Whitey in the Middle

Interesting thing about the class structure here. Some westeners don't seem to handle not being at the top of the pecking order that well. The Saudi guys are like what I guess you'd call an aristocracy. Many of them don't work because they don't have to and their houses bespeak volumes about the kind of money they've got. The middle class is composed of expats from all parts of the world (used to be mainly American and European...now an assortment of South American, Australian, South and West African, Indian...you name it as well as the usual suspects) and the working class guys tend to be from Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philiphines. If anything has gotten me down in the short time we've been here its been over the behavior of a few westerners I've seen while out and about towards Saudis and the Bangladeshi and Philipino guys. They just firstly don't seem to understand that while the people around them are talking in other languages, they most likely understand English very well. So derogitory things said loudly about the Saudi Women walking around, the Philipino guy driving your taxi, or the guy serving you at the shops are most likely understood loud and clear. You know how people in Western countries get angry about immigrants coming to their country and refusing to assimilate, well some people seem to do that over here in a very big way. Bear in mind this isn't by any means a rant about all the Westener's I've been around with. All the guys I've been out with have made an effort to learn a bit of the language and are very polite to the guys serving them/working for them. Its more what I've seen so far here and there thats been a dissapointment. (Western lady abusing guy in food shop was the one today...she publicly humiliated him for not understanding english)

Just going out with Jo and Laurie and Anthony's colleague Denis who know a bit of Arabic has shown how much more relaxed the local guys are when you make an effort and how much easier things get done. Its a realy bugger to hear that some people have been here for years (30 plus) and haven't even attempted to pick up the slightest bit of arabic.