're coming from!

maybe