Anyone who hears the name Dubai also imagines a place that exudes the world’s most luxurious and regal look. It must be a world full of billionaires, supercars, tigers instead of cats and dogs, and the tallest buildings in the world.
However, Dubai is not only full of glitzy features. In fact, we have had huge misunderstandings about life in this city. Rich is real, but the truth is sometimes not as we imagine, but even somewhat grim.
Dubai is indeed a gathering place for the rich, with a high proportion of millionaires. However, there are about 5000 billionaires in the world, only 20 live in Dubai.
If I had to choose one place for the title of “the capital of billionaires” , it would be Beijing – home to the most billionaires in the world, followed by New York.
Contrary to the flashy and lavish appearance, Dubai actually has a large part of the poor, and that is the immigrant community.
Migrant workers in Dubai have to work for a salary of only 0 – 0 (about 4.5 – 8 million VND/month). There are even positions that pay as little as . Low wages plus expensive living standards, most of them have to live in cramped rooms with people in the same situation. On average, each room can accommodate about 5 people.
Many people think that Dubai is a country, but it is actually just a city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The capital of the UAE is Abu Dhabi, but the most populous place is Dubai.
Actually, this opinion is not wrong, but everything has a reason. First: all migrant workers in Dubai, if they do not get a work visa, will be sent back to their home country within 30 days. As for the locals, they easily get a job because they have access to any desired university in the world (the cost will be covered by the UAE government).
The policy of “casting the surplus” and “raising the locals” is the real reason behind the low unemployment rate in this country.
This is also a misconception. On the outside, Dubai looks like a place with a clean ecosystem, but inside it is not.
Rapid population growth, lack of water resources, excessive growth of buildings and structures, plus the lack of a synchronous wastewater treatment system have made Dubai unable to be considered a clean city.
In addition, the climate of Dubai also discourages many people. In spring and summer, the outdoor temperature here reaches 48°С. The time of sunshine is also longer than usual, plus the humidity creates an extremely uncomfortable sultry feeling.
Looking at the facilities of Dubai, everyone thinks that this place has a long history of development to achieve that. However, in fact, the emirates were unified in 1971, and Dubai is also quite young compared to other cities in the world.
Yet they have surprised all of humanity with their inventions, financial capabilities, technology and many other fields.
Bet that no less than once you see a picture of police in Dubai being on duty in a Lamborghini or Ferrari. However, in fact, they use many different types of vehicles, up and down the bran is enough. Maybe in the luxury car segment like BMW, Audi, but sometimes it’s just regular Toyotas.
Maybe this was true, but not anymore. In fact, since 2017, it is illegal to keep wild animals in Dubai. Try walking with a leopard and you will be immediately jailed for 6 months, receiving a fine of between 00 – 8,000.
The locals here love to keep cats, and most have no interest in dogs at all.
It’s true that Dubai has a lot of tall buildings, but that’s not all. They have low-rise villas, even rickety inns, showing the profound contrast between rich and poor.
In fact, 25% of Dubai’s population is Indian. The rest are immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Even in total terms, 91% of Dubai’s population is from another country. In other words, the natives of Dubai only make up 9%.
This is only partially true. Before the oil industry, Emirati made a living by diving for pearls, and it became a lucrative business.
Dubai’s pearls are taken from the Persian Gulf, considered the most beautiful, bright and valuable pearls. In the cultural museum in the UAE, there is an entire exhibition of the history of pearls.