Living in the middle east?
A lot of interesting but reasonably self centred replies here. Like I can wander around pissed at 0200 and feel safe etc, I can have my car washed without being stolen, even a bit about money and taxes.
Now I do agree that these are all true, but consider this.
A couple of days ago we got a message from our school that one of our former classmates had died. This little girl had walked out into the backyard of her new house to water her new garden and put her had on an electric pump and was electrocuted.
Now accidents happens all over the world, I know. But does the country you are now living in have rules regarding tradesmen. Here in the middle east there are none. These guys are plucked off the flight from Dhaka or Peshawar, given a pair of overalls a screw driver and pair of pliers and told they are electricians (or plumbers or carpenters or whatever is needed). This little girls death is probably a result of that. Apparently the pump had not been earthed.
If you were the parents off this little girl, all the money good schools, good weather etc are not going to change the fact that you made the biggest mistake of your life coming to the middle east.
This is the reality of living here. It appears civilised on the surface, but it is only a facade, and unfortunately you just dont know when you are going to scratch the surface, and the reality under neath is going to bite you and bite you hard.
DMF