UPDATED: A Sign of the Times

One day I will figger out all the intricacies and nifty tricks of the blogosphere. There is a way to "backtrack" to another blog but at the moment, I don't have the time so I have to just plagiarize in my usual way.


Anyhow, here is the subject of this post:

I first heard about this on a radio interview with the Porsche owner, Andy, a Construction PM who was (obviously) looking for a new job here. He said the back of the car needed to be "redone" anyway so he wrote on it.

The photo was taken by "Seabee" and posted on his blog Life in Dubai. The media in the UK picked up on it and from there the photo and the story have circled the globe! "Seabee" called in during the radio interview and talked about why he took the photo. Kind of a sign of the times.

Losing your job here is a big deal. One must be "sponsored" in order to live here and for most of us, that is our employers. The employment laws are rather convoluted but as I understand it, when one loses their job, your Visa is cancelled and you have a one month grace period (maybe two if your employer is generous) to either find another job (or sponsor) or leave the country. Since employment prospects are rather grim now, many people are pretty much forced to pack up and go home.

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UPDATE: 28 February 09

The good news for Porsche-Guy (aka Andrew Blair) is that all the exposure around the photo of his car resulted in a new job. Someone called the number enquiring about the car and ended up hiring him. Nice to hear. The National newspaper.

The bad news for Porsche-Guy is because of all the exposure around the photo of his car, his driving record and outstanding fines came under scrutiny and the car was impounded! In Dubai, one can go to the Dubai Police website, type in a license plate number (not necessarily your own) and see all the dirty little secrets of that car's owner. Since the plate number was on the original photo, some bloggers with more free time than I have checked it out; seems he had 3,850 Dirhams ($1,336CDN) in unpaid fines.

Porsche-guy says he has been humbled by the experience (having to take taxis everywhere will do that to ya!), it has opened his eyes to the fragility of this place and alls well that ends well

Incidentally, I have 1,500 Dirhams ($520CDN) in fines. They opened up the new Za'abeel Road a while back and I was using that beautiful new 3-lane freeway everyday for a few weeks before I noticed that the speed limit is only 80kph. Dubai is more or less "tax-free" but they've got other ways of generating revenue.