Dubai Inc.

Posted on October 17, 2007
Filed Under Mideast |

The miracle that is known as Dubai. Its ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum is one hell of a man.

Watch this 10 minutes video or read the long article to find out more. Overall, Dubai is a success story like no other in the Middle East. And no, Dubai’s economy doesn’t rely on oil. In fact oil and natural gas make up less than 8% of it.

What are the Saudis going to do once their oil runs out?

Comments

10 Responses to “Dubai Inc.”

  1. Nizo on October 17th, 2007 1:36 am

    “What are the Saudis going to do once their oil runs out?”

    Many Saudis will “emigrate” to Dubai. They’re already quite familiar with the city where they spend their government handouts on booze and russian whores who proclaim: “One Fuck One Khundred Dirkhams”.

    —

    The Algerians can actually teach the Saudis a thing or two about the future. Check out the following link:

    http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/08/11/after_oil_and_gas_sahara_sunshine/

  2. Drima on October 17th, 2007 5:10 am

    Great article. Thanks for the link Nizo

  3. Andrew Brehm on October 17th, 2007 2:09 pm

    “What are the Saudis going to do once their oil runs out?”

    The terrorists will realise that the Saudi family cannot buy their people’s loyalty any more and “Saudi” Arabia will become a terrorist state run by the likes of Al-Qaeda.

    The Saudi family are an easy target because of their connections to America. Nevertheless they failed to make their connections useful enough for America and Britain to care much about their fate.

    The current pretend-moderate state will simply become openly hostile to the world.

    Of course Israel will be blamed for it. (If Israel wouldn’t defend herself against Arab attacks there would be no terrorism.)

  4. aaron on October 17th, 2007 2:19 pm

    Wow Andrew you certainly have an active imagination.

  5. nobody on October 17th, 2007 3:32 pm

    saudi arabia and dubai dont compare so well since saudi arabia is a relatively big country in terms of population … the population of dubai is just a few millions of which 80% are expats … saudi arabia is a country of 25 something millions of which only 5 millions are foreigners .. there are not so many expats in saudi arabia to sent home in case shit happens .. the saudi population is always taking the brunt of any economic trouble …

    i would say that dubai is one big economic zone which is not only driven by foreign capital but by foreign labor too .. the emiratees themselves are more like scavenging on the outskirts of this economic boom having a certain percent of workplaces reserved for them by law …

    actually i read opinions about dubai as a possible biggest property speculation bubble in human history that will explode one day …

  6. Andrew Brehm on October 17th, 2007 4:01 pm

    “Wow Andrew you certainly have an active imagination.”

    Right. Something like that would never happen in the middle east.

  7. Ahmad al-Safawi on October 17th, 2007 4:42 pm

    A succes? Economical maybe…

  8. Don Cox on October 17th, 2007 6:17 pm

    Solar power does seem like the obvious thing. They could even use it to make oil from Hydrogen (from water) and CO2 (from the air). Or they could use the sunshine to grow vast quantities of algae for biofuels - which is another form of solar power.

  9. Drima on October 17th, 2007 7:35 pm

    Yes, mainly economical success. Dubai has many problems and a few appaling things. However it is still worthy of admiration.

  10. aaron on October 18th, 2007 3:41 pm

    Andrew,

    The way you wrote it sounded fairly convinced vs. being hypothetical? And I agree of course that scenario is ‘possible’

    Aaron

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