Job Discussion Forums

[vanVlaanderen]

I guess this has been discussed before. I'd like some updates by people who are there now or who have recently left.

[scot47]

Safer than in London.

[eclectic]

Gotta be safer than Jersey City, New Jersey.

[desultude]

Objectively, there are security issues in the Kingdom. Petty crime is not generally a threat, but there is always the political/international situation. In that case, how safe you feel depends on the level of security in your compound.

I felt safer there than here in the US- not because the US is so unsafe, but there is a constant murmur of risks and threats there. The media and sometimes the government go out of their way to impress insecurity on the psyches of Americans.

There is also the issue of driving in the Kingdom. The drivers there are the world's worst. The accident rate is very high, and the crashes can be monumental.

On a daily basis, I felt pretty secure there. That being said, there were a number of robberies in the compound where I lived- sometimes big sums of money, computers and other valuables were taken.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Yes, yes, yes...go to saudi arabia! Any of those stories of compound bombing/attacks or French tourists getting capped at Nabetaen ruins near Medina are only attempts to keep new-comers from trolling the fertile fishin' grounds of the good ol' k.s. of a.

Never give it a second thought!

NCTBA

[Asda]

trolling or trawling?

AND

k.s. of a or k of s.a...?

[Sheikh N Bake]

Colleagues near Buraidah tell me the city is UNSAFE for westerners to stay in. It spawned the 9/11 heroes. These colleagues will not stay overnight in a Buraidah hotel. Furthermore, any westerner working at the military base in Qassim must have police escorts if he wishes to drive to faraway cities like Jeddah or Riyadh.

[scot47]

Braidah and Qassim may not be the dream destinations but i would dispute that they are unsafe.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

[Cleopatra]

[eclectic]

aren't you guys being a little paranoid? I dont question Sheikh n Bake's info about Buraida however. I suggest stying in big cities like Jeddah and avoiding Buraida and other more isolated areas.

[Sheikh N Bake]

The military in Qassim seem to think there's a problem, since they insist on western faculty having police escorts on long trips in and out of Qassim. But, I imagine they don't know anything about their own country and need to consult electic.

The company I refer to that has teachers within the fold of the military in Qassim lost two instructors to beheadings, albeit about four years ago.

I do agree with Cleo, however, that the driving is the worst danger, and of course that's everywhere in KSA/Kuwait/Emirates. Find yourself onthe receiving end of an out-of-control vehicle and you're just as dead or maimed as by any other means.

[tillymd]

Hello

This is a good question. You cannot imagine the responses I got when I told people I wanted to teach in the Middle East. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy and said, �Why do you want to go there, it�s so dangerous.� I assured them, yes it is a very restrictive environment, but safe as long as you are respectful and don�t break the rules. I really don�t know if this is true or not.

I probably sound na�ve, but I try to keep an open mind, don�t watch TV, and research things myself so I can make educated, unbiased decisions. I will decide for myself who my enemies are. No matter how different a culture may seem from my own, I try to remember that on a basic level we are the same.

On a practical level, from what I�ve read here, sounds like car accidents are a big problem. This would not work for me, I�m one of the worst passengers imaginable. The compound bombings are a bit intimidating, I thought ESL teachers were too poor to live in �nice �compounds. I�ve never had a problem in any country I�ve visited including Morocco, so initially I had no safety concerns, but it's good to hear what other people think.

Thanks, Tillymd

[veiledsentiments]

I think most of us got the same comments from friends and families the first time we headed off to the Middle East... whichever country in that large swath of geography we had chosen. I spent 15 years trying to convince them that it was really much more like American suburbia in the '50s than anything else... except for deadly traffic...

But... I left the Gulf in early 2001... and things have changed and the big question mark hanging over all of us whether we live in Cairo or London or Saudi or Madrid or Dubai or New York City or Mumbai is how much should we let terrorism or rather the fear of terrorism control our lives. I didn't return because of family issues, but I would have returned just because of a certain amount of personal fatalism. The risk is now worldwide and we all have to decide on our own how much risk we will take for ourselves and/or our family. As a single person, it is much easier.

But... for some of us it has hit closer to home, so to speak. When you turn on the TV news and see a bombing on the street where you walked nearly every day... and your classroom windows overlooked it all. This was at AUC in Egypt. And you quickly pick up the phone and call friends to make sure everyone is OK... and they are... the people who died this time were strangers. A few years later, you hear of a bomb that explodes in a tourist area and 4 Americans are injured... and you have 4 friends who are there. This time it is them... and their lives are changed forever in an instant. A member of this board, by the way, although he doesn't post here anymore.

But... we can die in our bed... or choke on a pretzel... or...

VS

[InterRick]