Job Discussion Forums

Cleopatra · Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:21 am Post subject:

I have the qualifications and experience required to get a job in the UAE,but, as I have said before, I prefer KSA. I have simply no interest in a 'country' which considers vulgar Gunisess book of records urban design (deisgned, of course, by superious '"Westerners") as the highest form of achievement, and which can't do enough to reassure the white man of its 'non Arab' credentials,even - nay especially - when they are of course still considered just too Arab to be trusted with USAnian ports.

as someone with an interest in current affairs and society, KSA is infinately more interesting than a Disneyfied dot on the sand. Of course, I accept that most expats would not share my views, but then I've never claimed to speak for most expats.

Bob Gorn · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:14 pm Post subject:

Cleopatra, I always like to read your posts and I'm glad you've taken the time to post during your summer break.

I'll agree with you on one point: Saudi Arabia is certainly REAL compared to places like Dubai. Not all of us want authenticity, though. Disneyland is sterile, but comfortable and more importantly, familiar and comforting to us when we're far from home.

KSA's cultural authenticity is jarring for most people. Maybe those with a Peace Corps/world traveller type of mentality could appreciate it long term, but most of us lose our grip when faced with a long stay in a place that is so alien to everything we know.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Have you LOOKED at UAE ! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh ! And where are all the Emiratis ? Answer - in the Edgware Road smoking shisha in those vile Lebanese Hookah Joints !

Cleopatra · Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 9:37 am Post subject:

Longton · Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 148

People can no longer smoke in the shisha joints on the Edgware Road since smoking is now banned in public places.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

For a certain kind of 'expat' (code for 'migrant worker with white skin') Dubai is the bee's knees. Not for all of us.

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

I think Dubai gives some people a bad impression if they're just visiting and are used to quieter places. I know HCT people who were initially sent to RAK and Abu Dhabi and they were horrified by the traffic and crowds of Dubai.

But if I may put forward an analogy, that's how I felt about visiting Manhattan sometimes...an overcrowded grid on steroids...but there is no denying Manhattan has much to offer, and even many foreigners from around the world love living there.

I was posted to Dubai by HCT and lived there for five years and anywhere else in the UAE was a decided downgrade for me. So I think a lot of this business of "my place is better than yours" is really a matter of where you went first (in the Gulf) and got used to. But I have my limits, and theocratic prison life (KSA) is pretty much off-limits to me.

Cleopatra · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:10 am Post subject:

Comparing Dubai and Manhattan seems rather inappropriate. Surely, if one had to compare Dubai and an American city, the obvious comparison would be with Las Vegas, though admittedly that is being rather generous to Dubai.

Manhattan, for all its faults, has class, charm, sophistication, culture and a genuinely cosmopolitan society. Dubai will never be able to buy any of these, not for all the squandered petrodollars in the world. I don't have a crystal ball, but I suspect that Manhattan will still be thriving long after Dubai and its tacky hotels have dissolved back into the sands from whence they came.

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

I agree about New York City. I chose Manhattan for my comparison because of the crowds and traffic and general mania. That is one of the major complaints about Dubai. True, some complain about the silly megaprojects in Dubai; I too am underwhelmed by indoor ski slopes and amusement parks the size of Delaware. But there's more to Dubai than that. There's the old Creek area, for example, and it's straight out of the Ottoman Empire. I love it. And I can even drive around the city between 9 am and 4 pm without having to take three square meals, two books, a DVD and my laptop with me.

I don't look totally down on Vegas, however. I haven't been there, but I like the sense of it being a place where anything goes, where the laws are the most liberal and, perhaps, even libertarian in spirit. No morality mutts or soup Nazis there!

Cleopatra · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:42 am Post subject:

007 · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:47 am Post subject:

Cleopatra · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:52 am Post subject:

007 · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:14 am Post subject:

Van Norden · Joined: 23 Oct 2004 Posts: 409

It's a bit like choosing between Brave New World and 1984. In Dubai you've got sex, soma and the feelies to distract you. In Saudi there's no compensation for the bleakness. Except for the money, of course.

ootii · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:36 am Post subject: