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bossman , "From time to time?" You make building your own car seem like making a LEGO model. It's difficult, even if you know your stuff.

Some companies here give you benefits such as medical insurance, school fees and rent fees so pretty much, you can save more here if that's is set up for you.

QC is quite weak here however, I was referring to multinationals such as Adidas, Nike, Samsung, LG. One thing however is that you get cellular devices cheaper in the US.

Let's be honest, cheap or not, there is always going to be some rich folk buying their stuff- so why worry about price? In truth, which govt is really considerate?

There are many things you can do in malls, provided you have a good one! I go with mates normally to MCC and DFC. You can watch a movie, bowl, play snooker, arcade, eat, etc- the possibilities are endless. BTW I actually go to the gym to workout my body, not to chat away and I got to sporting events to compete...

alright back from a two week trip to country x from dubai...

so my next question is how do you compare Dubai vs your country of origin.

I'll start



Dubai

multiculturalism

yet segretation between communities no unified culture


Country X: no multiculturalism at all and segregated communities

USA

unified culture somewhat even though there is unwritten and unspoken segregation

Dubai:

money saving with no taxes

USA : better healthcare for sure

Coutnry X: dichotomy between rich and poor, where rich have all the resources and the poor have almost next to none( and I am not talking about france in Les Miserables)



Dubai: rude people(will take your chairs, not teach their own children manners). Sarcasm not spoken here.

USA: rude and nice people with some whom you can communicate effectively more or less. Sarcasm spoken here quite frequently.

Country X: majority of the people are very nice. Posh communities ripe with backbiting behavior although sarcasm not spoken here.





Dubai: madly expensive schools vs nil public education, no efforts of integration and acquiring fluency in language. Education a flab.

USA: very easily integrated non english speaking kids into public schools where they acquire fluency of languge, not mad expensive schools unless you want to be an upper east sider

Country X: Education superb, schools affordable as well.



Dubai: fashionistas rule, clicks, cliches, name brands all galore

USA: can live a burgeoisie llfe without anyone critcising anyone for lack of fashion(if you do not travel in those circles anyway). Can live an honest life and mind yoru own business as others are minding theirs. Can make like minded friends, dont ahve to rack your brain into figuring out other people's cunningness.

Country X: where the fashionistas are worshpped/adored and living a life of affluence in the backdrop of where majority of the country is living on little or no resources. Where people dont mean what they say and mean what they dont say. Where silence and hidden and unobvious meanings are to be understood. Where people dont respect you for your values and compete with you for money and wordly things( I suppose Dubai falls in this too and so does america if you are in the wrong circles)...



i rest my case..

I am wondering where country 'X' is. I have a short-list of one

Country X- Israel?

Pakistan

BMreformed wrote:Pakistan

That's what I was thinking too.

Jonkers wrote:

BMreformed wrote:Pakistan

That's what I was thinking too.

Great minds think alike.

Yep

Lebanon?

lonelyndubai wrote:so my next question is how do you compare Dubai vs your country of origin.

Nice question. I'll compare my favorite 4 cities where I worked/lived with subjects that are important to me.

General atmosphere

-The Hague. Kind, relaxed atmosphere. Not too much out of the ordinary, people from the The Hague have pretty much both feet on the ground.
-Amsterdam. People tend to be more harsh. Quite some astronauts over there with their head in the clouds.
-Tel Aviv. People are hot blooded, in a very good way, and a very bad way. People can be very warm and open. OTOH they tend to be rude (queue jumping is a popular sport ).
-Dubai. Very comfortable atmosphere, yet not much authenticity. Kind of Vegas (without the casino's of course) of the ME.

Going out

-The Hague. Going out is underdeveloped.
-Amsterdam. Going out can be extroardinary, if you know how to avoid the touristy places.
-Tel Aviv. Top of the bill!
-Dubai. Pretty much ok.

Freedom of expression

-The Hague, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv. Very high
-Dubai. Very low.

Metropolitan atmosphere and interaction of different communities

-The Hague. Not really a metropole, harbors quite some international organisation though. Is blessed with large Hindu community.
-Amsterdam. Multiculti is dead in here. Not really a metropole, donot expect to be able to walk into a restaurant after 9pm on a weekday with an open kitchen.
-Tel Aviv. A super metropole. People from all over the world seem to get along very nice. a real 24/7 city.
-Dubai. A metropolitan touch. A hub site for many people of the world.

Beach

-The Hague, Tel Aviv, Dubai. Yes
-Amsterdam. No

Good footbal club

-The Hague. Not really.
-Amsterdam. Yes, Ajax won the European Cup I and Champions League 4 times.
-Tel Aviv. No, but they have very good basketball team.
-Dubai. No, not very sportive.

Humor of people

-The Hague. They like dry humor. It can crack me up any time.
-Amsterdam. Donot like their humor. Typical Amsterdam is:
Me: Do you know the time?
Amsterdammer: Yes

Me: Can I order?
Amsterdammer: I donot know whether you can.

Argghhh.

-Tel Aviv. Mediocre
-Dubai. Not much humor on the street.

Wheather

-The Hague. Summers can be very nice. Winters are cold.
-Amsterdam. See above.
-Tel Aviv. Most of the year nice whether, but summers are too hot.
-Dubai. Scorching.

Crime/violence

-The Hague. Not really a problem
-Amsterdam. Annoying street crime. Lots of pickpockers, and harassment in the wrong neighborhoods.
-Tel Aviv. The city is pretty safe
-Dubai. A very safe city.

Personal attachment

-The Hague. Very strong attachment. I need this city. It calms me down and gives me a happy feeling.
-Amsterdam. Many memories lie in its streets and places. Love going out there, it is always fun. My heart opens when I am in Amsterdam and strawl around the canals.
-Tel Aviv. After The Hague, the best city I lived in
-Dubai. Dubai gave me a lot of opportunities and learnt a lot of lessons.

I like Dubai because of its shopping opportunities, job opportunities and the most fun and enjoyable places. I love dubai cruises the most.

dhowcruise1 wrote:I like Dubai because of its shopping opportunities, job opportunities and the most fun and enjoyable places. I love dubai cruises the most.

Do you not have a grim safety record sinking Dhows, stowaways from India Dhows turning turtle etc etc?

prowheels , This morning on my usual close scrutiny of DF, I discovered you'd changed your mind in guessing what country X was, from France initially, to Israel!
That's cheating! Not allowed here.
What made you change your mind?
(I know one hint was when 'lonely' had said it was not France......)

Ambassador ,

just saw that "spot on" or "autumn" well lived in NYC for the past 11 or so years..in new york there are people who speak all sorts of american accents, midwestern, brooklyn, long islander, staten islander, and then the lovely manhattanites. but more importantly where are you from? and who is supposed to use words lke spot on and autumn?

--- Mar 13, 2013 ---

Jonkers ,

but i said france during the time period of les miserables...

--- Mar 13, 2013 ---

FlyingDutchman ,

Concord, Cali? never been there....although I'd have a more cheery disposition had I been from Cali, thanks


Thanks for the analysis of the four cities you stayed in, I have also heared quite a lot of nice things about Tel Aviv, although I would prefer to visit Jerusalem first someday if I do travel to that region.

lonelyndubai wrote:Ambassador ,

just saw that "spot on" or "autumn" well lived in NYC for the past 11 or so years..in new york there are people who speak all sorts of american accents, midwestern, brooklyn, long islander, staten islander, and then the lovely manhattanites. but more importantly where are you from? and who is supposed to use words lke spot on and autumn?

.

I realize that there are people from all over the world in New York (and some of those might say 'spot on' or 'autum'). Real New Yorkers don't say 'autum' or 'spot on'...I believe.

Not that it matters; just an observation.

Happy Pope Day...

lonelyndubai wrote: I would go for five or six blocks walks to get oraganic food, visit the park, the library, pick out good books and come home for a reading/lunch.

You can do that here too, that is how I pass my free time. New parks are good and but it depends where you are staying. I've a park and beach close to my home, but I usually take the car (too hot); although I see some people jogging to the place. As for library, there is Dubai Library. AUD library is also good but I don't know if they allow outside memberships. But I don't really need a local library, I normally use ipad for reading books.

As for why I like Dubai:

(1) Very safe place.

(2) No taxes. It is cheaper than operating in US if your business is making decent income because taxes are not proportional to income. I calculated the cost if I was doing business in US, it would cost me more than 300,000 dirhams per year just in taxes. Here govt fee and everything related only amounts to about 124,000 dirhams per year. However, these are flat fees, and if your business is not making much money then these flat fees are still there. I don't know the cost of flat fees in US, I only did calculations for yearly tax rate.

(3) Clean city.

(4) People don't interact that much but it is still nice to see people from so many different places and culture.

(5) Malls have some very nice restaurants, and food is halal. They can be expensive, but it is within my budget to visit a nice one once in a week.

--- Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:03 pm ---

prowheels wrote:I am a gear head so that comes as extra eye-candy for me

Then I may have something nice for you coming soon. I'm planing to do a photography on cars.

Jonkers , Haha good question Jonkers. The thing that changed my mind was probably the education bit. From my understanding of Israel, its education is quite firm. You've got Weizmann Institute on one side and Tel Aviv University on the other. Also, almost half the population(45%) have college degrees!

Dubai is a beautiful man made state of UAE.Do visit here.

Because of Dubai's high life Dubai is preferable by most of the people around the world.