Huh, well this explains why the only people at the career fair with positions for humanities majors were UAE teacher recruiters...
Anyway, when's the last time the world saw a successful popular violent or semi-violent revolt in a country where the power structure is pretty stable? I think the answer might have some bearing on the likelihood of this occurring. Would Iran count? The 89 Revolutions don't strike me as similar.
In any case we're talking about class warfare here from a group of people with no real connection to the land they're in, no deep motivation to fight for its future. Certainly self-preservation kicks in, but in order to take it further they'd have to be convinced of some rather abstract notions of universal human rights. As a species I don't think we've really gotten a handle on this as well as we pretend.
For example someone dear to me, reasonable in most other matters, refuses to invest in anything but domestic companies because she doesn't trust international guarantees. Only at home can one find justice. And if one must leave home, one deserves what one gets. It's not a sentiment I agree with (as my handle might suggest I'm fond of living overseas) but I can see such a sentiment being mirrored in the workers of Dubai.
I can imagine a bitter worker's thought process: "They can treat me like this here, but when I'm home just let them try to come to my country and they'll see what happens."
It might be controversial, but I'm proposing that a person in this situation might accept their own status as a second-class citizen out of a kind of cloying nationalism (the "cloying" is just my opinion.)
And I'll go a step further, controversy-wise, and say perhaps in many cases a person forced to leave what they consider a "homeland" and take lowly work elsewhere might not have the self-esteem to rebel.
If international human rights were breathed in and out daily by these workers, they'd have demanded their rights already. Of course if we in the post-industrial world (UAE included) were flooded by that same breath, the workers would have nothing to rebel against.
Anyway, when's the last time the world saw a successful popular violent or semi-violent revolt in a country where the power structure is pretty stable? I think the answer might have some bearing on the likelihood of this occurring. Would Iran count? The 89 Revolutions don't strike me as similar.
In any case we're talking about class warfare here from a group of people with no real connection to the land they're in, no deep motivation to fight for its future. Certainly self-preservation kicks in, but in order to take it further they'd have to be convinced of some rather abstract notions of universal human rights. As a species I don't think we've really gotten a handle on this as well as we pretend.
For example someone dear to me, reasonable in most other matters, refuses to invest in anything but domestic companies because she doesn't trust international guarantees. Only at home can one find justice. And if one must leave home, one deserves what one gets. It's not a sentiment I agree with (as my handle might suggest I'm fond of living overseas) but I can see such a sentiment being mirrored in the workers of Dubai.
I can imagine a bitter worker's thought process: "They can treat me like this here, but when I'm home just let them try to come to my country and they'll see what happens."
It might be controversial, but I'm proposing that a person in this situation might accept their own status as a second-class citizen out of a kind of cloying nationalism (the "cloying" is just my opinion.)
And I'll go a step further, controversy-wise, and say perhaps in many cases a person forced to leave what they consider a "homeland" and take lowly work elsewhere might not have the self-esteem to rebel.
If international human rights were breathed in and out daily by these workers, they'd have demanded their rights already. Of course if we in the post-industrial world (UAE included) were flooded by that same breath, the workers would have nothing to rebel against.