Dubai

Expo 2020 Airbus 380, LAX

The decoration on this aircraft got my attention, so I did a little checking. Expo 2020 is going to be held in Dubai next year. Looking at the website, I notice this little blurb: 

How can we build more inclusive societies?

I thought that was a little odd considering that regimes in the Mideast are among the most draconian in the world. From Wikipedia:

Companies in Dubai have in the past been criticised for human rights violations against labourers. Some of the 250,000 foreign labourers in the city have been alleged to live in conditions described by Human Rights Watch as "less than humane".

Okay, that's not news. As I recall most of those laborers are from India and/or Pakistan. I suspect conditions in those countries are what prompted those laborers to come to Dubai. Could it be that working for as a wage-slave in Dubai is better than their life back home?

Okay, enough about the downtrodden masses, how about a little real-life James Bond type adventure?

Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum in January 2018

Seems Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, daughter of the Prime Minister of the UAE (United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is one), tried to 'escape' with the help of a former French intelligence officer via jet-ski and sailing yacht but was forcibly brought back.

Sailing yacht Nostromo

Could it be Latifa doesn't care for Dubai's brand of inclusiveness?