Down for 4 years.

[sleepytom]

exactly - i feel much more sorry for these people who are clearly the victims of a racisit system than for someone who was actually breaking the law.

[MrJustin]

Originally Posted by dreamteck

no alcohol, a deep hatred of us, ninjas walking around, kids getting killed for stealing ect..

Hmmm... where to start???

Firstly, as an opthamologist, i doubt your brother would have run into a lot of trouble in the uae. Tom was referring to 'hippies', not headhunted medical professionals.

"No Alcohol".??!! - In most of the uae a foreign national has plenty of places they can go and buy/drink alcohol, bars, off licenses, their home. Or did your brother want the freedom to drink his XXXX sitting beside the road?

"A deep hatred of us" - i have friends who've worked/lived in saudi and heard little to nothing to support this, especially in places like dubia, where many are rather fond of the inordinate wealth the western world has brought there.

"ninjas walking around" Right thats it, you're an idiot.

[dreamteck]

k i deserve the idiot bit about the ninja comment.. i expected it... but i'll choose not to believe you about all the rest k chum ?

[deepvisual]

Saudi is the really bad place.
the UAE is a little more friendly, but not much.

while I was in abu dhabi, it was fashionable for gangs of arabs to kick westerners to death. It happened twice during the month i was there. When locals mentioned this, they were of the opinion that it was perfectly fine to beat foriegners to death as they probably deserved it - as long as you were a UAE national and well connected you would never get arrested, whereas if westerners were involved in traffic accidents they were punished just for being involved irrespective of whose fault it was. there was also a fuss when a foreign air hostesses complained about a 70 year old saudi who had just married a terrified 8 year old indian girl who was with him on the plane. The air hostess got the sack of course.
and finally.
the religious police in saudi closed down a western school and arrested all the kids for having a nativity play.

our friends in the Gulf.
but they have lots of oil so they don't need either democracy or freedom.

[BIOPTIX]

Originally Posted by dreamteck

My Brother is an opthamologist was offered a one year contract job at United Arab Emirates hospital. He was so excited and i had my work cut out for me explaining to him there laws and what life will be like there for a westerner.

no alcohol, a deep hatred of us, ninjas walking around, kids getting killed for stealing ect..

A mate of mine works out there as a landscape architect and he's loving it. This is a bloke who describes himself as an alcoholic so it's not quite as bad as you make out. However, there are always horror stories wherever you go and you should properly inform yourself of the laws and customs before entering a foreign culture, especially if emigrating.

Grooverider was foolish, he's a legend but must be way out of touch with reality if that's his attitude. How often do you go through customs in ANY airport with a spliff in your pocket? It's asking for trouble.

I heard traces of ganja stayed in your bloodstream for up to a year after using it. Always best to plan your trips in advance...

Sorry to hear about your mate dvnt, that really is a horror story.

[sleepytom]

to clarify further my point about this - i'm not saying "don't go to Dubi" I'm saying do at least a little research before you go anywhere and accept the fact that you might not be as wellcome as you'd like to be.

Travel is a great learning experiance - going to jail is possibly a less useful learning experiance!

[deepvisual]

seeing as we are on the subject, horry stories of being shaken down by bent cops are normal in most parts of the world. getting a years salary off a hippy tourist is childs play as they know the embassy wont back up someone who looks dodgy or has been seen smoking dope the week before.

not trusting anyone is always a good policy. I have had two very good friends fitted up with a kilo of heroin by a local they had been with for 3 weeks and had come to trust.
it cost them £20,000 each to bribe their way out of thailand, which first involved their parents re-mortgaging the house and flying out with the money in a suitcase.


even in europe, we had the sniffer dogs on the tour bus on the swiss / italian border. they found a pipe, got the tour manager into the police station and put his wallet on the table, they made him turn around and when he turned back, the wallet had magically emptied of cash - around 2000 euros.

These aren't isolated incidents, but part of a regular pattern of bent cops getting huge amounts of cash fast by setting up naive tourists.

[makemassair]

Whilst the world is beautiful place.

It is also a severly fucked up one.

[asterix]

Four years is still fucked. My partner came to Australia from NZ. Wasn't till she arrived home she realised that in her diary was a marijuana leaf from years ago - just stored as a memento. Imagine if you had a bit of crumb in your jacket, or copped a whiff from the crowd of it at a concert the night you flew out.

It should not be the right of the government to control what we can or cannot feel.

And why should you be robbed of four years of your life for carrying a tiny amount of doober.

[BIOPTIX]

Originally Posted by asterix

It should not be the right of the government to control what we can or cannot feel.

And why should you be robbed of four years of your life for carrying a tiny amount of doober.

You are right it is fucked up BUT "the" government is not "our" government.

It may not seem right to our western eyes but foreign countries are entitled to their own laws, even religious ones.

If you don't like them don't go there or learn to obey the rules. Or would you rather bomb them into a secular democracy?