• Saleh@feddit.org
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      7 months ago

      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.”

        • Saleh@feddit.org
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          7 months ago

          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

          Oil production, which once accounted for 50% of Dubai’s gross domestic product, contributes less than 1% today.[4] In 2018, wholesale and retail trade represented 26% of the total GDP; transport and logistics, 12%; banking, insurance activities and capital markets, 10%; manufacturing, 9%; real estate, 7%; construction, 6%; tourism, 5%.

    • plyth@feddit.org
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      7 months ago

      It is no secret that a large proportion of the wealth accumulated by Dubai merchants comes from smuggling gold bullion (mostly from Britain), Swiss watches and Japanese cloth into Pakistan and…

      https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/1970/06/06/golden-dubai

      Gold flown from London’s bullion houses like Johnson Matthey and Samuel Montagu to the The British Bank of the Middle East and the First national Bank in Dubai played a significant part in making Dubai what it is today. Shipped out by Arabs, Pakistanis and Indians in dhows to Bombay and other ports like Kutch and Calicut in western India, it brought much wealth to the merchants and the larger business community of expatriates who had made Dubai, home. The narrative of oil in the Persian Gulf has largely overshadowed that of gold and underplayed its significance in linking Dubai to the international economy.

      https://mei.nus.edu.sg/think_in/gold-smuggling-between-dubai-and-bombay/