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Comment by lucaspiller | Hacker News Reader

I lived in the UAE a few years ago, and I wouldn’t really be surprised. When I had water delivered I just left money and the empty bottles on the doorstep and never had any issues.

One time I was at a coffee shop in a mall and there was a table next to me of ~8 people having a business meeting with laptops. Lunch time came, so they left all their stuff - laptops and all - and went for lunch. After an hour they came back and continued.

Petty crimes like this aren’t a thing in this country. If caught, a foreigner is just going to get jail time (which is most likely better than US county jail) and deportation.

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I would not trust that rosy story for a second. In UAE you can get the death penalty for homosexuality, drug use or saying bad things about their religion.

"Under Emirati law, multiple crimes carry the death penalty, and the sole method of execution is firing squad. Current law theoretically allows the death penalty for treason, espionage, murder, successfully inciting the suicide of a person "afflicted with total lack of free will or reason", arson resulting in death, acts of indecent assault resulting in death, importing nuclear substances/wastes in the environment of the State, adultery, apostasy, blasphemy, perjury causing wrongful execution, rape, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, terrorism, sodomy, homosexuality, drug trafficking[1] and joining the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant[2][3], although death sentences are frequently commuted to life sentences. Overseas nationals and UAE nationals have both been executed for crimes."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_Unit...

What in gods name does the milkman have to do with the death penalty? The USA also has capital punishment, doesn't mean you can't leave your laptop at the café in some posh suburb.

Seems like that would be confirmation for the claim. I would expect that in a wealthy area with ridiculously harsh penalties for petty theft, you would have little to fear in terms of being a victim of those crimes.

I never said UAE is an utopia or even a fun place to live. I think there is merit to criticism of Islam that it doesn't distinguish between religious and secular, so it's a totalitarian state by default. I believe that the world of Islam did not have its Renaissance and Enlightenment. A radio anchor on my favorite station once half-joked that the greatest invention of Christianity is tolerance of Atheism. According to him no other revealed religion even tolerates atheists.

But I believe in giving credit where it's due. If petty crime is very rare in UAE, it's food for thought. World is not black and white and it's perfectly possible the world of Islam does some things better. It's worth a closer look. I believe in an eclectic approach where you take the best parts of things.

Oh boy would Amazon Key be laughingstock in such a country.

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