Posted on: 09-04-07 20:40:14
Quote:
Originally posted by puttoo
Saudi is a different place all together. Forget about the dress, they dont allow women to move around with out a male member (husband or father) of family.
I lived there briefly and left at the first opportunity. Such a difficult life for women.
Barely, they could find options to work.
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The cowards never started,
The weak died on the way,
Only the strong arrived.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yK1i9cLAMM
Hello Timon.......since your friend has already decided, my answer maybe superflous. But still, here are my thoughts:
It all really depends on what your long term plans are, and where you want to be at a certain stage in your life. I was in the UAE, and since about one month, me and wife and daughter are in Brampton, in a basement. The snow and the freezing winds do not allow us to explore much of Canada. Even in April. We do rent a car over the weekends, but most of our time is spent in the basement flat. The wife is rather disappointed with Canada; she liked the glittering shopping malls a lot better; she liked the flat where we lived; she liked the groceries delivered to her doorstep by the Bangladeshi shopkeeper, and the weekends when we roamed all over the UAE in our BMW, visiting friends, barbecue parties, and visiting home (INdia or Pakistan) for a whole month after five months of work. The envious relatives back home was also an ego boost. And I liked those very things too. But I had to contend with something else too; something that lurked in the shadows, and that I knew could easily bring down our house of a pack of cards with a locals one forcefully exhaled breath; as expatriates, we were reminded daily of how much rights we had, even after spending over ten years in the UAE: namely, non whatsoever. The Sheikh was our god, and for the expatriate, any local was the Shiekh. Every so often, you would get a demonstration of this as you witnessed a 'local' yakking away in Arabic at some poor expat (Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi) in anger, and the expat never to be seen again in the environs.
Here in Canada, the thought of looking for a job, and attending interviews is rather demeaning for us. We have put in a lot, we feel, and are experienced enough, so I am looking for other means of income......property, investments, etc. The trade off is there; if we succeed here, then it would still have been worth it, although even back home these days (India/Pakistan) are not bad places to be in. As someone once said to me, and at that time I was a lot younger and far less experienced, the place you ultimately choose must not be just the place where you want to live the rest of your life, but whether you would also like to die there..........now thats a thought.....
Great thoughts, gaulam..thanks for your post
T
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"The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be"
Quote:
Originally posted by Gaulam
As someone once said to me, and at that time I was a lot younger and far less experienced, the place you ultimately choose must not be just the place where you want to live the rest of your life, but whether you would also like to die there..........now thats a thought.....
Great thoughts.Hats off to your comments..........
Indeed a wonderful and well expressive post .
For me the reasons for staying in the Middle East and now in Canada , are a part of the craving to experience the world ~ I find it difficult to shake off the smell and feel of India . However comparing the two (Dxb & Can) Dubai isa trifle closer to India wrt that feeling as the cultures were kind of similar and Indians (Indianness) were aplenty . Here you have to adopt and adapt to a different culture , but the plus point is that people are largely polite , more civilised and helping.
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Fido.
Hello Fido......its this yearning for experience that kills us. As a writer said: we all at times, confront our lives, and its like an empty valley; and this vision propels us onwards towards experience again, desperate to feel upon our vanishing bodies the blows (of experience) that would prove our 'being'.....
As for civilized behaviour, I would agree with you; it is very much there in Canada; its in the air.......
