Look up the word "wasta" on Google.
This word is highly applicable in the Arab world. I get to witness it on a regular basis.

-Guys (usually in a Lexus) often drive around 200kph (124mph), and the radar cameras get them. Because of their families, the tickets vanish. Wasta.

-Cars get parked in the travel lane of car parks while the owner goes shopping or some such. Tickets get issued, and vanish. Wasta.

-The plum jobs that pay the most go to people of certain families, regardless of credentials, training or even basic competence. Wasta.

The fun part of this for me, though, is watching the resulting incompetence of people who are utterly dependent on others for the most basic things, because they've never had to lift a finger in their lives. My favorite examples:

-watching one of these guys order a steak at a restaurant, then making the waiter cut it up into bite sized chunks for him.

-watching another guy trying to figure out the intricacies of using a fork to eat spaghetti, then resorting to his fingers.

-a ten year old boy, learning to tie his shoelaces for the first time, tying his shoe to his chair- and being unable to escape, because it never occurred to him to slip his foot out of the shoe.

Wasta.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Sun 12 Oct 2014, 11:11, 15 replies)

yeah being spoilt rotten sounds like hell

( d.r._and_quinch when will you be famous?, Sun 12 Oct 2014, 11:46, closed)

wanka

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 12 Oct 2014, 11:56, closed)

tosser go away

( d.r._and_quinch when will you be famous?, Sun 12 Oct 2014, 12:07, closed)

I read of a case recently where a Saudi prince (they have hundreds apparently) escalated his business dispute with a former colleague by running that gentleman over several times with a Mercedes

The business partner survived and brought a lawsuit for the local equivalent of Damages for Assault and Battery. A properly convened court examined the CCTV footage and took witness statements,then concluded that the incident never occurred and the claimants injuries must have been incurred in some other unrelated way, then dismissed the case.

Wasta?

irritatingly, although my memory of the press coverage is clear, I cant now find it using google. I'd have liked to add a link to this post - sorry.
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Sun 12 Oct 2014, 12:03, closed)

I'm pretty sure that was Brian Harvey

(Plague Hedgehog 'posting crap', Sun 12 Oct 2014, 14:06, closed)

Yup. Wasta.
There was an expat I heard about who got rammed by a huge SUV at ludicrous speed who them spent three months in the hospital. When he emerged he asked the police what the status of his case was, and was told that there was no case and he should just forget the whole thing.

Wasta.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 13 Oct 2014, 7:03, closed)

This is always what I think about
when someone is wittering on about how great their life is in Dubai or places like that. I have a lot of clients based there, and get it all the time.

For every one that has a massive flat and a 911 turbo, there seem to be three who have been thrown in jail for wearing odd socks, been fired and had to leave the Porsche at the airport on the way out. They all seem to get home penniless as well.

I spent a decade living in the 3rd world, was treated much better and managed to come out of it ahead.

Yeah, ex-pat lifestyle. I don't think so.
(username failed moderation, Mon 13 Oct 2014, 10:08, closed)

interesting

It never occurred to me that Saudi Arabia / other generic Arabia would have so much in common with Russia
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Tue 14 Oct 2014, 18:44, closed)

Even if it's going 'well' it still seems to me that you're living in nothing more than a tacky, cultural vortex.

( Slippery Mick ‏, Tue 14 Oct 2014, 20:01, closed)

It has its benefits.
I actually do enjoy it. We don't have a flash car or go to the expensive restaurants- our life here is pretty low-key- but I do get to drive my Jeep in the desert, go camping on the sands whenever I like and can go to Oman as the mood takes me. My friends here are from all over the globe, so I get to know people I would otherwise never encounter.

But yeah, it's also full of idiots over here who get carried away by making good money and go apeshit.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 15 Oct 2014, 8:53, closed)

An ex-colleague works in Saudi. Desn't drive there since his first day,
He was walking to his hire car (parked perfectly legally in the hire company's car park) when a local drove straight into the side of it. He had the hire car keys in his hand - so the local fuzz decided it was his fault, I mean, if he hadn't needed a hire car it wouldn't have been parked there, now would it?
He has a local driver now - provided by the company at their expense..
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Sun 12 Oct 2014, 14:49, closed)

Hence the popular Arabic children's programme
Wastamouse
(Bob the Builder killed Captain Alex, Mon 13 Oct 2014, 5:21, closed)

I'd love to see one of these guys sporting dreadlocks
just so I could call him a Wastafarian.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 13 Oct 2014, 7:05, closed)

Just got an image of
Jonathan Ross trying to interview Bob Marley
(fivetide, Tue 14 Oct 2014, 17:29, closed)

" .. and now with a wasta-style weggae wemix of wed wed wine...."
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Thu 16 Oct 2014, 0:05, closed)