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Sheikh Mohammad al-Maktoum has turned the coastal desert wasteland of Dubai into the world’s playground.  Architects, movie stars, and shop-a-holics all have the opportunity to make use of their money in some of the most extravagant buildings known to man.  Attractions include: the Hydropolis, the world’s first underwater hotel which lies approximately sixty-six feet below the sea, the world’s largest mall, the world’s largest theme park Dubailand is still in the making, and artificial islands available for sale, are shaped like the world and palm trees.  However underneath the glamour of al-Maktoum’s gigantic city lie the construction laborer workforce and their basic human rights. Who author Mike Davis labels as “an indentured, invisible majority,” the mainly Asiatic laborers building the “world’s largest,” find themselves working for $100 to $150 per month and living in crowded migrant housing outside Dubai (Davis, 64-66).  In 2004, Humans Rights Watch approximated 880 construction related deaths with a majority of the accidents “unreported by employers or covered up by the government” (Davis, 66).  In a country where trade unions, striking and all agitators are illegal, workers find themselves unable to complain about their situations without threat of deportation.  Thus many basic amenities such as running water and working toilets go unnoticed in the worker’s camps (Davis, 66-67).  This organization of labor, its inequalities, and the economic boom of Dubai, suggests that understanding the role and definition of structural violence within in the country is vital to solving its human rights issues.

 

Instead of labeling the insignificant attention paid to the South Asian laborers as a simple product of the poverty of countries like Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan, it is important to view the ignored rights of these people as structural violence, an intense schema which studies the political, economic and societal histories of the people and region in question.  Paul Farmer, noted anthropologist and philanthropist, understood that the term “structural violence” is often placed into categories too complicated to understand.  He claims three flawed explanations of structural violence: exoticization of suffering (naturalizing and individualizing people’s conflicts simply attribute the fault of poverty or suffering to the person), the “sheer weight of suffering makes it difficult to render” and thirdly, the dynamics and distribution of suffering are still poorly understood (Farmer, 17).  Within the confines of Dubai, structural violence puts an emphasis on viewing the construction workers’ rights as a result of many factors.  Factors which include the education of the workers, their economic situation in coming to the UAE, their health status, as well as Dubai’s class structure, its past economies, past wars, and future goals.  Structural violence requires comprehension of the history of a country and its people, individual and collective narratives, political and social discussions.  Attribution of poverty is not blamed on the lower class in cultural relativist fashion but looked at as a summation of a society’s actions.  It is not a label but a careful analysis of various situations and their possible causes. 

 

Inequalities in Dubai, even among its own people, have resulted from centuries of inequality through wealth.  Slavery was only abolished in 1963 and freedom of speech and religion are still highly curtailed. The presence of the government in dealing with complaints from Pakistani workers claiming they were being cheated of their wages and Filipina maids for “adultery” (when they reported rape), resulted in deportation or threats (Davis, 65-66).  The government attempted to decrease the “inequality” in race among their construction laborers by hiring more Arab workers but foremen were hard pressed to find other workers willing to work for such low wages.  Farmer discusses the effects of racial classification on many groups and its ability to increase inequality and suffering (Farmer, 9).  Even in job choice, Arab men are more likely to turn down a lower paying job that a South Asian man will take.  The complexity of the working situation in Dubai reflects the broad topic of structural violence.  Farmer warns against falling into “reductionistic analyses” in the hope that people will see human rights and structural violence as collective factors.  Although structural violence is a frame for understanding the causes behind the actions of people groups and regions, it seeks to break the stereotypes of signaling out one important cause above all others.

 

In examining the transition from a sheikhdom to an economy supporting incredulous measures of free trade, the Neoliberalist aspects of Dubai are staggering.  Foreign investment is reaching new levels as countries continue to buy UAE oil but more importantly, buy into Dubai’s business sector.  Dubai already hosts a technology hub with Microsoft, Dell, and HP as some of its investors and allows zones of 100% free trade, where taxes and import/export duties are not allowed (Davis, 62).  Yet the stark differences between the laborers and Dubai’s wealthy are paid no attention.  Definitive correlations can be made between the economic rises.  Davis summarizes his points, “So much has been invested in Dubai’s image as an imperturbable paradise of capital, that even small disturbances can have exaggerated impacts on investors’ confidence” (Davis, 67).  The devastating aspect of that statement is that as investors seek to further their capital, they are more concerned with the outward appearance than the reality of the situation. 

 

The solution to acknowledging workers’ rights does not lie simply in the distribution of finance but in the comprehension of Dubai’s political and social history.  Understanding interactions between the people of the entire region and their social structures is vital to moving forward in human rights for the entire UAE.  The result of workers’ riots, if anything, has produced a measure of unrest among the thousands of laborers.  Although workers have attempted strikes and protests, the press is prohibited from writing about it (Davis, 65).  Through 2004 to 2005, striking began with a march of several thousand Asian workers, followed by several smaller demonstrations protesting unsafe working conditions (Davis, 66).  However, in 2006, when violent riots broke out, they were calmed by minor concessions and severe threats (Davis, 67).  In essence, to fix the issue of running water and accessible toilets may cause a cessation in the riots, but it will not provide any permanent solution.  Resolutions will only be found in understanding the depth of the factors in place in the structural violence of Dubai, by examining human and material context together.

 

  

 

Davis, Mike. “Sand, Fear, and Money in Dubai.” In Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism.

New York: The New Press (2007).

Farmer, Paul. “Chapter 1: On Suffering and Structural Violence, Social and Economic Rights in the

Global Era.” Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor.

18 Mar 2009 <http://www.uxpress.edu/books/pages/9875/9875.ch01.php>

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