when the pregnant she-camels shall be neglected

[S.O.S]

Two events took place not long ago with two cousins of mine. In short: one bought a property in Dubai and the other moved to miyyi/baadiye to become geeljire. The family is dismayed about the latter's action whilst the former has been met with general approval. Except me! I couldn't afford to try and convince them otherwise though, credibility is a precious commodity these days and I don't wish to risk that yet (saving for another day insha'Allah).

Because this forum allows experimentation of ideas as long these can be traced to Islamic foundations or positively contributes to the changing conditions in our lives (at least that is why I'm here for), I have no problems with sharing some of my thoughts with you.

 

I was in Dubai not long ago and have witnessed the unbelievable madness there at close quarters. The completion of Burj Dubai in 2009 should mean Dubai will have the highest skyscraper in the world, but just few months prior to my visit there, Al Burj, a new building project of what should become even higher -decrowning the yet-to-be-finished tallest skyscraper in the world - was started; Burj this, Burj that, Burj here, Burj there ...

 

This puzzled me on many levels. For once, given the fact that Andrew Lawrence's 'Skyscraper Index' has shown such remarkable consistency in the predictive correlation of building highest skyscrapers and financial disasters in the last hundred years, the sheer indifference thereof still continues to puzzle me.

 

On the the level of economic inefficiency, it was the civil engineering professor Henry Petroski who produced calculations to prove that marginal efficiency of high-rise buildings are at their optimum up to 280 meters, whereas Al Burj in comparison, although exact height still top secret, is rumoured that it'll be over 1 km. Just taking into account not only the extremely costly weight of engineering requirements for factoring climate, earth quakes and structural materials, elevators and ventilation mechanisms will render about 40% of the building space unusable and completely wasteful.

 

This serves no purpose whatsoever other than show-off extravaganza and baseless grandeur of a kind not seen since the first Burj of them all –namely, Burj Babil- whom, to quote from Genesis chapter 11 are alleged to have said "let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name", but then destruction was their fate! The same fate awaited pharaoh when he said to his chief Haman "build me a lofty tower, in order that I may see the God of Musa". Allah also informs us in the same surah Al-Qasas of Qarun who "behaved arrogantly" thus says Allah: "So We caused the earth to swallow him and his dwelling place"

 

What puzzled me most was the deplorable refusal to consider the prophetic prophesy regarding the signs of the Hour. It was only yesterday when a small group of Bedouins numbering in the hundreds possessing nothing other than few camels and donkeys settled in the area. I was in their so called history museum in Dubai hiding from the heat of the sun one day when a shock of disbelieve suddenly hit me (or maybe it was the sun).

 

What I realised was that in the Qur'an, Allah informed us that the Hour will occur "when the pregnant she-camels shall be neglected" in surah At-Takwir. Indeed the pregnant she-camel should traditionally be most precious asset deserving most care and love, and in this new world of property booms, exchange traded share equities and shopping malls all seem to have changed.

 

The good news is that we Somalis possess most number of camels anywhere in the world, and many of those who are blessed with these camels still give the pregnant she-camels care and love. I know this will sound preposterous to many of you, but how would you all feel if the fate of the world rested on us poor Somali nomads?

[Nur]

SOS bro

 

A great thought provoking piece, I just completed reading it MaashAllah Tabaaarakallah.

 

Edifices represent civiliazations, from Babel to Twin Towers of New York, Petrnoas Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur and now the Burj Dubai, are meant to agrandise a nation or a civilization, not neccessarily maximizing "carpet area" for return of an investment, since the non -carpet area cost exceeds the structural and service costs after a certain height ( Piling Costs , and cost of pumping concrete to higher levels become prohibitively expensive).

 

Your first cousin ( the one who opted to live in Dubai) and people in general are fascinated with superlatives, Burj Dubai the tallest buiding, Emeirates Mall the largest Shopping Center, etc, this fascination is intended to attract tourists to spend the money that built these monuments in the first place, this is how Las Vegas was built, it is called the " Build -and- they - will Come" approach of property development, contrary to building for a forecasted demand.

 

This property development concept also counts on the abundance of fossil energy. Dubai is the bulls eye of the Oil belt and lies a radius of an hours flight populated by a Billion people, who have no other attarction or a stable metropolis other than Dubai. The Middle East in general stores close to 80% of the planets proven reserves of oil and gas ( Black Gold), which guarantees that there will always be liquidity to stir business from east to west.

 

Dubai, is the third busiest re-export port in the world, exporting goods to 160 countries who have trade representatives, offices and residences boasting teh busiest calendar year of trade expos in the entire region. Add this to Dubai's midway location between Europe/North America where a sizeable asian and middle eastern commmunities live. All these factors combine to the prominence of this city.

 

Now, your second cousin and myself belong to a rare segment of Nomads who are fascinated by the camels, camel milk , the open savannah pastures, blue skies, and the true freedom that comes with the openness of the environement.

 

A story I heard many years ago was about an American tourist whose vehicle broke down nearby a village in Somalia. An old Somali man came out of one of the huts, the Anmerican toursit tried to communicate with the old villager with sign language, but the old Somali man responded with a flawless english ( New York accent). The Toursit was surprised " You speak perfect English" he said, " I've lived in new York for thirty years son" responded the old man. " Then why would you live in such a place" wondered the American, at this point, the Old man slapped the American's face saying" Better respect this place young man, its my home, New York isnt"

Moral of the story, your cousin in Dubai will one day come back to live in Qudhac Dheer to milk the she camels nshAllah! Day Of judgement is not here yet as most of the great signs are not complete!

 

 

Nur

[Nur]

SOS bro

 

A great thought provoking piece, I just completed reading it MaashAllah Tabaaarakallah.

 

Edifices represent civiliazations, from Babel to Twin Towers of New York, Petrnoas Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur and now the Burj Dubai, are meant to agrandise a nation or a civilization, not neccessarily maximizing "carpet area" for return of an investment, since the non -carpet area cost exceeds the structural and service costs after a certain height ( Piling Costs , and cost of pumping concrete to higher levels become prohibitively expensive).

 

Your first cousin ( the one who opted to live in Dubai) and people in general are fascinated with superlatives, Burj Dubai the tallest buiding, Emeirates Mall the largest Shopping Center, etc, this fascination is intended to attract tourists to spend the money that built these monuments in the first place, this is how Las Vegas was built, it is called the " Build -and- they - will Come" approach of property development, contrary to building for a forecasted demand.

 

This property development concept also counts on the abundance of fossil energy. Dubai is the bulls eye of the Oil belt and lies a radius of an hours flight populated by a Billion people, who have no other attarction or a stable metropolis other than Dubai. The Middle East in general stores close to 80% of the planets proven reserves of oil and gas ( Black Gold), which guarantees that there will always be liquidity to stir business from east to west.

 

Dubai, is the third busiest re-export port in the world, exporting goods to 160 countries who have trade representatives, offices and residences boasting teh busiest calendar year of trade expos in the entire region. Add this to Dubai's midway location between Europe/North America where a sizeable asian and middle eastern commmunities live. All these factors combine to the prominence of this city.

 

Now, your second cousin and myself belong to a rare segment of Nomads who are fascinated by the camels, camel milk , the open savannah pastures, blue skies, and the true freedom that comes with the openness of the environement.

 

A story I heard many years ago was about an American tourist whose vehicle broke down nearby a village in Somalia. An old Somali man came out of one of the huts, the Anmerican toursit tried to communicate with the old villager with sign language, but the old Somali man responded with a flawless english ( New York accent). The Toursit was shocked " You speak perfect English" he said, " I lived in new York for thirty years" responded the old man. " The why would you live in such a place" wondered the American, at this point, the Old man slapped the American saying" Better respect this place, its my home, New York isnt"

Moral of the story, your cousin in Dubai will one day come back to live in Qudhac Dheer to milk the camels nshAllah!

 

 

Nur

[S.O.S]

Nur,

 

Have you read Aw Jaamac Cumar Ciise's two volume book 'Maansadii hore ee Soomaalida' especially first volume on 'Geela, Fardaha iyo Haweenka'? Got it for F2850 from Djibouti and still is easily the best book I read in 2006. Many of the sentiments you've described can be found in there, put into most eloquent gabay forms. In particular, what would interest you most, I suspect, will be the prosaic debate that took place at one point between proponents of magaalada iyo daaraha and the defenders miyyiga iyo geela.

 

When a man in Saylac for example says:

Darajadda adduun waa ninkii, dahab sameeyaaye

Dadna waxaa la maatiya ninkii, daara hoos gala e

Magaalada hadduu degi lahaa, dalow ma gaadheene

Waxaad igula doodeysid waa, laguma daalaane

 

Another one from Qardho says this:

Lama siisan karo xoolo kale, sidigta dhaameele

Waxba yaan surweel mideble iyo, saacad lay xirine

Sicirka dunida geeleennu waa, ugu sarreeyaaye

Soomaaligii diidayoo, waad silloontahaye

 

The only criticism I would have is that the debate should not have been confined to just poets (I know at the time poets were the only intellectuals around), but perhaps more inclusive approach may have served the public, still under colonial rule at the time, much better.

 

Brother Nur, I applaud your fascination and enthusiasm for camels, camel milk and the open sky environment or "the true freedom" as you put it. May I suggest to have a dedicational thread to discuss and celebrate our rich traditional heritage with camels; history, culture, family, war, peace, etc.?

 

As for Dubai, I'm quite frankly weary of possible disastrous end to adopted course. One cannot simply create a Las Vegas without gambling, drugs and prostitution, a 'sin city' as it were for surrounding region/states. Take for example the in October announced 38 billion dollar -1 km tower- apartments complex: who is going to live in there?

[Nur]

SOS brother,

 

Modern day Nomads, specially those who have never laid a foot in the Somali baadiye, have no clue of the richness of Somali culture, poetry, camels and our traditional lifestyle ( minus the inter-clan camel raids ).

 

Our traditional life is threatened by warlords and "modern educated" Nomads, who can only think in terms of western culture, who have no appreciation for folk poetry and literature, on that issue a Poet sang:

 

Cilmigan Sama dawdarka ah

Caqligu ka dab-oolan yahay

Cilmigan daldaloolka badan

Intuu dumarkii is baday

Raggii, dumar qaar ka dhigay!

 

 

As for Dubai, its like the California gold rush, everyone is rushing to see this hype, the quick money, the sky scrapers in the desert etc. But, this borrowed lifestyle is not making many people any happier, traffic jams, air and noise pollution, and fewer hours to spend with family isnt the best of ideas. A Poet sang about the Somali vesrion of the California gold rush:

 

Hal La qalay, raqdeedaa lagu soo qamaamay

Laba waliba qaybteed qorraxdey ku dubatay

Qudhunkii iyo lafahii baa lagu qalay qalleylkiiye

Qosol wuxuu ka joogaa qubanaha buuraha qottada dheer ka arkaya qiiqa ee

Qararka soo jafaaya!

 

 

Nur

[Haneefah]

^Not to mention the risk of emerging diseases and outbreaks with the regions current speed of urbanization, immigration, population growth, and trade.

 

SOS, it couldn't have been that bad, could it? People who choose to settle there seem to be quite content with that lifestyle, in spite some of the sacrifice they must make.

 

So when are you two planning to retire to your beloved geeljire lifestyle? All this talk of geel and miyi must have some substance to it

[Nur]

I am not sure about SOS desire to join his cousin at Qudhac Dheer, but I am all for it sis, what about you? any plans anytime soon? there is a slight problem these days for Nomads who move back home for enjoying camel milk without consent of their families, they are not considered " health conscious tourists ", they are classified as combattants against the Ethiopian Occupation of Somalia, which enjoys the US blessing.

 

Nur

[S.O.S]

Haneefah,

It's the unsustainable madness of a Muslim state that I care about, especially when many of their brethren are being slain, their lands put to waste and their carrion filled seas are circled by vulturine nations, that it makes me wonder about Allah's respite of the imminent. Nothing is without a consequence.

 

Nur,

I wish to become a different kind of geeljire, one with new modus operandi rather than the geeljire of old in classical sense. A close examination of original geeljire lifestyles shows that it has many positives as well as negatives. I am only interested in the positives, so a new method needs to be devised where the negatives can be eliminated and the positives expanded. Other wise, brother Nur, you may wish to be in Qurac Dheer, but you'll find yourself in Qansax Wareer!

 

When you btw say "minus the inter-clan camel raids", I hope you don't mean ALL camel raids, because there would be a clear dilemma here. Camel raids had so many dimensions that they simply cannot always be classified as inter-clan raids. Let's ignore the obvious inter-clan camel raids and counter raids, also the technically criminal raids by thieves against indiscriminate clans. There are some difficulties that I foresee with such a position.

[Nur]

SOS writes:

 

"Other wise, brother Nur, you may wish to be in Qurac Dheer, but you'll find yourself in Qansax Wareer! Other wise, brother Nur, you may wish to be in Qurac Dheer, but you'll find yourself in Qansax Wareer! "

 

 

Lol @ Qansax Wareer!

 

Actually I spent two weeks at Qansax Wareer, it was unforgettable. Alhamdulillah, no Camel Raids took place for those two weeks although I suspect that a grudge existed and an armed settlement could have been the case. Like Cigaal Shidaad once sang:

 

Ilaahey i Jecelaa, Muxuu Jirey Arwaaxeyga

 

Waligeyba Meel Laguu Jabaan Jaqallo Kuusnaaye!

 

 

Nur

[S.O.S]

^^You made me laugh there! Naflacaarinnimo la'aan show maxaadan irbad caaraddeed ku fakateen? I personally think that Cigaal Shiidaad is completely misunderstood and as a consequence, much of the wisdom of his words are lost.

 

If camel raids had taken place, you'd probably have been part of an ergo mission to negotiate the return of raided camels. Perhaps much in the tradition of past victims of bygone centuries: Appealing to their goodwill while humbling yourselves, and all this in poetry!

 

Remember Cali Dhuux's begging to the raiders of his camels..:

Maantaan gu'yaal badan jiroo, guudku I caddaaday

Labadeenna qolo may dhex marin, xaajo gedobeede

Iyadana ha garan waayinee, geela igu siiya!

 

Or like Aw-Yuusuf Barre when he begged ..:

Sacab dhigadka waxa iigu wacan, waa sidaan ahaye

Samay inuu ka rido reer tolkay, yaan yaan u sugahayne

Sar-sarkiinna magantaan ku jirey, geela igu siiya!

 

Luckily enough you've been spared the ordeal this time, but it would have been an enjoyable tale to hear your experience first hand

[Fabregas]

'We need slaves to build monuments'

 

It is already home to the world's glitziest buildings, man-made islands and mega-malls - now Dubai plans to build the tallest tower. But behind the dizzying construction boom is an army of migrant labourers lured into a life of squalor and exploitation. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reports

 

The sun is setting and its dying rays cast triangles of light on to the bodies of the Indian workers. Two are washing themselves, scooping water from tubs in a small yard next to the labour camp's toilets. Others queue for their turn. One man stands stamping his feet in a bucket, turned into a human washing machine. The heat is suffocating and the sandy wind whips our faces. The sprinkles of water from men drying their clothes fall like welcome summer rain.

 

All around, a city of labour camps stretches out in the middle of the Arabian desert, a jumble of low, concrete barracks, corrugated iron, chicken-mesh walls, barbed wire, scrap metal, empty paint cans, rusted machinery and thousands of men with tired and gloomy faces.

 

I have left Dubai's spiralling towers, man-made islands and mega-malls behind and driven through the desert to the outskirts of the neighbouring city of Abu Dhabi. Turn right before the Zaha Hadid bridge, and a few hundred metres takes you to the heart of Mousafah, a ghetto-like neighbourhood of camps hidden away from the eyes of tourists. It is just one of many areas around the Gulf set aside for an army of labourers building the icons of architecture that are mushrooming all over the region.

 

Behind the showers, in a yard paved with metal sheets, a line of men stands silently in front of grease-blackened pans, preparing their dinner. Sweat rolls down their heads and necks, their soaked shirts stuck to their backs. A heavy smell of spices and body odour fills the air.

 

Next to a heap of rubbish, a man holds a plate containing his meal: a few chillies, an onion and three tomatoes, to be fried with spices and eaten with a piece of bread.

 

In a neighbouring camp, a group of Pakistani workers from north and south Waziristan sit exhaustedly sipping tea while one of them cooks outside. In the middle of the cramped room in which 10 men sleep, one worker in a filthy robe sits on the floor grinding garlic and onions with a mortar and pestle while staring into the void.

 

Hamidullah, a thin Afghan from Maydan, a village on the outskirts of Kabul, tells me: "I spent five years in Iran and one year here, and one year here feels like 10 years. When I left Afghanistan I thought I would be back in a few months, but now I don't know when I will be back." Another worker on a bunk bed next to him adds: "He called his home yesterday and they told him that three people from his village were killed in fighting. This is why we are here."

 

Hamidullah earns around 450 dirhams (£70) a month as a construction worker.

 

How is life, I ask.

 

"What life? We have no life here. We are prisoners. We wake up at five, arrive to work at seven and are back at the camp at nine in the evening, day in and day out."

 

Outside in the yard, another man sits on a chair made of salvaged wood, in front of a broken mirror, a plastic sheet wrapped around his neck, while the camp barber trims his thick beard. Despite the air of misery, tonight is a night of celebration. One of the men is back from a two-week break in his home village in Pakistan, bringing with him a big sack of rice, and is cooking pilau rice with meat. Rice is affordable at weekends only: already wretched incomes have been eroded by the weak dollar and rising food prices. "Life is worse now," one worker told me. "Before, we could get by on 140 dirhams [£22] a month; now we need 320 to 350."

 

The dozen or so men sit on newspapers advertising luxury watches, mobile phones and high-rise towers. When three plastic trays arrive, filled with yellowish rice and tiny cubes of meat, each offers the rare shreds of meat to his neighbours.

 

All of these men are part of a huge scam that is helping the construction boom in the Gulf. Like hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, they each paid more than £1,000 to employment agents in India and Pakistan. They were promised double the wages they are actually getting, plus plane tickets to visit their families once a year, but none of the men in the room had actually read their contract. Only two of them knew how to read.

 

"They lied to us," a worker with a long beard says. "They told us lies to bring us here. Some of us sold their land; others took big loans to come and work here."

 

Once they arrive in the United Arab Emirates, migrant workers are treated little better than cattle, with no access to healthcare and many other basic rights. The company that sponsors them holds on to their passports - and often a month or two of their wages to make sure that they keep working. And for this some will earn just 400 dirhams (£62) a month.

 

A group of construction engineers told me, with no apparent shame, that if a worker becomes too ill to work he will be sent home after a few days. "They are the cheapest commodity here. Steel, concrete, everything is up, but workers are the same."

 

As they eat, the men talk more about their lives. "My shift is eight hours and two overtime, but in reality we work 18 hours," one says. "The supervisors treat us like animals. I don't know if the owners [of the company] know."

 

"There is no war, and the police treat us well," another chips in, "but the salary is not good."

 

"That man hasn't been home for four years," says Ahmad, the chef for the night, pointing at a well-built young man. "He has no money to pay for the flight."

 

A steel worker says he doesn't know who is supposed to pay for his ticket back home. At the recruiting agency they told him it would be the construction company - but he didn't get anything in writing.

 

One experienced worker with spectacles and a prayer cap on his head tells me that things are much better than they used to be. Five years ago, when he first came, the company gave him nothing. There was no air conditioning in the room and sometimes no electricity. "Now, they give AC to each room and a mattress for each worker."

 

Immigrant workers have no right to form unions, but that didn't stop strikes and riots spreading across the region recently - something unheard of few years ago. Elsewhere in Mousafah, I encounter one of the very few illegal unions, where workers have established a form of underground insurance scheme, based on the tribal structure back home. "When we come here," one member of the scheme tells me, "we register with our tribal elders, and when one of us is injured and is sent home, or dies, the elders collect 30 dirhams from each of us and send the money home to his family."

 

In a way, the men at Mousafah are the lucky ones. Down in the Diera quarter of old Dubai, where many of the city's illegal workers live, 20 men are often crammed into one small room.

 

UN agencies estimate that there are up to 300,000 illegal workers in the emirates.

 

On another hot evening, hundreds of men congregate in filthy alleyways at the end of a day's work, sipping tea and sitting on broken chairs. One man rests his back on the handles of his pushcart, silently eating his dinner next to a huge pile of garbage.

 

In one of the houses, a man is hanging his laundry over the kitchen sink, a reeking smell coming from a nearby toilet. Next door, men lie on the floor. They tell me they are all illegal and they are scared and that I have to leave.

 

Outside, a fistfight breaks out between Pakistani workers and Sri Lankans.

 

The alleyways are dotted with sweatshops, where Indian men stay until late at night, bending over small tables sewing on beads.

 

A couple of miles away, the slave market becomes more ugly. Outside a glitzy hotel, with a marble and glass facade, dozens of prostitutes congregate according to their ethnic groups: Asians to the right, next to them Africans, and, on the left, blondes from the former Soviet Union. There are some Arab women. Iranians, I am told, are in great demand. They charge much higher prices and are found only in luxury hotels.

 

Like the rest of the Gulf region, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are being built by expat workers. They are strictly segregated, and a hierarchy worthy of previous centuries prevails.

 

At the top, floating around in their black or white robes, are the locals with their oil money. Immaculate and pampered, they own everything. Outside the "free zones", where the rules are looser, no one can start a business in the UAE without a partner from the emirates, who often does nothing apart from lending his name. No one can get a work permit without a local sponsor.

 

Under the locals come the western foreigners, the experts and advisers, making double the salaries they make back home, all tax free. Beneath them are the Arabs - Lebanese and Palestinians, Egyptians and Syrians. What unites these groups is a mixture of pretension and racism.

 

"Unrealistic things happen to your mind when you come here," a Lebanese woman who frequently visits Dubai tells me as she drives her new black SUV. "Suddenly, you can make $5,000 [£2,800] a month. You can get credit so easy, you buy the car of your dreams, you shop and you think it's a great bargain; when you go to dinner, you go to a hotel ... nowhere else can you live like this."

 

Down at the base of the pyramid are the labourers, waiters, hotel employees and unskilled workers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, the Philippines and beyond. They move deferentially around the huge malls, cafes, bars and restaurants, bowing down and calling people sir and madam. In the middle of the day, during the hottest hours, you can see them sleeping in public gardens under trees, or on the marble floors of the Dubai Mosque, on benches or pieces of cardboard on side streets. These are the victims of the racism that is not only flourishing in the UAE but is increasingly being exported to the rest of the Middle East. Sometimes it reminds you of the American south in the 1930s.

 

One evening in Abu Dhabi, I have dinner with my friend Ali, a charming Iraqi engineer whom I have known for two decades. After the meal, as his wife serves saffron-flavoured tea, he pushes back his chair and lights a cigar. We talk about stock markets, investment and the Middle East, and then the issue of race comes up.

 

"We will never use the new metro if it's not segregated," he tells me, referring to the state-of-the-art underground system being built in neighbouring Dubai. "We will never sit next to Indians and Pakistanis with their smell," his wife explains.

 

Not for the first time, I am told that while the immigrant workers are living in appalling conditions, they would be even worse off back home - as if poverty in one place can justify exploitation in the other.

 

"We need slaves," my friend says. "We need slaves to build monuments. Look who built the pyramids - they were slaves."

 

Sharla Musabih, a human rights campaigner who runs the City of Hope shelter for abused women, is familiar with such sentiments. "Once you get rich on the back of the poor," she says, "it's not easy to let go of that lifestyle. They are devaluing human beings," she says. "The workers might eat once a day back home, but they have their family around them, they have respect. They are not asking for a room in a hotel - all they are asking for is respect for their humanity."

 

Towards the end of another day, on a fabulous sandy beach near the Dubai marina, the waves wash calmly over the beautiful sand. A couple are paragliding over the blue sea; on the new islands, gigantic concrete structures stand like spaceships. As tourists laze on the beach, Filipino, Indian and Pakistani workers, stand silently watching from a dune, cut off from the holidaymakers by an invisible wall.

 

Behind them rise more brand-new towers.

 

"It's a Green Zone mentality," a young Arab working in IT tells me. "People come to make money. They live in bubbles. They all want to make as much money as possible and leave."

 

Back at the Mousafah camps, a Pakistani worker walks me through his neighbourhood. On both sides of the dusty lane stand concrete barracks and the familiar detritus: raw sewage, garbage, scrap metal. A man washes his car, and in a cage chickens flutter up and down.

 

We enter one of the rooms, flip-flops piled by the door.

 

Inside, a steelworker gets a pile of papers from a plastic envelope and shoves them into my lap. He is suing the company that employed him for unpaid wages. "I've been going to court for three months, and every time I go they tell me to come in two weeks." His friends nod their heads. "Last time the [company] lawyer told me, 'I am in the law here - you will not get anything."

 

Economically, Dubai has progressed a lot in the past 10 years, but socially it has stayed behind," says Musabih. "Labour conditions are like America in the 19th century - but that's not acceptable in the 21st century."

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/08/middle east.construction

[Fabregas]

"We need slaves," my friend says. "We need slaves to build monuments. Look who built the pyramids - they were slaves."

 

And We bequeathed to the people who had been oppressed the easternmost part of the land We had blessed, and its westernmost part as well. The most excellent Word of your Lord was fulfilled for the tribe of Israel on account of their steadfastness. And We utterly destroyed what Pharaoh and his people made and the buildings they constructed.Quran (7:137)

 

Pharaoh said, 'Council, I do not know of any other god for you apart from Me. Haman, kindle a fire for me over the clay and build me a lofty tower so that perhaps I may be able to climb up to Musa's god! I consider him a blatant liar.' (28:38)

 

Pharaoh said, 'Haman, build me a tower so that perhaps I may gain means of access, access to the heavens, so that I can look on Musa's God. Truly I think he is a liar.' That is how Pharaoh's evil actions were made attractive to him and he debarred others from the Path. Pharaoh's scheming led to nothing but ruin. (40:36-37)

 

Pharaoh called to his people, saying, 'My people, does the kingdom of Egypt not belong to me? Do not all these rivers flow under my control? Do you not then see? Am I not better than this man who is contemptible and can scarcely make anything clear? Why have gold bracelets not been put upon his arms and why is there not a train of angels accompanying him?' (43:51-53)

 

Do you not see what your Lord did with 'Ad-Iram of the Columns whose like was not created in any land-and Thamud who carved out rocks in the valley-side, and Pharaoh of the Stakes, all of whom were tyrants in their lands and caused much corruption in them? (89:6-12