"Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/anna...s-too-whingey/

A fairly short article, but what do you think?

I reckon there's an element of truth especially in respect of those who expect the UAE to be just like the UK and complain that the supermarkets aren't the same as Tesco. That said, times change and you aren't a better exxpat because you're roughing it.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I think why bother going to work overseas if you expect it to be just like home. I like (OK maybe to strong a word) the differences, it's partly why I came out here. OK the main driver was cold hard cash but.......

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

You see the same whinging in most other expat destinations . Dubai has more expats in a more varied field which brings in more varied types of people.

The trouble with a percentage of expats in Dubai is that they think that Dubai life is the norm in the Gulf and when some of them have to move to another Gulf destination they fail miserably .

Can't see why people get parochial about Gulf cities . There's only a different depth of veneer in these places and everyone is faced with the same kind of crap day in and day out .

We all leave eventually ;)

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Its not a new phenomenom, nor restricted to the Gulf. I have found that, generally, Brits are pretty poor at accepting the differences, and Americans the worst (their pioneer spirit seems to have completely withered and died in the space of a hundred years or so).

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

On a somewhat serious note, changes that American settlers adapted to were usually enviromental, almost never social. The social customs were brought with them and imposed where needed. Of course some mingling did occur mostly in the southwest.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

What expats are truly roughing it?

If not finding my favourite brand of peas in Tescos is roughing it then I am roughing it.
But otherwise even in off the track locations I have always had a very high standard of living, comparable to Europe in most cases but not trying to recreate it in my host country.
The only ones truly roughing it are O&G or civils guys in very remote locations, but living standards there also have risen dramatically.

edit to say “accept and embrace what’s available” I like this quote in the article

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

some are, some aren't

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Hmm. I really don't know how to deal with this. 30 years ago most people didn't have a clue where Dubai was. Now, it appears to be a victim of its own hype.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Really? (Not a sarcastic "really"). I'd have thought that with the great mix of nationalities that populated the States, there'd have been a lot of different social norms mixed together, or was it the case that national groups stuck together? Where's the social anthropologist when you need one?

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

When you look back at General Custer and the like, they seemed to have a fairly strict assimilation policy into white society.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Things move on granddad :p

*cranks handle on model T ford and drives off*

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I'm not soft....... as long as I get my weekly mani-pedi at the salon, life is bearable.......

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

The way I look at it is that I wouldn't go to some of places that I've put guys.

Take one chap...mega bucks salary, working in the arse end of Yemen. Rocket attacks on the project the day he landed so they wouldn't transfer him (because of road blocks etc) until it was a bit safer. He sat and chilled in the Hilton until it was safe to move to site. Still did it.

That's mental.

Dubai is not a hard life, but it's definitely not somewhere that you can always feel free to do whatever you want (legal or illegal).

The thing I reckon is that I'm 3500 miles from home, my mates, my sisters, my mummy, my nieces and nephews etc. and ever farther from my old man. That blows, but Dubai itsself makes it more than tolerable.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Compared to living in Saudi Arabia, Sakhalin, Lagos (& being pregnant there!), and Indonesian Borneo, living in Oman is a dream, and Dubai is just another world. Anyone who thinks Dubai is "hard", is "soft".

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I spent four very happy years in Oman. Going to Qatar after Oman was like regressing twenty years into the old hardship posting era.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Sakhalin? That's where my all-time favourite Biggles story was set ('Biggles Buries The Hatchet').

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

That's the problem though.

You think you're a better expat because you've been dragge to shitholes around the world.

I just pity you.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I don't think being dragged round shitholes makes you a better expat, but it does make you more appreciative when you end up in one of the better berths!:)

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

As a nipper, I started in Lagos. Life has been on the up ever since, though the belly laughs and family yore have decreased.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

To clarify, when I refered to American settlers I was talking about those heading west away from the Eastern seaboard. That culture was fairly well dominated by early english settlers and expats from England. Heading west the only people they encountered for the most part were the occaisional French outpost and Native Americans. Neither did much to change the American/colonial structure. Assimilation, for immigrants was for the most part the norm in the US until recent times.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I am wondering what being a 'better expat' entails. I hadn't realised there was a scale of expatness.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I don't disagree but my experience is that different groups in the US often mix far less than in places like the UK.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I think some expats who have been to hardship postings think they deserve more respect than those who have been somewhere fairly tame like Dubai.

These same expats often forget the world has moved on and that a lot of places have developed...I for one would rather be living with running water, bogs that flush and a/c. If some see that as being soft, so be it.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

As minority groups become larger and more culturally threatening to the dominant group their ability and desire to mix becomes less. As their numbers grow they can form sustainable societies (i.e. shops, religious groups, sports, cultural events etc) built around their 'home' cultural without the need to find substitutes within the cultural of other groups. In the US as 'non-white' populations have grown (isn't the population or at least birth rate not now higher among 'non-whites' than 'whites') there has been less interaction, whereas in the UK, generally, the immigrant populations haven't grown to such as scale and in such densities (with some exceptions), hence segregation has been less.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I'm soft as shit then.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

**** off - where did I say I was "better"? And **** off with the pity as well Mr-oooh-I-would-send-someone-to-Yemen-for-my-own-financial-gain.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Quite :D

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

That's not being soft. But being all "expatwoman" oooh the maid doesnt dust properly, pork is soooo expensive, customer service is shite, oh the driving is terrible darling.... is.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I worked in Uttoxeter once. Now that is a shithole and makes Doha look like a thriving metropolis.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Hell's bells! Who'd you piss off?:D

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Has anyone on here ever been to Cumbernauld?

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Lord only knows, the longest 2 week secondment of my life. One pub where you either got a f@ck or a fight followed by the one Curry House. Truly grim.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I know a rude limerick about a girl from Uttoxeter.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

oh god... yes. went out with a girl from there for a while. it literally always rains in Cumbernauld.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Sounds like Maidstone

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I did that too and Folkestone. Come to think of it, Folkestone is the worst place I have visited.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

**** off.
It was mutually beneficial. He got paid a shit tonne. I got good bonus. He didn't have to say yes....
**** off
( just joining in with the **** off's by the way )

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

Same here..and I ended up living there for a while...I still get the pleasure of visiting there regularly even now. It kinda reminds me of Basra. The locals are not exactly hostile, but you just don't know.

Saying that, the town centre is a whole lot better than what it was 10 years ago.

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

I see your Cumbernauld and I raise you Coatbridge....

Re: "Are Dubai's British expats too soft?"
 

The C-word........