What's Wrong With The United Arab Emirates?
By Robin Henry

When I showed up below 3 years back, I had never ever lived outside Australia. I had no real suggestion of Arab culture or Islam and had a naeve expectation that a country with incomprehensible wide range would have "acquired off" all its issues. I currently realise that as opposed to my expectations, money develops its very own troubles below as in other places.

I had actually already experienced the problems of welfare dependency among indigenous Australians that obtain "sit-down cash" literally so they can remain on their black butts and do nothing. Why should I have anticipated it to be different here?

The reality is, considering that uncovering vast oil riches a few years back, the majority of the 830,000 strange Emiratis have spoiled themselves to the stage that they have actually now ended up being largely moribund. With a surplus of cash, they have been able to hire others to do not just their grunt work, however everything else. This has actually caused a greatly youngish populace indifferent to work, undereducated, spoiled by accessibility to big amounts of food (greatly high fat, high sugar), high powered motor vehicles, whizz-bang electronics, and consequently, high rates of death via way of life diseases (diabetes mellitus has reached epidemic proportions) and web traffic incidents.

The UAE Federal government, much to its credit, is attempting to resolve a number of these ills. For example, it has an Emiratisation program that aims to obtain Emiratis into works. This is gone along with by complimentary education at all levels, but is greatly a failure here for the very same factor that the Native Recruitment and Advancement Programs are a failure in Australia: putting people in jobs because they are a certain race or citizenship, doesn't provide a source of capable, determined, work-ready individuals. While the government and semi-government firms hire a handful (9%), the private sector (at simply 1%) prevents Emiratis like the torment since they are fairly merely, an extremely poor return on investment. When you can hire an Indian employee that will work 12 hours daily, six days each week and give his heart and soul to the task, why would certainly you desire a work-shy Emirati?

Furthermore, several of the Islamic spiritual and cultural practices influence every little thing from road safety to the variety of females in the workforce. A few vehicle drivers have actually informed me below that wearing a safety belt is an affront to Allah since it's comparable to saying you have no belief that he will secure you. Given the evidence of a road fatality rate that is amongst the highest, if not the greatest on the planet, it's hard to justify that kind of reasoning, especially when most of the deceased are muslims.

Although the way of life here is idyllic for well-educated, Western expatriates, there are numerous thousands of exploited Oriental and Indian employees for which life have to be hell. They are the house maids, chauffeurs, construction employees and labourers that function incredibly lengthy hours for hardly any pay and that are commonly dealt with poorly. With a handful of white Westerners, they compose the vast bulk of the 90% expatriate population.

So, we expatriates keep the institutions, power homes, water supplies, interactions, health centers, and every little thing else running. This has the potential to be a big problem for example, if a militant Islamic group decided to bomb a couple of locations where expatriates gather. Many expatriates would certainly run away the country and it would literally grind to a stop.

Similar to most societies that have been overtaken by other cultures supposedly more advanced, preserving an equilibrium in between the most awful of the West and the most effective of the Arab/Islamic culture is significantly more difficult. Levels of hooking, drugs use, alcohol, and criminal offense in such "progressive" cities as Dubai are gradually deteriorating the values of Islam and transforming the society, possibly for the most awful.

The frenzy of construction in Dubai has actually transformed it into an unfriendly mass of ever-changing, convoluted and traffic packed roads that serpent with the desert dirt to this or that shopping center. Eventually it may become a destination of selection for the well heeled, but today it is an over-populated, contaminated city in which thousands of hundreds of over-priced residences are being created for who recognizes whom.

I have actually appreciated my remain right here profoundly and value the possibility to experience this intriguing culture of mainly pleasant and welcoming people. I do nevertheless, have a wonderful problem that the nation is heading in the wrong instructions. And once in awhile I question how far better off all of us would be if some of this vast riches was rerouted to the depriving millions close by as opposed to being squandered on yet one more shopping center or world-first high tower.

Copyright 2008 Robin Henry

Robin Henry is an educator, human resources professional and Internet business owner that writes articles regarding a wide range of topics. He comes from Alice Springs in Central Australia but is currently momentarily staying at Al Ain, near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

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