Filipinos in Dubai: The Job Hunting Never Ends…..

I arrived in Dubai January 2, 2011 with the hope that I would be able to get a better paying job. Now that I only have few days to stay, I need to plan, prepare, and pray hard that things would go well for me after the expiration of my tourist visa.

The Filipino HR practitioners of Dubai sponsored a job fair for all Filipinos and non-Filipinos who are job hunting. I was coaxed by my friend to try my luck and file my application but I ended up as a volunteer assessor of the event since I have background and exposure in HR for seven years. I was overwhelmed to see the number of people standing in a very long queue while holding tightly their papers due to the strong wind blowing, hoping that they will be interviewed and get the job that they need very badly.

As I started to interview applicants, I tried my best to make them feel good by smiling at them and giving my warm greeting. As they shared their stories, I couldn't help but react hearing what they are going through. For those who are presently employed, they wanted to leave and get a new job because they have not received any salary increase for many years of hard work and commitment to the company. Others experience unfair distribution of benefits or no benefits at all despite their very small salary. For most of them, they have to bear with their malevolent bosses for fear of losing their jobs.

Many of the applicants I have assessed are just like me. They are on a tourist visa which is about to expire in few days. Seemingly, they feel like they are convicted of a crime they did not commit, being unemployed. I can’t help but feel very sorry for all of them. At the end of the fair, I just realized that I was not able to submit my job application because I felt I was called more to help than to apply for a job at that moment.

Faith, hope, hard work, and prayer are the most important things I can rely on at this point of my job hunting here in Dubai. In fact, my friends were saying that I am a "jobless person" who is earning money here. My first week, I was given a chance to conduct a seminar to the government officers of Nigeria, the very first training I have conducted outside of my country as a training consultant. Then, I worked for a few weeks for an educational company with pay. Now, I am an English tutor to Korean students plus I am an Assistant Supervisor of Forever Living Products. I just feel very blessed despite what I am going through. I know that God is always with me and I don’t fear anything at all. He is paving the way for me knowing that one day I will get the job that is best for me.

I left the place full of hope for myself but feeling quite sad for those who were there job hunting. I am very proud of all the Filipino HR practitioners for coming up with such a great activity which gave hope and opportunities for everyone. I felt the genuine and deep concern of all the members of the association and I have witnessed their generosity and compassion not only to the Filipinos but to other nationalities as well.

These are some of the many realities happening among Filipinos here in Dubai. I can’t thank enough this place for giving hope and for sharing good opportunities for people from all walks of life. I know that pessimism and cynicism would not help and neither would it help if I blame our government leaders after seeing a lot of Filipinos going through the grueling process of job hunting outside of our country. Prayers and hope are the words I would like to hold on to that I may see the Philippines one day being a haven of prosperity and abundance for my countrymen.

The Greatest Love of All!

Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all! This famous line from the song popularized by George Benson is my dream song that I would like to belt out in a singing contest someday and sing it with full of conviction and emotion.

Looking back, I started working at the age of 21 as a Filing Clerk under a manpower agency. I was very excited because it was my very first job and chance to earn money after 14 years of schooling. As a fresh graduate, I was full of energy and excitement to work, only to find out that I would experience being treated like a Utility man in the office. I don't have anything against those kinds of people but I remember my colleagues then who are regular employees of the bank where I worked who would always ask me to buy snacks for them. I even remember buying a 'band aid' for one lady and I thought that she would ask me to buy her a napkin too. Wow! That was indeed quite downgrading for me and painful because my hand had to get all the cuts and bruises from the fasteners every time I was asked to get a file of documents.

After few months, I was given a chance to work in one of the biggest groups of companies in Makati as a Personnel Clerk. I consider this as the most traumatic and embarrassing experience in my entire career life because my spinster boss just loved to humiliate and scold me in front of my office mates. I even remember crying like a child in front of her while she was admonishing me from failing to meet her work expectations. I pitied myself so much but I had to persevere and endure her because I was afraid to lose my job for it was very difficult then to find one. Most especially, it was hard for me to think that I would not be able to help my parents financially.

After many years of working in companies and schools, I was given a chance to work abroad as a Guidance Counselor in Jakarta, Indonesia. This time it was a totally different environment working with people from different backgrounds and orientations. I enjoyed being with students but it was a very challenging and hell- raising experience to have a rude, despicable, and slave driver bosses. They would ask you to do the job no matter what it takes. They don't care if you are sick and the worst is that they don't totally mind at all if you are grieving for a death of a loved one. I remember the time when I lost my first nephew to a motorbike accident. I was devastated that I couldn't go home to the Philippines to see the last remains of my beloved nephew. In fact, my sick boss was asking me to report for work. I raised my voice and told her that I am a counselor who needed counseling at that moment.

This time I am here in Dubai and seemingly I am reliving the same experience. It takes a lot of humanity for someone to swallow his pride, values, and even personal happiness just to earn money. Sadly, for many Filipinos who work abroad they send the fruit of their pain and hardwork to their families back home. From the very first day I started earning up to this time, I never experience enjoying fully the fruits of my labor. It was my choice but I think that I am not being fair to myself and at the same time not loving myself that much.

Now, I finally realized that I have to love myself first before I can continue to love others especially the people who are close to my heart. As I grow older, I know that I can only rely on my own resources and the unfathomable love of God for me.

Looking back to those significant moments of my life, I never thought that I would be able to survive them. I will never allow that to happen again because this time I have learned that I have to love myself more than anyone else. My love for God will be the ultimate reason for my living and loving but learning to love myself first more than anyone else is the greatest love of all because how can you love someone if you don't have enough love within yourself?

Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all!

Tailgating by Dubai Road Bullies

I drove for quite sometime mostly in Dubai roads until mid Aug of 2010.  While I miss driving, one thing that I surely don’t miss is the ‘tailgating’ that I constantly experienced from bully drivers along Dubai roads. But even now as a mere passenger in a car, I still get to experience being irked by the tailgaters although, its emotional effects on me  would be of less magnitude as it used to be when I was driving.  There are a lot of bully drivers in Dubai roads and they come from different nationalities and their bullying comes in many forms, where tailgating is one of them.  I just cannot fathom why some drivers have to drive very close behind one’s vehicle and continuously flash the headlights even if there is a speed limit in the road and there are installed radars along the way. What does the bully driver gain when the driver in front of him/her decides to shift to the other lane as a result of the tailgating and continuous flashing? a distance of barely 7-10 meters before being stopped by the next traffic lights?   a flash by the radar to record the over speeding? I suppose it is more than these. It is the bully in the person. It is the bully personality that is coming out in the road. We can only surmise how this bully personality manifests itself in other settings like work, clubs, social circles, etc.  Another form of bullying that is as annoying is this habit of some drivers to beep the moment the traffic light turns green. Within  milliseconds after  the light has signaled ‘go’, some drivers would beep those in front of them as if driving ahead at that very moment is a matter of life and death. To my observation, most of the drivers who do this represent one nationality although there are those who come from other nationalities as well.  These bullies in Dubai roads surely bring road hazards and endanger the life of other motorists. No wonder that road accidents incidents  in Dubai have always been very high and drivers do not seem  mindful at all and  do not seem to learn from the folly and tragedy of other drivers.

The Boxer: Manny Pacman Pacquiao

I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told

I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles such are promises

I used to sing this song of Simon & Garfunkel very frequently in the happy days of yore as a teenager and young adult. It is one of the songs that my cousins, friends, and I would love to sing during our jamming sessions through a guitar accompaniment from a male cousin who was quite a guitar virtuoso. He could play the chords and the tabs of the song very close to the memorable finger-picking guitar playing  by guitarist Fred Carter, Jr.  when they would do its live version then.While the song lends itself to good and easy singing especially with acoustic accompaniment, I suppose what endeared us to the song was more than this. It must be its literal if not sublime message… one poor young boy’s flight from poverty and his turning into boxing to sustain his survival.

When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy...   running scared, laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go…

While Paul Simon as lyricist  suggests  that the lyrics of the song is largely autobiographical,  could this song be foretelling if not prophetic of  one poor boy from the Philippines who as a grown-up  man would eventually become one of the most revered and celebrated boxers in our era? The song was composed, commercially released, and consequently became hugely popular in 1968, 10 years before Manny Pacquiao first saw the light of the world.   As echoed by the first line of the second stanza of the song, Manny Pacquiao left poverty and his home in Mindanao, Phils. to search for a greener pasture in Manila, where initially, he lived the life akin to that of a street urchin.

Asking only workman's wages I come looking for a job

 But I get no offers…

Manny did everything possible that his bare hands could lay and within his physical strength, manual skills, guts, and ‘never surrender’ attitude, to survive the rat-race life in the city of Manila.  Eventually, he got into amateur boxing, initially with the simple and sole intention of financially supporting himself and his family. Manny has said more than once before that it was not his dream to be a world champion but only a national champion and he said that God gave Him more than what he aspired for and he is very grateful for that.

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade…

The last stanza of the song depicts the ‘boxer’ as badly beaten by the fighter and in anger and shame had to leave the arena while the ‘fighter’ stands victorious, tall, and proud.  As the song can only be as meaningful as the listener puts into it, in the last stanza I will put my own attributions to the words contained.  I would put forward my conceptualization that this is where the difference lies between Manny Pacquiao and the ‘boxer’ as depicted in the song.  The parallelism of their lives ends here. As Manny has become a ‘fighter’ in the song and not the ‘boxer’, a fighter who would risk his life by fighting toe-to-toe and face his adversary head-on no matter how significantly taller or heavier the other fellow might be.

I had never been a boxing fan and admittedly, I became only interested and eventually somehow addicted to boxing just very recently. It is Manny Pacquiao, the fighter, who inculcated in me this interest in boxing.  There had been too many famous and excellent boxers before but they did not stir my interest up in the sport even if I would watch every big fight of them on TV. Is it because none of them was Filipino? Perhaps, but more than this, I suppose it is the personality of Manny Pacquiao that endears me to him and got me hooked into the sport. He is not just a champion boxer but he is a fighter, one who is not afraid to fight any opponent, and a person who has the heart of a champion. It is not just his boxing skills that make him win his fights but his attitude, his discipline, his passion, and dedication. He is ‘no fear’, ‘never surrender’, ‘do or die’, ‘no pain no gain’, ‘no guts no glory’ personified. And because of all of these, he has fashioned his craft to perfection. He has become a virtuoso and this is the more important reason why I have become a big fan of him. When I watch his fight (and I do it again and again and again via the recorded version), I marvel at his skills. His display of unique boxing skills in the ring fascinates me to no end. It is like hearing a musical prodigy play the violin or the piano. It is like listening to Placido Domingo singing, or watching Michael Jordan play basketball. He has become a master of the sport and of his craft and whoever he faces in the ring, it does not really matter to me, because I would enjoy watching it because of his boxing skills that sets him apart from the rest.

I have watched other popular fighters both contemporary and from the past just for me to see and compare. Among the contemporary ones, I have watched the fights of De La Hoya, Mayweather, Hopkins, Cotto (who I admire very much for his being a perfect gentleman in and out of the ring), Katsidis, Hatton, Malignaggi, Bradley, Berto, etc., but I would dare say that Manny Pacquiao’s agility inside the ring, his speed, his footwork, his head movement, and his seven-punch combination coming from different angles set him apart.

In the end, I suppose I love watching Manny Pacquiao and I idolize him because he inspires me to be the best that I can be and he  reminds me of the following virtues that I should persevere to have and to keep:  hardwork, patience, passion, dedication, humility, generosity, and above all Love of God!  As a working expat, adhering to these virtues, especially patience and humility, is several times more challenging while Love of God through words and deeds is nothing short of indispensable as a ‘survival tool’ and I suppose only fellow expats working in the Middle East would be able to understand what I mean and relate to what I am trying to say.

The New UAE Residence Visa Rule: A bane or a boon?

The new UAE Residence Visa Rule that was made in effect Jan 1, 2011 drew and has been drawing mixed reactions from people from different sectors.  There are some quarters that favor it and there are those that strongly oppose it.  Understandably, majority of business owners condemn it for reasons that stem from a business practical standpoint. I cannot blame them, however, I would rather dwell on how this new rule is perceived by people who come from the other end of the spectrum-  the employees.  

While this new rule can be regarded as a bane by most employers and business people (for obvious reasons), it definitely is a boon for employees. It is like music to the ears of working expats here. The UAE President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in his speech delivered on the National Day celebration in December 2010 stated that ‘the labor market reforms are a challenge the UAE is addressing as part of its human development process’.  Personally, it is such a welcome relief reading and hearing about this good news. This initiative by  the Ruler is generally seen to be very relevant at this point as  it is giving a clear signal to   not only the expat workers here but the international community as well that the UAE government is sincere about instituting reforms in the labor law to make it more sensitive and responsive to the plight of workers. It is beyond refute that the UAE Labor Law has been  so ‘pro-employer’ so much so that the employees cannot help but believe that they do not matter at all in the whole ‘labor equation’,  thereby making them feel  stripped of their dignity as workers. It is the same labor law that also enables employers and business owners to exploit the workers who just have to endure their predicament no matter how difficult it may be,  just merely for survival.   

The following are the   special features of the new resolution that everyone should keep in mind as they stipulate two imperative requirements or conditions for it to be upheld:
1. The two contracting parties must have ended their work relationship cordially;
2. The worker should have worked with his /her employer for at least two years — the duration of the new labor card which will be issued by early January.

It also  defines two cases in which the worker can obtain new work permit after the end of the job contract without the agreement of the contracting parties:

1.       When the employer fails to honour his legal or contractual obligations;

2.       In the event of expiry of a work relationship where the worker is not responsible for it, but there is a complaint filed by the worker against the firm, an inspection report should prove that the firm has been out of business for more than two months. As well, it should determine the worker has reported the same to the ministry.

It should also be borne in mind that the new resolution states that a new employment permit will only be granted to a worker after the end of his/her work relationship with his/her employer. But unlike before, it would not necessitate an automatic six-month ban which was usually calculated after the cancellation of the worker’s labor card.

On the premise that laws or labors laws for that matter are progressive in design and purpose, there is enough reason to hope that this signals the beginning of  periodic reforms in UAE Labor Laws  as the nation’s rulers  put  ‘the human development process’ part of their top priority.

We have sufficient reason to hope that sooner, this country will be a much better place to live and work in.

a sorrowful expat tale: death of a loved one back home

Since I became an expat more than 6 years ago, the thought of receiving sad news about the death of a loved one back home has never been totally elusive. Once in a while, it crosses my mind and everytime I get an international call from back home especially during an unexpected moment,  I feel a terrible feeling that is quite inexplicable until I hear what the other person has to say from the other end of the line. Same feeling I have  for unexpected text messages from  a relative back home until I get to read them. I have been quite successful in setting the thought aside and focus on more productive and positive thought processes though.

However, once in a while, real life experiences of people around us would serve as knockers.  This is the predicament that I am in at the moment. My dear friend and colleague lost her dear mother a few days back. While the cause of death was not instant (leukemia), there is no full preparation to losing a loved one that would completely insulate us from the sorrow that it brings. I knew the pain that she felt and still is feeling because I lost three loved ones before. But I know that the pangs that she is feeling now are deeper as she was not able to go home to see her mother. The moment she told me that she no longer has a mom, the sorrow and pain that I felt was automatic. Call it vicarious experience. I cried as she did.  Maybe, I was crying not just for her loss but for fear that it may happen to my life as well.  I know that she wanted to go home but the realities at work prevented her from making that choice. It is really sad and I am angry because 'the power that be' in her employment  could have done something to make it possible for her to go home. But sadly,  that was not the case.  This is the Middle East and this is not the Philippines.

I remember a story of one Filipina who worked as domestic helper for an Arab family in Abu Dhabi years back. One day she was informed about the suddent death of her very young daughter. She was begging  to be allowed to go home by her employer  but it all fell on deaf ears. She could not do anything as they had her passport. I cannot just imagine what she went through at that time. God forbids, but if it happens to me, I  am not sure what drastic decision and action I can possibly do.  I cannot fathom why there are people who can be too selfish and egocentric.

This is part of the reality of the life of some expatriates. There are those who are luckier to be part of a more humane work environment, others are not as lucky.

residential property rental in dubai; the never-ending shifting from one residence to another

Now that I am two-and-a-half months away from ending my lease contract for my studio flat at Discovery Gardens, the idea about checking out the property market for the trend in  rental has become more pressing. I am reminded of the number of times I went through the same process of checking and  scaling the residential property market in the past and it surprised me to know that my length of stay in Dubai   has far been exceeded by the number of  times I have transferred residence.  In December 2004, from a 2-bedroom flat in Al Twar whose rental was around Dhs45,000 per annum, I transferred to a 3-bedroom flat in Port Saeed for Dhs65,000 per annum. After a 10-month stay, we were booted out by the real estate for the reason that we were not   'one family' as defined by the lease contract.  From there, in Oct 2005, we transferred to a 2-bedroom flat in a new building in Bur Dubai for Dhs65,000 plus a Municipality tax that to our computation would amount to 8-9% of the annual rent.  As we could barely manage the monthly rental in view of the fact that the rent kept on increasing while the salary was at a standstill, we all had to eventually vacate the flat and go separate ways. I found myself thereafter renting an old room at a very old villa in Jafliya near the DWTC roundabout and close to the Al Diyafa, Satwa area. To help me manage the expensive rent at Dhs2,800 per month, I had to put up a makeshift divider, place a one double deck bed and get 2 bedspacers.   For quite sometime, things were  going quite well  but came summertime, we encountered frequent cut of the electricity brought about by  the periodic shutting off of the circuit breaker due to overload. There were around 28 rooms that constitute the villa in that compound.  A few months after,  a bigger and major problem came. We were raided by Baladiya twice ordering us to leave as we were not a 'family' and that the area was designated only for 'family'.  I remember that after the first raid, we had to tear down the makeshift division and dismantle the double deck bed as ordered and then the following day had to put them back again. During the second visit of the Baladiya, finding the makeshift division and the double deck back again, we were ordered to vacate the place.  We were told to look for a residence in a place where 'bachelors living together' would be allowed.  It got us all very disappointed  and enraged as we somehow felt that the bachelors' need for shelter, which is very basic, was taken for granted by the government. We could only ask each other where the Dubai government wanted the bachelors to stay and what they wanted them to do given their predicament.

Eventually, I found a 2-bedroom flat in a new building in Al Qusais for Dhs104,000 plus a Municipality tax that was pegged at Dhs760 per month. It was April 2008, the peak of property boom in Dubai and a very opportune time for the greedy property owners and real estate agents to extort money from helpless expats from the lower income bracket. To help me manage the exhorbitant rent, I had to sub-lease one room and get bedspacers too. Sadly, the room tenant and some bedspacers did not pay their rent thereby leaving me struggling to fund the quarterly checks that amounted to Dhs26,000 each. After a year and two instances of bouncing checks, I had to end the lease and look for a cheaper place to stay. This was in the first quarter of 2009, around 4-5 months after Dubai was hit by the financial crisis.  This time, the property rental was on a continuous downward trend and some agents were amenable to a 12-check payment scheme.  With my niece and friends, we found a 2-bedroom flat in Al Nahda, Al Qusais for Dhs70,000 and under a 12-check payment scheme. Halfway through the one-year lease contract, we noticed that the property rental was on a continuous decline still and we could get a 2-bedroom flat in a more accessible area  for a much cheaper rent. However, a clause in the tenancy contract made it difficult for us to decide to do so as the clause stated that in the event that we pre-terminate the lease contract, we would be paying 10% of the total cost of the lease, which was Dhs7,000. The property owners found a way to protect themselves again and minister to their selfishness. By December of 2009, I had to leave my flatmates and stay in a flat maintained by my employer in The Gardens. By April 2010, I had to move out and eventually found a studio flat at Mogul Cluster (the remotest from the entrance) in Discovery Gardens for Dhs40,000 through a 12-check payment scheme.  However, after a few months, I found out that the rental for a studio flat with a wider floor area and in a more accessible location is much much cheaper and they also have a 12-check payment scheme. But if I leave my current place, I would have to pay a penalty charge with Al Nakheel Asset Mgt.

Come Apr 2011, I really have to move out as I anticipate that most likely,  Al Nakheel Asset Mgt.  will either increase  or retain the current rental. Either way, it is not practical and beneficial to me. As I have noticed in my research and in  scanning the property market rental for the last few days, the rental is much lower for a studio flat with wider floor area and in more accessible location.  I would have wanted  to stay in my current flat as it is very tiring to keep on moving out and shifting residence. But then again,  I have to be more practical.

I read in the papers a few months back that the Dubai government will make the Municipality tax mandatory for all buildings up for rent and this has to be borne just the same by the tenant and it will be pegged at 5% of the annual rental. Another burden passed on the shoulder of the helpless tenant when this should be born out by the property owner as has been practiced in other countries.

I remember talking to a finance expert 4 years ago (before the crisis hit Dubai) where he said that the Dubai property market will reach a point that it will correct itself and I suppose that time has come. I am sure property owners projected this as well, hence, they took advantage of the momentary property boom to get the most from helpless tenants  the fastest they could in a short span of  time. Gone are the days when propery owners and real estate agents made it very difficult for tenants through the exhorbitant rent they imposed and  arrogant tenancy conditions. Now is the time for tenants to dictate on the conditions and to some extent on the rent. The property market has corrected itself and  the supply now far exceeds the demand. The power has shifted to the other side of the pole. Property owners and real estate agents who do not recognize this are not grounded on reality.

the dubai debt woes and throes

To find oneself in a pit of financial turmoil is a psychologically devastating  and enervating experience on a daily basis. That is exactly the situation I am in at the moment. The same situation I have been in for the last two years. It seems like a vicious cycle to be in such a predicament and while there has been the intention on my part to honor my responsibilities, the banks make it more difficult for me. They or their agents used to be overly friendly or accommodating, and this was when they would do all they can to lure, coo, and woo prospective customers to excel in the stiff competition then. These banks are not willing to provide a restructuring scheme to their customers, even when the need for such is based on valid grounds. It seems like they would rather that the customers default on their payment and end up in jail.  How I wish to consolidate my debts via obtaining a loan with a bank but sadly,  given the size of my company,  despite its big monthly income,  it could not be listed and will not ever be. For the past year or so, I have been working and not enjoying my salary. There seems to be so much time and too many days left at the end of my money.  Had I the intention of running away from such responsibilities, I would have done it months ago. I would not have come back from my short vacation in May last year. But that is not the kind of person I am. I want to honor these obligations more for my principles and values in life than for anything else. Sometimes I get to tell myself that what is the point of working abroad if I cannot even support my basic necessities and much less save. It is totally pointless. But the thought of honoring my obligations is more important to me. I know the solutions to my debt woes could not be  found here. But I suppose that hearing people go through a similar experience can be therapeutic to me and may be,  they can be some source of support system. 

Need to retire now. Tomorrow is another day. I used to welcome day time but since my credit card woes, nighttime has been my friend. They do not call during nighttime as it is outside their office hours. Such are the throes of the debt woes in Dubai. Goodnight!