Saadiyat in a limbo

'More than 130 artists have said they will boycott the Guggenheim museum in Abu Dhabi over what they say is exploitation of foreign workers, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.'

(click on image for full article)

This pertains to Saadiyat Island and their spin-off projects of borrowed culture & art.

I wonder if this boycott threat would make any difference?

Would it prompt the concerned bigwigs to speed-up corrective measures enabling this artificial island to be up & running at the earliest?

Dubai, the apolitical city

The Washington Post has a long article today on the lack of politics in Dubai. Nothing new uncovered, but still worth a look. Some of it is the lack of rights for low-paid expat workers, some of it is about how the focus on growth has meant citizens themselves are a minority, some of it is about the availability of alcohol and prostitution.

H/T @SultanAlQassemi, who is well worth following.

BBC One airs Slumdogs and Millionaires tonight

BBC:

The branding of Dubai has to be one of the greatest PR triumphs of the past 20 years.

It works out incredibly well for the developers - they can charge first world fortunes for the dream villas and apartments, but pay third world salaries to the men actually building them.

Many in Dubai say that this is just globalisation working, and that while the lives of the workers, and the salaries they are paid, look bad to us, to them, where they come from, it's good.

This excuse doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

The story of Dubai's immigrant construction workers shocks and depresses in several different stages. The poor and often illiterate men, who come here in their millions from the Indian sub-continent, are getting exploited from so many different angles that it's sometimes hard to know who to be angry at.

The program airs in the UK on Panorama: Slumdogs and Millionaires, BBC One, Monday 6 April at 8.30pm.

Yes, there are abuses and the downturn in the economy has played a role. But on the whole these workers are here because it's better than the alternative of being home. Why else are they upset when there is talk of limiting the amount of time an expat can work in the country? And when considering how poorly they live consider that most are sending home a large portion of what they earn.

RAK Incident

Workers at the Al Hamra development in RAK have rioted--7 Days report.

The short of it--it resulted from a dispute over food quality, it escalated way out of control, some workers became violent (read damaged property, burnt busses), hundreds (thousands?) have been arrested, shipped off to AD and Dubai, awaiting deportation.

Questions:

1. Does anyone know more about the incident--what happened, why?
   
2. Does anyone know how one can find out where the arrested workers are being held, how they can be supported?