On Chinese

Sometimes I wish I could be sorrydubai and just go nuts in the post...cos there doesn't appear to be anyone else heeerrreee...

Anyways, for my non-existent audience, here's something from my murky past...

At one point, briefly, I had a thing for Chinese women in a big way and dated quite a few of them. It never panned out, usually because the racial thing was just too big to overcome. Not for me - for them. From what I've observed, Chinese are raised to believe that they are racially superior to all other races. In *every* way. Westerners who marry Chinese are looked down upon and the girl even more so because she dares to defy tradition and 'soil" herself. (Note that there are almost no Chinese guys who marry foreign women - that should tell you something right there.) The girl usually does it because the money is good and this is not a bad thing, according to the Chinese social circle. If a girl marries money, it's perfectly acceptable, apparently. But the husband will never be truly made welcome. And she should never forget that by blood, she is better. Forget about Indians or Africans or any other race; those are like vermin.

Trust me, I could write a book on these guys...spent a long time observing them. But getting back to the point, I was at uni one day (loong long ago) and I had just been dumped by yet another Chinese girl. As luck would have it, I was the only guy in a class full of Chinese girls and the tutor's question was : "Have you ever dated someone of another ethnicity and if no, would you ever do it?"

Again, as the question went round the class, fortune had placed me right at the end. And I just couldn't believe my ears. Not a single girl, from nearly every region - China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesis - had ever dated someone not Chinese and they wouldn't do so either. Listening to those responses one after the other just turned my stomach. And because of this so called PCness, nobody wanted to actually admit being racist but by gum, were they having trouble. And of course, when it came to my turn, I looked like a right fool.

Listen all. you poor bachelors in Dubai seeking solace in the arms of that Chinese hooker - you would run screaming into the night if you only knew what they thought of you. I'm not kidding when I say that their skin crawls at the very sight of you. They would rather have a 65 yr old English leper with half a dozen STDs than sleep with your Asian ass. Same goes for the locals, sorry guys if you thought you were any better. But thank goodness for the almighty dirham, because that is the great equaliser. As in all things in life, money will sort out your qualms.

About that smile...

In the vein of man bites dog,
Man fined for swearing.

Another day, another pointless argument. People could learn a thing or two from Mean Girls and stop with the softcore public insults, and start treating each other with a litte respect. If you think of the other person as a human being, you might not be so quick to dish out the four letter words and start belittling them. Or maybe it is because this new modern society we live in means that courtesy is old fashioned? One of the things that used to be great about living here was that everybody played nice and understood each other's problems.

Are we as a society destined towards savagery? I'm no wine-sipping gallery owner, but aren't we supposed to climb out on the pit, not roll backwards?

Inaugural blowhard post...

Sharjah has a sign that says, "Smile, you are in Sharjah." It is written in flowers.

Dubai needs something like that.

Of course, mighty Dubai doesn't need a sign like that - we have all these wonderful (and they truly are) architetural monoliths to show everyone Dubai is the place to be, if you wanna be someone. This is a young, vibrant city, the kind that's fresh out of university and eager to take on the world and show the folks that all that money didn't go to waste. No one can give you the time of day here because their watch is set to tomorrow. We will soon have a ski slope in the desert. We have our own Grand Prix series, the world's richest horse race and engineering masterpieces like the Palm and the Burj.

Thing is, we're just too busy to put up a sign like that. Who has time to smile anyway? What is a smile? Can I spend it? Everyone's trying to change - this country is like the world's largest self help group. Everyone rushing from A to B, clinging to pillar C while shoving the next guy offa D. Hey, I'm not complaining: change is good. Without change, this remarkable environment (and you Shk Z - we miss ya) the lives of myself and millions of others might well have been different in another country, working against the odds to survive. But no one is ever satisfied The government keeps pushing for improvements, the workforce wants more salaries and the rich - well, they just want to get richer (but I'm pretty sure they are happy.) Maybe it's modern consumerist society - grab that brass ring now! Are we satisfied? Ask the average person and they'll say "Sure...but here's my laundry list of changes for the UAE that will make my life better.." - in other words, missing the point of the question.

Forget it people. Think you are content because of that car/watch/mobile? You will never be as long as you make that brass ring real. Sometimes, you just have to smile. Just forget it all and think, "all things considered, this place ain't that bad. In fact, I may just like it. But you didn't hear it from me."

Our real problem is those Sharjah guys.