Trip Back Home

I am regretful that I have not written on this blog for awhile but there are good reasons for that which I will detail later.

I recently travelled back to the U.S. in June for three weeks. I went back to the place where I lived and worked for the last ten years, St. George, Utah. I haven't been there since I initially left for Abu Dhabi in August, 2008 so it was a much anticipated trip. Most of my good friends and colleagues live there so it was a time

to catch up and renew bonds. I also own property and a house there so I consider it home.

The trip over was long but I am getting used to that. I arrived in JFK late in the afternoon and spent the night at a hotel near the airport. I took a Delta flight out the next day to Salt lake City. I arrived in St. George late on a Saturday night and after a few drinks at my hosts' house I promptly fell asleep.

The next day when I woke up, I had the strangest sense that I had never left. Everything was instantly so comfortable and familiar. My life in Abu Dhabi that I had left just two days before seemed like a distant memory. It was like a dream-Dorothy waking up at the end of the "Wizard of Oz". I never expected that. Also, I had a wicked case of jet lag that persisted for FOUR damn days. Extreme fatigue and mental dullness ruled those days caused by the 10 hour time zone difference.

I finally snapped out of it and me and some of the boys went to Lake Powell in Arizona for a couple of days of wakeboarding and beer drinking. I haven't had that much fun in a long time! Lake Powell is a unique place where one will see scenery like no other in the world. The initial spacecraft crash scene in the first "Planet of the Apes" movie was filmed there due to the other-worldly looks of the place. See the album.

Two days later, I went to Las Vegas to satisfy my urge to blow a wad of money and get into as much of an un-Muslim environment as possible with all the drinking, gambling and scantily clad women. I even stayed at the Hooter's Hotel and Casino, one of my favorites. I didn't do too bad at the tables and even remembered the basic rules of the games. I ended up losing only $100 after about 4 hours of play, that's a win in my book! A bonus was I met up with CC and her parental units, M&L at the casino. It was real good seeing them! M and I shot the shit at the bar while CC and L molested the slot machines.

The next day I flew to Tucson, Arizona with my St. George hosts to see another friend and ex-coworker. This guy has a Pepperidge Farm route in Tucson so we were awash in cookies and (non-Pepperidge Farm) tequila. His wife cooks the best breakfast burritos West of the Mississippi! Pass the hot sauce. A planned trip to a local bar to shoot pool was cancelled due to the participants' inclination to sit on the patio and veg-out with some cold frosties in the beautiful Southern Arizona desert.

The time to leave came all too soon. I woke up the day of my departure in dread of the 26 or so hours I would be "on the road" back to Abu Dhabi. CK drove me to the airport and it was a painful goodbye as I felt as if I was leaving my home all over again. When I arrived in Abu Dhabi after the 12+ hour flight, one of my checked bags was missing so I spent the next hour filling out forms and waiting for the employees to check the bag room. I would rather have been undergoing a root canal at that point as I was tired and just wanted to go to bed. The missing bag was delivered intact two days later.

I didn't have to report to work for a few days after my arrival back in Abu Dhabi so I had some time to decompress. I had the dreaded jet-lag again but it was combined with a severe case of acute depression. I didn't leave the apartment for four days. I had no energy and a dreadful mental attitude. I think it had to do with being in a comfortable and familiar situation for weeks and then suddenly thrust back into reality in the foreign country where I live and work. It was like leaving "home" all over again. That's why I didn't post to this blog, I needed some time to retreat to my cave. I am OK now but it was devastating for a while.

To all my buds, thanks for the good times---I miss you!

GOOD NEWS:

I went to the Spinney's Supermarket yesterday and THE PORK ROOM IS OPEN!!!!!!

Bacon and ham is cooling in my refrigerator right now.

Photo Album

Word of Advice Part 2

I tried to touch on the economic factors at work here in the U.A.E. as well as the rest of the world in my Part 1. Now I will explain how certain peculuarities of life here combine with these factors to make things a little more difficult for the expat trying to make a living here.

Most companies in the Emirates who hire employees from abroad have what is called "expat packages". These include free housing (or housing allowances), school tuition for dependents, free medical insurance, transportation and of course the negotiated salary. Another perk is the Settling Allowance. For me it was a lump sum 5 figure amount that was deposited into my local bank account a few days after reporting to work. The purpose of this is to ease your transition into a foreign country and to give a new employee the means to set up house. That means appliances and furniture to start.

The Settling Allowance is usually not a gift. In my case if I left my job after the first year I would owe 60% of the allowance back to the company. If I left after two years I would owe 30% and if I stayed for three years I would owe nothing. So it is kind of a loan or deferred salary. And a very good reason to stick-it-out.

Another thing is that when you open a bank account here, you are literally bombarded with credit card and personal loan offers that have obscenely high limits. Combine this with the presence of every high-end retailer of automobiles, fashions, home decor, gourmet restaurants, rock concerts and every other angle of "the good life"and the temptation factor is high.

So you have a newcomer with a tax-free salary, free or subsidised housing, massive credit limits, $10,000+ cash in the bank and a job that seems it will last forever. You can see the temptation to buy that Porsche he or she always wanted and furnish the villa with all the best stuff within the first few months of moving to the Emirates. The banks are very helpful in arranging that. I got a 5 year loan, no money down, for a brand new car after being employed for only a month.

Fast forward six months to a year in our new employee example. The global economy tanks and the new expat is told he or she is being made redundant (fired) and in addition to losing the residence visa, the employee will have 30 days to find another job or be deported. Let's say the expat owes $70,000 in auto and personal loans in addition to the portion of the settling allowance to the company (may be waived in involuntary dismissal).  Also if the employee signed a lease-rent is usually paid in advance for 6 to 12 months-he or she would lose that too, at least another $50.000. 

The U.A.E. is unlike Western countries in that are no bankrupcy laws allowing an individual protection from creditors for a while to work things out. You go to prison, simple as that. So you see the danger of indulging yourself in the many temptations here until you are sure you are on stable ground.

In a nutshell, you get fired (or get tired), have to leave, and you owe money, the employer tells the bank, the bank tells the government, the government tells Immigrations and you get stopped from leaving the airport and possibly go to jail instead of home. I don't know what happens after that but I am sure it is not pleasant.

My advice to anyone here already or thinking about relocating here for employment is to be as frugal as possible during your first year. Don't get credit cards or take out personal loans from local banks as so many that I have seen do. It's easy money but one could end up paying dearly for it. 

Keep your debt back in your home country where there are laws to protect you. Keep as much as you can of your settling allowance in savings. Don't do as I did and buy a brand new car with a 5 year loan commitment. Instead get a cheap car on a month-to-month lease. Accept free company housing if offered, don't sign a long-term lease on your own.

The whole idea is to keep your local U.A.E. debt to a minimum until you are sure that things are going to work out well for you.  This is especially true for families. If you get too much underwater money-wise and things turn sour, you will have a problem.

This is a good place to live if you know the rules and toe the line. Long term is the way to look at it to save money in the Emirates, but that is not always going to happen in today's screwed up economy. You never know what is going to happen in this volatile part of the world, either. Keep it light, you'll do alright!

A Word of Advice, Part 1

Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates as a whole are very wealthy venues that are usually regarded as somewhat immune to the Global Financial Crisis. As a matter of fact, this area is relatively secure considering the fate of many other countries. But because of the interconnectivity of money and finance across the world there is some pain being felt here.

 

Dubai, being bereft of natural resources but fortunate in location and has a natural port, cast its lot with international trade, finance, real estate and tourism. We all know what has happened to those lately.

 

Abu Dhabi boasts a large percentage of the world's petroleum resources and has counted on that income for decades but the recent economic disasters in other countries have depressed demand for oil and the price per barrel dropped from $150 to $50 in a matter of months.

 

Two sister cities, one rich but plain and the other poor and glamorous only 40 miles apart are undergoing a "sea change" for very different reasons. It is rumored that Abu Dhabi is pouring billions into Dubai to keep it afloat and prevent a total meltdown of the banks and financial markets there. Abu Dhabi remains relatively healthy.

 

 

All of this has an effect on expat jobs in the region. You probably have read about the hundreds of abandoned cars in the Dubai airport parking lots from fired expats leaving in droves. Some of it is true and some is journalistic license. The real estate, financial and construction industries have been hurt lately to be sure due to the slowdown of outside investment capital, but there are still rare opportunities to be had.

 

This region will recover faster than others. I think we are seeing a temporary knee-jerk reaction with jobs and salaries declining across the board. That can go on for only so long until the brain-drain is realized, recruiting becomes more difficult and hiring begins again. There is a multitude of projects to be finished and infrastructure to be managed here and talented people will be needed to accomplish this. There is too much at stake. Expat expertise will be in demand here for decades to come.

 

In the meantime, things will be stagnant for 2009 and good jobs will be hard to find here in the Emirates as well as most other places. But the U.A.E. has a lot of money derived from desirable natural resources and not from taxing its citizens or residents. That makes all the difference.

 

In the next post I will discuss the financial mistakes that most new expats make (me included) and how to avoid them especially in these uncertain times. Employment here may seem like a good alternative to what is available in your home country, but there are some serious pitfalls to be aware of which I will cover in part 2.

 

 

Take 10

These guys at my apartment complex are taking a well-earned break from the triple-digit noonday temperatures and the unrelenting sun. They were back at work shovelling gravel a few minutes later.

A Bad Day at the Office

While testing for an oil leak, Airbus Industries' engineers ran this A340-500, destined for delivery to Etihad Airways in a few days, up to takeoff power in a testing area. The parking brake was overcome by the thrust (no chocks) and the aircraft hurtled toward the blast fence with devastating results. The Airbus engineer at the controls released the parking brake when the aircraft started moving but inexplicably did not apply maximum braking pressure via the foot pedals.

You can see the skid marks from the nosewheel as the mechanic deflected it to the maximum 72 degree angle in an attempt to avoid the obstruction. Amazingly, none of the three occupants suffered serious injuries.

The number one and two engines were crushed on impact as seen in the photo (left wing) but the number three and four continued to run. The outboard number four engine was extingushed with water and foam but the number three engine ran for several hours until the fuel was exhausted.

I realize this old news in some circles, but this is the first photo I have seen from above. There is word going around that this accident was caused by Etihad personnel. Nothing is further from the truth. The person in charge and at the controls was a senior Airbus test engineer. Cockpit tapes reveal that it was the Etihad representative that alerted the Airbus guy that the plane was starting to move. An observer in the cockpit jumpseat yanked the power levers back to Idle Detent seconds before impact, too late.

If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going!

Global Swine Flu Scare Claims First U.A.E Victim

------ME!

Today I went on one of my Beer, Bacon and Tobacco (BBT) runs to Spinney's near the Corniche in town. If you recall, Spinneys is a supermarket catering to Western expats and coveniently has a liquor store in their building with a separate entrance. The supermarket is also one of the few pork outlets in the Emirate. There is a separate room at the back of the market separated from the rest of the sales floor by sliding glass doors. Inside you will find all of Oscar Meyers' finest processed porcine delights being eagerly snapped-up by British and Filipino expat customers. 

Down to my last 4 strips of bacon and totally out of ham slices for my sandwiches, I was going to stock up.  Just as I rounded the cheese display on the way to the Pork Room, I saw something that deflated my usually high spirits.  The pork room was dark and there were signs all over the locked doors saying it was closed indefinately. I was puzzled by this as it had never been closed before and it has to be a huge profit center for the store and it wasn't a Muslim holiday that I knew of. Oh well, I went about my business and figured it was just another "one of those things" that have to be dealt with in living over here.

It wasn't until driving back to the apartment and listening a BBC World News report about swine flu on the car radio that it hit me that this is the reason the Pork Room was closed! This is really bad news as the local culture of my host country consider pork as unclean and is already skittish about pork sales here. This new development may give them cause to permanently suspend pork sales in a "I told you so" stance. Looks like it's gonna be a long time between porkchops for me and I am here to tell you that turkey bacon substitutes suck!

I certainly hope a Beer Flu never materializes which would cause the local government to rethink suds availability in this land. Then I would be in real trouble! On second thought, I think I have had Beer Flu on more than a few occasions upon awakening in the morning. It usually went away after a few hours though.

On another note, it was 44C (111F) degrees here today so Summer has definately arrived and it's not even May yet. The Jeep has removable plastic panels for the roof which are unfortunately not insulated underneath. It is uncomfortable to put your hand on the underside of the roof for more than a few seconds while in the car and this compromises the A/C efficiency. At a stop light or in slow traffic you can feel the heat radiating from the roof onto your head and shoulders. I will plan a project to remedy that soon with some foam rubber and velcro, redneck style! 

As for the swine flu, avoid large crowds, wash your hands frequently and drink copius amount of adult beverages.

Yas Island Formula One Complex

The Etihad Airways-Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix is scheduled for October 30-November 1, 2009 at this complex.  I am no construction expert but as this photo taken from my balcony April 22nd shows, there seems to be a lot of work to get done in the next 6 months.

I am sure the complex will somehow get completed in time with enough manpower and money thrown at it. When finished,  it should be one hell of a place!  The buildings in the photo with the rounded roofs are the two parts of the hotel. The racetrack will run between the two hotel wings.

For the rest of the year, the complex will be a Ferrari theme park among other things.

I will periodically provide construction update photos until the race date.

See: Yas Island Marina Complex