Job Discussion Forums

[Iamherebecause]

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100513/NATIONAL/705129837/1010

Of course as it's a newspaper article there are errors, e.g. the person from HCT who thinks nowhere else in the UAE offers vocational courses (excuse me? IAT?) but anyone thinking of applying for a job here would be advised to read the article.

[BrownSauce]

Of course, HCT will still be able to find the money to fund the coming 'Festival of Stinkers' shindig, flying in academic has-beens on first class tickets and putting them up at the best hotels (Emirates Palace, of course) for a week. But they can't find the necessary money to pay their staff properly or comply with their own pay agreements.

Stinkers indeed!

PS: BTW, I see that the online article has attracted a lot of comments from teaching staff (HCT?) from Dubai and Fujairah. Clearly there is a LOT of anger at this decision to shaft HCT employees, and it's not gonna go away easily.

[republocrat]

Reports emanating from ADMC suggest that the Director there (commonly known as 'SiJo') is none too happy about his kind words to the staff being mentioned in The National. Front-line staff can expect an e-mail from him soon, instructing all faculty members to only address the press upon approval of the relevant Supervisor. Yes, of course.....

The unfortunate truth is that the Director there is Gordon Brown-like in his grasp of reality. He struts about mentioning to all and sundry that ADMC is "a happy ship", when he has NO idea of the depth of feeling about this issue (merit pay) and several others. Presumably his underlings, the Deans and Supervisors, just tell him what he wants to hear; because he has no other way of knowing what people think about him, or his lack of social and communication skills (refer to the e-mail for that!).

And how would he? He never comes to sit in the teachers' room for 10 or 15 minutes, he always takes lunch in the cafeteria with his management cronies, and the only time he bothers to speak to the mere teachers is when he holds his 'focus group' meetings once a year.

Incidentally, at one of these meetings a few weeks back he dropped the bombshell that class sizes will increase to 25 next year. Again, no reason or warning, no apology, was given for this - it just sort of 'fell out', and the humble faculty members sat there in silence, wondering if they were listening to the words of an insensitive prat or a complete goon. Or perhaps even an accomplished shyster-man?

I leave it up to the rest of my colleagues to try and divine which it is.....

[secretsquirrel]

The 'gagging order' has been issued! Just yesterday all ADMC staff and faculty received a message from their respective supervisors reminding them of the need to consider the college's "Code of Ethics", which is one of their conditions of employment in the UAE.

In short, the pompous windbag of a director has sent instructions that staff and faculty at ADMC "should only speak to representatives of the Media in the presence of HCT/ADMC Media and Marketing Department staff ... in order to ensure that any comments made to the Media are approved by our organization." What a surprise, eh?!

It really disappoints me when an institute of learning tries to monitor and control what its own faculty and staff think and say. The fact that teachers are not allowed to express their opinions, that the college's 'Thought Police' believe that they have the right to veto every staff member's private feelings, is not the right attitude for an educational institute to take, but was clearly predictable in the circumstances.

In fact, the mere idea that 'approved comments' should only be released into the public domain after vetting is one that would be familiar to those HCT employees who had the misfortune to be born in authoritarian and totalitarian states. Is that what we have here now in the UAE? Or is just the inevitable result of a discredited Director trying hard to prevent further examples of his incredible 'lack of social and communication skills' reaching a wider audience?!

[bje]

[MrScaramanga]

Everybody knows there is no freedom of speech, or press, in the Gulf. Nothing shocking there at all, given the locale
MrS

[Sheikh N Bake]

However, there was certainly no press gag when the local Arab-language press speculated that the Dubai Women's faculty were swarming with Jews. And no gag to the little princess students when they sent emails to some US faculty "accusing" them of being Jews.

[veiledsentiments]

[MrScaramanga]

And everybody knows there is no freedom of speech, or press in America either.
MrS

[johnslat]

Dear MrScaramanga,

"And everybody knows there is no freedom of speech, or press in America either."

Really? Gee - I've never read that or seen it on YV . OOOHHHH, NOW I get it.

It may be relative - having lived about 1/3 of my 67 years abroad, I'd say the "freedom of speech or press in America" looks very good in comparison to what's available in a lot of other countries.

But that's just my opinion, not what everybody knows.

Regards,
John

[bje]

[veiledsentiments]

[MrScaramanga]

Oh, go ahead. VS, pile it on!
I still vividly remember how the press was "reminded" of their patriotic duties post 9/11 and asked not to criticize good ole Dubbya.
It was also viewed as anti-American to voice anti-Iraq war opinions...
What I'm saying is that real freedom of speech and press do not exist anywhere that I know of.
I was also being a little facetious in my comment; shoulda used a smilie... darn!
MrS

[veiledsentiments]

[Sheikh N Bake]

MrS

There's a difference between what Dubya and Dick Cheney can expel from their stupid mouths and what the Constitution and courts have guaranteed us. I published excoriating anti-Bush/Cheney columns throughout and nobody could come after me even if they wanted to. And so did some better-established columnists. That's been established long ago. I guess you're not familiar with journalism law, but we are protected against vengeful public figures by constitutional laws that make it very difficult for them to win a libel suit. It was two Washington Post reporters who brought down Richard Nixon. Do you think he and his henchmen didn't try to silence the paper? Oh, they did. Did they not try to silence the NY Times vis-a0vis the Pentagon Papers? Oh, they did, and failed, as usual. In terms of Dubya's war, it was simply a matter of journalists not doing their jobs.

Contrast to a place like Malaysia which pretends to be democracy--I call it Malaysian demock-racy--with a supposedly British-inspired Constitution. People there get locked up indefinitely as a national threat for criticising the government. It's lese-majeste there for anything that disagrees with the government or any gov't official. THAT is a lack of press freedom, not the US.