Saturday, November 08, 2008

Election, Transportation, Gender balance

A president I support... At last! So happy about the election results. I woke up at 5:30 am local time to track the results, see the winner announcement, and hear the concession and victory speeches. Twas awesome! I totally missed being part of the celebrations in the States, but people here were happy too. They respect the U.S. a lot more (most Europeans I talk to were incredulous that someone like Palin could even get on our ballot).

I think my posts to date have been very positive about Dubai, so it's time I share my biggest complaint about the city: transportation!!! Getting a cab can be a huge nightmare, especially in the evenings, when everyone is leaving work. And traffic is horrible, which exacerbates the cab shortage. My office is in the Burjuman area of Dubai, which is probably the worst place to try to get a cab. I have experiment with private car drivers, but they are often booked up, unreliable, and/or unwilling to drive short distances. My worst experience was probably last week, when it took me 2 hours to get home on Thursday (start of the weekend here). My private car driver did not show up because he was stuck in traffic, but I managed to find a cab. The cab then got into a car accident! Just a minor fender bender, but the other guy wanted to call the police, which would take 2 hours, so I was forced to get out of the taxi and find a new one, now further away from where I started. By the time I found another taxi and got home, it was 9 pm!!! Not fun... I was complaining to the taxi driver and his theory was that there are enough cabs, but they are all just stuck in traffic, because there are too many cars on the road. It's pretty easy/ cheap to get a car in Dubai, which clogs the streets, which are poorly designed to begin with. Anyway, this is definitely my biggest issue with Dubai so far...

I wanted to make a quick comment on the gender [im]balance in Dubai. There are WAY more guys than girls in the city. The workers are all male, but even if you discount them, professional are skewed male, too. The BCG Dubai office only has 3 permanent females among the consulting stuff of over 40, and they are all at junior levels. The temporary transfers, including myself, are a little more female-skewing, but there is still a shortage of women. I miss having more girl friends. My roommates have been great, but I do wish there were more women at work and other places...

That's it for now... Until next time, Ciao!

1 comment:

Zahir said...

You went over to an Arab country, and are surprised to find that it's a sausage fest over there? Seriously? That's like going to China and being surprised at how many Asian people you're seeing all over the place.