7 ms·
Middle East isn’t some 3rd world. If you can imagine futuristic cities, rich Middle East countries are already living in them with all the oil wealth. They hav
by tiew9Vii 6mo ago
Middle East isn’t some 3rd world. If you can imagine futuristic cities, rich Middle East countries are already living in them with all the oil wealth.
They have phones, computers, digital services just like the US and Europe. Makes sense they want a data center in the region, close to them just like the US and Europe have data enters close to their users.
- andrepd 6mo agoSlight tangent, but to me futuristic cities are actually places like Amsterdam, with cozy streets and bike lanes everywhere, not places like Dubai with 16-lane freeways and a quasi-slave underclass staffing the tacky malls.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- lolive 6mo ago[flagged]
- hdgvhicv 6mo agoOil is required to get around cities like Austin, not to get around cities like Amsterdam
- echoangle 6mo agoIf you take futuristic to mean „looking like the future“, it think the second option is sadly more futuristic for some people
- andrepd 6mo agoIndeed, but sprawling lead-smoke infested freeways is the stuff of the 1950s; bike lanes and playgrounds and grassy tram tracks is what some cities are starting to do just now! So actually more futuristic, objectively speaking :)
- mlinhares 6mo agoIts sad that people think the "future" is all about owning stuff for yourself and not what the city can provide to its population.
- FpUser 6mo agoWhy is it said? Being independent to the degree possible is the best state for human being I think.
- patmorgan23 6mo agoDo you think we became the dominant species by being independent loners, or by forming complex interdependent groups?
- FpUser 6mo agoI said "independent to the degree possible", not absolutely. I do not live in a binary world. I accept things in between. Being part of group should be voluntary, not forced What I definitely do not want is my life to be dictated by a few imbeciles at the top who are bought by large corps to pretend to be "by the people for the people".
- defrost 6mo agoThe solution to that is widespread active low level constant community engagement in policy and monitoring the people you hire to debate policy (politicians) and the various silo's created to enact policy (military, civil service, legal, emergancy response, etc.). Some people think it sufficient to pay no attention and let things slide indefinitely because "ultimately we can just rise up and shoot the government". Such people have clogged toilets.
- someguynamedq 6mo agoIsn't it expected that in a system that favors individualism over collectivism that a few people will be able to amass disproportionately more wealth and power than everyone else with no incentive or societally enforced responsibility to share that wealth and power, thus creating a society were your life is dictated by a few imbeciles at the top, not who are not bought by large corps, but who own the large corps?
- b00ty4breakfast 6mo agoI guess it depends on if you were a Gibson fan or an Asimov fan as a teen
- brcmthrowaway 6mo agoAnd yet Amsterdam has a world famous seedy district
- reaperducer 6mo agoAnd yet Amsterdam has a world famous seedy district What world-class city doesn't? And if you think there aren't hookers in Dubai, then I don't know what to tell you.
- RobertoG 6mo agoActually, there are probably not a lot of hookers in Dubai at this moment. Most are probably back to Europe (or stuck in the airport).
- cactusplant7374 6mo agoA lot of people don’t like bikes. I am down for salty licorice though.
- sumedh 6mo agoIs it because they’re used to cars from a young age?
- cactusplant7374 5mo agoPeople don't like bicycling in the same way a lot of people don't like football. It's just a sport preference.
- sumedh 5mo agoAny citations for that?
- spookie 5mo agoEh, I think its just that the infrastructure rewards having a car and not bikes. I thought the same before, only after experiencing for years the small things that make it possible, have I come around to it. The little Honda City/Today with its trunk scooter from the 80's was ahead of its time, really. Its a path one should look at in large metropolitan areas. With electric bikes, even cities with large elevation deltas have a chance nowadays.
- g-mork 6mo agoThis is a hilarious comparison given Amsterdam's own history with regard to immigration. Not even historically but contemporarily too.. Just Eat, probably the largest employer of bargain bucket labour across Europe today is headquartered in Amsterdam
- refulgentis 6mo agoIt was snippy and unclear, after the edit, its that and weak. I’d motion you just delete. Not sure literal slaves is comparable to a company that pays bargain basement salaries
- g-mork 6mo agoIt is hilarious, because it is blinded by our own self-imposed optics. It has been our policy to import droves of immigrant workers who have little hope but to take up gig economy jobs often illegally and remain fixed at the same (or worse) levels of economic status as the day they arrived in the country. Yes in Dubai they simply confiscate passports. At least they're honest about it
- refulgentis 6mo agoThe kafala system confiscates your passport. You can't quit, can't switch employers, can't leave the country. People die in labor camps building these vanity projects. The UN classifies it as modern slavery. A Just Eat rider in Amsterdam can quit tomorrow and sue their employer. Those aren't the same thing. You can criticize Europe's treatment of immigrant workers without pretending the difference is just honesty.
- ifwinterco 6mo agoIt's 40+ degrees every day in the summer with high humidity, nobody who can afford a car is cycling in any of these cities. It's not really about town planning it's just how it is
- c0nstantien 5mo ago[dead]
- nutjob2 6mo agoIf you can imagine dystopian cities, rich Middle East countries are already living in them with all the oil wealth.
- haliskerbas 6mo agoSan Francisco feels the same s/oil/tech/g
- r0yadar 6mo agoI could never relax in such a place. Will always feel spooked
- petcat 6mo ago[flagged]
- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 6mo ago[flagged]
- cianuro_ 6mo agoDo you see the critiques of other cultures exclusively under the lends of skin color?
- petcat 6mo agoNo we're talking specifically about how women are treated and the horrible executions for doing various things that "offend God".
- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 6mo ago[flagged]
- greggoB 6mo agoDoes Japan execute same-sex couples?
- veber-alex 6mo agoAre you joking? Homosexuality is illegal there under the penalty of death.
- tokioyoyo 6mo agoSorry, how are gay couples treated in Japan? People are conservative here, so no marriage, but from all gay couples I know here, they’re doing fine. Now, you can talk about PDA, but that kinda includes the straight couples as well to a point.
- 6mo ago
- surgical_fire 6mo agoSo... The future is Dubai? I am still to hear a better argument in favor of extinction. This reminds me of a quote from "Stranger Than Fiction": > Harold: "I don't want to eat nothing but pancakes, I want to live! I mean, who in their right mind in a choice between pancakes and living chooses pancakes?" > Dr. Hilbert: "Harold, if you pause to think, you'd realize that that answer is inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led... and, of course, the quality of the pancakes"
- squibonpig 6mo agoAs I understand it in most cases they have enormous wealth disparities, so like the rich in Dubai have pampered tourist experiences but there's also serious issues with like lacking basic sewer infrastructure for ordinary people.
- lemoncookiechip 6mo agoAmericans seem to think the middle-east is some dystopian place where everyone is near poverty living in mudhuts, when places like Iran have a higher level of literacy than the USA, with more female college graduates. There's definitely a lot of issues that need to be addressed at a cultural and social-economical level in places like Dubai exploiting migrant workers like slaves, the UAE, etc... but America has plenty of issues back home at a state by state case. Poverty, infrastructure falling apart, lack of education, lack of affordable health care, lack of job opportunity, high criminality, drug epidemics, etc... Some states feel like entirely different countries when compared to something like New Hampshire. Even places like NYC and California which are economic hubs have this wide disparity of class, with entire communities of homeless populating the streets at crazy numbers that would make other nations blush (Cali has well over 100k).
- bathtub365 6mo agoI’m not really surprised. The US (and their allies) has made a concerted effort over a number of decades to turn them into to the third world. The current sitting US president has threatened to blast them into “oblivion” and “back to the Stone Ages, where they belong”. A lot of imagery of middle eastern countries seen in the west is of the places they’ve collectively destroyed.
- happymellon 6mo ago> places like Dubai exploiting migrant workers like slaves Heck you can even compare like with like, and point to H1b visas. The entire point of that program is to bring in people who you can pay below standard wages, and who will work those 12 hour days for you.
- Synthetic7346 5mo agoAre you comparing H1bs to slavery? That's a ridiculous take
- Zetaphor 6mo agoOne thing we've always been exceptional at is thinking we're exceptional
- augusto-moura 6mo agoEven 3rd world have those nowadays, unless you talking the more troubled of countries. TBH "3rd world" as a concept is quite outdated. I'm a bit skeptical on how "futuristic" the cities are. There's a lot of money, sure, but from I can tell the projects are pharaonic in a lot of ways, including being out of touch with the practicality of such projects.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- ThePowerOfFuet 6mo ago>They have phones, computers, digital services just like the US and Europe. Wow, really?!
- esalman 5mo agoI have lived in the Middle east (Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia) for ~10 years. I have also lived in the US for 10 years. Infrastructure in the Middle East (roads and bridges, public transportation) is actually better than USA. Poverty is lower because the government has oil money and everybody (citizens) is on welfare. Some countries like Iran are more educated than the USA. Saudi Arabia has the biggest supercomputer in the world and my college friends who went there for grad studies got duplex villas to live in whereas I toiled on 20k annual salary in the US. Of course there are issues- human rights, minorities, cultural issues and racism- but it's not like those problems don't exist in the US. The data centers are there because customers are there. If you stumble on to a twitch streamer or tiktoker from Dubai, you'll find there's are thousands more.
- citadel_melon 5mo agoBy what measure are Iranians more educated than US citizens? Are you also claiming infrastructure in Iran/Iraq/Saudi Arabia is better than the US, or just Saudi Arabia?