Camel Racing with Robot Jockeys
The age-old traditional sport of camel racing took an interesting turn in Dubai in 2004. Surprisingly, robots were deployed to replace human jockeys. In modern camel races, the camels are guided by remote-controlled robots. This change came about due to allegations of human rights violations, as children had historically been used as camel jockeys in many Gulf states.
Both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which Dubai is a part, have banned the use of human jockeys for reasons of robotization and protection against human rights violations. The UAE was the first country to implement this ban in order to combat child labor and abuse and to reduce the phenomenon of child jockeys as much as possible. Even after this modern change, camel racing is still a very common and lucrative industry where millions are redistributed.
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