Bye

Well the taxi light has been switched off and I'm walking away from the car. Yes, I'm blogging from a connecting airport and I'm on my way home, at least for a while. UK is not my final destination though, I'm coming back to the Gulf to a different country, a different adventure.

In the meantime, I'll post a few things now and again so keep coming back and in September there'll be a new blog: ******* Taxi!

Taxi x

Suicide is painless?

In the UAE you can't even try and kill yourself without the risk of punishment from the authorities. It wasn't as if this man was trying to harm anyone else. This is a prime example of how mental health is misunderstood in this part of the world. If he was so low as to attempt to kill himself then do you think a suspended jail sentence is going to make him feel any better?

Maybe the best course of action is to offer the man some counselling. The article says the he tried to end his life because he was suffering from "psychological problems and pressure at work". I know first hand that there are no grievance procedures in many of the universities here, professors are hired as teaching machines and can easily fall foul of student bribery and wasta tricks as well as politicking and backstabbing. Most professors just get the hell out here when it gets too much and hopefully onto a better job if their career hasn't been damaged too much.

Still here

I haven't gone yet.

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been to busy to blog. I'm just here to say that I'm still around! Once I've left I'll be telling you all where I'm off too.

And please, if you're buying furniture off departing expats please don't take the p*** with your offer.

More on that exodus

42% of EFL teaching staff in Al Ain are downing whiteboard markers and leaving according to this. They're not the only ones. A large percentage of faculty from the main higher education institutions are off as well.

It seems that whoever controls the salary budgets are happy to sit back and do nothing about it, confident that there will be an endless supply of high quality teachers willing to work for peanuts. Meanwhile, UAE students' education will suffer.

Unless more money is invested in education- not the buildings, not the computers but your greatest resource of all, human beings, then the future looks bleak for HE in the UAE.

Boredom, heat, Runescape and pre-historic AC

Yes, it's hot now. The ACs are humming away, blowing their slightly chilled dirty air into my home. My son finds it too hot to play outside so he's hiding in some virtual world called 'Runescape' where the temperature isn't so fierce. I'm in limbo waiting to hear from various people about our coming and going procedures and I have just found out that I can't get hold of our three years prize money until I've cleared the car loan....oh dear.

I also hate my landlord. Thanks to him we have pre historic air con units that really should be sitting in the zaballah. He won't replace them, instead he sends round men to do 'bodge jobs' so they run for a few more weeks. When I say run, I mean they switch on and blow slightly cooled air into the house while racking up an electricity bill the size of the GDP of a small developing nation because they are so damn inefficient and old.
















Photo Credit: The Al Ain Air Con Museum

Bob Marley visits Al Ain

Exodus: movement of ESL teachers! oh-oh-oh, yea-eah!

The pay rise it never came (tell me why!)
So they saw the light (ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
They can't make ends meet on the money they make
So they're calling it a day
They're gonna walk - all right! - and take their Headways with them
They are the generation (tell me why!)
(Who told em where to stick it) told em where to stick it

Exodus, all right! movement of academics!
Oh, yeah! o-oo, yeah! all right!
Exodus: movement of academics!

Yeah-yeah-yeah, well!
Not happy with the management:
Are they satisfied (with the life they're living)? No!
They know where they're going, uh!
They know where were from.
They're leaving town
They're going to smaller classes, less hours, more research, more pay

The Jay-Sun has set

Anyone who is familiar with Al Ain's wild n crazy nightlife will know Jaysun B of the Horse and Jockey pub. He's been running the show on and off for the last five years, having left for the bright lights of Dubai once or twice, he's returned to the more lively Al Ain scene...

Sadly, for Al Ain, he's off for good. Yes, he's left the country and he's not planning on coming back. Who will replace him, we do not know. Will the Horse and Jockey become just another pick up joint? Will there be no more Quiz Nite, no more Karaoke, no more Scalelectrix Nites? As the exodus continues who's coming in to fill the vacuum?

Nothings changed here

January is the month that many Al Ainites who work at the two big educational establishments get their first big holiday since the summer. This means Al Ain is dead(er) for about a fortnight.

With the new semester brings the return of these over-worked-underpaid senseis. So where did they go? Well, the poorest ones stayed in Al Ain with the highlight of the holiday being a trip up to the bright lights of Dubai, maybe a day on Jumeirah Beach Park. The slightly richer ones went to Oman, spending most of the holiday in their 4 wheel drive on a long straight road or in a tent on the Hajars. The ones with a bit more cash either went to India or Thailand. Finally, the moneyed ones or those so homesick they don't care went home to the UK and froze their little ***** off.

This weekend they all convened in the H&J with different stories to tell:

-Etihad Airways are flying Iberworld charter jets on their Abu Dhabi-Gatwick route at the moment and the experience is terrible...

-It was freezing in England and expensive but worth it

-I got Delhi Belly and was on a drip for three days

-Carrefour was really quiet and I managed to get one of the trolleys with red wheels that don't electricute you.