UAE is just like here. You must understand that UAE is competing for Hong Kong's position as the gateway to the East. It is not a oil producing nation, relying on trade and commerce and their port which incidently is the second largest and second most automated in the world. UAE cannot afford to piss off the West. It is a very neutral country. The Gulf War and the Iran Iraq war just passed us by even though we were a stones throw from Iran. UAE's foreign policy is pretty balanced and neutral. Politically, its like the Switzerland of the Arab World.
Living there was great. You wouldn't know you were living in an Arab country. Except for the rules and regulations and the tedious process of doing business when it has to be done. You know how wishy washy and fickle minded they are.
They have pockets of nationalities which are segregated. Different nationalities rarely have to interact if they don't want to. And mostly they don't.
I'm not the bikini kind, or the 'jogging-with-a-sports-bra" kind, so i never had a problem on that front. I don't even think the police minds...for a lot of Russian immegrants took showers on the beaches...but you attract a lot of attention, thats all. I saw a russian girl bathing on a beach. She was surrounded by at least 30 males, all looking at her. She didn't seem to mind <g>. Other than that, I thought they were extremely respectful of women. HappyDood took me along to pay the phone bills coz being a woman, I was always asked to jump the line <g>. Not only that, if I stood on the sidewalk waiting to cross the road, anywhere, even when no pedestrian crossing was in sight, the cars would come to a screeching halt to let me pass. The respect given was pretty heady. I spent the best years of my career there, and rose in my career much more rapidly than I did anywhere else in the world. I find they are very forthright about what you can and cannot acheieve on the career front. Now I'm not much fussed up about titles, so it didn't bother me much, but i can imagine some may be pissed off by the implied prejudice. Me, i felt more prejudiced and harmed in Australia than I ever did in UAE.
Its funny. I was the youngest in our management team, barely 28 when I joined them. A foreigner. The only WOMAN. All things that should be going against me. But when I walked into the management meetings, the entire management team stood up in respect to welcome the woman. Everytime. It was so embarrassing for me, for a lot of our top brass, the Directors, the CEO etc, were from the Royal Family. SO I made it a point to reach the meeting rooms much ahead of time. Thats how much women are generally respected in the region. Of course there are exceptions....
There are some aspects of living in UAE which i hated. But thats true of all places I guess. All in all, it was a great place to live in. Cost of Living has shot up tremendously, but I believe UAE has since changed for the better still. And the UAE Dirham is pegged to dollar, so thats not a bad place to be in. |
