Why many people say Arabian Gulf cities look "Fake " and "Soulless" ?

[DiggerD21]

Originally Posted by Skyprince

but at night Dubai is full of street activities, extremely vibrant city with bustling dining and shopping activity.

Dining and Shopping = vibrant city? How sad, this commercialism.
What about culture? Concerts, Theatre, Arts exhibitions etc. I don't speak of high profile (in other words: commercialized) stuff, but the more hidden, underground scene. Dubai is not known at all for that. And basically those few I met who went to Dubai or planned to go there, wanted to go for making lots of money in short time and then come back to their home countries.

[Mehrzad]

It has been, is and will be PERSIAN GULF. There is no Arabian Gulf. Learn your geography.

[earthJoker]

I think he meant Arabian cities at the Gulf, but yeah you're right.

[Acosta]

Those pics don't help, I think your idea has got stucked.

[Cedar Teeth]

It's envy because most people in the West are forced to ride bicycles or overcrowded public tansport to work by their socialist governments.
You hate what you can't have and the truth is most Europeans can't have the life of luxury people have in Dubai for example, so their natural defence mechanism is to convince themselves that having a spacious home with a private parking space for spacious cars and a being able to drive to work through properly built urban expressways (instead of killing your prostate in a bike or your lung in a mouldy metro station) is somehow fake and soulless.

[DiggerD21]

Originally Posted by Cedar Teeth

It's envy because most people in the West are forced to ride bicycles or overcrowded public tansport to work by their socialist governments.
You hate what you can't have and the truth is most Europeans can't have the life of luxury people have in Dubai for example, so their natural defence mechanism is to convince themselves that having a spacious home with a private parking space for spacious cars and a being able to drive to work through properly built urban expressways (instead of killing your prostate in a bike or your lung in a mouldy metro station) is somehow fake and soulless.

I for one don't envy not having a car. Public transport is fine for me.
I got to know one person who lived in Dubai. She didn't like it there for mainly one reason: ridiculous media censorship. There are things in the world which you can't counterweight with whatever materialistic things.
But oh well, most of the world is just entering the phase of materialistic societies, where parts of the population are not defining their life by bling-bling, but by values such as free speech, friendships, love etc....

[musiccity]

As someone who has lived in Doha, I would say there is a little bit of both. West Bay, the Pearl, the Corniche, etc. are definitely what I would call fake and soulless. There is no charm to these areas just a bunch of haphazardly placed skyscrapers in the middle of the desert.

But if you go away from the water into older areas of the city, you will find that this part of Doha is exploding with charm. Small grocery stores, bakeries, clothing stores, etc. are the norm and this is everyday life in Doha.

[Acosta]

Originally Posted by Cedar Teeth

It's envy because most people in the West are forced to ride bicycles or overcrowded public tansport to work by their socialist governments.
You hate what you can't have and the truth is most Europeans can't have the life of luxury people have in Dubai for example, so their natural defence mechanism is to convince themselves that having a spacious home with a private parking space for spacious cars and a being able to drive to work through properly built urban expressways (instead of killing your prostate in a bike or your lung in a mouldy metro station) is somehow fake and soulless.

[fbeavis]

Because they are fake and soulless and everything is done to impress outsiders by being the biggest and gaudiest of everything. Man-made islands in the shape of a palm tree? Give me a break! The UAE is a staid and conservative place masquerading as something else.

[Skyprince]

Originally Posted by isakres

Charming Cities are those that are unique because of their beautiful (mainly traditional) architechture and because of their cultural offer and its livable conditions IMO.


Muscat, Oman and Saana, Yemen are Charming cities with a unique touristic proposal for the visitor.

Dubai, UAE and Benidrom, Spain are NOT.

But in what way Muscat is more charming than Dubai ?

Muscat has new areas ( Al-Khuwair, Madinat Sultan Qaboos, Qurum etc ) and older areas ( Ruwi, Al-Ghubrah, Old Muscat etc ). The architecture & sights in older Muscat is quite similar to those picures of Dubai I posted in first page .
The "newer" Muscat are very much similar to "newer" parts of Dubai.

Just that Dubai is bigger and beaches in Dubai are much more clear, while Muscat has rugged hilly landscape ( while Dubai is flat )

Apple to apple, orange to orange, so seriously in what way Muscat is charming while Dubai is not ?

[Skyprince]

Originally Posted by musiccity

As someone who has lived in Doha, I would say there is a little bit of both. West Bay, the Pearl, the Corniche, etc. are definitely what I would call fake and soulless. There is no charm to these areas just a bunch of haphazardly placed skyscrapers in the middle of the desert.

But if you go away from the water into older areas of the city, you will find that this part of Doha is exploding with charm. Small grocery stores, bakeries, clothing stores, etc. are the norm and this is everyday life in Doha.

Every major city in the world, be Sana'a, be Addis Ababa, Rio de Janeiro, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, San Francisco, Dubai, etc have "newer area" , "older area" and "intermediate area".

So I don't understand why people single out Dubai, Doha and many other Arabian Gulf cities ?

[musiccity]

Originally Posted by Skyprince

Every major city in the world, be Sana'a, be Addis Ababa, Rio de Janeiro, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, San Francisco, Dubai, etc have "newer area" , "older area" and "intermediate area".

So I don't understand why people single out Dubai, Doha and many other Arabian Gulf cities ?

Well Gulf cities are a little extreme in this respect, many have very recent histories and the new parts of the city are stunningly flashy and ostentacious which to many people = soulless.

[Disturbing Reality]

Originally Posted by Skyprince

If u go to places like Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, and most of Middle East- that's how their older districts look like. Yet why only the ultra-rich Arabian Gulf states get the "soulless" and "fake" potrayal ?

Such architecture is a cultural thing - it's Middle East, so u cannot expect anything Europe. They look really nice to me

those photos you posted look like somewhere in persian gulf, but most of dubai is trying hard to look like europe. and we're talking about those areas that they're trying to sell to the world not those old districs in your photos..

besides, you cannot compare dubai with southeast asian cities because southeast asian cities like saigon, manila, kuala lumpur, jakarta and singapore has long history of european colonization so they're basically authentic asian-european fusion not some quasi-western skyscraperville..

having said that, i'm not saying it's a bad thing, it just feels that way.. fake, in-steroids, soulless, whatever... but if that's how dubai should be to make it attractive to the world, so be it, that's exactly the same thing people say about las vegas.. fake! yet millions of people flock to it every year and i so love that fake little city in the middle of the desert!

[Messi]

You wonder why? It's matter of culture, politics and level of education in one country. Where else people destroy centuries old castles and buildings to make space for investors?

Mecca some years ago with the Ottoman castle:


Mecca today. Castle replaced by one ugly skyscraper next to the holiest place for the islamic world.


Low level of education: People have no idea what's going on, they don't understand, they don't care.
Political system: No justice, no separation of powers, no civil society
culture: New is better new-rich culture

[Skyprince]

Originally Posted by DiggerD21

Dining and Shopping = vibrant city? How sad, this commercialism.
What about culture? Concerts, Theatre, Arts exhibitions etc. I don't speak of high profile (in other words: commercialized) stuff, but the more hidden, underground scene. Dubai is not known at all for that. And basically those few I met who went to Dubai or planned to go there, wanted to go for making lots of money in short time and then come back to their home countries.

Again, the way many Westerners look at "Culture" could be different from East.

Dubai is influenced by Khaleeji ( Arabian Gulf )/Bedouin culture and they have their own unique music/entertainment. Also it's influenced by religion of Islam.
Also it's home to huge Pakistani, Indian and Iranian people- thus the very strong influence from those nearby countries.

And where else in the world where natives wear their traditional dress extensively, most of the time ? I can only name Bhutan .

[Skyprince]

Originally Posted by musiccity

Well Gulf cities are a little extreme in this respect, many have very recent histories and the new parts of the city are stunningly flashy and ostentacious which to many people = soulless.

A little extreme ? In what way ??

Have u heard of Bedouins ? Dubai is influenced largely by Bedouin/Arabian Gulf tradition, plus there is Huge expat population . Many places in Dubai really look exactly like Karachi , Trivandrum or Tehran . Those traditional streetshops which I posted have been in existence since centuries ago in that region

Originally Posted by Disturbing Reality

those photos you posted look like somewhere in persian gulf, but most of dubai is trying hard to look like europe. and we're talking about those areas that they're trying to sell to the world not those old districs in your photos..

besides, you cannot compare dubai with southeast asian cities because southeast asian cities like saigon, manila, kuala lumpur, jakarta and singapore has long history of european colonization so they're basically authentic asian-european fusion not some quasi-western skyscraperville..

having said that, i'm not saying it's a bad thing, it just feels that way.. fake, in-steroids, soulless, whatever... but if that's how dubai should be to make it attractive to the world, so be it, that's exactly the same thing people say about las vegas.. fake! yet millions of people flock to it every year and i so love that fake little city in the middle of the desert!

Emm but since I live in Kuala Lumpur I must say that soo many buildings here aren't representative of anything- they are just built with random modern design etc.

It's same with all major cities in the world- there are historical areas, there are semi-historical areas, and the modern districts full of building design unrelated to any local influence ( is this what u call "Soulless" ?)

So why single out Dubai , Doha etc ?

[megacity30]

Originally Posted by Messi

You wonder why? It's matter of culture, politics and level of education in one country. Where else people destroy centuries old castles and buildings to make space for investors?

Mecca some years ago with the Ottoman castle:


Mecca today. Castle replaced by one ugly skyscraper next to the holiest place for the islamic world.


Low level of education: People have no idea what's going on, they don't understand, they don't care.
Political system: No justice, no separation of powers, no civil society
culture: New is better new-rich culture

Being one of the world's most conservative places may be a cultural and religious thing, but in modern times, there is absolutely no excuse (and scary, if I may say so) for this sort of destruction (by the Government) and apathy (by the people) toward's a heritage structure and its historical value.

Built in the 1700s, it's wilful destruction is truly condemnable.

[Skyprince]

Originally Posted by Messi

You wonder why? It's matter of culture, politics and level of education in one country. Where else people destroy centuries old castles and buildings to make space for investors?

Mecca some years ago with the Ottoman castle:

Low level of education: People have no idea what's going on, they don't understand, they don't care.
Political system: No justice, no separation of powers, no civil society
culture: New is better new-rich culture

But still most of Mecca is traditional or semi-traditional , free from those modern skyscrapers.

Low education ? Yet Saudis seem to be better educated than most other parts of developing Asia , many Saudis had their tertiary education in the West . But you never call poor countries in Asia and Africa with high illiteracy rate " Soulless" ?

Political system is very subjective- many Asian & Arabian Gulf countries develop fast under iron fist .

[musiccity]

Originally Posted by Skyprince

A little extreme ? In what way ??

Have u heard of Bedouins ? Dubai is influenced largely by Bedouin/Arabian Gulf tradition, plus there is Huge expat population . Many places in Dubai really look exactly like Karachi , Trivandrum or Tehran . Those traditional streetshops which I posted have been in existence since centuries ago in that region

Doha was a village up until the 1970's. Most of 'old' Doha was built in that time frame too. You can't compare such a young city to some of the ancient places you mentioned.

[Dimethyltryptamine]

You ask the question, then you refute every answer you're given. Why bother, lol