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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."
For those of you slightly lacking in geography, UAE stands for the United Arab Emirates, a country located on the Arabian Peninsula just east of Saudi Arabia.
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany.
...that read it as "UAC"?
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
It should be noted that this is basicaly the same story as the article earlier today on "Space Race 2.0 has Begun". It's an interesting story, though, and I don't mind seeing another link on it.
Also, for anybody ogling at the $265 million price for the spaceport, this is also about how much an airport might cost. It should also be noted that the UAE is a country where people are spending $1.8 billion on a chain of artificial islands arranged to look like a map of the world.
Couldn't resist the troll for those who may not know. The UAE is not your typical "Arab nation". In fact, they are quite a bit more friendly with us than many other nations, Islamic, Arabic or not. Here is the State Department's take on the UAE. Actually some pretty interesting information to be had.
I am Homer of Borg. Resistance is Fut.. Mmmmmmmm, Donuts!
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. (reference: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2003/09/19/uae6388.htm )
Many times passports are confiscated, resulting in the inability to leave or in some cases even report this abuse.
I've also read another article not too long ago that I can't find now, explaining that many companies import cheap labor from outside the country promising excellent wages and opportunities, but then either cutting the workers pay immediately after they were there, amounting to a situation that many if not most of them can't afford to get out of. They have to work to survive, and never are given enough to get out of the hole and leave.
Spaceports are cool and all, but I don't think I'd want to go there to help build one!
But in the future, when the Gulf has less income, due to less oil, won't their economies die?
This is precisely why the UAE is diversifying into things like tourism.
Actually Dubai itself has very little oil. Abu Dhabi is the one with all the oil.. Dubai is actually rich because of all the oil money that flows through its markets. Its like the hong kong of the middle east.. nearly all of Dubai's wealth comes from commercial activity.
- Tempestdata
Oh yes. Dubai (an emirate of the UAE is equivalent to a city state with its own king) has been trying very hard to establish itself on the map as a tourist destination, and as an economic hub for the middle east, as well as the logical connection between the east and the west.
:)
Apart from the space port, here are some more interesting things about the city:
1) The World : A set of Artificial Islands being built off the coast of dubai, for the ultra rich.
2) The Palms : 3 of them actually These are artificial peninsula built in the shape of a palm tree.. Offering luxury houses with private beaches.
3) The worlds Tallest building : The Burj Dubai.. The end height of the building is secret, but it is rumored to be 2500ft.
4) The worlds most luxurious hotel : The Burj al Arab. Read up on it.. its quite a place to stay.
5) The World's largest mall : Dubai Mall Will be built near the Burj Dubai.
6) The World's third largest mall : Mall of the Emirates. Smaller only to Dubai Mall, and Mall of America
7) The Hydropolis : The world's first under water hotel
BTW, this country has no income tax. Gas costs about $1.80 a gallon. Labor is cheap.. you can get a house boy/house maid for about $250-$300 a month LEGALLY. I know.. I had one.
This country is quite liberal too. Alcohol is allowed, though gambling isn't. Newspapers are censored to some degree, and nudity in movies is also censored.
At the same time, people can wear whatever they want.. beaches in dubai (Jumeirah beach in particular is quite popular with the western folk) look a lot like american beaches. Lots of bikinis, tight jeans, short shorts. the whole deal.
- Tempestdata
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