04 May, 2009

the flipside of this coin

the national has a story citing a 'government report' which makes a lot of interesting points.

"The report, published by the General Authority for Youth and Sport... identifies a host of challenges facing young people, especially men. It says they are less likely than women to enrol in university, more likely to be unemployed, more vulnerable to being killed while driving and more vulnerable to abusing drugs and contracting HIV.

“The high per capita annual income in the UAE [Dh141,700 or US$38,600] means the country’s youth do not suffer the poverty or hunger experienced in other countries,” the report says. “However, we should focus on some of the negative repercussions on the behaviour of youth as a consequence to growing up with wealth and comfort. This includes a rise in obesity and a lack of a sense of self-reliance among youth, especially young men. Independence and self-reliance make citizens contributing members of society.”

"Young Emirati women have especially benefited from their country’s advancement as they now have much greater access to higher education and employment. Women at university, including medical school, outnumber men by almost three to one, and this figure continues to rise. 
"While young women attend university, many men join the armed forces or law enforcement agencies instead, which explains the high level of employment among young men compared with young women."

Ive heard these comments from locals as well as expats. (expats generally crib about how easy the emiratis have it) if government reports too are acknowledging the existence of such a problem, it will hopefully not be long before initiatives are taken address it. 

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Young men need more motivation"

No they dont, they need to be beaten by canes like I was. This is truly sad when a person who can have a totally free education, priority in the workplace, and has all his other issues, such as health and shelter handed to him, needs motivation.

THAT IS YOUR MOTIVATION MOFO.

I get angry because I have seen the world. Ive seen how other countries treat their own citizens, and none of them come close to what we get here. and the young men need more motivation?

What more do they want? I agree, women are more likely to get an education here, and I agree, the temptations (police, army...) are there, where else would a highschool grad make more than an MBA? only in Abu Dhabi police.

I have the solutions. But they are things the govt has tried 1/2 assedly and failed at, things that the govt doesnt want to do, and things that people in general, the masses, dont seem to care to do.

(expats generally crib about how easy the emiratis have it)

Instead of bitching about how good we have it,might I suggest foreigners bitch to their own govts about how bad they have things.

Dubai Jazz said...

There is nothing wrong with joining the armed forces or law enforcement. You know, seeing the top-notch training, techniques and facilities dubai police enjoys, I really envy (positively) local police officers, even more than I’d envy a head of section in DM or the RTA. My dream job has always been to be a detective.

See? I’m motivated enough....Like Sa3eed Salih would say: "I'm highly receptive to going astray; I just lack guidance"

Anonymous said...

There is nothing wrong with joining the armed forces or law enforcement

Never said there was. I have family in both, but they joined AFTER their university degrees. I am not degrading an educated captain for being in the police. He has earned the salary and stars.

What I am saying is that being a sergeant because it's a fast way to make 25K and thus get that BMW X5 at 19 isnt the right way to think. And sadly, many, especially the generation right after me, do think that way.

And what does that end up turning into? Debt. and alot of it. for what? for show.

What I'm saying is that the military shouldnt be a resort for the disenfranchised. and seriously, except for the fact that these kids are lazy, there is no reason not to jump at the education that is available to them.

It starts at home. If you are brought up by maids all your life, not even seeing your parents, than that means that your parents arent doing their jobs. Which is issue number 1. It isnt a governmental issue, its a social issue. In 30 years, we went from a family oriented society to the maid society.

If that continues through to highschool, from maid, to cook, to driver, no parents, then guess what, the parents dont care.

"Oh? you arent in college?" thats ok, You can jooin the police like your dad/brother/cousin... whoever. Parents should want BETTER for their children. Not the SAME.

What the govt can do is limit the number of maids that you can have. I know houses with a total member count of 5 and 4 maids. Not kidding. A limit based on the number of family members could help.

Another issue is schooling. When I was young, the govt schools were the best in the UAE. They were tough, hard as hell, and actually taught you something. things that you remembered well into your college studies.

The govt school system is failing here. I know, its better than many places, sure, but its also worse than many places. If the want, need, the drive to excel isnt instilled into our youth at a very young age, they arent going to give a damn.

I dont expect every kid to be like me. my father, being well off, married 2 women, one was American, my mother. I had, and still do have things to prove. Anyone knows that in this society, having a non-Emarati mother is a death sentence. "Wild al amreekiya" is what you are called.

Oh how I proved all of them wrong, and continue to. Not everyone has that drive. or need to get somewhere, be something, make something of himself.

Thats why our schooling needs to be overhauled.

Hypocrisy. Some things that the young are shown makes no sense. We have high p officials preaching that education is the key! but he never spent a day in class.

I'm supposed to take this guy seriously? Think about it, someone telling you to go to school, get a job and work hard, when he never went and never really worked? Kids are dumb, but not stupid.

Superficiality. 2 generations of Emaratis have been able to live basically without work. those who worked became really well off, but those who didnt lived well. Today, that isnt the case. But in the minds of many children, that is still the case. And needing to make yourself bigger than you are, driving a nice (I use that term loosely) car, a new phone every month... all staples of before, but today, kids want to keep that up... with debt. YAY!

Logically, with only 90% of the population from here, and the other 90% here mainly to WORK, then it makes NO sense that we even have 1% unemployment. 100% of our citizens should be employed, and any jobs left should go to foreigners. But that isnt what happens, why?

People are fucking picky. Lets say you are so and so Khouri, you have a Masters in petro chemical engineering, and you work at ADNOC. You can afford to be picky, because you have the know how, education, and name to get what you want.

Now over to Saloom al menhali. You finished highschool, got a job at the ministry of whatever doing paperwork. You show up 1/2 an hour late, leave 3 times during the day for "business" (starbucks and a match at the sheesha place) and get fired.

What the fuck are you thinking? "Oh they were asking for it!"

Were they now? That ministry doesnt NEED you, you NEED it. Because that new range rover that you bought for 360K in loans needs paying. and you need to eat.

It's not what I wanted!

Fuck you, you are on the bottom of the career ladder. Build yourself up, THEN be picky.

About the drugs. Again, education, parenting, and having expectations and (westerners STFU here) a decent Islamic upbringing will help.

How many young Emarati guys do I see at the mall on thursday night? 100. How many are in the prayer room for Aisha prayer? 3.

Nice. Yet if Paris hilton shows up, oh! HARAM! Main pillar of Islam is prayer fuckturd. Do it.

We have this push here towards smoking, sheesha, gedu, midwakh... smoking is cool!

Only a good upbringing will change that. no amount of ministry of social affairs flyers will change that.

Drugs are an addiction. Maybe it's time we treated it as such. If you catch a foreigner smoking pot, you can deport them, problem solved... what if your own people are doing that?

Pretend it doesnt happen! Not the best way to work.

Driving! 1st off, We need a REAl points system. one that isnt in place to make money, but help drivers.

We need limits on what we can buy. an 18 year old in a 600K mercedes sports car with 507 hp is asking for trouble. based on your age and HISTORY, accordingly you may buy a car.

so lets say 18 year old, no history, you cant buy something with more than 250 hp. 21 with bad history, it goes down. You'll be driving that Altima for a few more years. 21 and a good history, 350 hp...

Its a good idea. And the ratings are updated every 5 or so years to reflect the new cars outputs and safety systems.

There. I just solved all the issues. Why hasnt this stuff been done yet?

People dont care, people are lazy, govt would have to admit its made mistakes, it would take some real work.

Conclusions:

This shit makes me angry, Stay away from porsches driven by anyone nammed Saloom, mansour, jassoom, or abood... actually, Abood drives a Lexus, but you get my drift. Dont use govt schools these days, oh, and for the love of god, stop being hypocritical.

Anonymous said...

My dream job has always been to be a detective

You watched alot of Al Mu7aqiq Conan when you were young?

Anonymous said...

hemlock said...
ABIT, i bitch about my govt ALL the time.
they sent a few million bachelors to slave in 50 degrees heat in dubai... they couldve been treated equally poorly in pakistan (or worse even) and we wouldve had some sky scrapers to show for it... but no! they needed the forex.
stupid, stupid govt.

Obviously havent bitched enough if they are still in Dubai.

Anonymous said...

Have you heard....................the story that the owner of Al Habtoor Motors advised all of his employees that, if they wanted to keep their jobs, they would have to purchase a new car - only Mitsubishi -from him. He would provide a slight discount and would provide financing. They could not sell the car during the first year of ownership. Any truth to this?

Anonymous said...

Abit that was very well said.You should post it as a blog. No sarcasm intended.

Anonymous said...

Lets say you are so and so( Khouri)
Now over to (Saloom al menhali).
.................

..... VS ...... in UAE.??
do u think that the second category u made is always lazy and nonresponsible? and the first one is alwayz successful and educated ? NO! don't think that way and don't write something that could lead to " hate" among UAEians. it's not a rule that (saloom) is a loser or (Khouri) is a superman. kalamik sa7 100% bass don't make such comparison plz. why all the hate to "saloom" category? why do u make barriers? why couldn't you forget all those silly differences? that makes me sick to my stomach !!

sorry for being off the main topic.

hemlock said...

ABIT: it's comments like these that assure me you have an extremely sound head on your shoulders :)

This is truly sad when a person who can have a totally free education, priority in the workplace, and has all his other issues, such as health and shelter handed to him, needs motivation.but you know this isnt an isolated case. i didnt realise the worth of money and believed it to be my birthright until i earned my first paycheck. while it wasnt my govt who provided for me, i was unhappy living in pakistan because everything was 'easy'. for me at least, it was the life of luxury and decadence. and i hated it cuz i couldnt figure out what my worth was. but that was just me, retarded enough to leave everything and want to start from scratch - in a foreign country :D

my point is, it isnt too difficult to believe wealth is a birthright - when leveraging the family name is acceptable and encouraged. im MUCH more motivated here, minus the social connections, the recognition, the 'aah!s' of acknowledgement.

my experience with emiratis has been - somewhat varied.
a colleague who has been with us for six years comes from UAQ every day, a 2-3 hour commute ONE way. she doesnt need to work, but her alternative would be sitting at home - and with a uni. degree, she feels doing nothing would be worse than being stuck in traffic. i salute her for that.
another emirati - he joined about a year ago - the only thing i hear from him is 'gimme more work' or demands for explanation for how things are done. there is a clear drive to learn and grow.
on the other hand, we had a local (abt 20-22 yrs old), from an influential family from RAK. he came for perhaps a week out of three months, and then disappeared. i wanted to beat him on the head, because i saw great potential in him... but if someone doesnt want to exercise that, i cannot force them.

i know of some locals with 30 years worth of debt, and man, it breaks my heart... it's like WTF did you get yourself into?! but i guess you already know that.
i do sincerely wish you the best of luck figuring these things out - it's an absolute shame to see so much potential and human capital go to waste.

p.s... as for the pakistanis still in your country - i believe we had plenty to spare and traded them with GCC govts for subsidized oil - seeing as how we were short on Dollars.

Anonymous said...

Wow ABIT!! I agree with every single thing you said. Scary! :-)

Rose in Dubai

Dubai Entrepreneur said...

You have to hand it to the UAE government. Every now and then, whenever there is an honest debate about their future, they do away with the niceties and lay it down like they see it.

While you may have some people growing defensive here (Emiratis that is) whenever expats criticize aspects of the UAE, they most certainly are under no illusion to the challenges they face. It is only natural to be defensive when an outsider tells you how you should do things.

This kind of open debate is one of the things that make you feel that the UAE is going places. This is not a country that has sunk its head in the sand and hopes for things to get better. This is a country that tries to conduct scientific research before it considers how it wants to move forward.

Much respect.

Anonymous said...

i didnt realise the worth of money and believed it to be my birthright until i earned my first paycheck.

Agreed. Something I think we should do more of here is part time jobs for kids in Jr high and high school. It will teach that feeling earlier on.

from an influential family from RAK.

They exist? I'm sorry, Im from Abu Dhabi, anyone north of Sharjah to me is what Americans would call a redneck.

Anonymous said...
Lets say you are so and so( Khouri)
Now over to (Saloom al menhali).
.................

..... VS ...... in UAE.??
do u think that the second category u made is always lazy and nonresponsible? and the first one is alwayz successful and educated ? NO! don't think that way and don't write something that could lead to " hate" among UAEians. it's not a rule that (saloom) is a loser or (Khouri) is a superman. kalamik sa7 100% bass don't make such comparison plz. why all the hate to "saloom" category? why do u make barriers? why couldn't you forget all those silly differences? that makes me sick to my stomach !!

sorry for being off the main topic.

I made no such marriare. THEY DID. Saloom did by deciding that he was "hot stuff" and by having a big mouth at work and by not getting an education.

As for Khouri Vs. Menhali. The Eiam and Arabs have never really gotten along in this country. the VS. aspect is older than the UAE it's self. And only made larger by wealth, education, and social/career status.

Anonymous said...
Wow ABIT!! I agree with every single thing you said. Scary! :-)

Rose in Dubai

Scary?! Me can bes smarts if me wants! But remember this, because next week you'll hate me for being truthful again on a post that you dont agree with.

Anonymous said...

Sorry ABIT, don't do hate. Especially not over a difference of opinion. Just because I argue with you doesn't mean I hate you, it just means I disagree with you.

Rose in Dubai

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Sorry ABIT, don't do hate. Especially not over a difference of opinion. Just because I argue with you doesn't mean I hate you, it just means I disagree with you.

Rose in Dubai

Dont do hate? Wasnt it you who said you HATED Iran? Or was that Al Ain Rose...?!?!

Anonymous said...

That wasn't me. Never been to Iran, why would I hate it? All the Iranian's I've ever met have been great :-)

Must have been the other Rose

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