Original subtitles

when we hear the word dubai most of us

picture towering skyscrapers immense

wealth

police with lamborghinis seven star

hotels with the absolute cream of

society inside them

also the palm islands the world islands

the burj khalifa the

arab futuristic symbols of incredible

wealth and so in light of all that i'm

here to make the case that dubai the

emirates

and the gulf countries in general are

one of the worst places on the planet

now this is a rather bold claim i

realize but it's one that i can

substantiate

fully so let's take a look at what's

really behind the glitz and glamour

the true face of dubai and the gulf

countries to better understand what's

going on in a place like dubai

first let's talk about romania

in the decades following world war ii

bukash the capital came to face the same

problem as many eastern european

capitals did at the time as urbanization

increased and huge residential areas

were built out

the need arose for new high-capacity

public transportation

and so nikola chochasku the dictator

romania back in the day gave out the

order to construct a metro line

and so the engineers created a line

proposal and presented it to him

and then choshasku was like no i will

design

the route personally and so the former

shoemaker assistant who also called

himself the genius of the carpathians i

am not making this up

sat down and redesigned the entire metro

line to have it run along the river

underneath yes along but nikola

chochesko's wife elena ciao a former

textile factory worker

also got her fair share of planning

reportedly when the planners presented

the final version of the metro line to

the chochesko couple elena chochesko

reportedly asked why the metro would

stop inside the inner city at piata

romana inquiring what kind of factories

there are the planners told her there

aren't any factories but there is the

bukharash university of economics where

there are lots of students

hearing that elena choutesque reportedly

said students

they've gotten fat they grew up belly

they should walk

no station at romana let them walk and

so since nikola chorchesku added nothing

to that and nobody else dared to oppose

his wife

the station was x from the plans but of

course everyone outside of the dictator

power couple

knew that this was stupid and so

the engineers having enough foresight

decided to build the station

in secret banking on the fact that they

would need to build a station there

anyway

due to future public pressure and they

were correct the end result was this

ridiculous and dangerously narrow

station

since the engineers couldn't build a

normal station hall since they had to

disguise their little secret project as

regular tunnel boring

and so the moral of the story is smooth

brain dictator plus construction

equals dumb and boy what a perfect

segue this is to the video's actual

subject

dubai

[Music]

the city of dubai is a joke it's

a tasteless parody of

everything wrong with modern humanity

and so why do i say that

let's go through it shall we

now in my video about skyscrapers i have

already talked about the butch khalifa

it's a

big dumb tower of glass and steel stuck

in the middle of the desert

serving no other purpose than a

petrodollar fuel dick measuring contest

and the building even has its own poem

about itself

like seriously how pretentious can you

get i am the life force of collective

aspirations and the aesthetic union of

many cultures i seriously dream stupid

emotions

what the hell is that noise oh no it's

the poop trucks

yeah did you know that the burj khalifa

isn't connected to its sewage system

so every single day a huge line of poop

trucks have to queue up next to the

building and

suck out all the poop so amar's ambition

and dubai's shining dream included the

world's

tallest skyscraper but not a sewer

system and besides i've talked about

this before in the skyscrapers video

there's actually not much point to

building a skyscraper

like the only situation where it might

make sense is when you're physically out

of space

but trust me dubai does not have this

problem which ties into the next

[Music]

suspects

dubai's palm islands are the og symbols

of the city the construction of the

first one the palm jumeirah started in

2001 if you can believe that

and according to google's satellite

images it's still not finished

it's still getting built out and just

for good measure let's take a look at

what they actually built here i mean

these things do look nice from space but

what

are they really from up close and

personal well the stem is an

8 lane urban freeway and the leaves are

just individual suburban streets

oh and there's also a monorail in the

middle oh and between

the point and nakil mall there are no

stations

so then how do people living on the

leaves get on this thing

well it's a rhetorical question of

course just like the real suburbs in

america

this thing was built around cars and the

second poem the jebel alley will be more

the same

and then there are the world islands of

course which are just a complex of tiny

islands for the ultra rich and their

villas

and oh my god this looks outright

post-apocalyptic jesus christ

oh and there's a third bomb under

construction if the two weren't enough

oh and by the way the sand they use for

the palms is not desert sand they can't

use it because the grains are too big

instead they have to get the sand from

the sea floor and they achieved this by

sucking it up with these big tanker

ships

and also annihilating acres of marine

life in a process

oh and by the way these palm islands

were built on top of natural coral reefs

which they just ended up basically

burying

oh and according to nasa measurements

all these islands are sinking at a rate

of five millimeters per year and by the

way have you heard about this thing

called the rising sea levels

according to the environment agency abu

dhabi under the most severe climate

change scenario nearly all of dubai

including the palm islands would be

under water alright so let me get this

straight you had all the money and power

in the world to create

anything and you have paid money to

annihilate a coral reef to build a

sinking suburb on top of it

perhaps i treated you too harshly and

here's the kicker about these islands

that's right i'm still not done why

build them on the sea to begin with i

mean you have the desert you have all

the space you will ever need

so why not just build the palms inverted

into the land you know having the actual

body of the palm not

out of sand but out of water it would

look just as impressive from space and

it wouldn't even demolish all the

aquatic life

hang on a second they did do something

like this already just below the palm

tree

and oh no these are american style

suburbs oh man i can't believe it they

took the worst urbanism practices from

the us

and they implemented it one to one and

we actually have all the circles of

urbanism hell in here

copy-based housing cul-de-sacs giant

highways coming through the area no

public transportation a 12 lane arterial

road jesus

christ and so this will be our segway to

dubai's urbanism in general is just

complete bonkers

it's kind of its own little bubble

really a strange little rich people's

dystopia in the desert

take a look at this arrangement two

sections of skyscrapers separated by a

20-something lane freeway and behind it

a bunch of cul-de-sac suburbs and golf

courses

is this strange mixture between futurama

and evil los angeles

and this just makes me feel so

frustrated because all that money and

all that power they could have done so

much more and so much better than this

the way i understand it the main motive

behind building all this flashy stuff

was to try and increase tourism to help

the emirates economy transition away

from oil revenues

which is you know fair enough but then

why not build something truly unique

something that isn't just a big dumb

tower of glass and steel or a couple

dozen suburban streets on sinking

sandbanks

or gigantic malls or golf courses

imagine a city with full-on historic

arabic golden eater architecture with

modern elements

ok this is concept art from diablo 3 but

you get the idea i have seen skyscrapers

malls suburbs urban freeways or golf

courses before what i haven't seen is a

historical or at least historicist arab

city

that would be a great way of spending

all those petrol dollars or at least a

better way i would say and that might

even attract a more quality crowd

instead of the oligarchs trust fund

babies and noverish idiots

okay that's a bit unfair but dubai right

now is not exactly a haven of

intellectualism so to speak by the way

did you know that only 10 percent of the

emirates population is actually emirati

the other 90 being immigrants and expats

well actually they are all immigrants

it's just that white people came up with

this word expat so they don't have to

call themselves immigrants abroad

because that word is reserved for brown

people

speaking of which

and this right here is my biggest

problem with dubai the emirates and the

gulf states in general

all that luxury wealth and opulence you

see all around you in dubai

rests on a mountain of human tragedies

poor people from third world countries

such as india pakistan and bangladesh

are lured in by work agencies promising

high wages and stable employment

people take loans from friends and

family so they can cover the cost of

their travel and work visa usually more

than 2 000

despite emirati law requiring the

companies to pay for those upon arrival

workers passports are often confiscated

essentially trapping them inside the

country workers are forced to work up to

12 hour shifts up to 7 days a week

for 175 dollars per month on average

wager years are common many workers not

receiving money for months on end to

quote from a human rights watch report

the impact on workers whose wages are

withheld for even one month is very

serious

they immediately fall into arrears on

the death day of recruiting agencies in

their home countries

they incur additional interest and they

are unable to send money home for their

families who depend on their income

earning the emirates in some cases the

non-payment of wages means that workers

do not have money to buy food or basic

goods and end up borrowing money just to

survive

the coveted epidemic only made things

worse that and the oil price crashing

left many workers jobless

consequently many were abandoned by

their former employers they now spend

their days in half abandoned worker

camps on the outskirts of the city only

volunteers and their food donations

standing between them and starvation

a guardian article quotes a construction

worker called hassan he says

guests on and off visit and give

something but when nobody comes we have

to starve

we have nothing all this just a few

kilometers away from the seven star

hotels

the world's tallest skyscraper the

world's biggest mall and the golf

courses for rich foreigners

according to the estimates of the

commonwealth human rights initiative

between 2012 and mid-2018

more than 10 indian workers died in gulf

countries every

single day and these are just the

indians

in addition to that a jezebel article

goes on to say that at least two indians

commit suicide every single week

in the emirates a number they say that

is simultaneously built shocking

yet unsurprising they show photos of the

accommodation the workers have to endure

unfit even for animals a harsh contrast

to instagram's parallel universe

they call this system modern slavery and

i'm afraid they are correct

this and the previously mentioned issues

but especially this

is why i hate the emirates and

especially hate dubai

the city of dubai is a joke one

that's unusually cruel it's a

twisted parody of everything wrong with

modern humanity i'll leave you with a

poem from bertolt brecht written in 1935

titled questions from a worker who reads

who built thieves of the seven gates in

the books you will read the names of

kings

did the kings haul up the lumps of rock

and babylon

many times demolished who raised it up

so many times

in what houses of gold glittering lima

did its builders live where

the evening that the great wall of china

was finished did the masons go

great room is full of triumphal arches

who erected them

over whom did the caesar's triumph had

byzantium much raised in song

only palaces for its inhabitants even in

fabled atlantis

the night that the ocean engulfed it the

drowning still cried out for their

slaves

the young alexander conquered india was

he alone

caesar defeated the gauls did he not

even have a cook with him

philip of spain wept when his armada

went down

was he the only one to weep frederick

the second won the seven years war

who else won it every page of victory

who cooked the feast for the victors

every ten years a great man who paid the

bill

so many reports so many questions

thank you for watching i'm sorry the

video took such a dark journey in the

end but as i was looking up stuff for

dubai for the video i kept encountering

more and more just

alarming the up information like

jesus christ

anyway thank you for watching once again

and please like and subscribe if you

haven't already and do check out my

patreon tiers link in the description

and i'll see you next time