Job Discussion Forums

[uaeobserver]

Having worked and lived in the UAE in the past - I noticed a peculiar lack of resources on and about the UAE. What would persons here recommend?

I've assembled my list:

1) The United Arab Emirates: A Study in Survival by Christopher Davidson, former Zayed University faculty member. Available at Amazon.com.

2) The Kingdom a popular dramatic cinema production that we've discussed elsewhere. Forget about all the special effects, and look at the subtext. Understand there is a strong, ambitious monarchy, a hand full of compotent nationals, working with talented westerners to solve a problem. At the same time, know there's a small, but angry - and potentially dangerous faction. P.S. --- filmed in Abu Dhabi. Rent it or buy it.

3) United Arab Emirates: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix An interesting report, printed in 2005 by the IMF, with an informative chapter on human capital issues. Available for free via the internet.

4) Global Competitiveness Report Don't buy this -- find it in a library. A prominent statistics-based ranking of world economies, printed by the World Economic Forum. The rankings place the UAE high among Arab economies. At the same time, there's clearly room for improvement in the global economy.

I'm sure there's other good resources --- these are just the ones I found during my time.

[helenl]

As a caveat on #2 The Kingdom - is based on an actual incident that took place in Saudi Arabia. Some parallels can be drawn but UAE is very different from Saudi in many respects

[Iamherebecause]

Don't they know it's Friday by can't remember, my copy's at home and I'm at work. Designed more for business folk but useful nevertheless.

[veiledsentiments]

One that comes to mind about a British family's experience with having an Emirati student living in their home and then getting to know his family in the Emirates is "Mother Without a Mask" by Patricia Holton - available on Amazon.

The title refers to the fact that with traditional families in the UAE, the women put on a mask (called a burqa there) at marriage and wear it for life. So the young student had his traditional mother at home and his 'mother without a mask' in Britain.

If I were near my bookshelves, I have a couple more whose titles escape me.

VS

[007]

1. Culture Shock! United Arab Emirates:A Guide to Customs and Etiquette , by Jack Smart (not available!)

�This book should be the compulsory complement to the plane ticket to Dubai and to United Arab Emirates. There are a lot of things to know and to discover having the first cultural contact with those places and that population. Madam Crocetti has been able to concentrate an experience of living into few pages. Madam Crocetti gently introduce the occasional tourist and the becomer resident to the Emiratis culture and particularly to the Emiratis way of life. This guide is not only useful to avoid blunders very easy to do !, as I can state personally, but to find the proper way to live also and above all. Are you considering to spend an holiday at the Dubai beaches ? Are You going to be assigned to Dubai or Jebel Ali branch office ? First of all read this very nice, very sensitive "carnet" and then ... find your way to the people and to this country.� Dr. Ezio Lucenti

2. Arabian Sands, by Wilfred Thesiger
Imagine a timeless Bedouin classic about life in the Dubai dessert - this is the book, by the late Thesiger. Read it now before the film gets out. Ralph Fiennes is rumoured to be playing Thesiger.

3. The 7 bad habits of English teachers in UAE, by King Cobra 007, 2009 (in process).

[Stephen Jones]

Arabian Sands is fabulous. It is still relevant because you see where things have come from.

Next time you are going bananas because the administration has not processed your visa just remember Thiesenger's statement "Patience is the greatest virtue in the desert." Rocking the boat, or doing things impetuously, could have disastrous results, whilst procrastination would lead to little harm.

[Elie Night]

Gees, Louise. I tried to read Mother Without a Mask and wished the publishers had kept their money and integrity by refusing to waste paper. I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to do more than smooth out the wrinkles on the kandoorahs of the boys she was fawning over. There's another 'UAE' book written by a so called reporter trying to smuggle a herb home for his deathbed dad. Not to be cruel, but it would've been better if his dad had heard the death knell before the bloody book was written. That's it! I am keeping away from the 'local interest' section of the bookstore.

[bje]

[Elie Night]

I hated it. It was rubbish. Here is someone who liked it - http://www.dancingisis.com/articles3.html I couldn't even be bothered to find out why she liked it.

J. Kisseih (Croydon, United Kingdom), however, didn't like it. Go to Amazon.co.uk and you will see she said :

A mildly interesting read, 30 May 2003
By J. Kisseih (Croydon, United Kingdom)


I am afraid to say I did not end up finishing this book - it was just too samey all the way through. It was a day to day account of her life with the Arab family and there generally just wasn't really anything stimulating enough to hold one's interest, apart from an Arab wedding. I suppose if you have never read anything about this culture before you might find it mildly interesting.

I comment:

I had only just arrived in this country and I tried to read it to give me an insight into the culture. Hmm, I soon went out and intentionally poked my self in the eye with a date palm leaf (from a frond - or is the whole thing called a frond?) Maybe I need a book on the botany of the UAE. [/url]

[bje]

[Elie Night]

But poking one's eye out is better than being hit by a speeding truck carrying boulders to reclaim land.

[Bin Shafted]

I would recommend a thorough reading of the complete works of Franz Kafka in order to familiarise yourself with kind of bureaucracy, red tape and sheer frustration you will face in every day life in UAE!

[mishmumkin]

[veiledsentiments]

[Mark100]