I was shopping at the July Harrods sale yesterday (70% off designer stuff - anyone who paid full price feel like a sucker today?), and got approached by a nice English lassie to see if I'd be interested in buying a condo in Dubai.
She told me it'd be a great investment, and it's almost sold out so I'd have to hurry.
Dubai? I asked. Isn't it kinda hot there?
Oh, sure, but it's the new playground of the rich you know...
Nope, it's a Ponzi scheme. A big old fashioned Ponzi scheme, wearing a turban and a robe.
Wanna see an awful, historic, incredible real estate crash? Visit Dubai in about 5 years. Nobody lives there, poverty abounds, the King micromanages the entire economy, it's hellhole hot, and it's full of British investors buying houses and selling to each other, until the music stops. Then watch the stampede.
There's no economy in Dubai except real estate. They're even running out of oil. The people building the houses are basically slaves, imported from far off countries, living in squalor. Dubai is evil.
But I did get a nice pair of jeans on sale at Harrods, so not a total loss...
July 09, 2006
At Harrods this week - 50% off designer dresses, and now you can buy a condo in Dubai
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13 comments:
Sounds like Phoenix, except Dubai has oil! Phoenix including crappy Scottsdale needs to be covered up with dirt, it is now a Superfund Site!
Please elaborate in the way you were approached. You were just bargain shopping and a lady just said, "Hey, wanna buy a condo? One that's not even close to where we are now."
Does that actually work for her? Did you see her try to solicit other people shopping?
This reminds me of a time when I was getting out of work and I was just walking through the parking lot to get to my car. All of a sudden a white van speeds up to me and the back doors open. "Wanna buy a nice set of speakers?" Their story was they deliver electronics and the store loaded them with two set of speakers with an order of one. They were in a hurry, couldn't swipe them themselves and wanted to make a quick buck.
I didn't want random speakers no matter what the cost. I said I had no money. They were willing to drive me to an ATM to get money which got me even more nervous. I lied and said I only had a few dollars in savings.
This was in broad daylight with people shouts away, so I wasn't too scared. I was mostly just annoyed with the nerve of these people. And even more so, I felt like it was a complete setup.
"Guard your loins."
ootp: i was wearing jeans and a t-shirt... not looking like your typical dubai condo buyer.. and aggressively approached
but I fit the profile I guess - white male 30's british or american
went from thinking she was going to spritz me with the new ralph lauren to having her try to fleece me
no, didn't get a number either :^(
Thanks Keith.
Regarding schemes in general: When someone talks about a great opportunity, if you are feeling ballsy, you can put them right in their place.
"Oh great, so I can call up random 18 year old males to get them to enlist in the Army too?"
"Oh great, I can alienate my friends and family by getting them to buy knives too?"
"Oh great, so I can hang out at the mall and try to off load a condo too?" :)
Realtor Jihad
"Dubai is evil"
You need to get a grip.
" "Dubai is evil" - You need to get a grip."
No, you need to become aware:
Semi-Slave Conditions for Foreign Workers in Dubai - Oread Daily
A main thoroughfare in Dubai was blocked by hundreds of construction workers, mostly from India and Pakistan, today. Traffic at rush hour was brought to halt, by workers who were protesting over their missing salaries for the months as far back as May and the fact that they did not have clean drinking water or water in the bathrooms of the camp in which they were housed.
Yesterday dozens of hungry workers gathered outside the Labor Ministry said their employer had not paid them for five months. Thirty-seven Indian, Nepalese, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men all work for a Saudi-owned construction company.
“We ran out of money months ago,” one Nepalese worker, Bisnu Bahadur, told Gulf News, “and sometimes we borrow from friends. If they have no money, we sleep hungry.” Bahadur said the men were falling ill out of hunger and because they had no clean drinking water. “Water at the labor camp is salty. We cannot wash,” he said.
The men were unable to even file a complaint with the Labor Ministry because they didn’t have the money necessary to cover the costs.
This is not the first time that these expat workers have protested against their working conditions. Hundred of workers spontaneously rushed onto the same main Dubai street, Shaikh Zayed Road last November to protest their company's apathy after a fire ravaged their compound in the camp.
A tremendous real estate boom which is underway in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Dubai has brought in large numbers of foreign workers to do the work. Some 10 million foreign workers are employed in the country. Dozens of skyscrapers are going up thanks to the legions of workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Men without a formal education and with little hope for employment back home come to the Gulf to earn 200 dollars US a month to feed and clothe their families. Usually, half of their salaries goes for their own meager survival—rice, tea, sugar—in cramped quarters where six live to a room.
part of all of this building up, including the artificial islands and the condos, are part of a strategy to keep Dubai relavent as it runs out of oil. the hope is tourism will replace oil as a main source of revenue for the kingdom.
I lived there for over 10 years, and I hated it ..
its hot as hell, 99% humidity most of the summer, the arabs are not very bright, lot of segregation, and those labourers are modern day slaves ..
the whole city is fake .. built with oil money ..
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_05/swagell070706.html
Well here's a rather interesting article. The Dubai stock market lost about 60% since nov 05.
There's also a bit about the world housing market too.
Dubai sounds a lot like what republicans want for america. A small wealthy elite and lots of slaves to tend to them.
Republicans are scum.
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