Talk:Dubai

Archiving

Unless anyone has any objections, I'd like to go ahead and archive these discussions, since the talk page has become difficult to navigate. If there are active discussions, please let me know, and I'll hold off archiving until the discussions are complete. I plan to start archiving this page on 7/18. Thanks AreJay (talk) 05:41, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

GDP

Dubai's gross domestic product needs to be updated, Dubai's GDP in 2005 was 37 billion or something like it, so why we shoudnt update it ???

Nabil rais2008 (talk) 08:54, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

I suppose what's preventing us at present is a reference. I had a quick look just now, but the sources I found all spoke about percentages. Could you try and find a recent reference? I'd suggest it should be from a respected newspaper or magazine (or their website, naturally!) For what it's worth, I had a quick look at Khaleej Times and Arabian Business: the former had figures for 2004 (and projections for 2009, but we should avoid those), and the latter only dealt with percentage growth.

Cheers, TFOWR^{This flag once was red} 09:29, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

I've tried before to find updated figures, but i found nothing. I think the latest figure was the 2005 figure. Mainly all i found were estimates for the 2010 figure, which is when their will be a nation wide UAE census. --MoHasanie  Talk  19:54, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Well i have found the figures but they are in Dirhams as well as it is an expected figure for 2010.

Nabil rais2008 (talk) 10:58, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Dirhams is fine, but we need actuals, not projections - so 2008 would be fine, but not 2010. We could add the 2010 projections to the current actuals, however. Something like "Dubai's GDP in 2001 was X; it is expected to be Y in 2010".

Getting back to Dirhams, I'd argue that that's the best currency to use - but we should also convert to US dollars (and/or Euros?), using the exchange rate applicable at the time of the survey - e.g. for 2001 GDP we'd use 2001's Dirham/Dollar exchange rate.

Cheers, TFOWR^{This flag once was red} 15:05, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

It doesn't quite work that way with many Middle Eastern economies. Currency is usually "pegged" against the US dollar at a set rate, which doesn't change. In the UAE's case, 1 US$ is approximately 3.675 AED. Adjusting historic financial data for inflation is a different issue though. As far as projections are concerned, I'm fine, pending validation of the source of the projections. I agree that the sentence should be structured along the lines suggested by TFOWR ("As of 2008, the GDP was...and is projected to be...in 2010."). AreJay (talk) 17:31, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

 Done I have updated it to the latest values from Dubai Statistics Centre.Winjay (talk) 10:23, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Panorama

The pannorama is outdated, there should be an updated panorama of Dubai, as of now Burj Dubai is close to its completion and is fully claded as well and some other skyscrapers which have to date risen above are not present in this panorama. The heading wont work wiht out content regarding it !

Nabil rais2008 (talk) 19:06, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

Wrong Flag

The picture of UAE flag is wrong. Please correct it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.225.111.1 (talk) 11:32, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

That's the Dubai flag, not the UAE flag. It is correct. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.96.194.146 (talk) 11:38, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Collapse of dubai's economy?

There was an article in NYT and a photography feature in Fast Company.. read this:

“ Today, an estimated 50% of the slated developments are frozen or canceled. Banks have stopped lending. Housing prices fell 41% in the first quarter of 2009 and are expected to drop to preboom levels. The stock market has plunged 70% from its peak. And people across the socioeconomic spectrum are being laid off -- and fleeing -- in droves. But even fleeing is harder than it sounds: When foreigners, who once made up perhaps 80% of Dubai's 1.7 million residents, lose their jobs, their work visas are rescinded and they generally have 30 days to pay their debts and leave. Those who fail to pay risk debtor's prison. And debt here is now as deep and ubiquitous as the sand itself. ”

I completely defer to the judgment of this article's contributors and won't be making any edits to the article proper, but I would like to see this mentioned more prominently - at least in the Developments page. Obviously those articles are rather one-sided and the whole world has been hit by the recession, but Dubai's fall seems particularly spectacular. It would be great if people inside the country could offer their perspectives here on the talk page to gauge whether this story has merit. .froth. (talk) 00:55, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

you realize if people inside the country confirm this they'll be deported or imprisoned right?159.83.54.99 (talk) 00:17, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

There is also an article in the Independant about it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Mysterious Gamer (talk • contribs) 19:18, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Reassesment?

I think this article deserves a reassesment. It is certainly not a C-class article. --MoHasanie  Talk  15:45, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

C sounds about right to me. Read Wikipedia:WikiProject_Dubai/Assessment#Quality_scale .froth. (talk) 19:46, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

I have improved the article, and with the help and suggestions of Xtzou, it is now rated GA class. Winjay (talk) 10:27, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Dubai Panorama

I found this panorama of Dubai Creek, and i think that its gives a good view of the city.

A panoramic view of Dubai Creek

Dubai Foreign Policy index

Could someone please add this sentence into the article. I'm not sure where to put it.

Dubai is ranked 27th among global cities by Foreign Policy's 2008 Global Cities Index.

New montage needed?

The Dubai Picture montage is heavily outdated, plus it doesn't shows the most important landmarks of the city. Please update it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.185.98.197 (talk) 17:02, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Dubai Emirate vs. Dubai Municipality

I noticed that the page on the actual city/municipality of Dubai is very sparse. It has no infobox, and lists neither the city's population or area in square kilometers. But, this article actually seems to switch between refering to the area as the emirate and then the "region" or city. For instance:

According to the census conducted by the Statistics Center of Dubai, the population of the emirate was 1,422,000 as of 2006, which included 1,073,000 males and 349,000 females.[60]

The region covers 497.1 square miles (1,287.4 km2).

When it says "the region covers 497.1 square miles" are the article obviously isn't talking about the emirate, but it leaves one to wonder if that is the size of the city proper/municipality, or if you are then talking about the metropolitan area. We need it explained somewhere on the page the difference in population and land area between the municipality, the metropolitan area, and then the emirate. --Criticalthinker (talk) 11:59, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Anyone? This is an important distinction that needs to be made if there is a difference between the city and state. --Criticalthinker (talk) 11:50, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Controversy

Please read this article from the independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html?a=1 This Arab state is not all glitter and gold. This article desperately needs a controversy section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.254.52.68 (talk) 19:04, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Seconded. If nothing else, its worth noting that the economy would collapse were it not for for the omnipresent slave labor. Powrtoch (talk) 19:43, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Twin cities

There is no evidence that Dubai and New York City are twinned/sister cities. Please show appropriate evidence or remove the said info.Avman89 (talk) 06:08, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Some people seem to assumed creative license and added any and every city into this list. Could someone please do a reference check to see if this list is accurate? AreJay (talk) 17:20, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

I have added a reference which states that Dubai and NY are twinned. Winjay (talk) 10:30, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

The intro

I feel like the introduction does not state the reality of what is going on in Dubai right now. Truth of the matter is that the real estate bubble burst, construction on most projects has been stopped, luxury hotels are mostly empty, Dubai is bankrupt (although it got bailed out by Abu Dhabi), and not to mention slave labor...These are important aspects of the city of Dubai which need to be mentioned in the introduction. Thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.126.27.210 (talk) 20:27, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

It is important for articles to maintain a level of stability. Some of the information on the stock market crash needs to be included in the Economy section (in summary style), but not in the intro. The harsh labor conditions aren't unique to Dubai, they exist in all Arabian Gulf countries and cities, including Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. AreJay (talk) 17:19, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

I think you perhaps meant to say Persian Gulf I got confused for a second lol but yea, the slave issue is very important and its a major aspect of the city of Dubai, it was built on it. And also, many are predicting that the city will pretty much be a ghost town soon (as in all these major projects will lose investors and no one will by these properties). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.126.28.253 (talk) 20:45, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

:) "Arabian Gulf" is an oft-used misnomer in that part of the world to mean countries that are in the Arabian peninsular. You're right, the accurate term would be Persian Gulf. AFA the ghost town comment, not going to happen. I've lived there long enough to know that at the end of the day, Dubai is a trade based economy...it will not be quite as glamorous as it is now, but it will survive. You just have to look at other mid-level cities in that part of the world (Manama, Muscat, Sharjah, etc) to see that they're able to sustain mid-level economies. As I said before, the term "slave labor" isn't NPOV, so I hesitate using it. I'm open to a term that is more neutral. Thoughts? AreJay (talk) 16:01, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

The initial commenter here is completely right. In particular, it's amazing that a prognostication from a real estate-driven regional investment bank claiming there will be a 20% upwards price correction made it into the intro of this article. Many markets will probably show some correction, and as Europe is showing right now it's as likely to be down as up. Regardless of which occurs, Wikipedians shouldn't try to predict the market. Take this claim out -- it's unbelievable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.229.102.26 (talk) 13:37, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I would like to commment on the Arabian Persian" Gulf section of both your comments. If we are to talk about dubai I would recommend using Arabian Gulf instead of Persian Gulf cause no need to act surprised when referring to the Arabian Gulf as Arabian Gulf. I will not write Persian Gulf under any circumestances cause that body of water should not and will not be called that "misconstrued, misfigured, and defective" term. No offence to any persian ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Amin891 (talk • contribs) 12:58, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

Haaretz talks about Dubai

This Israeli site: [Haaretz] is from the newspaper Haaretz and talks about the Dubai's desert bubble.Agre22 (talk) 13:10, 30 November 2009 (UTC)agre22

"Judicial rulings in Dubai with regard to foreign nationals. . ."

The first sentence of the last paragraph of the "Governance and politics" section is kind of a mess; I tried to fix it but I couldn't figure out quite what was intended. The idea seems to be something like: "The Dubai judicial system's treatment of foreign nationals has received international attention due to two incidents: in 2007, a 15-year-old French-Swiss nationa [etc.]; and in [year?], migrant laborers, most of whom are from India, were imprisoned [etc.]." Currently, the non-parenthetical use of two em-dashes is a bad idea; it makes it sound like the two events were the same. Chick Bowen 19:55, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Prostitution as a main reason for tourism?

I disagree with the next sentence:

Dubai's lure for tourists is based mainly on shopping and prostitution, but also on its possession of other ancient and modern attractions

No doubt there is prostitution in Dubai, but I think saying prostitution is one of the main tourism attractions of Dubai is inaccurate and offensive. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.229.235.45 (talk) 21:59, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

The section on the economy has a statement, with references, that "prostitution is conspicuously present". Try having a look at the references there. DJ Clayworth (talk) 22:35, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I've removed the "and prostitution", which was added by the same user responsible for edits such as this. To address the point itself, I don't think that prostitution being "conspicuously present" is enough to establish that the prostitution is a main attraction for tourists. –CapitalLetterBeginning (talk) 12:33, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

International incidents

In the 2000s, Dubai was a central place for some pretty big international incidents. So I'm surprised there's still no such section. Noted cases are:

1. The kidnapping and then smuggling of the Israeli Elhanan Tannenbaum (2000), by order of the Hezbollah.
2. The assassination of the Lebanese Suzanne Tamim (2008), by order of a prominent Egyptian's son.
3. The assassination of the Palestinian Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (2010) - currently still under investigation.

Such a section should deal with the factors that led Dubai to the middle of all these cases (i.e. being an international business key point). 109.64.199.46 (talk) 14:07, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

NPOV dispute [Human Rights]

I don't think the human rights section maintains a neutral point of view. It is just a piece of Dubai bashing and does not give any details about Human Rights laws. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Winjay (talk • contribs) 18:39, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Since nobody has said anything, I solved the dispute myself.Winjay (talk) 11:31, 18 April 2010 (UTC)Winjay

Photo Montage Replacement

Hi! The photo of the skyline of Dubai that I have selected is more appropriate to the article. The article is about the city of Dubai itself, not the buildings in Dubai and locations in the surrounding metropolitan area as the montage suggests. I would like to switch the montage of buildings to an actual complete skyline view of the city. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.224.84.185 (talk) 01:30, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. The skyline picture provides a unified context that the montage lacks. A picture of a human, rather than separate pictures of a head, two arms, a left leg and right foot, is what I would put in the human being article. The montage lends more of a "travel brochure" feel, not one that's very suited to an encyclopedia. Badger Drink (talk) 07:56, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Questions

I will use this section to add questions/suggestions.

• One of the sources says, "Dubai has no taxes of any kind on onshore or offshore activities." It goes on to say that Dubai doesn't even have a tax department. Is this true?
• Weather: "Sunny days can be expected throughout the year." This can be said of most places that sunny days occur throughout the year (except for the North and South Poles). Do you mean most days are sunny? Also, when it rains in Dubai, does it just rain, or are there storms?

Xtzou (Talk) 14:52, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

There is no income tax. There is also no tax department. But there are some forms of sales tax and custom duties. See [1]

I live in Dubai. Most of the days are sunny. It rains (usually lightly) only in the winter months, sometimes with storms; even in these months, most of the days are sunny.

Winjay (talk) 13:00, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

GA Reassessment

This discussion is transcluded from Talk:Dubai/GA2. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the reassessment.

I shall be reviewing this article against the Good Article criteria, following a request for Good Article reassessment. –– Jezhotwells (talk) 20:32, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Disambiguations: fixed one disambiguation.[2]

Linkrot: fixed one and tagged two deadlinks.[3]

Checking against GA criteria

GA review (see here for criteria)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS):

   It appears that some major faults found in the FAC review have been addressed although, I think a copy-edit by an independent editor would be good.

   reported that prostitution in clubs is tolerated by authorities  ?

   Reply Clarified wording. This is reported by a PBS Frontline episode. This is the reality versus what is professed. Xtzou (Talk) 15:29, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

   The result of sewage dumped into storm drains is that it flows directly into the Persian Gulf, near to the city's prime swimming beaches. ?

   Reply This has been reworded to "Sewage dumped into storm drains flows directly into the Persian Gulf near to the city's prime swimming beaches." This is the state of a country ripped into the 21rst century. Xtzou (Talk) 15:29, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

   Etisalat uses a proxy server to filter internet content that is deemed to be inconsistent with the values of the country, that provides information on bypassing the proxy, dating, gay and lesbian networks, pornography, sites pertaining to the Bahá'í faith and sites originating from Israel. Confusing

   Reply. Fixed with some creative punctuation. Xtzou (Talk) 15:29, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

   The penal code also contains some provisions; Really? What provisions?

   Reply. Fixed by adding pornography from the source. Xtzou (Talk) 15:29, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

   Dubai has 33 sister cities, and most of the twinning agreements have been done post-2002 Have been done?

   Reply"have been made after 2002." Xtzou (Talk) 15:29, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

   Emirati culture mainly revolves around the religion of Islam and traditional Arab, and Bedouin culture. Being a highly cosmopolitan society, the UAE has a diverse and vibrant culture. Contradictory statements.

   Reply Fixed. Reworded. Xtzou (Talk) 15:29, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

   Plans called for a dedicated road between the current Dubai International Airport and the new one, but currently progress is stalle Why?

   Reply Fixed. - stalled by unspecified "challenges", according to an Emirates spokesperson. Xtzou (Talk) 15:29, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

   Please get this copy edited and reworded for clarity.

1. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

   Two dead links found and tagged, some references don't have publisher or publication date details.

   ref #84 [4] doesn't appear to be RS; also #94 [5]; book references need page numbers;

   Reply The two dead links are not dead but are "server timed out" links. Since the are government links that did work previously with no problems, I would like to make should that this is more than a temporary problem before removing them. However, I commented them out, along with the info they referneced. Removed ref 84 along with the information. Ref 94 is not a book. Xtzou (Talk) 15:29, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

2. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

3. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

4. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

5. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

   Images appear OK

6. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

   On hold for seven days for above issues to be addressed. ––Jezhotwells (talk) 21:14, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

   OK, the major issues have been addressed, but the prose could do with a throrough copy-edit. I am happy to let thuis remain as a GA. –– Jezhotwells (talk) 21:02, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I am the GA reviewer that passed this article and I feel guilty that it has to have a reassessment. I don't think the article's editor knows, so I have notified him.

• Dead links - Could you identify them? I only see two servers that timed out at [6] and since they worked until very recently, this most likely is temporary. I thoroughly went through the references over and over when doing the review.

I'll check them again tomorrow. –– Jezhotwells (talk) 22:05, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

• Some links do not have completely information, such as author for example, or location or date, but if you look at them they appear ok. I figured in my review, since this is a GA review and not a FA review, that some slack could be cut for references that appear neutral and authoritative but do not have complete referencing information for a country like Dubai. None of these references are sourcing controversial information. Best regards, Xtzou (Talk) 21:42, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

References need to be attributed, some are just straight html, need author, publication date and publisher as appropriate. Books need page numbers, some are not RS as per above. –– Jezhotwells (talk) 22:05, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't think any are bare urls. I can remove all the info plus the references that are inexplicable timing out today. Should I do that? Also, I can remove the information plus the links of any you deem unreliable. I spent a lot of time on the references, and they have all the information available on them. So tell me which to remove. Xtzou (Talk) 22:30, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

• Reply. I have addressed all your concerns, and removed information and links where necessary (or commented them out). I hope the result is satisfactory. Xtzou (Talk) 15:29, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing these things. –– Jezhotwells (talk) 21:02, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

Persian Gulf vs. Arabian Gulf vs. Gulf

I've noticed that these terms get changed and reverted fairly frequently.

I appreciate that "Persian Gulf" may be contentious within the Middle East. I appreciate, too, that "Arabian Gulf" is also contentious outside the Middle East. To further stir up problems, the two articles are different - "Persian Gulf" is an article, and "Arabian Gulf" is a disambiguation page.

Could I therefore propose the following:

• Links are made to "[[Persian Gulf|Gulf]]" - this will display as Gulf, and take the user to what I believe is the correct article (feel free to correct me, however...!)
• Non-links are simply replaced with "Gulf" - I believe "Gulf" is unambiguous in this context.

How does that sound? Will it keep both sides happy?

Cheers, TFOWR^{This flag once was red} 17:52, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

I agree with your reasoning. Persian Gulf is the only actual article. So the community has spoken on the issue in that sense. Xtzou (Talk) 18:17, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Would you be happy piping "Persian Gulf" to "Gulf"? (So that the article linked to is Persian Gulf, but the reader simply sees "Gulf"? TFOWR^{This flag once was red} 18:19, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Yeah I think that is a better peaceful solution. Its really hidious to read the word Persian Gulf. Thanks a lot Amin891 11:35, 15 May 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Amin891 (talk • contribs)

 Done I've made the changes:

• I've linked to "Persian Gulf" once in every section; this reduced the number of links, but may still be too many.
• I've put HTML comments around "Gulf War" advising editors about the policy on neutral editing. Since the article is called "Gulf War" I see no reason to change this to read either "Arabian Gulf War" or "Persian Gulf War". There have been very few "Gulf Wars" and they all took place in the same "Gulf" - there's no need to disambiguate.
• I've not put HTML comments around "[[Persian Gulf|Gulf]]", nor have I put comments around "Gulf". I would encourage other editors, however, to discuss changes here, on the talk page, before editing.
• I've probably missed some...!

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 12:05, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I have reverted your edit per WP:AT. The standard name of that body of water is Persian Gulf, which is what the title of the main article is. You can not change the standard name though piping or otherwise, NPOV does not apply when it comes to standard common geographical names in English. What you are doing is a violation of Wikipedia guidelines and polices on the geographical namings. Please do not repeat this in the future. Kurdo777 (talk) 06:49, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Because I felt the above-noted change might be controversial, I publicised it fairly widely, at the Wikiprojects for UAE and Dubai and at the talk pages of any editors who had edited the article recently. Consequently, I feel that bandying around terms like "violation" and asking that a good faith edit not be repeated - when it should be clear from my post on your talk page I am prepared to discuss the change - is not entirely appropriate. You have reverted the change, and have now joined the discussion - good. That's all that was needed. I can assure you that if I was a non-neutral editor wanting to slip this past other editors I would not have posted on your talk page, nor anywhere else for that matter. Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 10:12, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Incidentally, we are now left with the issue of handling Gulf War; I had changed it to [[Gulf War]], currently it's piped to "Persian Gulf War" ([[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]] which seems odd. There are also several more over-links now. Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 10:21, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

So now we are back so square zero .. It is still Persian Gulf( Ahh this makes me nauseated saying this word). The user "Kurdo777" is completely bias towards Persia and all his changes are not for the sake of the terms of Wikipedia it is all because of his unjustified hatred towards Arabs. Amin891 07:56, 17 May 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Amin891 (talk • contribs)

I partly agree with you. It seems that Kurdo777 is Iranian and supports the name "Persian Gulf", while you seem to be against it. The fact is that there is a dispute between Arab Countries and Iran on this issue. Most international organizations use the name "Persian Gulf". There has been strong opposition by Iranians when some of these organizations used the name "Arabian Gulf". Since most international organiztions use the term "Persian Gulf", I propose we can settle with the same for Wikipedia. Winjay (talk) 11:12, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)A few thoughts regarding the various policies that may or may not apply:

• The article "Persian Gulf" is (in my opinion) correctly titled per Wikipedia:Article titles (and in particular WP:AT#Treatment of alternative names) and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) - however, we're not discussing a name change to that article - we're discussing what text to use at Dubai.
• I'm not currently seeing anything in policy to prevent a pipe link - I believe that pipe links should be avoided when they would introduce confusion or be disingenuous (for example, the following contrived examples would not be acceptable: [[Dubai|New York]] or [[English Channel|Gulf]]).
  • In this case I believe "Gulf" is unambiguous, and piping "Persian Gulf" to "Gulf" would be entirely OK - but, absent longer discussion, there may well be guidelines/policies that haven't yet been indicated.

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 11:18, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

"Gulf" sounds ambiguous. But "Gulf War" is commonly used and is a better alternative to "Persian Gulf war" Winjay (talk) 11:54, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Gulf War is the name of the article, too (though a recent edit here piped it to "Persian Gulf War").

Would you be OK with "Gulf" under any circumstances? For example, if the first occurrence in a section was, say, Persian Gulf ("Gulf") or [[Persian Gulf|Persian Gulf (Gulf)]]? Or do you think Persian Gulf is the only option we can justify with policy (thus holding back the hoards of non-neutral editors)?

My only real concern is stopping the constant search-and-replace edits that end up changing "Gulf War" to "Persian Gulf War" (or worse: change "Persian Gulf War" to "Persian Arabian Gulf War"...)

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 12:02, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I think using "Persian Gulf" for the gulf and "Gulf War" for the war at all occurrences is the best option to solve the dispute as the names match with the actual article names. Winjay (talk) 12:26, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

...and it has the added advantage of annoying both sides ;-) Cool, I'm happy with that. Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 12:31, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

 Done I have made the changes and added a comment. Lets hope it won't be changed again. Winjay (talk) 13:21, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Map

This article seems to be about both the city and the emirate, the map is of the city only. It should at least include a map of the emirate as well IMHO. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Dubai_blank.svg Should it include both maps? Should the article be split in city and emirate? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.78.165.201 (talk) 09:19, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

I have changed the map to the one you have mentioned as it shows clearly the political boundaries of Dubai. Winjay (talk) 10:27, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Twin cities

I had a quick look through the article and found that there is town of Cheb on the list of twin cities. It surprised me because I am thinking why the small Czech town of population of under 35.000 should have a twinning agreement with such a big city alongside Paris, Osaca, Caracas etc. Therefor I went through the links below the article to find out and honestly there is Cheb on the list at www.dubaicityguide.com, but there is not a mention about this matter at www.mestocheb.cz which is official web page of the town and it says there are only 3 twin towns (Nižnij Tagil (Russia),Rheden (Holland) and Hof (Germany). It means I simply don't believe that Cheb is a twin city(town) to Dubai and the informations at http://www.dubaicityguide.com/site/features/index.asp?id=3149 are not correct. Somebody should find out I think. --StaraBlazkova (talk) 21:37, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Meetup in Dubai

Anybody interested in planning Wikipedians meetup in Dubai? --Saki ^talk 14:46, 4 August 2010 (UTC)