Highest Rated Comments


VinegaDoppio64 karma

  1. I can only speak two languages fluently; a minority Indian language and English. And I'm conversational in Spanish. I feel like I'd feel most welcome in a majority English speaking nation, so that only leaves open North America, some of Europe, Australia, and Singapore.

  2. Culture and food - I have stuck close to American culture in terms of food and media, and my dad went to university in the US so he brought some of that back with him.

  3. Tech - I'm an avid tech geek and salaries for the tech field can a factor of 1.5-2 times higher for the same work, when you consider lower taxes, in the US than Europe or Canada. Mixed with a lower cost of living (rent, goods, etc), and the US wins economically. Zero interesting or stimulating tech work happens in Dubai, even if the salaries are up to par with the US (in fact they can often be higher), but money isn't everything and the career growth potential here is zilch.

  4. Ideally I'd like to maintain a life in the US but also explore other countries. I have always wanted to visit East Asia, for example. But I don't think I'd want to live anywhere other than the US.

  5. Nature - the US has brilliant and beautiful nature, compared to the soulless desert of Dubai. India has nice nature too but is not respecting nor taking care of it whatsoever. Bangalore went from Garden City to looking like Blade Runner IRL. I love the mountain states (CO, UT) but also the PNW a lot.

VinegaDoppio56 karma

I've stayed in the US for 3-4 months at a time, so I've experienced it somewhat. Well my image of the US is sheltered late 2000s Norcal suburb life. The difference in treatment of women throughout Western Europe and North America is far more similar than it is different. It is without a doubt better than both India and Dubai, now at least, if not historically.

I'd say it depends. As for the Emiratis of Dubai, it would be hard to say that they treat women very well. They are some of the most liberal and open-minded Arabs out there - second only to Omanis, in my experience, leagues above Saudis for sure - but a lot of their conservative and Islamic ideology is definitely present. I know a very intelligent half Emirati girl who wants to study medicine and although her English mother supports it, her Emirati father is very much against it, but he's letting her do so anyways. At least they send their daughters to school etc.

But keep in mind that Emiratis are only 11% of the population in Dubai. They may hold all the political power, but zero social power. And from that perspective, socially it all depends on whom you hang out with. My classmates are British and are really racist (makes me wonder whether the UK is really like that, but from what I hear Dubai Brits tend to be much worse).

I guess it's easy to get the image of India as being a rape-filled shithole when you only have internet access to it. All these rape headlines keep popping up on INTERNATIONAL WORLD NEWS etc. There is a rape reported in the US every 6.2 minutes, and that is less than India's population minus ONE BILLION people. Imagine how many articles you could spam reddit with. But then again the only reporting is when it happens to tourists anyways...

India is a pretty socially liberal state from a legal and constitutional standpoint - in fact the constitution is really similar to the US's, probably as they both inherited English common law. But the corruption and social toxicity in India is on another level sometimes. The muslims of India are way more regressive than the muslims of the UAE, in fact. Not saying Hindus or Christians are very progressive, either.

TL;DR - what I'm getting at here: Let's take Dubai as its expat world, and India as a typical urban city. With that in mind, I'd say that India treats women better legally, whereas Dubai treats women better socially (the expats at least) but not legally. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of restrictions for women here in Dubai - I don't even think they can travel without their husband's permission. EDIT: yes they can lol I'm an idiot, but they are still not as privileged as men. Still have way more rights than other Arab countries though

VinegaDoppio51 karma

There's no grass to even be green in the desert, auntie

VinegaDoppio21 karma

Right now the weather is awesome, it was about 15C (60F) this morning - which is my ideal temperature. But it reaches 40C (104) during the summer easily.

You're never really outside that often in Dubai. You'll go from your air conditioned home to your air conditioned car, to the air conditioned mall. Most people hang out and socialize at the mall. Nobody walks here except during winter.

Commonly people take up to 2 months off per year, which is of course always the summer, during which they'll go and enjoy the summers of London/Chicago/etc or the winters of Sydney. Emiratis do it too.

VinegaDoppio17 karma

My school is a British school for expats, around 60% British, 20% Indian and 20% other nationalities. There are two Emiratis; one of them I occasionally talk to, the other one is half Emirati half English, her mother and my mother are friends. But her Emirati father remains a kind of enigmatic mystery, even to his own wife and daughter sometimes.