Slumdogs and UK millionaires
Posted on 09 April 2009 with no comments from readers
British people are happy to buy goods made in Chinese near slave labour factories, deny low-cost workers the chance to live in Britain so that they overpay for plumbers, and see nothing strange in maintaining a socialist paradise in one country while ignoring most injustices elsewhere.
And yet BBC Panorama can produce a TV programme like ‘Millionaires and Slumdogs’ this week condemning Dubai for using expatriate labour in the recent construction boom. There is more than a hint of double standards and hypocrisy here, and why should British values apply in Dubai?
To set the record straight: construction workers recruited in the Third World are paid salaries in Dubai higher than they would earn at home, come to Dubai of their own free will and generally live in better conditions than in their own cities or villages.
Unemployment and starvation
The real cries of horror should be for those now losing their jobs and going home to unemployment and possibly starvation. The United Nations’ World Food Programme says 18 months ago 800 million people were starving in the world, a third of them children, now there are 980 million due to the impact of the global financial crisis.
Whole villages have been transformed in countries like India by the money sent home by migrant labourers working in Dubai. If the UK would admit temporary migrants on labour visas as the UAE has done for years then Britain could have low-cost plumbers and craftsmen too, and help them keep their families alive.
This is a real and tangible benefit to the Third World, and far more useful than endless articles full of good intentions in The Guardian newspaper or bleeding heart documentaries on the BBC.
To be sure it is always possible to pick out the most unfortunate cases and show how people have been exploited. But the bigger picture is different. It shows nothing but humbug and hypocrisy by its critics.
Human rights
If human rights mean anything then they should be applied equally in all countries. They are supposed to be the minimum standards acceptable to moral individuals in any society.
So don’t condemn Dubai for giving a poor person from the Third World a chance to earn a better life for himself and his family that you would not allow in your own country. Self-improvement and self-reliance is how individuals better themselves not by pious, pompous and self-righteous journalism.
You have to ask why British journalism has suddenly turned on Dubai that is by far the most enlightened city in the Middle East. The presence of more than 100,000 British expatriate migrant labourers enjoying a high standard of living perhaps explains it, and the envy of those now not doing so well at home.
There might also be an element of fear for the future, and a sense that Dubai is going to prosper as a tax-free, low labour cost location while inflation and higher taxes look inevitable in the UK. But you should always look at your own record before lashing out at somebody else.
Order online from this link
no Comments posted by readers:
If dubai just admitted from the start “yes the economic crisis has hit us, we grew too fast and we are going to be down for a while”, instead of “everything is fine, everybody else is suffering but not us, and you dare speak against us, you’ll regret it” stance , no periodical would be as harsh as they have been in their criticism. They probably would have been forgiving or even sympathetic of a small country sucked in by larger and more reckless countries ambitions.
The world is harsh because they have to learn the bad news through bonds being downgraded and CDO swaps rates through the roof while the country has been giving a rosy outlook that everything is ok and everybody else is out to get them.
Its like an alcoholic saying he’s sobered up, but everyone can smell his breath and see the bloodhsot eyes, and will start finding holes in their story.
Yes, Peter. It is hypocritical of the Stalinist State in the UK to enslave its own people while criticising other nations. However, pointing the accusing finger at foreigners is a favourite tactic of bankrupt governments. My son will be no one’s slave. He does business in London and Dubai; perhaps China too one day. Businessmen are not idealogues. Educated people see politics for what it is: bread and circuses for the ignorant. Journalists look beyond their own geographical boundaries too. ‘Information is light.’
Good article, Peter, as usual.
This is a really good article attacking the backpacking journalists who criticize Dubai:
http://blogs.sun.com/christophersaul/entry/yet_another_gulf_bashing_article
From the Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s comments today:
They may write whatever they like, and play the tunes that please them. We are not annoyed by criticism, nor do we fear campaigns. They have their models, experience, values, standards, their cultural and intellectual frames of references. We have our models, values, standards and frames of references. We are open to the entire human experience in every field. We learn from them, but we will never import ready-made models. We do not accept that, and our society does not accept this. As for the allegations about foreign labor, it is an old theme, repeated every now and then. Yes, certain sectors of foreign labor are not in the state we like or hope. But we are steadily improving that state, and we are making progress every year. For years, the talk about foreign labor has not ceased. Such talk is open to all and to the countries that provide such labor. Despite that, millions are trying to come to work in our country. So, why do those foreign countries don’t stop their citizens from coming to work in the UAE if the work situation is such as these nasty reports claim?