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Space Tourism from UAE
RAK writes "The only company to have sent tourists into space, Space Adventures, has announced plans to develop a commercial spaceport in the UAE, from where it will operate suborbital flights. The project will cost $265 million. The Russian-built suborbital vehicle called Explorer will have the capacity to transport up to five people to an altitude of nearly 100km in space, but the project's schedule is yet to be announced."
"Because of Ras Al-Khaimah's unique airport and spaceport support facilities, His Highness' commitment to space tourism, and the close proximity to Dubai, one of the world's leading luxury tourist destinations, makes it a choice location for spaceflight operations," said Mr. Anderson. "As a global leader of tourism, the United Arab Emirates is an ideal location for a spaceport. Suborbital flights will offer millions of people the opportunity to experience the greatest adventure available, space travel. We are honored to partner with His Highness Sheikh Saud."
I know that being nearer the equator is better for launch than elsewhere, so perhaps that helps to cut costs.
But in the future, when the Gulf has less income, due to less oil, won't their economies die? I have a hard time seeing them sustaining anything once the lifeblood of their economy is exhausted.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
As a matter of fact, they are a very worker-hostile country. Labor abuse is a serious problem there, as apparently in order to obtain an exit visa from many of these middle-eastern countries, you need sponsorship from your employer, amounting to an almost forced labor situation in many cases.
I have worked in UAE as well as in USA. The conditions that you describe above regarding UAE are very similar/almost identical to the fate of H1B type workers and other migrant workers (eg. workers from Mexico) in USA. This is nothing specific to UAE - similar abuse of workers exists all over the world where there is large scale dependency on migrant workers.
The largest number of 'westerners' in the UAE are from Britain. Americans come second.
I was brought up in the UAE actually, and people who havne't been there think 'middle east' and go 'OMG! TERr0r1s+!"
Actually, Dubai is often referred to as the Hong Kong of the middle east. Very liberal, very modern, very rich, and quite tolerant.
- Tempestdata
True.
.. (The current Kings grand father) was known to have once stood up for the Hindus, who have a temple in a region of the city called Bur Dubai. The residents living near the temple started complaining about the sound of the bells from the temple and asked the king to have it moved or demolished.
Sheikh Rashid
The King, shook his head and said "If the bells bother you so much, you are free to move elsewhere".
This is especially significant because, Hinduism, unlike christianity is Idol worship. And Islam is strongly against Idol worship...
I dont think there is another hindu temple anywhere else in the Middle east. There is a strong fundamentalist movement in dubai as well, but there is a deep multicultural base to the city, and moderation is strongly enforced. While going to school there, I had friends who were Muslims, christians, hindus, and sikhs as class mates and friends. No one was targetted for their religion in anyway and it wasn't even considered an issue. There were students of many nationalities.. Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Arabs, Iranians, Britons, Lebanese, Egyptians, Chinese, Filipino, Sudanese, Tanzanian, Sri Lankan .
In fact, I think Dubai has a greater cultural and religious mix than the US. The native Arabs make up only a fraction of the population.
- Tempestdata
Simple reason:
The official census and thus captia does not include non-nationals (temporary workers), while the US includes not only temporary workers but also illegal immigrants (not that the census checks a persons visa). The nationals make us a mere 12% of the population and temporary workers make up the rest, illegal immigration, while it exists, is delt with via mass deportations. Nationally cannot be conferred by any process other than birth to a national father. E.G. I was born there but will never be a national.
This keeps their percapita income and other such stats artifically high. They have a penchant for being number 1. Note the 6 star hotel, the world future tallest building, the biggest construction on artifical islands, I think the worlds biggest wedding cake (I had some, it was nice), and a ton of other record attempts.
With 8 1/3 times the reported population contributing to national production and energy use it's not hard to be the highest percapita user (desalination and aluminum refining are a combined effort and it's very very energy intensive, hence everone using water is using energy (the cold water flows quite hot due to the ambient temprature, midday, you might burn yourself showering)) considering these differences in calculating the stats I heartily conferr back status of most wasteful nation to the U.S. As a side note, #3 Kuwait, might do just about the same thing as the UAE, They're analagous nations right down to the flag.
-Daniel
First, the labor problems apply only to unskilled expatriates from other countries who fail to uphold human rights as they apply to laborers: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand are the primary culprits. Western expats, by contrast, can usually get assistance from their embassy or consolate if something goes seriously sour.
Second, the reason why things go sour is that many employers keep their employee's passports. Westerners can and usually do refuse to cooperate with this, especially Americans (for whom it is illegal to relinquish property of the US government to any foreign interest, as I understand it). Once your passport is in someone else's hands, you're pretty much stuck. I have a Swedish friend who got caught in a nasty bait-and-switch deal after giving over his passport, and who got next to no help from his consolate in the Emirates - he eventually had to be 'smuggled' out of UAE to Oman in order to take legal action to resolve things.
Third, it is very important to understand that 80% of the population of the UAE is expatriate. UAE citizens generally do not work. They are essentially absentee capitalists - owners of property and co-owners (known as 'sponsors') of foreign-owned businesses operating locally. Their guilt lies largely in their complicity with what is almost invariably Indian or Pakistani management in their companies. And Indian and Pakistani middle and upper management is, to a greater or lesser degree, controlled by the Indian and Pakistani mafias. The same 'system' is true for Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Iranian, Filippino, and other companies, but they are very much in the minority.
So it is important to realize that it is the mafia rackets who organize on the home country side to sucker these victimized laborers into going to UAE to work, and then trap them once they are there.
There are two underlying problems: the UAE government tolerates this crap, and the home countries do nothing to hold their citizens and/or businesses accountable overseas (No surrise on the second point, just think 'Nike', 'child labor', and 'sweatshops'). Often this is because the same rackets control their own corrupt governments as well.
International pressure has been quite successful in bringing the UAE in line. They have recently come under serious fire for labor conditions, and they have responded quickly in many instances with legislation and brutal penalities on companies in violation.
My recommendation is that if you are willing, help make a fuss and keep stories in the news ad public consciousness, because UAE is one of the few countries that actually responds to activism, protests, and international pressure. For example, in response to international outrage at the the abhorent practice of using children (usually foreign, some as young as 3 years old) as camel jockeys, the UAE responded by immediately banning the practice and requiring - no joke - robotic jockeys to be used instead. Check BBC for the story.
A-Bomb
I remember when I lived there a while ago we used to use the cold water tank for hot water, and the hot water tank for cold water. The cold tank was in the back garden and would get super hot during the summer, the hot tank was inside with the air conditioning. Happy Days.
2 + 2 = 5