Gonna be 18 F tonight, you temperature weasel.
I’m glad you’re feeling better about your situation, Paul in Saudi. I guess you just needed to blow off steam. Have you taken advantage of any cultural things to do in Saudi? Have you gone to any private Saudi homes for dinner?
It is only a slight exageration to say there are no cultutal things to do here.
No theatre, no cinema, our one (private) museum here in Jeddah recently burned down. We have an annual Folkloric Festival in the Capital. I took the train there one year (while I was living in Eastern Province) I go there on Family Day. The Green Truth failed to mention that.
I have been in a Saudi’s house. Once. That is once more than many eapats who have been here for twenty years. I have never spoken a single word to a Saudi woman.
In truth I am not especially interested in Arabic culture. Sorry, but that is the truth. Nonetheless if you wanted to learn more about the Arabs and things Arabic I presume you would do better living in Egypt for example.
Thanks for the bump! I missed your question earlier. Bear in mind I’m in the United Arab Emirates - just over the border from Saudi, but a world away in terms of emancipation, equality and freedom.
Things here are fine for me, especially being a non-Muslim western expat female. No problems of discrimination anywhere really. Sometimes you have to use the “ladies’ queue” at goverment offices, which may or may not be a disadvantage, depending on queue lengths (eg there’s usually only one ladies’ counter open, but if there are hardly any women around, it’s quicker than all the men’s).
Expats have only just been allowed to buy property here, and only in certain developments, but I don’t think there is any problem buying as a woman than as a man.
For expat muslim women things can occasionally be more difficult, even though legally they should be treated on an equal basis, culturally they are sometimes not. They will be far more in trouble for certain offences - eg if they are caught having sex outside marriage, etc. Even if the woman is basically a non-practising Muslim born and bred in Canada, but has a muslim surname, she is still seen very much as a full muslim here. No alcohol license, etc.
Previously, I don’t think women could sponsor children or husbands, but I think that has now changed, if you earn enough, you have the same sponsorship rights as men. Traditionally most expat wives have been non-working wives on their husband’s visa, the so-called “Jumeirah Janes” - (vacuous bleached blonde European blots-on-the-face-of-womankind that spend all their time charging around in Pajeros, having coffee, buying candles and vases, and whining about their hairdressers while various low-paid servants bring up the children and run their homes).
No travel restrictions or problems at all here in the UAE, as a woman. The only difference I noticed was at Jordan airport, where I went through a ladies’ (curtained) section for body metal detection - female officers ran the detection batons over my body, men got men, etc. Really no biggie!
There are a few quirks - apparently male masseurs aren’t allowed to give full body massages to female customers. That said, in the privacy of people’s homes, it goes on all the time. By these massages I am talking about semi-therapeutic stuff (aromatherapy, etc) - I doubt there would be a problem with actual physiotherapy done by a medical practitioner in a hospital, etc.
Men and women really are (officially) equal here, by decree of Sheikh Zayed. It must be said, that given the man is 87, not in great health, he cannot read or write, he spent most of his life as a simple Bedouin, he really is an outstandingly enlightened, forward-looking, brilliant leader. People bitch about the lack of democratic goverments in this part of the world, but when you look at Zayed, you need to compare Ghandi, Mandela, etc. It is a true privilege to have lived here under his rule.
For local women, the issue is cultural inequality - where legally they can do whatever they like, but culturally they still need permission. It’s an uneasy and frustrating balance for them, which is gradually, if not rapidly, tipping in favour of the women. The UAE desperately wants its citizens in the workforce, therefore it’s increasingly hard for husbands and fathers to hold ambitious and talented women back. That said, many try. You guys would be horrified at the attitudes of many males vox-popped in the newspapers here over women/work type issues.
I work in Yemen where the push to “Yemenize” is very strong. The issue is that the education system here isn’t as strong as the push is. So, you take people who don’t have the education necessary to do a job and pretty much have to train them from scratch.
So, you’d think that shouldn’t be to hard it would just take a while? Well, there are many things that we in the West take for granted that are taught in our education systems that do not, for the most part, exist here. The main one is critical thinking skills, or the ability to analyze a problem logically and come to a rational solution. I can train my guys on certain aspects of their job and they will do that well. But, as soon as something new comes up that they haven’t seen before, they can’t seem to take their existing knowledge base and extrapolate it to the new situation and come up with a solution for the problem. It is frustrating as hell at times. And it takes a long, long time. I’ve been here two years now and I’m just starting to see an improvement in some of my guys. Most of them have worked at the facility for 6 or more years to get to this level. The people who work for me are university educated before they can apply for jobs in my department. Imagine what the issues are for the electricians and the mechanics who have to train people who don’t have any post-secondary education?
An example: One of the electricians was working on a circuit that powered on of the buildings out here. He is a senior operator. He was switching the building from one circuit to another. He figured that if he threw the switch fast enough he would keep all the computers up and running in the building and could avoid powering everything down. Needless to say he wasn’t faster than electricity. He knew all he needed to know to realize why it wouldn’t work, he just didn’t put two and two together.
In addition to Uzi’s post - many Gulfies just aren’t willing to do menial jobs for low pay. They’ve been “pocketmoney populations” so long (ie living on such generous state handouts) that they have no need or desire to go and work as a taxi driver for 1300dh (~US$350) a month, or be a domestic servant for 800dh (~US$210) a month, or a road labourer for 300dh a month (~US$80).
It’s only when and if the oily dollars - and the handouts - dry up that many have to think seriously about getting employment.
That’s not to say there aren’t extremely motivated, ambitious, hardworking people here. It’s just that few of them would culturally be able to work in a menial position, it just wouldn’t be acceptable to their friends and family. And added to that there are a hell of a lot of stupid, lazy fkers, like in any society (but the welfare safety net is much cosier here).
Education is improving in leaps and bounds, but it’s still not the same as in more developed economies.
UnuMondo, my Dear Fiviregacho, (spelled phonetically since I don’t have an Esperanto font) I hope I remembered that correctly:D
You quote hadith like the most obnoxious wahhabbi.
I tend to discount any Hadith which is in direct contradiction to the Qur’an, which declares Jews and Christians to be a people protected, even(or especially) from each other.
We tend to believe that the Quran is protected by Allah, while the Hadiths are collected by man. An interesting note is that the Shi’a discount a large percentage of the Hadiths that the Sunni consider reliable. Those related by Abu Huraira, in particular, are considered suspicious.
There is a saying going around among some Islamic Studies friends of mine. “I can find a Hadith to support any position…If not, I’ll write one for you.” I suspect this was particularly true in the first hundred years after Muhammad’s death.
Heretically yours,
Martin
Had to cut it short last night as I might have been late for dinner at the G&P.
In addition to the education problem there is the parachuting issue. Half the people who work for us have been placed there by others with no input from the people who will employ them. Half my department is made up of people who I would not have hired if I had done the interviewing. They don’t have the aptitude, or the incentive, to do the job properly. All they have is a connection in the government. Yet you can’t fire them, nor can you put them in a corner and say don’t touch anything, because you may not get your work visa renewed. So the other half of the team ends up doing 75% of the work and most of the difficult things.
Yet another issue: You have a guy who you promote because of his ability. He has guys he supervises that are far junior to him based upon any number of factors. Will they listen to him? With an expat around sure they will, if they have less status in society then they will also, but if they have more status in society? Maybe. The thing is you never know.