Posted on 11/27/2009 7:06:06 PM PST by Orange1998
Published: February 11, 2009
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Sofia, a 34-year-old Frenchwoman, moved here a year ago to take a job in advertising, so confident about Dubai’s fast-growing economy that she bought an apartment for almost $300,000 with a 15-year mortgage.
An abandoned car in a parking garage in Dubai. One report said 3,000 cars were sitting abandoned at the Dubai Airport.
Now, like many of the foreign workers who make up 90 percent of the population here, she has been laid off and faces the prospect of being forced to leave this Persian Gulf city — or worse.
“I’m really scared of what could happen, because I bought property here,” said Sofia, who asked that her last name be withheld because she is still hunting for a new job. “If I can’t pay it off, I was told I could end up in debtors’ prison.”
With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.
The government says the real number is much lower. But the stories contain at least a grain of truth: jobless people here lose their work visas and then must leave the country within a month. That in turn reduces spending, creates housing vacancies and lowers real estate prices, in a downward spiral that has left parts of Dubai — once hailed as the economic superpower of the Middle East — looking like a ghost town.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Doood...sure makes you wonder how much she was making and how big her mortgage payments were. Foosh.
That think looks like something I can’t think of, as my mom used to say, when regarding something sexual and only obvious to adults.
Grand Theft Auto™ Dubai, coming soon...........
A couple of years ago I saw a fascinating documentary on the building of the Palm thingie on one of the “learning” channels.
Yet the whole time I was thinking to myself, “Self, no way is that gonna work.”
Dubai always seemed like a big phony fraud to me, their phony island confirms that. Who in their right mind would want to live there, money or not?
Maybe they could film a “reality life after man show” there.
Wow. Thanks for posting that. It was an enormously sad read but so informative.
Dazzling
Utopia
But
All
Imploded
well, lets not get to carried away with this. Dubai is still a lovely place. You could enjoy a great vacation thre.
Tihs is the old Studebaker plant. It went up in flame in 2005, an amazing fire. YouTube has vids..
Packards were made in this one. It hasn't been arsoned yet...
Uniroyal took the ball instead. Too much brick to burn properly I guess...
KKelsey Hayes wheel plant returns to nature
The hotels in Dubai are a bit nicer, too, I hear.
I’m doing fine. My wife and I live in Dubai Marina and enjoy the area. Apartments are expensive here. Ours is a little over 1,900sq ft 3 bedrooms, 3 bath and it leases for $60k a year.
Perfect place since I travel so much. She has just about everything within a 5 minute walk. I also like the fact I’ve never seen or heard a mosque in the area.
Someone who wants/needs to live in the region and has to pick the least bad place.
Pretty interesting, KKing. I’d bet you have some amazing dinner-time stories...
The biggest – but by no means the only – example is Emirates, Dubai’s government-controlled carrier. It has more than $30 billion worth of planes on order from Airbus, including 53 of the double-decker A380, for which Emirates is by far the largest customer....Boeing less exposed...
Oh my goodness....you mean that the locals might actually have to forgo the “servants” and do the work themselves???
Oh pish-posh. Duaians don’t do such trivial things no more.
Dubai is not just a city living beyond its financial means; it is living beyond its ecological means. You stand on a manicured Dubai lawn and watch the sprinklers spray water all around you. You see tourists flocking to swim with dolphins. You wander into a mountain-sized freezer where they have built a ski slope with real snow. And a voice at the back of your head squeaks: this is the desert. This is the most water-stressed place on the planet. How can this be happening? How is it possible?
The very earth is trying to repel Dubai, to dry it up and blow it away. The new Tiger Woods Gold Course needs four million gallons of water to be pumped on to its grounds every day, or it would simply shrivel and disappear on the winds. The city is regularly washed over with dust-storms that fog up the skies and turn the skyline into a blur. When the dust parts, heat burns through. It cooks anything that is not kept constantly, artificially wet.
Dr Mohammed Raouf, the environmental director of the Gulf Research Centre, sounds sombre as he sits in his Dubai office and warns: "This is a desert area, and we are trying to defy its environment. It is very unwise. If you take on the desert, you will lose."
60K a year for 1900 sq feet. How do you afford it.
You work hard.
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