I wonder why you would go to iran in the summer...

OT, I would guess that most of the UAE market actually represents the region in general. Iran for example gets all consoles and games from UAE. The Sony brand is very very strong in the middle east.

gimmebanana said: blackstar said: MikeB said: Interesting, people seem relatively rich in this country. So entry pricing may be less of an issue for many (or buying multiple consoles if so desired). Wikipedia states the country is ranked 5th (est 2007) on GDP (PPP) per capita ($55,200).    Saudi arabia , Qatar , Bahrain , Oman and Kuwait are rich countries, very rich oil is there first -and almost only- money maker for these countries when i visited palestine 3 years ago ...i did not believe how many ppl owned a ps2 !! and i was amazingly shocked at how much wwe was famous there , they LOVE soccer so im not suprised that fifa and raw aretwo top selling games in emirats PS : blackstar wallak inta arabi????

 

 man,

i don't know anyone who doesn't own a ps2 here

@ mikeb

u know a lot :S

Errr, there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about social studies here.

First of all, the nth world terms are not directly related to "bloc affiliation." They happen to line up pretty well, but they are not the same thing. First world countries are countries where both social services and personal income/relative quality of life are high. Western countries in Europe and the Americas often fall in here due to the very low incidence of disease and easily treatable infections and also because of a relatively high income and quality of life.Second world countries, such as the Soviet commonwealth countries have similarly low rates of disease and bad health, but lag far behind in income and relative standard of living. Finally, third world countries achieve low in both categories most often because of a lack of economic development. The fact that they were ignored by the Western powers in political terms has more to do with a lack of social and economic capital than it has to do with some kind of static social factor.

Dubai and many countries in the middle east are often considered third world countries because though there many in the population who have a very very very high standard of living and health, much of the population lives in conditions that would classify the country as a third world environment. To put this in perspective notice that the royal family of Saudi Arabia's personal income dwarfs the salaries that most people can expect to live. In the case of Dubai, this is even more extreme as there is a relatively small domestic population (the majority of Dubai's population are either transient workers or do not maintain their main residence in the country. Though much of the UAE is not the same as Dubai, it is roughly comparable to say that a similar situation arises. A relatively small elite and powerful rich skew the per capita income to a much higher level than if a modal salary were taken.

In sum: the UAE is a rising power, but to believe that they already are a modern function first world country is to ignore the fact that behind all of the fancy buildings and cities growing up in the emirates, there are a whole heck of a lot of people whose quality of life isn't much better than it was 50 years ago.

Now back to marveling about these poor poor countries and their lowly PS2s.

gorgepir said: I wonder why you would go to iran in the summer...

 

It's a country of interest to historical and nature interested tourists.

Some historically interesting examples:

Birthground of human civilization:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PZZ1VRoVRo

Some great historical cities:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDNwCgGG-ZQ

I also went to the northern Iranian rainforests and Ali Sadr Cave, a magnificent 70 million year old 11 kilometers long water channel cave with deep lakes and an amazing 100 by 50 meters main chamber 40 meters high.

More Iran pictures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04f3xLCoum0

(If that's not enough, Iranian girls amongst the prettiest girls in the world )

 

MikeB said: gorgepir said: I wonder why you would go to iran in the summer...   It's a country of interest to historical and nature interested tourists. Some historically interesting examples: Birthground of human civilization: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PZZ1VRoVRo Some great historical cities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDNwCgGG-ZQ I also went to the northern Iranian rainforests and Ali Sadr Cave, a magnificent 70 million year old 11 kilometers long water channel cave with deep lakes and an amazing 100 by 50 meters main chamber 40 meters high. More Iran pictures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04f3xLCoum0 (If that's not enough, Iranian girls amongst the prettiest girls in the world )

where else did u go in asia or africa?

kamil said: I think it's a mistake. UAE is quite a rich country, with GDP comparable to Finland (either per capita or for whole country). For 2007 in Fins spent 80 mln euro (120 mln USD) on games only. So 4.8 mln spent in 5 months in UAE seems pretty low. Is UAE 10x smaller than Finland even if it's not poorer? Also I think that I have seen a poster from UAE complaining about prices. I don't think that games are cheap there.

 

 UAE has a huge split in money due to oil. They produce ~ 2.5 million barrels a day. That's ~ 40M liters I believe.

I reckon that the average UAE person doesn't have a lot of money. The median should be very low. I can't find any numbers though.

A few numbers though: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ae.html#Econ

20% of the population is below the poverty line.

 

Nutboy said: kamil said: I think it's a mistake. UAE is quite a rich country, with GDP comparable to Finland (either per capita or for whole country). For 2007 in Fins spent 80 mln euro (120 mln USD) on games only. So 4.8 mln spent in 5 months in UAE seems pretty low. Is UAE 10x smaller than Finland even if it's not poorer? Also I think that I have seen a poster from UAE complaining about prices. I don't think that games are cheap there.    UAE has a huge split in money due to oil. They produce ~ 2.5 million barrels a day. That's ~ 40M liters I believe. I reckon that the average UAE person doesn't have a lot of money. The median should be very low. I can't find any numbers though. A few numbers though: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ae.html#Econ 20% of the population is below the poverty line.

 

 That's an interesting link. Only 77.9% of the 15 years old + can read.

The public debt is 22.9% of the GDP.

Well found. You're probably correct.

@ Nutboy

I think one has to distinguish between native emiratis and foreign immigrants, they form a minority in their own country (about ~20%). The native emiratis nearly all live in expensive villas. All Emirati citizens get free education and health care, and subsidized utilities. Emirati men can claim free land and no-interest loans to build homes. Other benefits include for instance a $19,000 payment toward wedding costs.

Regarding the wellfare system for native Emiratis the government financially aids disabled, widows, unmarried women, orphans, those of limited income, married students, elderly, divorced or separated from husband women, families of those serving prison sentences, those married to foreign nationals. So Emirati people living below the poverty line are hard to find.

this are my countries im proud of them they choose the ps3

yes native emiratis are rich, but the immigrant residents arent there. And PS3 in that our region is still like it was in PAL back in the PS-PS2 days... unfortunately nintendo isnt popular here, and people still think mario is the 2D version he used to be...