No News Today

The employment market here is based on the use of a large number of cheap workers who come from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan and any other Asian country with a Muslim population. On the whole this works well because most people earn enough here to sent money back home to support their families and other relatives. I once had a talkative taxi driver who told me that by being here he was able to send two of his children to university and they were now a lawyer and a doctor, something he never would have managed by staying at home. Others own villas and farms back home and have done well for their relatives.

There is always a however in any tale like this. There are many people who pay relatively large sums of money to come here, taking out loans in the process, and arrive and find that they work for months, even years and their employer does not pay them. The Government here is attempting to stop this happening, but has not as yet been very successful.

There is another group of people who come here and either don’t like their jobs or only come on visit visas or enter illegally and these are a group used for casual labour, car washing and “Shifting”**. Some help with paper deliveries

My paper man normally risks his life moving between the cars at the local set of traffic lights. Several people at all the traffic lights in Abu Dhabi stand around in the morning attempting to get you to buy whatever periodical they have. This morning there was nobody at my set of lights or any other. Finally got a look at a paper at lunchtime and found in small print a ban on the sale of newspapers and other publications at traffic signals, roundabouts and intersections across the country came into effect today. Dubai had banned the selling about two years ago. Thought this was based on the dangers to the people selling stuff, but no, it was to “correct wrong practices to maintain the civilised image of the country”. Forget safety, it looks bad to have street hawkers.

As usual they get rid of one system without putting anything else into place. Have to see if the local corner store will get Gulf News in for me in future.

** Shifting is the term used when you want something moved e.g. furniture shifting, office shifting. When you move you shift flats.