Day 11. This is when the road trip gets hard. The days blend together into a routine of work and hotel life. Up at 7:30 am and out the door at 9:00 am. Work until 6:00 pm and back at the hotel at 7:00 pm. One hour to pull up e-mail and back downstairs for a debrief session on the day. 9:00 pm, debrief over and into the coffee shop for dinner. 10:15 pm, back in the room and ready to fall asleep only to wake up in the morning to begin the day all over.
Businesses here face a new labor challenge. How do you get oil rich Kuwaiti's, Emirati's, and Saudi's ready to enter the workplace when the oil runs out and there is no more shared wealth? The government has a mandatory regulation now that X% of employees have to be locals. The only problem is, what local (rich) wants to work in fast food, a factory, or a hotel as a front desk clerk? None of them. But businesses have to comply with the law or they face a finacial penalty from the government. The solution? Employ locals and pay them not to work. I'm sure this will last a few years, maybe 10 but at some point, the culture of foreign workers and local non-workers will have to clash in a big way. There is a lot of resentment already between the two groups. The foreign workers resent the way they are treated by the locals and the locals resent the fact that foreigners represent the overwhelming majority of the population. It's US/Mexico in a smaller fishbowl with higher stakes. This is a long-term issue. I don't think I'll see a change or resolution in my lifetime. If you stay here too long, the polarization really gets to you. I watched this man go to a beverage bar and drop his straw wrapper on the floor. There was a trash drop right in front of him but he didn't care. As soon as he left, a cleaning worker came and picked up the trash. Someday, the world is going to change underneath the haves and they will be left to wonder "what happened?"
Businesses here face a new labor challenge. How do you get oil rich Kuwaiti's, Emirati's, and Saudi's ready to enter the workplace when the oil runs out and there is no more shared wealth? The government has a mandatory regulation now that X% of employees have to be locals. The only problem is, what local (rich) wants to work in fast food, a factory, or a hotel as a front desk clerk? None of them. But businesses have to comply with the law or they face a finacial penalty from the government. The solution? Employ locals and pay them not to work. I'm sure this will last a few years, maybe 10 but at some point, the culture of foreign workers and local non-workers will have to clash in a big way. There is a lot of resentment already between the two groups. The foreign workers resent the way they are treated by the locals and the locals resent the fact that foreigners represent the overwhelming majority of the population. It's US/Mexico in a smaller fishbowl with higher stakes. This is a long-term issue. I don't think I'll see a change or resolution in my lifetime. If you stay here too long, the polarization really gets to you. I watched this man go to a beverage bar and drop his straw wrapper on the floor. There was a trash drop right in front of him but he didn't care. As soon as he left, a cleaning worker came and picked up the trash. Someday, the world is going to change underneath the haves and they will be left to wonder "what happened?"
Wow, fascinating. There was something in the paper about supercities such as San Diego becoming a city for the rich only and the loss of service workers who cannot afford to live there will be felt. It seems the middle class is being phased out everywhere.
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