Dubai had no problem using slaves to build the Burj Khalifa. Maybe they should have their slaves bring some food for their masters?
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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It's a food pipeline they need, none of them gas ones.
Then they shouldn’t allow US bases that get them embroiled in unprovoked conflicts.
All the Andrew Tate bro types are going to FAFO.
REAL MEN DON'T STARVE!
be dubai
build city in the middle of the desert
literally nothing grows here
we import all our stuff
trade blockade
gonna starve
mfw
Also how did people historically live there? Before desalination plants
Most of the Arab peninsula was inhabited by nomadic tribes that continuously moved with their cattle and tents, with the exception of a few scattered cities that thrived on trade and light agriculture (dates).
In XVIII they lived from fishery and hunting clams. In XX they lived from port and trade. In second half of XX they lived from petroleum. Now they live from youtubers who are testing rooms and food there.
It should also be mentioned that considerably fewer people lived there back then.
Yes
Obviously far fewer people lived there. They probably got their fresh water from a wadi or an oasis.
They're not going to starve because they have a reserve of canned and frozen foods (as it says in the article), but they won't get fresh food for a while. And, if you live in a modern city, you also import all your food, often from across an ocean.
The problem we're seeing a lot in the modern world is that everything has been ultra optimized. Lots of just-in-time delivery, as little warehousing as possible. Products are bought for the lowest possible cost, even if that means they're shipped from the other side of the planet. When it works, that's fine. But, when there's a disruption it's deadly. I remember at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the price of bread in Egypt skyrocketed since all the grain they used came from Ukraine.
UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. are in a bad geographic situation. They have ports on the sea but to get anything into their countries it has to pass by the Strait of Hormuz. Iran can mess with that traffic any time it wants, and Iran isn't exactly friendly with those countries, or particularly stable. I wonder if those countries have backup plans to ship things in via say Oman.
There are roads between the eastern side of the strait and Dubai and there is a cool technology called “trucks” that can be used to transport produce. Yes, it’s more expensive than boats but I read somewhere that Dubai is very rich.
Trust me. They know about trucks. From 8 in the evening to 6 in the morning it’s miles and miles and miles of trucks going from the north to south
If your infrastructure is all geared around getting everything in by port, it might not be possible to switch to getting it all in by truck.
There might not be enough trucks, or enough truck drivers. If they can get enough trucks and drivers, the roads may not be able to support that much traffic. And, that's assuming they even have enough ports, and the right kinds of ports to unload any ships that come in on that side.
No, surely they just didn't think of it.
There’s thousands of trucks driving every night
There’s so many trucks they are not allowed to drive during the day. So the night it’s just one straight line of trucks from RAK to Abu Dabi
They don’t have trains so its the main way of moving goods between the emirates
You need ships to get those trucks there in the first place. Also they have to be manufactured and bought.
See the problem there is, that they don't have the oil /s
No for real they don't have the trucks they would need and to acquire them takes time
Maybe one of those vanity projects could have been a greenhouse or something, but I guess it's too late for that.
With what water?
With the amount of money and access to tech that’s available over there you could build an advanced hydroponics greenhouse that would recapture at least 95% of your water (some obviously leaves the system inside the plants). Build that and fill your reserve tanks during the times you’re not under blockade and you could function for a long time. It might not be enough to feed your entire population a full serving of fresh fruits and veggies every day but it would minimize the impact in situations like this.
It’s a desert. Solar powered desalination plants might have been a good idea.
That's a nice soft target there. Would be a shame if something, oh iran bombed one already.
water.fanack.com/desalination-plants-water-weapon-gulf/
The American Israeli coalition directly and intentionally destroyed a desalination plant in Iran. Barhain's desalination plant was damaged by debris from a drone strike on another target. Those are very different statements and very different levels of destruction.
But yes, they're soft targets if the people attacking you are complete degenerates willing to commit way crimes!
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Damn, one of my co-workers just left to go visit there. He had some serious reservations about going home for a couple weeks. I hope he makes it back okay…
Have they heard of airplanes? They flew through the air and can bring food and equipment along for the ride?
Tell me you haven't read the article without telling me you haven't read the article.
Three quarters of Dubai’s food is delivered by ship with another quarter flown in, but air transport has been as badly affected as shipping. On March 7 the IRGC hit the Dunia International Airport with a missile effectively closing it down.
Can’t they just deliver shipments on the east coast and drive it in? It’s not far
Pity they abandoned the railroads
They are planning them again. They don’t have exit road space to fit all their trucks
Huzzah!!!
Not an expert, but if all your deliveries had short drives and now they're all long drives; you are way short on trucks.
It’s like 1 hour 30 min max
Well they must just all be morons then since they live there but you solved it with no actual information about their infrastructure or logistics or anything. That's the kind of people we need in the C suite!
Just saying they’ll figure it out
i hope nobody starves but fuck Dubai
Oh don't worry. The modern day slaves - the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, and Filipino workers will absolutely suffer.
Now would be a great time for these overworked and underpaid masses to do the funny thing to the besieged city of millionaires.
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Shouldn't have been an ally of the US and Israel.
Why not? It's not like the true "Allies", the billionares of Dubai, will be affected by the food shortage. They will just fly off and abandon every worker and tenant (if any?) in dubai.
It's imoral, but the scumbags lose nothing.
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