I have reposted this because, without intending to, it was written in a way that directs comments towards
sonoma when in fact only a specific paragraph was. I directed at him/her parts of the post that were not intended for him/her.
As
sonoma wishes, and as he/she has every right to request, I am happy to apologise for that. Everyone has the right only to be accredited with the things they actually say. The rest is now, I hope, directed quite clearly towards other comments that were made to me by other posters on this thread.
Sorry, sonoma!
=========================================================
You know what? I have just deleted my last post because arguing with people in the 'hate everything, all is death' crowd is a losing battle.
However, I'll close (well, for now, I always enjoy a losing battle) with one last try.
I take offence to being patronised by people for my choices when they decide to take what I write out of proportion:
Sonoma, I assume that seeing as you are so against materialism and sunshine that you are both vitamin D deficient and dressed in whatever you can find in Carrefour? Do you drive an unmaterialistic '98 Fiesta, as I did back home? I doubt it. In your home country, do you also accuse people of being materialistic if they drive a nice car and have nice stuff that they worked hard for? Or does that only apply here?
How self righteous for someone to tell me to 'think outside the box' - do the same yourself then!
Sonoma, I look forward to your posts in the future when you are back home worrying about your pension, your mortgage, the kids' school fees, complaining that taxes are going up again, that your company is looking to downsize and that your name is in the red zone etcetc.
As for the numerous other people who have taken it upon themselves solely to rip my initial post to pieces, without taking the time to give a similarly in-depth reasoning for the 'don't come out here' vote:
I have never been employed by RYR by the way, as some people seem to think...I mentioned in one of the posts I made (that would have drawn you to that conclusion), I was in a heavily unionised, profitable airline (that doesn't need or ask for handouts from local authorities) before I came here.
How often do the people who take such deep offence to the way of life in Dubai give to the labourer's charities? How many one-way tickets home have you bought for those labourers who have been stuck out here after their employers have gone bust and been put in jail (opens the way for the slavery rant again)?
AH, 'culture and the countryside'?! I assume, then, that back at home you went to the opera all the time then? Or the ballet? I, like most people, do not spend a lot of time doing cultural things on my days off much as I didn't in Europe, as with everyone I know (but what do I know? My friends and I are materialistic heathens who drive enormous cars, driving them at great speed, throwing small animals out of the window at the labourers and going to brunch every Friday while the negative crowd drive their modest, cheap car to the labour camp to distribute food, drinks, sanitary supplies, copies of the Quran whose views they respect, and of course cash to the poor unfortunates who need them most).
When I go travelling I get my fill of 'culture' if I want to. In fact, with both of us working here (imagine that! The disgrace that having moved out here my wife doesn't sit in Costa all day drinking coffee and shopping for shoes, when I was promised that she would have her own man to waft a palm leaf to keep her cool before I joined!) I can see a damn sight more culture than I ever would have back in my old crowd. Countryside? I can get to Europe for green grass in 6 hours and to India, if I so wish, in 4. I can also get into the mountains in the northern UAE and Oman in less time. If you can't get over the fact that there aren't any trees and deer then I can't really help you, unless you were led to believe that the great jungle wilds of Dubai were close by when you joined.
Even more so if you enjoy being in the company of other like-minded shallow materialists
Maybe you need to find some new friends if you can't find anyone who has any depth or strength of character. In fact, it must be terrible for you, because seeing as everyone here is a smug, gold-digging (shallow materialists) racist* except for you, you must not actually have any friends.
*
...were happy to be compliant in the face of some ludicrous affronts to the dignity and self-respect of anyone not of local origin
But of course, if it's perfect in your home countries, you won't care about making such vacuous friends here in this hell hole because back home, everyone is equal and free to do everything, which is probably why crime rates are through the roof and why, when you eventually head home, all the nice stuff you bought over here (or will you have given that all to the needy?) has been dragged through a window by someone who wants to sell it for a gramme of crack. If you want to look at stats as a friendly reminder, knock yourself out:
Police.uk
FBI ? Uniform Crime Reporting
And to pre-empt the argument that crime stats aren't released here, here's what America says about crime in, specifically, Dubai:
https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentRe...aspx?cid=15084
Then maybe have a look at:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-ad...y-and-security
and perhaps compare it to the advice issued for other countries, the US included.
And as for
Some were honest enough to admit it, the others went to great lengths to persuade themselves how much better off they were for having taken the leap.
, AH,
Perhaps when you banged on about how awful it was here, the people who disagreed ACTUALLY liked it here, did that ever occur to you, or does everybody have to think the same way, as your namesake was so eager to encourage?
I'd say that when you came out here, you decided to bring your own set of blinkers, as everyone does...and I don't have a Cayenne, by the way...
Everyone has blinkers everywhere they go, be it at home or abroad. Don't hurl abuse at people who haven't, in fact, said life here is perfect at any point (example for those who disagree please), but who mention the rarely-mentioned positives about being here. And the person who is is, ironically, on the short haul fleet...