Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Back to the USA

They say some of life’s most traumatic changes include starting or losing a job, moving house and having a baby. Well, in the past four months I decided to do all three at the same time. Thus my slackness in keeping up with this blog.

The biggest news — besides the birth of my son Jibran on Sept. 20 — is that I have left the Middle East. You may have noticed how my last few blog entries were becoming increasingly bitter. Well, needless to say, my husband and I grew decidedly disenchanted with Dubai in particular, and by November, we practically left town in the middle of the night.

It wasn’t just the fact that my landlord was revving up to raise my rent by 54.8% the day after the cap was set to expire (for a total of a 101% increase from the day I moved in two years ago). It wasn’t only that my health insurance policy didn’t cover one single aspect of my pregnancy. It wasn’t solely because my husband lost his job largely due to greedy clients who didn’t want to part with their previously promised money. It wasn’t mainly because I was tired of risking my family’s lives by driving a short distance anywhere on Dubai’s death roads.

It was something else. Something deeper, more sinister. It was an ever-present, nagging feeling of being used. There’s just so many people out to make a quick buck in the city that it’s hard to know who to trust. And after a while that feeling pervades all your interactions, thus making life a little less pleasant each day.

The truth is Dubai is a city that has no organic personality, no moral fiber, despite its Muslim heritage. It’s a city built to appease one sheikh.

Then there’s Jibran. All of a sudden my needs and desires faded into the background, and providing a safe home where family and friends want to help you, where systems are in place to help out, and where our voices matter (even in a tiny way) became paramount to anything Dubai had to offer.

And to say that having a child changes your life is not just a cliche, it’s also an understatement. My little guy put things into perspective, big time. Things I had grown accustomed to were suddenly not good enough for him. It’s OK to cheat yourself; it’s not OK to cheat your child. So, it’s back to America for us. And right into the belly of the beast: Washington DC.

As you all know I can be a pretty harsh critic of my country and its government, so needless to say I am sure living in DC will pose its own challenges. But at least here I can vent my frustration outloud and with no fear. Here I can vote not only during elections, but with my dollars. And green. Beautiful lush greenery abounds.

If any of you have suggestions on what I should do with this blog, let me know. At this point I am so busy with my new job and baby, that I most likely will take it offline (once I learn how to do that).

For all our friends who are still in Dubai, sticking it out, I wish you luck and patience. If you come through DC, look us up.

Comments:
Wow.

Will you start blogging from/about Washington now? Please do, if you get time!
 
You nailed it - the typical Dubai experience. The market drives.

I think my experience here has not been so bitter as yours because I don’t actually work in Dubai (I work from my office at home, or on assignment to other countries). Apart from rent, the market works in my favor here and makes life pretty pleasant.

I feel like I was the one using Dubai rather than vice versa...
 
Liz,
Best of luck in DC, Bush is not any better than the sheikh, not that I approve of either.
Would you have felt the same way if you had your son in Cairo ?
A very Curious *D*

And yes.. keep the blog!
 
Congratulations for all three events,and thanks for the entry, right to the point, although from a former Arab working in the UAE I would add the depressing feeling of discrimination between western expatriates and non westerns.
I am also back where I belong, and despite horrible living conditions and the urge to leave my place to survive anywhere else, the UAE is not missed, no way for more of the artificial greenery, fake civilization and imaginary development.
Please do keep your blog if you can, maybe looking to the Middle East from DC might keep you going.
Good Luck.
 
Are you in Lebanon perhaps? A wonderful, tormented country. Yes, you are very right about the discrimination. It really pervades society there, sadly. I am from a particularly racist part of the US, but nothing could compare me for the racist Middle East. Good luck to you and your beautiful country.
 
Hi Liz,

Should have met you at the IAA Global Congress.

Funny thing is, your most powerful posts and the farewell note in the magazine were the most powerful ;-)

So many are feeling what you feel - but it takes a while for people to take a deep breath and look at what they are doing to themselves here.

Please don't think about taking out this blog. It's East-West and now is a good chance to talk about both - with more freedom and a wider perspective of course since you are in 'the land of the free' ;-)
 
I live in NY and have enjoyed your blogs a lot. Please do continue them -- you have had a wonderful experience that gives you authenticity to comment on the Middle East and Muslim countries in general. Do bring your perspective to DC and continue your observations.
Does the word Jibran mean anything?
 
"Jibran" has enormous meaning actually. Gibran Khalil Gibran was a writer, artist and thinker. I visited his home (now a musuem) in the hills of Lebanon and fell in love with his works, which stress the independence within unions. His works also incorporate the importance of both the masculine and feminine. Yin and Yang, if you will. We changed the spelling of his name so that Americans would pronounce it correctly. In proper Arabic, what we see as a "G" is spoken like a "J." You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran
 
Hi Farrukh. Yes, we should have met for sure! Well, I hope you are doing OK back in Dubai. I think I will keep the blog going for a bit and use it to inform my friends in the Middle East about the land of the not-necessarily-so free and to remind Americans not to be complacent about these things.
 
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I was enjoy8ing your blog until I read the nasty little piece you did on USAID in Cairo.

If the people you met from USAID were as you discribed them they were certainly not typical of the many hard working Americans who have lived and died trying to make a contribution to the lives of those doomed to suffer in poverty in less fortunate parts of the world.

USAID doesn't do the glammer jobs like build opera houses in Cairo (Japan) or the nonfinancially sustainable subway to Maadi (the French). USAID built a sewer system for the poor districts of Cairo, USAID pours money for AIDS research and support into Africa,etc, etc, I won't go on, what was your contribution while there?.

There is no other American agency that has done more for economic developement world wide. Yes they get paid by American standards, they have to pay their American mortgages back home, they have to pay their taxes back home, they have to educate their children in the Universities back home. And they have a right to expect a life that at least approaches what their fellow Americans enjoy back home. Their apartments in Egypt may be bigger than what they can afford in DC where you are now but the other aspects of their dayly lives are much inferior to what most Americans enjoy. The health issues, traffic risks, terrorism threats that they and their children are exposed to make life in America a very much easier ride. Indeed you seem to have returned to America for some of those same reasons. Didn't want your child exposed to the dangers and deprivations right?
 
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