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Iamherebecause · Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:04 am Post subject:

Never had any problems here myself but my daughters tire of the stares and hisses (and they are conservative in the way they dress compared with many other expat teens). Teenaged boys also sometimes attract the sort of attention they don't want. Crime? I have heard of purses snatched in shops, and also of purses full of money being handed in to the police by taxi drivers. I've heard of the maid dragged into a car and raped, and the teenaged boys attacked arbitrarily who were rescued by an Emirati who was passing by in his car.

Much crime goes unreported, just as much human kindness goes unreported.

uaeobserver · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 236

Look - if there's going to be a war -- we might as well have a front seat, eh?

We contemplate the Iran situation regularly. Just the other day, our dear teenage son was in a panic, since it seemed to be port day --- and the docks were really full. "Do you think they're retreating from the war?" he asks..... No, it's just a busy day, we reply.

Iran is not going to have nuclear capacities in the near future. It takes 3,000 centrifuges working non-stop for a year to produce enough fuel for a single warhead. They barely have their units working, and there's not 3,000 --- and they don't have the right fuel to do what they need to do, anyway (Russia isn't helping, since Iran is behind in payments).

Neither are they likely to attack the UAE. Nearly a quarter of the UAE's population is Iranian, and Iran knows full well that any harassment would result in an immediate and resolute response, since Iran is virtually surrounded by western troops (UAE, Saudi, Bahrain, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan all have troops).

We've seen one incident of violence -- and that's when a camel escaped from the back of a truck, and didn't want to get penned back in.

No --- we don't wax eloquent about the UAE. It's not perfect. That said, physical safety is among our lesser concerns. The streets in the westwere more dangerous --- and a lot less colorful.

Sheikh Inal Ovar · Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 1208 Location: Melo Drama School

Sheikh Inal Ovar · Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 1208 Location: Melo Drama School

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

As we're on the topic of safety on and off, my esteemed poster-colleagues have forgotten that the question of physical safety is not restricted to violent crime. The roads and streets of the UAE, Kuwait and KSA are the most dangerous in the world. The unskilled maniacs on the roads can kill you just as dead as a thug with a gun. (One time in Saudi I was confronted by a maniac who tried to run me off the road AND pointed a gun at me. Double jeopardy. Yes, I know it happens elsewhere too. But at least, in some countries far away, people know how to drive).

About colorful streets and neighborhoods: Even suburban streets in the US are far more colorful. It's called Green. It's called Quiet. How many of us can live in a house in the Gulf with a real back yard, with green grass and real trees that don't need to be watered and space to run around in and play with the cat? Without the dust. And the heat. OK, you might reasonably ask, why don't you shut up and get out, then? Well...OK...in this field, with retirement looming in 6 to 8 years...it's the money. It used to be the money in Japan, bu tno longer, not for over a decade....Were I an engineer or something, San Francisco or Singapore would do nicely. Sigh.

Bindair Dundat · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Posts: 1123

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

OK--we are forewarned.

007 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:55 am Post subject:

Iamherebecause · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:53 am Post subject:

All this stuff about most dangerous roads can only be as reliable as the statistics kept by the country where the roads are.

That said, it is only since I came to the UAE that I have had colleagues seriously upset as students of theirs have been killed in car accidents. Luckily I have not been directly affected in this way myself - though one colleague lost a daughter, a student lost a niece, another student lost his brother-in-law, and other students have been involved in car accidents of varying degrees of seriousness.

The roads here are generally good: several lanes, decent surface, well lit at night. They are rarely wet and never icy (although drifting sand can be a hazard sometimes). So the accident rate is down to the bad driving.

Sheikh Inal Ovar · Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 1208 Location: Melo Drama School

Iamherebecause · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 7:21 am Post subject:

As old as 12? Nooooo - way younger, if you sit on Daddy's knee to steer...