Job Discussion Forums

[Pookie11]

I wonder if those of you who have been in Saudi Arabia for several years could comment once again about the subject of personal safety? I have not been to Saudi Arabia, but was recently offered a job teaching in a compound near Khobar. While I am concerned about my own well being, I am especially concerned about the safety of my wife and our nine-year-old son. I�ve read a large number of earlier messages which address this topic, at least peripherally, but some were rather flippant and were not particularly illuminating. My sense is that those of you who have been in Saudi Arabia for a lengthy period have considered the risk to your safety, posed by terrorists or others, to be fairly minor. Do any of you fear that the destruction being wreaked upon Lebanon by the Israelis, aided and abetted by the Bush Administration, may inflame emotions to the point that westerners (and Americans in particular) will be at significantly greater risk than before? Also, given the anti-American attitudes that prevail in the Arab world, and presumably in Saudi Arabia as well, why do you feel that there haven�t been more incidents directed toward Americans in Saudi Arabia? I would have thought that they would occur much more often than your messages suggest. Thanks for your comments.

[veiledsentiments]

I doubt that you will get anything more but reiterations of what has already been repeated said. There is a risk there... just as there is almost everywhere now. There are no teachers leaving because they are worried, but that doesn't mean things might change. I don't think what is occuring in Lebanon makes things any more (or less) dangerous in the Gulf.

Only you can decide if you want to take whatever risk exists and what level of risk you consider proper for your family. I still would consider the greatest danger to be driving on the roads there...

VS

[Stephen Jones]

The Saudis are good at making the distinction between an individual and his government.

The main worry in Saudi is what will happen when the Americans finally get kicked out of Iraq, and all the Saudis that went over to join the Iraqi resistance come back.

[Cleopatra]

Number of "Westerners" killed by Saudis in the last two years: 0.

Number of terrorist attacks against "Western" targets in KSA in the last two years: 1 (an attack on the US consulate in Jeddah)

Those are the facts. How individuals choose to interpret them is a different matter, and cannot be legistated for. I've said it before - and you may consider it "flippant" - I really and sincerely believe that if you come here with a paranoid attitude (and I'm not saying that you are) you will be miserable, and really would be best staying at home. Notions of "danger" are very subjective, so even though you know that the possibility of you being the victim of a terrorist attack in KSA is remote but still not out of the question (as in London or New york), how you deal with these facts is something only you can answer.

As to the war in Lebanon, I don't believe it will have any immediate impact on your safety. At the same time, however, I most definately believe that - in both the short- and long-term - it can only increase the level of anger felt by all Arabs and Muslims against Israel and its uncritical supporters, the US and Britain. It certainly will not help relations between the so-called Muslim world and the "West" but as the above poster says, Saudis generally distinguish between governments and people, so it probably won't create any problems for you as an individual either.

[pklocek]

Apart from the roads, I don�t think Saudi is very dangerous at all. In fact, I infrequently even lock my car doors anymore and hardly even lock up my house when I go out. Even outside of the compound, I find the locals to be pleasant though sometime bemused at the sight of me. Speak a little Arabic to them and tell them how much you love KSA and you can win them over � superficially anyway, but that may be enough to keep from getting beheaded on the spot. So, I wouldn�t say there is an anti-Western bias. To the contrary, I think too many Saudis think of Westerners as super-special, high-tech wizards who will turn KSA into a modern 1st World country overnight. To have a Western friend with them in public is the ultimate status symbol for many Saudis, like a Rolex or a Ferrari.

As for attacks on Western targets, the veteran poster above me was accurate when she said there has been only one. There was however a bombing at an oil refinery near Dammam a couple months ago and there have been a handful of shoot-outs between security personnel and Islamists around Riyadh and in Gassim recently. Of course, police shoot-outs are commonplace in the States, so no worries there.

I also do not see the Lebanese situation as being critical, either. To be completely honest, I don�t think the Saudis really care all that much about the SOUTH Lebanese as they are largely Shias and should be killed anyway on principle (I have actually had students tell me this!!!).

[Bebsi]

The greatest threat to one's health in KSA comes from the somewhat "capricious" driving behaviour on Saudi roads (pun not intended...if you haven't lived in Saudi, forget it).

OK, if you plan to walk around Qassim with a US banner in one hand, a star of David on a gold chain around your neck, a bottle of Jack D in the other hand and a naked floozy from Bahrain in tow...well, I wouldn't encourage it as such if personal safety is a consideration.

Otherwise....................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hector_Lector]

Personal safety be careful who you sit next to on flights from London to the USA.

[Frank Verity]

The only hazards I have ever seen in many years in the Kingdom are
demented and simple minded old Brits drinking themselves into the cuckoo house;they are really an environmental rather than a personal
danger.
There are a few transatlantic tefl hags but they are mostly too old to be
noteworthy.

[dmb]

Frank, I'll be frank. I think you are racist. Why
do you dislike Brits so
much? What did we
ever do to you.
btw what is the hazard
in being
simple minded?

[Frank Verity]

Please refer to Timon of Athens on the wickedness perpetrated by the
simple minded

[Frank Verity]

To be precise,the only Brits I object to are the Northern, football obsessed ,elderly,freemasonic drunks,of whom there were a plague in the Kingdom but who are now happily becoming extinct.The 'I oop ' cad
with a brain the size of a fleabite and a mouth the size of a volcano was ,in retrospect,probably doomed to extinction.

[scot47]

It is only two years and a few months since 25 people were murdered by the loonies in the Oasis Compond in Khobar. This caused scot47 and some others to take stock of security. I for one hoofed it, but I came back.

By the way Mr Verity some of those football-crazed Brits are Southerners. I have at least one colleague who supports West Ham which is his local team.

[guty]

Any self respecting loonie knows the amount of damage that would be done by oil industry workers, like those who lived at Oasis, leaving KSA in their droves.
As many posters have intimated, if most of the current EFL teachers left the magic kingdom, it wouldn't be a disaster for the locals.
TEFLers are not a target, although they may be caught in the crossfire.
Driving is far more dangerous, and racist attacks are far more likely in London.

[Frank Verity]

Obviously, Southern morons are preferable to Northern morons.

[nikon]

I am working in the
Dhahran area and also concerned about security and personal safety.

I came across this today in the Arab News online and if one assumes that it is true it doesn't help us feel better about our security while working in
Saudi Arabia:

Liberals Fear Emergence of a New Generation of Angry Young Men


http://www.arabnews.com/?page=9&section=0&article=77673&d=11&m=8&y=2006