I think the problem is most pronounced in the Gulf states (KSA, Kuwait, and south of there). I spent a couple days in Dubai on my way back from visiting family

I think the problem is most pronounced in the Gulf states (KSA, Kuwait, and south of there). I spent a couple days in Dubai on my way back from visiting family in Jordan, and it felt like a whole different world; supposedly it's all "Arabs" but culturally everything was vastly different. That's been my experience interacting with Arabs from other Gulf states as well (Yemenis are crazy...). I suppose it has something to do with the fact that these countries have crap tons of oil money so their citizens don't have to pay for anything (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, etc are not oil states). It's not totally fair to call the "Arabs" the top of the pile. It's more like whoever is a citizen of that state: be it Emiratis or Quataris or whatever. There's a definite hierarchy of "Arabs" depending on what country one's from, and in my experience it's not so much who's higher up, it's who's farther from the bottom and thus more difficult to fire. I'm not going to argue that it's not a shitty situation for the servants. I know that there is some hired help that is treated fairly, paid what was agreed, and is free to leave if they so desire, but I can't speculate on what proportion that is, and further my experience is primarily in Jordan. In my short time in Dubai, it was pretty obvious that the opulence of the town could only exist by taking advantage of its poor. I guess if you live there the only way to live with yourself would be to ignore that, as this article shows so many do. About your last comment, I don't think I'd be that harsh about the middle east. It's not all bad, really. The Gulf States IMHO are pretty f'd up, and I don't think I'd want to live there, but the "Levant" region really has a lot to offer, having not been messed up by ridiculous amounts of oil money.