Dubai Only Looks Modern

Dubai’s financial troubles are well-known, as are the appalling labor and living conditions some of its imported workers must suffer through. Now it has another serious problem. Two Britons were just sentenced to a month in jail followed by deportation for a kiss on the cheek in a bar.

How many people are going to read that story and want to visit a place that imprisons foreigners for something the rest of the human race doesn’t even consider a misdemeanor?

I’ve been a bit of a Dubai booster in the past, but I’m done, at least for now. A country that imposes a reactionary seventh century moral code on visitors doesn’t deserve tourists.

UPDATE: Good grief, it gets worse. “A 23-year-old British woman who was raped while on holiday in Dubai now faces jail in the Gulf state for having illegal sex outside marriage.”