TGFKASE

Nonce?? You hiding Gary Glitter somewhere????

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nonce

Think you meant nouse.....

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nouse

Roadking

Nonce: ) What you call your mate just because you're jealous of him for having an attractive 16-year old girlfriend.

That works?

Roadking

Don't even want to go to yer 2nd:

She was self-reliant and had the nose to get the job done.????

Ronnie Biggs

The great weather is a further illusion - 5 months of unbearable heat and humidity is actually shit weather I'm afraid...and there is little respite in the evenings.

TGFKASE

Good point, well put, Ronnie....

commander

I must live in a dream bubble. We have only 1 salary which is not astronomical, hang around with a large circle of friends, none of which have been made redundant, and we drink champagne a lot..

Doom and gloom, yes, for some, but certainly not the majority..

Go to BC's support meeting for a hug.

Ronnie Biggs

It's great being smug yet you never hesitate to put the snidey boot in whenever possible, even at BC and her group who are trying to do something positive. Funny that someone with such a perfect life would be bothered to do that really......

Blue Cat

the proportion of people receiving these contracts is not a tiny percentile of the population by any means. YOu comment about those type of contacts being sustainable is bollocks. Think about it, if you are living here you need x amount of money to live. Whether it is paid as an all bells and whistles package or as a lump sum it works out the same. People need a home, kids need an education, it all has to be paid for. As TGF states he is an asset to his company and he is taken care off, he is no different to alot of posters on this forum. I am hesitating a guess that the majority of the members on BE Middle East receive a 'proper' package which includes housing allowance paid in advance etc. This has always been the way, well it was up until the unprofessional gang of real estate, media types with mickey mouse degrees decided to descend upon the land of all that glitters and try live the high life. They are the ones who screwed the banks for their porsches and inflated lifestyle, not the real back bone of the expat community who live here honestly and are taken care of by their companys.

Blue Cat

Ronnie, the Commander and I good friends in the real world, he is a piss taking Scottish twat who loves to wind folk up, he doesn't have any rose coloured glasses, just the ones that watch out for him and his own. I respect him for that, we are two different people, but two people that meet in the middle and have great mutual respect for each other.

commander

Don't bother justifying my post BC, it was aimed at you and you know its tongue in cheek.

Ronnie, chill out mate FFS. Don't be a dramaqueen

Blue Cat

commander

But I do think that expats who are qualified, with relevent ME experiece and not here on the back of the 'dubai is paved with gold' myth will survive.

What's happening is good. Get all the real estate, construction, finance goons who come here in a managers position from at best a supervisor level at home, back home.

The proper established expats will and do survive. Call it weeding out the weak.

And I was on a champagne brunch at yalumba yesterday with a large group of friends, all who have been here 5+years and are on proper expat deals.None of the conversations were around redundancies or rental prices.

Said it before, this dubai nowadays is an overcrowded, overpriced, underwhelmed dump.

Why people would put themselves in debt to come here is staggering.

Most proper expats would leave in a second if they had to provide their own accomm, car, utilities.

Ffs its not America, OZ, Europe. Its a building site in the desert where all the locals hate you.


All these 'educated' people who take loans here etc are a bit stupid.

Sorry Ronnie if that appears smug, its not meant to be. I may lose my job tomorrow, but at least we have no loans, debts, rental contracts, cars to sell etc.

Oh and I have been made redundant in the UAE before so I certainly don't have a 'perfect' life. I just got off my arse and got another one, not through attending 'support groups' or similar- leave that for housewifes or community do-gooders

Now I respect BC massively, for what she does to help others, even when her own ship was not in order. Its amazing, but I think her dedication was maybe more suited to the dubai of old that she remembers. When there was an expat community. Now its just full of self serving assholes, of which I'm one I guess.

Can anyone honestly say Dubai has an expat 'community'..na didn't think so.

Blue Cat

I agree with you on this you know I do. Dubai of old wouldn't have needed a support group in anyway way or form because the help would have been there, there is little by way of community support here these days you are right.

littlejimmy

This "old expat" versus "new expat" thing can become a bit boring, even if there is probably some truth in it.

I'll hold my hands up now and admit I fall into the latter category, or I did when I came to Dubai in August 2006, and I have to say I learned my lesson the hard way. I was seduced by a recruitment agency who promised me a miracle, got 5 interviews over the phone within a day, got 3 solid offers within a week, and flew out another 2 weeks later.

I did some research (including on here) and despite some doubts about accommodation and schooling, I was given many assurances by the company I joined. These "everything-paid-for" packages just didn't exist any more, they told me, but you'll be fine... It took a few months' of living there to realise what I had let myself and my family in for, and I ended up getting into debt...not a hard thing to do. I was naive and blinkered and let the PR machine take me in. I don't think it's fair to blame all of us "newbie" expats for wanting a slice of the action when it was offered so enticingly. The agencies and employers need to accept some responsibility as well, IMO.

Now I've learned my lesson and I took my medicine. I don't feel smug about it, and I don't feel too ashamed. I got out of Dubai at the right time, and I escaped relatively unharmed compared to some of the messes I've seen and heard about. I'm in Qatar now and wouldn't have come unless I had everything laid on and I don't have to borrow a penny.

commander

Agree Jimmy, the recruitment agencies have a lot to answer for.
Guess we were fortunate to have family in the ME for 15 years so we knew the crack from day 1