a controversial issue

I am sitting here watching a BBC debate on immigration in the UK and it has got me thinking. A representative for the BNP is arguing about Britains "indigneous" people ,its immigrants, and their right to gain citizenship. The reaction of the audience has been that of outrage towards Mr. Nick Griffin's comments throughout the show. He wants the British government to pull up the ladder on immigration into the country.It's a view from the far right .

Switch now to a conversation I had this week with an Arab national , whose three children were born in Canada , carry a Canadian passport, but reside in the UAE. Low and behold, said lady is pregnant again and is now seeking a new country to deliver her new born baby in . She asked me to ask a family member in the know , whether or not she could pop over to Ireland ( as it is so much closer than Canada ) to give birth .

So, I obliged and did a bit of research for her. It turns out , that after a "free for all " on Irish immigration , which saw any Irish Born Children ( IBCs) getting automatic citizenship, the Irish laws on immigration have tightened up. It is no longer possible to hop off a plane at 8 months pregnant , stay for a month or two, never to return, but have a child who automatically gets an Irish passport.

Am I being too harsh in my thinking when I think that the idea of somebody getting nationality for no other reason other than simply being born in a country, is a bit off ? Is it really that easy to do it?Would the "citizen" be liable to pay tax in their adult life? And if the Irish government have managed to put a stop to it , are Canadian and American governments really allowing it ? How does it benefit them? If you are going to live in a country, contribute to its economy, learn a little about its culture and identify at least some aspect of your persona with being Irish , then fine . Would I think of this in a different light if I came from a country that didn't have the most desirable passport in the world? ( Not saying for a second that Ireland has the most desirable passport , but it ain't the worst by any stretch of the imagination )

What amazed me was that some people don't seem to realise what a contentious issue this is with certain nations. They have no qualms about openly seeking nothing but a piece of paper - without being willing to do anything for it !If you want to live in a country - thats a different story. But popping out a baby and running back home is a whole other issue. If a country is not good enough for you to spend more than a month in , then why should that country issue you with a passport? If neither parents have a substantial tie to a country - have no intention of anything but gleaning the benefits of the passport , then should it be allowed?

Maybe someone can help me see this from an angle I haven't thought of yet ...Is a sense of Arab identity less important than future opportunities and easier travel?I understand that this move is generally to improve opportunities for their offspring - but is that a good enough reason? Will the passport holder pledge loyalty to its host country in years to come?
HE agrees with the notion of going elsewhere for a week or two for the sake of a passport. But it just doesn't sit right with me . I know it is common place in this region for those who can afford it . Is it right for people to accept the protection and benefits of another countries passport when they haven't ever resided there? Or does all that just not matter- as it is just a piece of paper - albeit an important one?

Sleazy come, Sleazy go

Why the hell am I blogging? I clearly should be writing for the Times - they don't seem to fussy about who they hire !

My LOL moments from this article are numerous !

This is Mr. Liddle's take on an , until recently , unspoken quid pro quo :

" ....You can swan around in your flash cars and hang out at the malls, just as if you were in Maidstone or Cottbus or Pretoria. You can dress like you were at a stag-party pub crawl in Prague, or like an infidel whore on the make , and we'll grit out teeth and smoke our hubba-bubba pipes and look the other way .You can even have that other stuff you seem to like so much, the relentless, enervating fornicating, the stuff Allah really dislikes; we will turn a blind eye to the legion upon legion of addled post-Soviet whores in your horrible Brit-style pubs, nightclubs and wine bars, the cheap babes from the ’stans. Just keep the money pouring in, please: keep building those gargantuan hotels and facilitating those loans for us."

Any relevant point he may have had has been sliced up by his snarky syle . I think I may return to this article at a later date to disect it a little . But for now , fellow Dubai resisdents - do enjoy !!

Game over...?

There are two main reasons for silence on this blog. The first is that things are going swimmingly, bills paid, stomachs full, minds at ease . Therefore no willingness to record it in any form , lest I tempt faith , stick out the proverbial tongue at my good fortune and gloat. That is just asking for trouble.

Its important to note that the above reason for blogging silence rarely occurs. I haven’t posted since some time in May , because , well, read my last entry - if that wasn’t a smug “ ooh I love my job and all is well” then I don’t know what is ! So, in true and time tested accuracy , things started to hit the fan shortly thereafter. While strife can lead to busy blogging , sometimes there is so much going wrong - that to write it all down isn’t really an option ! And there you have reason number 2.

Having lived here for 4 years, I can safely say that I am not a better person for it . I have rage issues ( please scroll down and take your pick from any number of posts). I have joined an entire population of people suffering from a combination of wanderlust, greed and despair. The golden days of Dubai are numbered. It turned out that those who bleated “ if you don’t like it , then leave” were right after all ! I should have left 3 years ago , when I had not yet completed my transformation in a racist , bigoted , self-pitying and fully fledged rat - race participant.

As someone who initially had a very strong sense of their own identity , I have turned , within one lifetime, into a third culture child. Someone who moves along with the ebb and flow of life , but never quite manages to get a sense of stability .

What does happen to the burnt out souls of Dubai? Our numbers have dwindled in the last 8 months, many have been forced to return to their home countries, heads down and pride dented. Will our compatriots welcome us home , and let us pick up where we left off? Or have we destined ourselves to being urban nomads for the rest of our days , straddling cultures , nationalities and loyalties?

nine months and counting ...

I could've cooked up a baby in that time ! Who knew PRO's could be so utterly USELESS! Is this the universe telling me to just GO HOME? I think I may have beaten the all time record to wait for a visa to be processed! Still nothing ! Can anyone beat this time frame?

Dubizzle

I heard about this ad on Dubizzle and decided to check it out. This guy is offering a two bedroom in Arabian Ranches for 60,000 - I think it is to take over his lease.

I really wish it was a witty hoax , but I have a horrible feeling that it isnt.

Here is a little excerpt:

"And before you ask. Yes, this is a real rental ad. This is not a bait and switch nor lost leader nor an agent. You email me, I call you, you look at house, you like house, you take. No, 6 cheques won't work, no, I can't negotiate, no I won't meet you on Friday morning at 7am as Thirstday nights are punishing for me.

What do you think? Applicants with moving trucks and advice on living in cars welcome to apply. Palmera is groovy. Oh, if you need appliances you can buy them from me as well. They are a year old and in great condition. The oven has been used once to cook a dysfunctional family Christmas dinner."


It would be nice if someone even offered this guy a job on the merit of his funny writing style - not a nice situation to be in !

Sensitive Souls

7 days has a story about an Austrailian guy who just last week was deported for giving someone the middle finger in a traffic situation.

I know this one is an obvious choice for she who has well documented road rage issues - but I couldn't resist! Deportation? Seriously , this man has come to the country to work as a nurse - is on the way home from a 13 hour shift and has to encounter a boy racer with an attitude problem. There was a time where I would have said " there isnt a jury in the world who would convict you ! " AAh but I forget where I am , and need to realise that things are not so black and white!

I'm all for respecting the laws of a country etc etc, but isn't this one going a little too far ? 24 days in jail and deportation- for a raised middle finger. What exactly is it about the ego of those who feel the need to report a hand gesture to the police? Get over it - be offended by all means - but why involve the law - are you THAT bitter ? Stop driving like an a-hole and you might not get flipped so often !

I understand that the other driver must have had rage issues of his own - what with following the nurse around a roundabout 8 times, driving up his rear and so on, but if he was in that much of a rush , how come he had the time to stalk someone all the way home?

I would love to see attrocious driving being targeted with the same venom as the " meany hand gestures!"
I can't imagine how poop scared this guy was as he was followed home by this maniac , knowing that he probably was in big trouble , despite the fact that HE wasn't the one endangering lives. I am so delighted that my drive to work is approximately 3 minutes long and if I so wish I don't have to go near a main road for weeks on end! I frequently wonder if I would have made it through another month of commuting here without finally losing the rag and doing something stupid!

The logic of this escapes me : driver proceeds like a maniac , weaving dangerously between cars , causing a near accident , other driver raises his middle finger - Who should take offence? Well , I must be out of touch with reality because last time I checked - I could brush off a rude gesture , but a broken collar bone, couple of cracked ribs and a wrecked car ( at best ) were not the kind of thing I could dust myself off from so easily!

What is this place coming to? And to the victim , Darren O'Mullane, take your hard working rear end back to Austrailia - this country doesn't deserve you or people like you !

18 month old declared illegal

The law will be implemented equally . Without exceptions it seems. The story is here.

Put a ring on it ....

If you like it then you’d better put a ring on it ….

What IS going on people?? I know we are approaching wedding season , but Dubai seems to be going ga- ga!

I know for a fact , that if I was living in Ireland , nobody would dare ask me why I wasn’t married - or insinuate that I am not in a serious relationship without a rock on my left ring finger - but clearly - these rules do not hold in Dubai !

Obviously , culture and religious restraints dictate that people do not live together, but lets face it , when you are from a western background , you generally don’t get married without living with your partner beforehand.
( Please step in and correct me , but I’m taking a cross section of my Irish girlfriends between 25 and 35 )

I’m seeing a spate of engagements here that I think , if the happy couples were on home turf , would not be happening . ( A bit like who you end up being friends with here, you may not typically be friends with them if you were back home - but when in Rome and all that )

On discussing this further with friend’s based in UAE , I have discovered a startling trend in women beginning in their late 20’s! It begins with eyeing every potential man as a husband. What religion is he? Where will we live ? Would my parents like him? And all these are coming up in the first month or two of a relationship! It’s gone beyond a joke !

It seems that , by some form of osmosis , be it through the media , or merely by social circumstances, girls of a certain age slowly but surely begin to regard themselves as less than whole unless they are married , or at least have a wedding in the wings !

The woman begins to notice the genuine pity in the eyes of colleagues , and can draw more than one parallel between herself and Bridget Jones . She may own more than one cat , which doesn’t help with the image of being single and content
( sorry )


So by some twisted , self fulfilling prophecy , scores of previously independent minded women are now dedicating themselves to meeting “ Mr. Right”! Once they have him, they start the mental check list . Perhaps she has given herself one year to an engagement , she might stretch the engagement out to another year or so , under the guise of “ saving up for the wedding “ , and then , oh yes, there’s the kiddies to think of .

Boys , beware of the new breed of woman out there, she is under pressure, time isn’t on her side if she is to birth Sprog #1 before her ovaries have begun to shrivel .
It is no longer considered rude to quiz a couple about the possibility of impending nuptials. Bridezilla’s are being spawned across Dubai by the societies unforgiving attitude towards the single woman.

Sooooo , I’ve compiled my own top ten reasons not to get married yet !!

10. You have signed no contract , so , like an absent minded employer who didn’t finalize the hiring process, you can leave this and get a new gig at any point should you wish to do so !

9. Your child bearing hips are still called curvaceous - and thankfully , don’t have a child perched on them yet.

8. You can still see the absurdity of women shortening their husbands name to “dh” ( dear husband ) in conversation - a sad reference to far too much time spent on a certain internet forum .

7. Your employers still pay you a housing allowance. Because we all know that when someone gets married here, the offers become less generous and you have to get your husband to sign his consent for you to do run of the mill tasks like getting a drivers license. Who knew the age of consent was actually only 18 till the day you got hitched !


6. No obligation to shave legs/moustache/ any other decidedly unfeminine ( yet perfectly apparent in all women ) features

5. COMPLETE CONTROL OF THE TV REMOTE

4. You get to look at married couples with families and notice that , although you are just as exhausted and burnt out as they are, you fatigue is from the excess of partying and not getting up at 5am to do the school run and all that comes with it!

3. You can STILL sell your car , quit your job and work in a bar in Goa/ Antibes/Galway/ or somewhere equally exotic if the fancy takes you .

2. Snot , poo, wee and dribble are ( hopefully ) the stuff of distant , distant nightmares. Unless of course you are a teacher, in which case , suck it up - and think of how strong your immune system now is after years of exposure !

1. Rest assured that , despite Bridget Jones description of “ smug marrieds “ , your married friends will , at some point , lament to you the loss of their single days of freedom - in much the same way we tell teenagers that the teens are the most carefree years of their lives. And you get to respond piously “ Yeah it’s fab, can you take your kid back now , I promised the girls I’d go meet them for brunch “

perfect comment

I saw this letter in today's 7days newsaper. The thing about living here is , there is always something to get up your nose, but because you know that there are plenty of people in a far worse situation than you - you have to preface your complaining with lots of "don't get me wrong" 's and " I realise that .. " and so on and so forth .
I think that the author of this letter was trying to do just that , however I dont think he counted on the wise ass comment that soon followed. priceless! :)

Sign of things to come?

THAT couple on the beach ....This story perhaps best describes the kind of issues that the UAE has been facing of late. While not all of us choose to relieve ourselves of our sexual frustrations on a beach after a boozy champagne lunch , I think it can be safely said this extreme example of lack of respect for local sensitivities typifies the struggles of a cultural melting pot in a sensitive region.But lets be frank here , if you decided to have a drunken romp on a public beach - ignored a caution from a police officer , then proceeded to hurl abuse and a high heeled shoe at him when he returned to find you have ignored his warning , then no matter what country in the world you are in - you will find yourself with a slap on the wrists. Add now to this the fact that you are in a region of the world where this behaviour is unthinkable .Enough has been said about the Ex-pat Dubai resident and her new husband, but leaving this case aside - can we expect now that the powers that be will finally be forced to employ a stricter set of rules and regulations for its expat residents. The amount of media coverage this case got ( including a wonderful little write up in the uk sun newspaper ) means that this is an issue that is rapidly gaining momentum and bringing with it negative publicity to Dubai as a tourist destination , not to mention highlighting to Emiratis their country has been colonized once more , only this time , they invited it into their society!There is a hedonistic quality to Dubai socializing - one which has been played out privately for many years - and the authorities have been very accommodating to people on the provisions that they discreetly lived their lives. If you want to consume alcohol - go through the correct procedures and consume it in hotels or at home . Be respectful of the culture and its residents and you cant go wrong.However , this event may finally be the straw that breaks the proverbial camels back. Have Western expats finally overstepped the mark in the ultimate insult to a culture - no longer respecting the boundaries imposed by their hosts? What will the fallout of what is becoming worryingly frequent behaviour be ?For years now, I have encountered the “if you don’t like it , leave !” response to my general grumblings about UAE . It’s a line that usually angers me , with its head in the sand attitude, nonchalance, and undying conviction that THIS system is the right way ! I maintain this view with issues concerning competence, organization , traffic…etc etc , but to IF you feel that the decency laws ruling this country will stretch your ability to keep it all in check - then for once, I will preach this right back at you “ if you don’t like it - leave “. Because trust me , its not worth it !With a local population that is feeling the effects of being a minority in their own land , and generations of perpetual immigrants living here but not calling this home - what does the future hold for the UAE? And exactly who will be paying the price for the massive changes occurring here on a weekly basis?