hawkhead

Let's form a gang...we can call it 'the people who like where they live and won't complain about it too much and if we do then we'll go back home' gang. What do you reckon?!

Ditzy

I'm in!

Do we get a badge??

Blue Cat

if we get a badge then count me in

Ditzy

BC are you sure you want to join this club? I have def seen you say your LL is greedy before........

Blue Cat

he is that but I still aint complaining

Ditzy

But this is my point. WHY is he greedy? Because he is charging market rates for your apartment? Because he is charging you for an extra car parking space? If he didn't charge you for it, then everyone would have two free car parking spaces in a car park which was designed only for one per apartment?

Maybe WE are the greedy ones for expecting to pay under-the-market rates for everything in a (relatively) tax-free and safe environment.

Blue Cat

maybe your right The Arabs were never like this, there has been a definate change in attitude towards the expats who are here. I aint complaining a 2 bed at 85k these days is unheard of. As for the carp park it was built with enough space for 2 cars for every apartment, he just saw that as a way of making a bit more cash out of us. Pissed me off but it aint the end of the world.

Duracell_Bunny

Hmmm, why dont you visit those labour camps and some of the homes where domestic workers are and then tell me there is no slave mentality.

I have spoken to and helped many of those destitute laborers. Those poor souls would love to return back home, after being duped into false promises of salary and conditions. These people just have enough to live on let alone send money back home to families. Just look at the suicide rates alone, god knows how many others go unreported.

Ditzy

Labourers here are employed mostly on contracts from their home countries - it's often nothing to do with the building companies themselves here.

I'm not disputing the conditions they live in must be awful. But have you travelled round rural India and seen the conditions people live in there? At least here people have the chance to get themselves OUT of conditions which are much worse at home.

I'm sure every single labourer here must know someone from their home village etc that has worked here before, I don't think they come here thinking it is a picnic. But the sad reality is that it is a necessary evil for them in order to move upwards in their home countries.

It seems slave-like to us but compared to living conditions at home, where they have nowhere to live, no money and a family to support - at least it gives them a chance.

FYI. I heard once that developers wanted to move to an even cheaper source of labour and HH stopped it as he knew this was the only chance people from these countries would get. Just a rumour.

commander

christ, he's bring in the Irish??

Norm_uk

I know I know...that's what some of the older teenage siblings of my son's friends get paid!

N.

Norm_uk

I was born in Bedfordshire...and there's nothing there to compare with Milton Keynes (sorry, Luton just doesn't do it for me...and Bedford doesn't have a lot going for it either).


N.

Duracell_Bunny

But the sad fact is that they dont move upwards in their home countries, as was the situation 10 years ago.

Like I said earlier, they just manage to get by where they are.

Norm_uk

I can answer the question of is anyone buying now...

One of the largest and oldest property brokers in Dubai is closing three of it's offices, and has already put a complete hold on new recruitment. They are also instigating a stricter policy of firing sales and leasing staff who don't meet their targets...

I know this because my ex works for them and I've heard it from her and their GM.

N.

Norm_uk

We can't even get passports...hardly taking over are we? If all our visas were cancelled tommorow and we were given full bans we'd all go home, most without a word. Do you think immigrants in Europe would go home quietly of they were told they are no longer needed?

We pay extra for our utilities because those are free for nationals.
We pay more for ID card registrations.
We pay far more than the Admin costs of processing a visa.
Our countrymen and women back home pay for the roads, parks, healthcare (which is not free for expats, only nationals) everytime they fill up their car at the pump.

Oh and we come from cultures where it is acceptable to moan about the government...something called freedom of speech.

I make my own money yet in order to buy a car I need a letter from my company...what was that about slave mentality? It's not actual slavery (unless you are one of the poor unfortunates who works on a building site and lives in a labour camp) but the mentality is there...maybe we don't understand because most of us are the "house negroes" of the UAE rather than the field labourers to use the old plantation terms...

N.