Common misconceptions about Dubai

Live and let live in the middle east

Hello readers & welcome to my substack :)

Before we start: TRIGGERWARNING; alot of the opinions expressed here will trigger some people so please consider this a fair warning given.

I have the feeling that all the cool kids are on substack now so my old blog is going to be abandoned and we continue here from time to time where I will touch on subjects that I consider interesting and feel like writing about.

With me being over half a year in Dubai now and building substance on the ground in form of residence, property, bank accounts, connections, etc. I wanna use this post to touch on some common misconceptions around Dubai as a location that I basically see on a daily basis.

I arrived in Dubai in August 2021 after I decided to leave one of my main hubs Manila for a while when they announced another full scale lockdown and I also anticipated life for me being non vaccinated (without the intention of getting vaccinated) becoming more difficult going forward. Thankfully they gave like a 10day notice which gave me enough time to bring my affairs in order and book flights without rushing anything.

Overall things went very smooth: Dubai was exactly what I expected it to be! I only visited once in 2013 (already liked it back then) or so and back then I already knew that sooner or later I would spend more time here. It took almost another decade for this to finally manifest but here we are!

Arriving in Dubai was like travelling back (or maybe forth) to another, much more livable time. Coming from a constantly some sort of locked down Manila it was surreal. All of a sudden you could go out after 22pm, restaurants were open, there were no QR codes, gyms were open, nobody was interested in your vaccination status and the media wasn’t full of panic 24/7.
Dubai likely had one if not the the best responses in regards to the pandemic: Initially an extremely severe lockdown during the start in order to get informed and once they got more info about the severity they started reopening fast - and they were pretty much the only ones operating like this world wide. For this reason Dubai saw an extreme influx of people and new wealth. Freedom lovers from all around the world who were tired of living locked up came in droves, got residency, bought property and started living again without the constant fear mongering. For better or worse Dubai was probably the one jurisdication in the world that profited most from/during covid while the entire world was suffering because they were willing to take a pro freedom approach almost all other countries were afraid to take (with rare exceptions like Sweden or Mexico). But I don’t want to waste too many words on covid and rather go into the main topic of todays post.

Dubai in essence is one of the few jurisdications which I would still consider reasonably capitalist speaking from a libertarian lense. If you are a lefty you won’t like this fact and if you are a moderate you will tell me that places like Germany or Australia are capitalist as well at which I will counter that those are socialist republics with still some capitalist elements in place :)

Upon coming here I read a book about the history of the Emirates and Dubai in particular and one of the main mantras was “what is good for the merchant is good for the country” - given where I am coming from that is a pretty damn good mantra to build your city on!

But there is slave labour in Dubai how could you ever move and live there?

This is one of the main talking points of western media vs. Dubai and while there certainly have been instances where passports of migrant workers have been withheld while they have been mistreated this is more an exception than it is the rule. UAE has an expat/migrant population of 90%+ which means only 10% are locals. For Dubai those numbers are most likely more around 95/5. Out of those 95% almost all of them are here according to their own free will. I speak to people on the lower end spectrum of salaries on a daily basis and oftentimes asked why they are here. The answer is usually the same: “I can earn 3 times the money here that I would earn in my own country if I can even find a job there”. Doesn’t matter who you ask - from a waiter to a cleaner to a driver. They are all here because they are better off here compared to where they come from. Will you have a great life here on a low salary? Of course not but likely still better compared to what would be the alternative and I am a big fan of people making their own decisions and doing what is best for them. Who am I or you to judge what is best for a 23 year old Pakistani?! Needless to say that there have been reports of workers getting their passports confiscated without being able to leave and this is unacceptable and should be investigated accordingly. Alot of people act though as if this would be the status quo. If it would be Dubai would break down in a matter of weeks. Those people are urgently needed to work here and if this happens alot it would make the rounds and workers wouldn’t come anymore - something which Dubai cannot afford.

Lastly those stories about mistreatment of workers is obviously a good talking point for western media and media in general. Dubai is like a sponge drawing capital and human ressources from all around the world. It isn’t in the wests interest that top performers and tax payers leave for Dubai and it’s also not in the interest of other countries to lose lower skill workers to Dubai. So everybody who leaves for Dubai is a netloss for the country he/she is coming from be it a multi millionaire or a guy who is cleaning toilets. While media still has alot of influence it shouldn’t be underestimated how powerful certain stories are and I see posts from a good amount of people saying “I could never move to Dubai because of x or y” while x or y are usually stories from the media. In the end this is fine though because everybody can decide for himself where he wants to go and what he is willing to tolerate.

But as a woman it’s difficult to live in a islamic city and I couldn’t wear what I want to?!

This is another point I hear alot. Im not a female but from what I hear and see life as a woman is good here. Dubai just came in 3rd place as the safest city in the world for woman travellers. You can walk around 24/7 with basically zero chance to get molested or harrassed. Contradictory to most believes you can also pretty much wear whatever you want to. This depends obviously abit on where you live but in the more expat heavy areas you see eastern euro girls wearing skimpy outfits doing cardio next to women in niqab who are going shopping. Nobody cares. If you go to a more traditional area with more locals you should obviously have some common sense and dress abit more appropriately; same with government offices. I wouldn’t bark in there with a tank top either out of respect. It is a big myth though that as a woman everytime you leave your house you have to think about if your outfit is too short - again, nobody cares. Dubai is a giant melting pot of different cultures and everybody is doing their own thing minding their own business. Very easy. Another benefit for women is that there is alot more men here than there are women so if you are a woman on the lookout you have alot more men to choose from compared to other countries. So long story short Dubai is a great place even for women who are running solo. Yes, Dubai is sort of islamic but extremely tolerant. The place is made to cater to tourists and expats in order to give them a good time and a nice lifestyle. The more traditional emiratis usually moved out of Dubai to a more conservative emirate so even the locals staying in Dubai are very relaxed and laid back.

But there is no democracy?! You cannot protest or critisize the leadership!!!

This is correct but I would almost say that this isn’t a bug but more like a feature. Looking at what happend during the last 2 years I lost most of the faith I had left into democracies anyways. I mean in Canada you just lost access to your banking and cannot leave the country without being vaccinated. I very much prefer from the getgo if I know what I can and cannot do instead of thinking I live in a democracy and then get cancelled for demonstrating for certain causes.

As a hardcore libertarian I have made my peace with the fact I have to live and arrange myself with certain forms of governments. As long as there aren’t any livable free private cities I will have to live somewhere and try to choose what is best for me.

In UAE I might not be able to vote, demonstrate or critisize the leadership but this is completely fine with me because I am here as a guest and on my own free will. As I laid out earlier on it’s not just me it’s 90% of people who are guests in a foreign country. For me it is very simple: If I should ever fundamentally disagree with the leadership of Dubai or the UAE I can book a plane ticket and just leave.

I decided that the system applied in Dubai and UAE works alot better for me as an investor/entrepreneur than almost all democracies ever could. No matter what democratic country I build substance in, buy properties, etc. every 4-5 years I pray to god/allah that the people won’t vote in somebody left/far left who will eventually send it all down the drain. In UAE I can easily plan for decades to come. It’s very unlikely that Dubai all of a sudden will shift from their capitalist agenda to full on communism. Things will change even here but things will change slowly which gives me security and I can easily plan. I don’t have this luxury in other places where literally one election can change fucking everything.

I rather live and do business in a country with which my personal philosophies align compared to democracies where my personal future is at the will of the people every couple of years. In trading we have the saying that the majority is always wrong but somehow the majority in “democracies” is always right?!

But again this is the beauty of it. You decide for yourself if your values align with how things are run here. If they do come in, if they don’t stay away. From all I have seen they treat their governement like business and buying the smartest people from around the world to advise in every aspect around governance and then make decisions based on that. Once their philosophy doesn’t align with my own anymore I am free to leave.

Dubai is too expensive!

Dubai is arguably pretty expensive if you wanna ball it up. However there are certainly ways to live on a budget if you fancy to do so. Overall there is a much bigger spread between rich and poor here compared to other places and this also reflects on the areas implicating rents, food costs, etc. If you look at a city in Germany there will be districts which are more expensive and districts which are cheaper but the overall spreads aren’t too crazy. Maybe you pay double or triple the sm² price richer district vs poorer district while food prices will be similar across the board. Now in Dubai this spread is alot bigger. So I wouldnt be surprised if you pay 5-10x less rent in a poorer district here compared to the absolute hotspot. Ultimatively though I would agree with the sentiment that if you want to live a very good lifestyle Dubai tends to get expensive even though you should factor in that often you also save alot on taxes. You can live in Dubai on a budget but it will be abit outside and alot of the activities will be more or less unaffordable for you.

Dubai is way too artificial!

This is a valid point but mostly comes down to personal preference I guess. In the end Dubai is a city built in the desert from scratch. 50 years ago most of what is here now was sand back then. I personally love brandnew skyscrapers and good infrastructure. I like the european city centers as well but for me it’s like travelling back in the 18th century for the most part. Great to visit as a tourist like a museum and stroll around but I don’t wanna live there myself. I appreciate the view of a highfloor, having gym, pool, supermarket, several restaurants and concierge in the same building. But other people might prefer to live in a building from 1970 with a certain charme. They are also determined to make Dubai alot greener over the coming decades which I guess they will manage judging by everything they have managed so far.

But the climate is terrible, isn’t it?

I like it hot so it’s definitely not a destination if you absolutely cannot stand the heat. July and August are getting extremely hot and also parts of june and september. The problem isn’t even the 44C at day but more the 35C at night - it basically doesn’t cool down at all and the ocean feels like you taking a nice bath at home. Alot of people who can afford it leave Dubai during those summer months for something cooler. I arrived in August and while it’s not exactly pleasant it’s managable. Another benefit is that hotels are dirt cheap during this time as well. In winter it is getting fairly moderate for my taste so that you need long trousers quite often in the evening even though at daytime you almost always have warm enough weather to be at the pool. Another benefit is that it barely ever rains so while you have to deal with the wetseasons in Asia Dubai is almost always dry. You also have to consider though that this city was built to withstand heat so something like Austria at 35C might very well be worse than Dubai at 45C. In the end you just spend more time inside with aircon or at the pool for a couple of weeks until things return to a more normal temperature or you just leave for abit and come back later if you can.

It’s a terrible idea to invest into property because they are building so much!

I strongly disagree with this statement after everything I have seen. In the end real estate is supply and demand driven and I see strong and increasing demand. Yes they are building alot but given how things are people want to be close to the main city centers Downtown and Marina and there is limited space. So they can built as much as they want as far as I am concerned and those places and surroundings will still see strong demand in the foreseeable future. Buying real estate is easy here, yields are great and the city is constantly developing. Also as outlined alot of people came during peak Covid for more freedom and alot of people will be coming in future for lower taxes and better lifestyle. This process will only be accelerated by western legacy countries increasing taxation and restricting freedoms so that Dubai will again be a massive profiteer from these developments. So I’m quite sure Dubai real estate will stay very profitable going forward if you are buying in the good spots with strong demand while having a longterm time horizon! Biggest threats would be western governments becoming more competitive in regards to taxation which is almost impossible or Dubai becoming too hot to live for most of the year due to climate change what I don’t see either anytime soon.

What about drinking and drugs?

Drugs is the one area where you should stay clear of. Penalties are severe and if you smoke weed daily Dubai probably isn’t the place you want to build something.

Alcohol on the other hand is legal and easily accessible. Sure, you wont be able to buy it in the supermarket but there are certain alcohol shops and all hotels and alot of restaurants with special licensing serve alcohol. It’s one of those things which is very pricey in Dubai though. It’s also not a problem to drink alot as long as you still somewhat behave. It’s completely normal to see droves of drunk british tourists in the middle of the day on weekends after boozy brunch without anybody batting an eye. However you still should apply some decency like you don’t wanna get caught having sex on a public beach if you know what is good for you.

My theory about the low crime rate

This isn’t something which gets asked alot but I think it’s an interesting topic still. Dubai is the biggest melting pot I have ever seen with people from all around the world living in one city. You can find literally every nationality here living together with virtually no/very little crime and extremely little violent crime. As stated earlier most people here are expats/guests and they are here on a visa. If they screw up the visa gets cancelled, they get booted out and banned for a couple of years with no option to come back. In my opinion this system works great because people need to behave if they want to stay and make money in Dubai so you think twice about getting into a barfight putting your visa in jeopardy or just shaking hands after a disagreement. Personally being here for 6 months I have never seen or witnessed a bar fight, been harrassed, stolen or anything along those lines. Overall multiculturalism can work pretty great if you have certain rules in place which work.

Lotta text where I touched on most things I wanted to talk about.

Don’t think I will write here too often but from time to time if I feel like it expect some action here. I’m also fairly open for topics so if there is anything you are interested in which lies within one of the areas I have some expertise I am happy considering it.

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Lastly to top of the post with some recent pictures so this post doesn’t look to grey.