Originally Posted by
GUWonder
The UAE isn't a totalitarian state; it's an authoritarian state with a federal system run by a collection of monarchs and the favorite family members and friends of such. What does OMAAT gain for its business by cannon-balling into a pool of domestic or international politics? How does the publicly-identified principal's self-interest in travel get advanced by engaging in acts that may cause the individual a problem during travels to or via a place?
He seems to have awareness about the systems in which he operates.
Publicly expressing judgmental opinions in the most explicit way someone else may desire isn't a necessary requirement to have judgmental opinions. But not being so explicit may be a way to stay out of trouble, even in places like Denmark, France, Germany, Turkey, the UK, the US, or many other such places where verbal or written expressions can attract adverse law enforcement attention and action.
Some could take his mention about QR being better than EK and whether or not that may be ok in the current environment as part of a dig against the UAE's crackdown on people defending Qatar against attacks of sort coming from Trumplandia, the KSA and the UAE.
He chose to write a blog post about the risk of imprisonment for speaking. He didn't have to do so.
As for what business purpose it would have served for him to express any sort of thought about how that is wrong? I have more respect for businesses led by people with a moral compass. And I patronize them more. Of course, your post presupposes that Ben is not a travel writer, with any responsibility to objectivity or the truth, but9 rather a purely self-motivated businessman.
I agree I misspoke with my reference to totalitarianism instead of authoritarianism, which makes no difference. People with audiences have a moral obligation to condemn injustice. If Bens business relies on his systematic silence and acquiescence to significant human rights violations, then that is sad. It's not like Ben's business is something like a food or energy producer where you can argue there's an inherent value. He blogs about getting treated nice by airlines and hotels.
Sometimes you do things because they are right, even if they aren't good for business. That's kind of a sign of a good human being.