I'm 6 ft 6 and I have a blonde wife who's just a bit smaller. Even though we behaved very polite and dressed like locals it was like we had a big target on our backs and were looked upon with resentment everywhere we went.
I will not mention the countries we visited but it was pretty much the same everywhere.
I get really bored hearing someone talking about us like this. While your knowledge about Arab countries comes from an all-inclusive trip to Tunisia or something.
The west always plays a big role in keeping dictators all over the place, who don't care about education or anything other than their chair. People are ignorant and if you look fancy or different, even if you are native, they will look at you like that. Not entirely your fault, but your politicians love it, and use their super powers to keep it as it is.
Nothing in the parent comment warrants what you said. What happens in practice is that being white in poorer countries makes you stand out and sometimes this comes with negative feelings of being unwanted there.
This is just a fact being told and it doesn’t justify a “you guys and your politics” comment. It’s just to point out, perhaps, that some places are more welcoming of foreigners than others.
We loved it. I'm learning arabic on Duolingo now because I got curious about the script.
Of course, YMMV.
There are issues with women rights in many country. Blaming the west is a way to ignore them.
I've travelled back and forth from Dubai for business and other emirates and countries and never had that experience.
When you say "fact being told", you actually mean "anecdote being shared".
Nothing from my experience indicates an automatic feeling of hatred towards me and my wife when going to these countries. In fact, the opposite.
And don't get me wrong. I have my issues with these countries and their governments, just like I have my issues with many other countries, but that doesn't mean you dismiss the entire population.
Maybe it's time you engaged with the cultures. I'm sure it'll be "No thanks". Surprise me.
Your comment reflects your lack of knowledge about us.
I don't hate western people for being western or white. I respect a lot of them and would love to learn from them.
Some places are more welcoming because people have more knowledge about dealing with foreigners and know more about their culture. So it comes back to education and being open to other cultures as I said, which dictators will never care about. They take money and weapons from you, then tell the people a lot of nonsense about you. People don't really know you. Then when someone tries to tell you this, you say your comment is full of assumptions and hatred.
Also, your media plays a big role in making people see us like animals, watch "bad reel arabs" and it should tell you more about that.
I’m talking out of my own experience in Africa, Asia and South America. I don’t go flashing out money around and I know exactly how I’m seen and how I’m treated in every place I’ve lived in. And no, I‘ve never been in a resort and I live in local housing trying to learn the language. So kindly go f yourself.
I will say it in a different way, WE ARE NOT YOUR ENEMY, but you are too blind not to realize that by yourself.
We bought tickets for the Petra by night show, and while it was good, we felt it was a bit expensive for what it was.
The martian landscapes of Wadi Rum were equally as good.
I’ll surprise you: English is not my first language, I haven’t been in my home country since 2015, I speak 3 languages fluently, I’m currently living in Indonesia and can already speak my fourth language (although not well). I lived 3-15 months each in more than 10 countries.
You got the wrong person. I know what I’m talking about because I’ve lived it.
I am not sure who is full of hatered here, telling me to go f myself while I am trying to say my understanding about a place I know more than you do.
> I lived 3-15 months each in more than 10 countries.
Is that supposed to mean that you know those countries more than natives?
“Are you western?” is not an acceptable start. How would you like it if I started my comment with: “Are you black?” — regardless of whether you are, which is my point.
The enemies are roughly Salafia and Ikhwan. They are the ones with the hateful retoric. And they have a huge following.
You’re completely out of context. I’m just replying to the parent suggesting I don’t engage with the cultures.
All I need to tell you is that I’ve been stared at, followed, called names, harassed in a number of countries, and many of them were Arab. Go figure.
I asked that, because we always get that from most western people. Western media which is being watched all over the world shape us in a certain way, while they play a role in keeping our countries as it is. You just want to bully and cancel an Arab my friend because you hate us, that's all.
I hope to visit more Arab countries soon and make more friends there.
The last time I visited Dahab (a very simple yet beautiful place in Sinai, not sure if you know it or not), I saw an Arab man, from his accent it was clear he is not an Egyptian, maybe he is a Saudi or Kuwaiti, he was having a discussion with the Hotel's reception about being charged more just because he is not an Egyptian. This is just something stupid they do to get more money. I am sorry that you had to pay more for the same service.
I didn't mind the overcharging too much when it was obvious. Like it was funny to me and the taxi driver that he was charging too much, and we had a laugh about it. Coming from the USA, the flight cost far dominated any expenses from when I was in Egypt. The one time it did feel bad was when the tour guide I hired, who seemed to be on my side, let me be overcharged by someone he had a prior arrangement with. But alas he was so knowledgable.
I realize all this is only a small part of Egypt and it's not fair to judge a whole country by a few bad apples.
One of my new Egyptian friends wanted me to try so many types of food that he sent me home with two extra bags of stuff. That's excessive hospitality :)
We had two full days there and it was such an extraordinary site to look around.
And I'm pretty sure there were about 5 "Best view in the world" :) Although all of them could make a pretty good claim to the title, it's a stunning area.
Happened to my pops because he, a German-born Canadian of Turkish and German descent, refused to pay bribes. I was actually conceived while he was out there in Saudi Arabia with my mom and they came back to Canada to have me but not before a giant RCMP investigation kicked off that ended up in Canadian parliament because courts didn't have jurisdiction at that time.
The only reason he didn't go to jail was ONE GUY, a young Lebanese dude with a family and a nascent green card to America had the balls to go against everyone else in the conspiracy. He freely testified that he was the one that actually carried the cash between the parties involved—implicating himself and risking his family's future—and he knew just who was guilty and who wasn't and the one guy who wasn't in on it was my father.
Later, he met with some American officials and they said something along the lines of "don't worry about your green card, we want more Americans like you" to the Lebanese dude.
Later my parents made him and his wife my godparents and we talk on the phone even to this day.
But think about it. Dozens of well-off people conspired to pin prison time on some random person from Canada who wouldn't hurt a soul.
Fuck. That.
They might have been lucky, though. A moroccan women who also hitchhiked a lot just stated, the closer to mauretania, the more rape attempts.
This bad situation also predates western imperialism or Pax Americana.
I know it's not a perfect country, but to us it felt safe, in the way that some other nations don't, and we weren't confining ourselves to the usual tourist spots of Amman, Petra, and Wadi Rum, but also wandering further afield besides. Yet I've felt more at risk in parts of Europe, Russia, and China.
I just checked some global indexes and was not surprised to find that Jordan ranks #1 for literacy and medicine in the region, despite being one of the nations without oil revenue. In my experience it carried itself with the patina of both storied history and modern education.
They're working on it. The situation has improved. There's a long way to go, but there's progress. Give it a 100 more years.
> dressed like locals
Please don't do that. It just looks weird when foreigners do it. Just wear what you would normally wear in your western country. (Although, a bikini is probably not a good idea).
> were looked upon with resentment everywhere we went.
I've lived in USA for a while. Although people were generally very friendly, I have definitely been looked at with resentment from America for no good reason.
Then the sand will consume it.
I predict it will be a fascinating ghost city, almost like a bizarro-pyramids/sphinx/etc.
So they've diversified into other businesses. It's now a hub of business activities that have nothing to do with oil.
Global warming — yes that's a problem, but Dubai won't be the only place affected by it.
War — what makes you think there'll be a war? Whatever it is, it's just speculation at this point. As long as a certain war-o-phile country doesn't decide to flatten it.
decay — huh?! What decay?!
> Then the sand will consume it.
Sandman!
Maybe it's time you up the standard of your associates. Those standards are high and low in all countries. It's your choice to associate or tolerate them or find those that have a higher standard.
As said, my experiences have been different.
Good luck,
This is much more common than you think in cities.
Source: 7'
Dubai is so recently and explosively settled, you may not understand what I mean by decay. Cities evolve, change, decay, and hopefully renew. Dubai is a product of aggressive investment/subsidy by the royalty, directly or not. Parts of the city will decline. Aspects of the city will decline. Decay is inevitable, it's entropy. Cities are like life: they must actively renew themselves or they fade.
Dubai also is basically a modern slave labor state. How long will that persist? It seems untenable in the long term. Either the slave labor will leave or dry up, or rebel.
Dubai is attached to the oil age. It's excesses, abuses, etc are forgiven by the world elite because of the flow of oil money. That is going to end. Demand is going to PLUMMET worldwide as EVs displace first consumer transport, then local goods delivery, then long haul ground transport. Somewhere in the middle of "consumer transport" and "local goods delivery" the demand will drop by such a large and extended amount that the price won't really be profitable anymore.
Diversification is obviously the aim, and while this isn't authoritative, I've seen this in action with the bizarre satellite/branch universities Saudi Arabia paid various western universities to set up. Just because you throw money at it doesn't mean it sticks. Those universities couldn't find the people that would do the work of academia beyond the usual bullshit of rubber stamp diplomas that universities currently make sausage with.
The sand will consume it. Dubai has to actively keep sand dunes away. If that stops, and what if a section of a city decays and isn't work keeping the dunes away? Yes, the sand will "consume" it.
The oil kings are attempting the "pivot". They are fat, lazy, and unmotivated.