Saudi

My son works in the UAE, and says that Saudi is at the bottom of the list for ex-pats - women being considered about the same status as camels.

I thought about going there last year but it does sound pretty bad - if you can get to Dubai, that's the much more relaxed option and the "religious police" don't have such power as in Saudi.

 

Worked in the middle east quite a bit. Only did short term stuff in Saudi and it was quite a few years ago.

Work was mainly in Jeddah and surrounding refineries.

It was like looking at the 22nd Century construction wise with the morals and and manners of the 12th.

Women are treated like sheeeeite and I don't mean the muslim sect. Locals will just stroll to the head of a queue in front of you and treat you like you don't exist. The locals do sod all, the work is either ex-pats, with Filipinos and Indians supplying the labour. Some of the management may be locals but they don't do too much.

All in all unless I was getting film star money I'd think long and hard. If I was a woman I wouldn't even think about it.

Just what I seen may not be representative of the whole place but I never heard an engineer in my company have a good word for the place

John

 

Shitehole, Don't go there! .

 

I've spent a total of around a year and a half in Saudi. Last time I was there was 1999, so I'm a bit out of date. I've spent time in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dhahran and others. I found the locals to be fine. I had a chance to talk to some of the old boys in my poor Arabic and they generally have bad feelings towards the West as they see their culture being eroded. I totally sympathise with this and saw a nice unspoilt country being ruined.
The problem is decades of Western influence has had a big, negative effect. Women are treated poorly, and make sure you aren't out in the market on a Friday or you'll be rounded up to watch the weeks hand chopping event ;-) What is different is small children running around the local market late at night in total safety, un-accompanied! Not what you would see in the UK or elsewhere!
The climate is something else, we used to go out to our SUV a minimum of 15 minutes before we left the compound. This was not only to check it over, but to fire it up and get the aircon going. At 0700 it was too hot to get into, way worse than midday on a UK summers day. Daytime temps hit mid 40's, but you'll soon acclimatise.
For the right money I'd go back, but it'd have to be worth it. When I came back for the last time in '99 I took 9 months off work, but I'm not sure what the going rate for that type of contract would be now?

 

I was offered an opportunity in Dubai about 6 months ago. My primary reason for immediately dismissing it is the attitude towards women, I simply cannot respect any country or culture who treats people differently based on race or sex.

 

Like Muslims ?

 

Grey area I think...

People choose religion, so if they choose to follow a religion which discriminates that's their choice. I don't like the oppression of women in Islam (and don't respect that side of Islam) but no one has to be a Muslim, so by accepting Islam they accept its hierarchy, if they don't they can choose not to be Muslim (I appreciate this is often easier said than done)

People do not choose to be black, or Asian or female, so when they are facing discrimination there is nothing they can humanly do to escape oppression.

Westernised Islam tends to be a lot more equal, one of my colleagues is an Islamic woman, and by following westernised Islam she does not face any sort of persecution or inequity.

 

Another problem with Saudi is (from the impression our company presentation gave at any rate) I could be putting myself at risk of prosecution if I were to go out running in compression shorts / top as they are form fitting and could be construed as 'obscene'

Sorry, but I hate running in baggy kit...

 

I have to confess, that has gone right over my head

 

Ahhhhhhhh!

 

Saudi + Female = Nope, no thanks.

Oman, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain - sure. Saudi though - just no. She'd be a third rate citizen at best.

 

In the company i work for the HR dept have a question that everyone going to work there needs to deal with. (We have a subsidary there.)
" If you, as a manager have to motivate or discipline a Saudi employee that may earn 100 times more than you and does not feel like doing what you ask of him today. How will you proceed."

That tells you all you need to know about the place. The only reason we are there is for the obvious huge cash return it produces.

Personally i cant wait for the day their oil runs out and we can leave them in the desert to do whatever they want. This is already starting by all accounts.

 

Horseracing, Birds of Prey, and score settling

 

When you take paid employment, you are swapping some of your life for money.
If you took a job in Saudi, you'd have to be sure that either it was an interesting way of spending some of your life - for the experience perhaps, or that it provided so much cash that it was worth the waste of a year or so of your life.

Personally, sitting about sweating on a pile of sand with a load of people I have nothing in common with would have to pay me a cricket score before I went there. And it wouldn't be for long. But we are all different.

 

Understand the rules before you go, and if you go obey the rules.

Wild horses wouldn't drag me there.

 

Easy. Bypass them. Find somebody who gives a fuck.

 

The point is john,sorry i may not have made it clear, said employee is the son/cousin/ boyfriend/uncle of someone very influential in the saudi regime, they always are. Your existence there is in their gift and can be removed at any moment.