Getting appear the end of my career, I'd been cat-and-mouse for some action in my activity for years. My job with the Australian Government had afflicted afterwards alternating restructures to a job in which I wasn't interested, not trained, accomplished or experienced. Sure, I coped with the work, but I acquainted like a angle out of water. I badly bare a new administration as I sat cat-and-mouse for a promised back-up package.

When my wife alternate from a cruise to the Average East and appropriate I administer for a job in the UAE, I anticipation she was joking. She wasn't. Aural canicule I was looking the Internet for job vacancies and begin there were hundreds. Aural a ages or two I had a job action to assignment as a abecedary aural the Faculty of Business at Al Ain Women's College, one of 13 Higher Colleges of Technology.

Having never lived across before, it was a big adaptation to go about with a awfully altered culture, far abroad from our accouchement and grandson. We absitively that we'd booty the claiming and if it didn't assignment out, we could consistently appear home.

Our Arrival

We accustomed at Dubai International Airport at some blasphemous hour afterwards a 14 hour cruise from Melbourne, Australia. We had been told that we bare to aces up our Temporary Visas from an clearing desk, but while we begin the desk, the agents was elusive, our aboriginal clue that aggregate doesn't run as able-bodied in the UAE as it does in Australia. Aural an hour, we had anesthetized through Customs, calm our accoutrements and visas and larboard the airport with a actual likeable, well-dressed and clear Indian man alleged Vijay. Vijay was a disciplinarian active by the Al Ain Colleges and we begin out anon that he was the being who fabricated things appear for new employees... Mr Fix It.

After signing my contract, I was handed two envelopes. One independent a sum of banknote to awning our break at a auberge for six days, the added had a cheque for 30,000 Dirhams for bureaucracy costs. We had no abstraction what a Dirham was absolutely worth, but it seemed like a lot of money... and I hadn't done a day's assignment yet.

Settling-In

We begin Al Ain a adorable haven with two-lane carriageways disconnected by adamant fences and date approach trees. It was decidedly blooming for a abode in the average of the desert, but everywhere we went, we saw that the burghal had taken abundant pride in accouterment a admirable burghal with an accomplished arrangement of anchorage and infrastructure. It was abundant nicer than our boondocks in Australia and baptize was acutely plentiful.

Very axiomatic to us was the aberration in dress amid the crawling who were abundantly Indian, Pakistani, Afghani, Asians, and Arabs. Caucasians like us were about deficient (about 3,000 amid 400,000 population). We could acquaint area bodies were from by their dress, if not their appearance. Alike the Arabs accept altered dress; visitors from adjacent Oman accept chaplet that distinguishes them from the bounded Emiratis, but both abrasion agnate kandora (a continued white, dress-like robe).

Everyone we met was friendly, admitting common emphasis barriers. There was no graffiti and clutter was scarce. Buildings ranged from boastful to crumbling brick box abodes for low paid labour. Our adaptation in a huge apartment circuitous was deluxe by Australian standards; four bedrooms and a maid's room, bristles toilets, aerial ceilings, and a two car garage. We couldn't accept that two bodies were to be accommodated in such ample accommodation.

The HCT's acclimatization for our 14 new agents was diffuse and comprehensive, the best acclimatization affairs I had anytime experienced. In September I began teaching with classes in animal assets capacity for final year acceptance and accretion and accepted business for aboriginal year students.

The Challenges of Teaching

For the aboriginal few months I wondered whether I had fabricated the appropriate decision. I had 140 acceptance in chic groups of 20 age-old amid 19 and 25. Their English ranged from about butterfingers to adequate and best couldn't assemble a simple sentence. They were allegedly green to abstraction and not actual motivated to learn. Activity at academy was an escape from their homes.

My ladies wore acceptable garb... atramentous abeyas from close to bottom and atramentous headdress. Several had alone their eyes visible. Their names were not alone lengthy, but mostly new to me. I had abundant adversity pronouncing some names and canonizing who was who back they all looked similar; amber eyes, amber bark and atramentous clothing. Afterwards I acclimatized in, I began to apprehend that they were a actual adolescent lot compared with Australian teenagers. Many had never been to a shop; best had never announced to males alfresco their families; their ability of the apple was actual attenuated applicable deeply aural the austere bound of their Islamic religion, ability and abode in life. They had mainly pleasant, amusing dispositions, which was a charity as I bound developed an accomplished affinity with best of them who in some means reminded me of my own babe now so far away.

This aberrant adolescent from Australia with a funny emphasis who batten fast and occasionally acclimated Australianisms anon adapted in to his new surrounds and fabricated accompany with the locals.

While assignment was a ample claiming aggravating to actuate them, bear apprenticeship in a allusive and barefaced way, it was additionally acceptable to apperceive that one day, what I had helped them learn, would be of bulk to them and would, perhaps, advice the United Arab Emirates.

Making Friends

The best allotment of the accomplished chance was the new accompany we fabricated with expats from Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, the US, Jordan, Egypt, France, Turkey and alike Australia. With the bulk of active so cheap, we dined out frequently and acclaimed every birthday, civic day, and generally dined out aloof to allotment a meal, a bottle of wine and some acceptable company.

During our summer holidays we managed to biking all over Europe, to Canada, Hong Kong and several Average Eastern countries alfresco the UAE. We spent a anniversary at Cyprus. One of our affidavit for affective to the UAE was to travel. We absolutely did that and it was abundant cheaper than accomplishing it from Down Under.

Making Money

While my bacon was about the aforementioned as I becoming in Australia, there is no assets tax. In actuality there is hardly any tax at all, although if you banquet at a auberge now, you pay 10% account allegation and 6% tourism tax. There are fees for motor agent registration, driver's licences etc, but all were much, abundant cheaper than I would accept paid in Australia. Petrol was clay bargain as was aliment and about aggregate else, so we lived like kings and beggared ourselves of nothing, alive that this dream would eventually end.

Although we hadn't gone to the UAE to accomplish money, my wife didn't assignment and we did our actual best to absorb it on travel, a new car and active comfortably, we larboard with a ample bulk of cash, some new appliance and custom-built accouterment etc. We did actual able-bodied out of the UAE.

Conclusion

When you alive in an abandoned abode like Australia, it is accessible to become Australia-centric and maybe a bit arrogant. Visiting added places broadens your angle and is the acquaintance of a lifetime that every Australian should take. It has a base aftereffect back you see countries that don't accept drunks barrier about the streets, no graffiti, no petty theft, no artery brawls, and clean, well-dressed bodies with pride, clashing abundant of Australia. Conversely, a brace of countries we visited reminded us how actual advantageous we are to be able to get on a jet and acknowledgment to Australia.

Getting towards the end of my career, I'd been waiting for some excitement in my life for years. My job with the Australian Government had changed after successive restructures to a job in which I wasn't interested, not trained, educated or experienced. Sure, I coped with the work, but I felt like a fish out of water. I desperately needed a new direction as I sat waiting for a promised redundancy package.

When my wife returned from a trip to the Middle East and suggested I apply for a job in the UAE, I thought she was joking. She wasn't. Within days I was searching the Internet for job vacancies and found there were hundreds. Within a month or two I had a job offer to work as a teacher within the Faculty of Business at Al Ain Women's College, one of 13 Higher Colleges of Technology.

Having never lived overseas before, it was a big decision to go somewhere with a vastly different culture, far away from our children and grandson. We decided that we'd take the challenge and if it didn't work out, we could always come home.

Our Arrival

We arrived at Dubai International Airport at some ungodly hour after a 14 hour trip from Melbourne, Australia. We had been told that we needed to pick up our Temporary Visas from an immigration desk, but while we found the desk, the staff was elusive, our first clue that everything doesn't run as well in the UAE as it does in Australia. Within an hour, we had passed through Customs, collected our bags and visas and left the airport with a very likeable, well-dressed and well-spoken Indian man called Vijay. Vijay was a driver employed by the Al Ain Colleges and we found out soon that he was the person who made things happen for new employees... Mr Fix It.

After signing my contract, I was handed two envelopes. One contained a sum of cash to cover our stay at a hotel for six days, the other had a cheque for 30,000 Dirhams for setup costs. We had no idea what a Dirham was really worth, but it seemed like a lot of money... and I hadn't done a day's work yet.

Settling-In

We found Al Ain a delightful oasis with two-lane carriageways divided by iron fences and date palm trees. It was surprisingly green for a place in the middle of the desert, but everywhere we went, we saw that the municipality had taken great pride in providing a beautiful city with an excellent system of roads and infrastructure. It was much nicer than our town in Australia and water was obviously plentiful.

Very evident to us was the difference in dress among the populous who were largely Indian, Pakistani, Afghani, Asians, and Arabs. Caucasians like us were relatively scarce (about 3,000 among 400,000 population). We could tell where people were from by their dress, if not their appearance. Even the Arabs have different dress; visitors from nearby Oman have headdress that distinguishes them from the local Emiratis, but both wear similar kandora (a long white, dress-like robe).

Everyone we met was friendly, despite frequent language barriers. There was no graffiti and litter was scarce. Buildings ranged from ostentatious to crumbling brick box abodes for low paid labour. Our accommodation in a huge housing complex was palatial by Australian standards; four bedrooms and a maid's room, five toilets, high ceilings, and a two car garage. We couldn't believe that two people were to be accommodated in such large accommodation.

The HCT's orientation for our 14 new staff was lengthy and comprehensive, the best orientation program I had ever experienced. In September I began teaching with classes in human resources topics for final year students and computing and general business for first year students.

The Challenges of Teaching

For the first few months I wondered whether I had made the right decision. I had 140 students in class groups of 20 aged between 19 and 25. Their English ranged from almost incapable to passable and most couldn't construct a simple sentence. They were apparently unaccustomed to study and not very motivated to learn. Life at college was an escape from their homes.

My ladies wore traditional garb... black abeyas from neck to foot and black headdress. Several had only their eyes visible. Their names were not only lengthy, but mostly new to me. I had great difficulty pronouncing some names and remembering who was who when they all looked similar; brown eyes, brown skin and black clothing. After I settled in, I began to realize that they were a very immature lot compared with Australian teenagers. Many had never been to a shop; most had never spoken to males outside their families; their knowledge of the world was very narrow fitting tightly within the strict bounds of their Islamic religion, culture and place in life. They had mainly pleasant, humorous dispositions, which was a lifesaver as I quickly developed an excellent rapport with most of them who in some ways reminded me of my own daughter now so far away.

This strange fellow from Australia with a funny accent who spoke fast and occasionally used Australianisms soon fitted in to his new surrounds and made friends with the locals.

While work was a considerable challenge trying to motivate them, deliver education in a meaningful and understandable way, it was also satisfying to know that one day, what I had helped them learn, would be of value to them and would, perhaps, help the United Arab Emirates.

Making Friends

The best part of the whole adventure was the new friends we made with expats from Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, the US, Jordan, Egypt, France, Turkey and even Australia. With the cost of living so cheap, we dined out frequently and celebrated every birthday, national day, and often dined out just to share a meal, a glass of wine and some good company.

During our summer holidays we managed to travel all over Europe, to Canada, Hong Kong and several Middle Eastern countries outside the UAE. We spent a week at Cyprus. One of our reasons for moving to the UAE was to travel. We certainly did that and it was much cheaper than doing it from Down Under.

Making Money

While my salary was about the same as I earned in Australia, there is no income tax. In fact there is hardly any tax at all, although if you dine at a hotel now, you pay 10% service charge and 6% tourism tax. There are fees for motor vehicle registration, driver's licences etc, but all were much, much cheaper than I would have paid in Australia. Petrol was dirt cheap as was food and almost everything else, so we lived like kings and deprived ourselves of nothing, knowing that this dream would eventually end.

Although we hadn't gone to the UAE to make money, my wife didn't work and we did our very best to spend it on travel, a new car and living comfortably, we left with a large amount of cash, some new furniture and tailor-made clothing etc. We did very well out of the UAE.

Conclusion

When you live in an isolated place like Australia, it is easy to become Australia-centric and maybe a bit arrogant. Visiting other places broadens your outlook and is the experience of a lifetime that every Australian should take. It has a humbling effect when you see countries that don't have drunks stumbling about the streets, no graffiti, no petty theft, no street brawls, and clean, well-dressed people with pride, unlike much of Australia. Conversely, a couple of countries we visited reminded us how very lucky we are to be able to get on a jet and return to Australia.

In England, and sometimes in America, horse racing is referred to as the sport of kings. Some Gulf nations, too, have their royal sport camel racing.

Unfortunately - just as concerns have been raised in recent years about the widespread incidence of anorexia and bulimia among champion jockeys - human rights groups have criticized the widespread use of child labor in camel races. After all, though there's nothing inherently wrong with a line of four-legged animals racing each other to the finish, someone has to train and race those animals - someone light. In countries with already-minimal human rights standards, sometimes those people aren't given much of a choice.

From ancient times, in fact, the most common age for a camel rider was four - and these four-year-old boys were often kidnap victims sold to camel owners, in whose hands they were subject to starvation, beatings, and sexual abuse. The continuing need for them led to an active slave trade. Because of these depredations, international protest mounted against the organizers of camel races in recent decades. Human rights groups claimed (according to one USA Today story) that at least 40,000 of these boy jockeys were victims of kidnapping or human trade. Legislative efforts to provide better oversight failed to eliminate child abuse from the sport.

So such Gulf states as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates found themselves under enormous pressure to abandon what was, in effect, a sport as ingrained in their culture as Thoroughbred horse racing is in the lives of many Americans and Europeans. Their solution
In Qatar, their solution is robots.

Ruling sheiks in that country charged a Swiss developer, Alexandre Colot (of robotics giant K-Team), with developing a prototype for a robot camel rider - at a reported cost of $1 million. The prototype, named Kamel, made his debut in April 2005, where during a practice run, wearing a purple jersey, he drove his highly trained racing camel at speeds of up to twenty-five miles per hour.

Kamel's relative competence as a camel driver allowed Qatar to institute a ban on all use of child jockeys in 2005, projecting that robotic jockeys would be ready to take over the country's racing circuit by 2007. That was in spite of early hurdles, including camels' reported fear of their new robot drivers and the turbulent conditions of racing. Developers overcame the first problem by adding humanlike elements to Kamel's design - racing clothes, traditional perfumes, etc. (Initially they had mannequin-like faces, but these were removed by order of the country's prime minister, who thought they may violate an ancient Islamic prohibition against making representations of the human form.) The robots are remote controlled (the operators keep up with their man via SUV), and they give their remote drivers up-to-the-second data about the camel's speed and heart rate. The remotes have a range of half a mile.

With the United Arab Emirates facing continued scrutiny over the use of child jockeys, pressure may continue to mount for the country to follow Qatar's lead, despite the expense of developing the jockeybots. As AP reporter Eric Talmadge writes, an early-2006 lawsuit - filed in Miami, where many of the UAE's leading sheiks maintain horses - named rulers of the United Arab Emirates as defendants against the charge of enslaving tens of thousands of boys during three decades and forcing them to work as camel jockeys. The lawsuit claims the boys were taken largely from Bangladesh and Pakistan, were held at desert camps in the UAE and other Persian Gulf nations, and forced to work. It also contends some boys were sexually abused, given limited food and sleep and injected with hormones to prevent their growth. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

But - as Thoroughbred racing fans who read the world-news page must by now be asking themselves - what about US and European horse racing After all, being a jockey is a terrible physical strain, as many previously-unaware readers learned a few years ago, when Laura Hillenbrand's unlikely bestseller Seabiscuit introduced thousands to the ancient art of horse racing - as well as its unsavory side. Hillenbrand's book will tell you all you'd ever want to know about the dietary depredations self-inflicted by jockeys - the anorexia and bulimia, the 900-calorie-per-day diets, the constant physical pain, mental fatigue and irritability brought on by slow starvation; the courting of diarrhea and intentional ingestion of tapeworms.

But there's a key difference - jockeys in Europe and America choose these hardships. They respond to the glory and heritage of horse racing - or the combination of talent with the possibility of great winnings. Like boxers and college wrestlers, or computer programmers (remember those tech-boom-era 26-hour workdays we used to read about) and filmmakers (George Lucas suffered stabbing chest pains and debilitating stress during the making of the original Star Wars), even writers (novelist John Gardner once did a 20-hour writing stint, while in the hospital recovering from colon cancer), jockeys leave behind convenience, even (for temporary periods) health, in their pursuit of excellence. Certainly such suffering must be self-chosen, uncoerced - but in the absence of external force, we recognize such behavior as dedication, hard work, sacrifice. It's symbolic of some of the finest human qualities. Jockeys as well as racing fans instinctively realize this.

Combine that with the fact that Qatar's robojockeys don't yet seem to have achieved quite the nuanced control over their mounts that human jockeys can attain, and it's unsurprising that there's been no outcry thus far for American robot jockeys. Still, the possibilities are intriguing. At least the post-race interviews would be fun to watch That question does not compute, Keith.