Blue Cat

can't be bothered to quote.

Ok I meet women all the time, new women to Dubai. Some embrace it as a challenge and they enjoy the new times ahead of the and the cultural issues. The hire cars and off they go! they know there not here forever so just get on with. Packages etc are not really discussed. The moans are over - you can't get this, you can't get that, the traffic, the heat, the indians look at me, what's the point in doing that??? they won't even give it a try.

Packages 20 years ago were better cos this place was a hardship posting (allegedly!). So now what your trying to say Gareth is that the packages aren't as good as they were and that why we get this whingeing mentality?? I beg to differ. I know plenty of people who have arrived in the last few years and are living in Jumeirah Islands and the Ranches in nice big villas - all paid for. The older ex pats are still in their original villas and are paying no more than 110 a year - my Dad for example - 3 bed penthouse apartment with all facilities - 75k, why cos he has been there 11 years. The new folks in town are getting good packages cos they have to get them or they will be homeless. The companies employing them arent the older established ones but the ones who thought they could make a quick buck out here. It will all collapse - and if they didn't have their asian labourforces it will collapse a hell of a lot quicker. Even most of the call centres in the Uk are ran in India?? (not sure how true that is as I am not there).


FACT (dying to say it too! )

W10

Sorry - the new folks in town aren't getting good packages.

As mentioned. It is official in the UAE salary survey that only 4% of the pop earn more than Dh20,000 a month.

We're just spoiled that's all

Blue Cat

I don't understand it then, how come can they all afford to live on the Springs and the Meadows when the long timers can't???? I even got quite a few new ones who are on the Palm, renting.

jvr20

but i don't think all the blame for that can go onto the expats themselves. It's not as if there are a great many 'locals' to get to know anyway. In any other country, where the local population itself works for a living and contributes to the economy and the community, you would expect the expats to mix (to use the currently favoured term in the UK, to 'integrate').

But in the 4 months I have been here, I have spoken to only a handful of locals, and none in my office, so it stands to reason that expats will hang out with expats... or to be more specific, white expats with white expats, fair-skinned Arab expats with fair-skinned Arab expats etc.

W10

Because they spend a large amount of their salary on their rent. Far more than they would in the UK.

Also...

because as I said - we are the spoiled ones. So just because 2,000 in the Springs are earning good money. Doesn't mean the other 50,000 newcomers are.

Blue Cat

but is that their salary or their benefits as well??? the normal housing allowance I hear bandied about these days is 150 to 180 a year.

Blue Cat

I can honestly put my hand on my heart and say I only know of TWO people who pay towards their rent. Either the rest of them are lying??? I honestly don't know what to think!

TA5

Dubai is still a hardship post for different reasons than 10 years ago. Now it is a hardship post because its such a pain in the ass to live there.

I've said it before and i'll get flamed for it, but the only people i ever met that really loved dubai and stood up for it at any sort of criticism were people who obviously didn't/couldn't/can't make it in the first world yet live a moderately decent life in dubai. Generally their anger towards the criticism seems to come from jealousy of people who can leave dubai and live in their home country just as comfortably as they lived in dubai...

W10

No it doesn't. Sorry. I know and have socialised with Omanis, Kuwaitis, Emiratis, Sudanese arabs, Lebanese, Palestinians, Iraqis, Syrians, Indians, Africans etc etc...am I unusual??

Would you only hang out with white, English people in London? Nonsense. It's a self-perpetuating myth brought about by ignorance.

It can be difficult to get to know locals, but seriously. How much effort have you made?

jvr20

But surely if it's truly a case of supply/demand (and this place does seem to outrank even America as true capitalist market), they must *by definition* be getting good packages, because if they weren't good enough then they wouldn't be here in the first place?

It's very easy to say 'It's fine for the labourers. They're here by choice and clearly they're doing better for themselves than they would be at home, they're sending all their money home that's why they're poor etc.'

The parallel should surely be 'It's fine for the newer expats. They're here by choice and clearly there's something here to bring them here (be it money, fear culture of being mugged in London, the sunshine, the chance to drive SUVs, can afford a maid, etc etc).

One group clearly has the privelege of whingeing and the other doesn't.

W10

Depends on your profession. I don't know ANYONE who gets their rent paid.

Blue Cat

you are probably right there !!!

W10

Demand - for cheaper Asian labour
Supply - plenty
Ergo - lower salary packages in general

Blue Cat

but maybe the get bigger basics. when we came out here it wasn't ran like that, you got a basic and all the add ons to avoid payer gratuity. Now you are given 40k and told to go and do with it what you want. It is then up to them to decide how much they want to waste on rent. Our package is still the old fashioned one of a breakdown of benefits.

Madam Medusa

we do...and i know loads of others who do...

MM, xx