this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
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Dubai without oil would just be no different from Afghanistan.
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/1970/06/06/golden-dubai
https://mei.nus.edu.sg/think_in/gold-smuggling-between-dubai-and-bombay/
They also clean gold that is slave mined at gunpoint in Columbia for the cartels.
From Venezuela, as well.
Yes it would. Dubai is a small coastal emirate. Afghanistan is a large landlocked country in one of the highest mountainous regions of the world.
Afghanistans largest ethnic groups are Iranian ethnicities (Persian) and the historical and cultural background are very different from the Emiratis who are Arabs.
What you said would be like saying "Italy without Pasta would just be like Denmark."
Italy's isn't dependent on pasta though. Dubai is dependent on oil.
Don't underestimate the ~~soft~~ al-dente-power Italian pasta projects across the globe.
As for oil and Dubai: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Dubai
Dubai isn’t dependent on oil. Oil makes up 30% of the UAE’s economy and an even lesser percentage of Dubai’s specifically.
Oil and the pearl trade made Dubai rich, but they managed to escape this dependency.
I think it would be less flashy than today but actually a minor success. It was already on the rise before oil.
And it's perfectly positioned for flying between Africa, Europe and Asia. There's a good reason so many major airlines are from the Gulf.
But their airport and national airline were build with oil money. Could Dubai have become a major travel hub without oil, maybe. But surely not as quickly as they have done with oil.
If Japan never invented cultured pearls. That’s what got them rich before oil and gave them the experience that a major revenue source could be lost at any moment. The Emirate of Dubai lead the UAE and the rest of the GCC in moving away from oil.
I was gonna say that Dubai is what you get if you give Afghanistan more money but that's kinda the same sentiment
I wish, that would be an improvement. Instead they are US and Israel vassals. Their economy though is not oil based. The UAE as a whole is only 30% dependent on oil for its GDP, the percentage is lower for Dubai.
In the past they were rich from pearl before Japan destroyed their pearl-based economy.
well i imagine the average temperature would be slightly higher but i'm not even sure about that.
The temperature would be lower, because all that asphalt, glass and concrete create heat islands that traps heat and makes everything more miserable. It would smell nicer too, since Dubai has no sewers and garbage collection is awful, so the whole city smells like shit and putrefaction.