Would you retire to a Middle Eastern playground if you could?

[GiveUsThisDayOurDailyPizza]

For example UAE, Qatar

I will probably never be a high net worth individual anyway but even if I was I can’t imagine choosing to spend my retirement years in such places.

Work and live there for a few years to get ahead financially, yes, or a long layover on the way to somewhere else but what makes so many UK expats want to retire there?

This is prompted by something that came up at work. I’d love to understand the appeal as I have to interact with people for whom this is a long term ambition or plan.

I'm not the person holding these country's in high regard, you are.

But I don't condone country's where if you get raped you will end up on prison.

Where the leader kidnapped his own daughter.

Where seedy Saudis prey on young women.

And what’s it to you if I hold “these country’s” in high regard?

Firstly, get your facts right and maybe don’t take your views from the Daily Mail?

Also, seedy Saudis? Like the UK doesn’t have seedy men right? There are seedy men everywhere! In any event, I don’t get sexually harassed walking down the street there. I don’t get groped when I’m out. I don’t get the racial abuse and prejudice there like I do here.

So what’s your point?

This

This thread is about these country's not the UK so no ok not comparing it with UK

If you hold country's in high regard who endorse slavery go ahead.

Oh and yes the leader of Dubai kidnapped his daughter and rape victims get arrested under Sharia law but take your rose tinted glasses off.

Not in a million years...

I don't go to places where women are treated as second class citizens and where religion has been given too much importance.

Out of curiosity- are these men or women? Most Middle Eastern countries don't seem that great for women. Also just physically, I'm not a fan of really hot climates. So it would be a no from me.

Your latest post has shown how ignorant and clueless your comments are, so it’s clearly not me with the tinted glasses.

What countries fall into your grouping of “these country’s” in any event? The Middle East? The gulf? Or any Islamic country, seeing as shariah law apparently gets rape victims locked up.

I would genuinely rather be destitute anywhere else. These places are built on inequality and slave labour, are deeply sexist and bigoted, homosexuality is outlawed. Selling point is low crime because people get their arms chopped off or similarly Barbaric penalties for minor infractions. How is that a plus point? people who go there value money and fripperies (bottomless brunches, shopping, ex pat vacuous fraternising party lifestyle) more than morals and people. Shameful.

I like being outside doing stuff, hiking, cycling, swimming, kayaking, exploring, meandering, walking, gardening.

I have impression it's hard to do those things in those places. Wrong weather, wrong culture (for lone females), and little infrastructure, lack of footpaths & trails & water.

So it wouldn't work. I understand highland Yemen has a nice climate but... not for lone women etc.

Wouldn’t retire there as logistically too difficult but would have liked to bring up my child in Abu Dhabi. My child was 11 when my husband worked out there but I think it would have been a great environment to bring up a preschooler. I don’t especially understand the hatred for the UAE especially from those who have never visited/lived there. It’s an amazing place to visit and live as an expat - or that was our experience. It seems to be a polarising place; you either love it or loathe it and nothing will change the opinions of each side so I won’t even try. I liked it - would I live there permanently? No probably not, I like the seasons, frost, snow, woodland, moorland. I could live there from January-May though.

I have in laws living in UAE and few other ME countries and the women are certainly not treated like second class citizens. They can go out do whatever.
And no they are not white.
Some people here are seem to think every muslim country is Afghanistan they really need to stop read The S*n.
Some of the moaning here is really embarrassing.

This is one of the biggest drawbacks for me. You can't be outdoors from May to October here. And even during the October to May season when you can be outdoors, there is no nature. There is an ocean but otherwise there are no mountains, no likes, no natural parks, no where to hike or explore. There are large man make parks to walk in and you can cycle along highways but there is very little outdoor recreation here.

It is amazingly safe in public for women. During the warm but tolerable pre and post summer shoulder months I walk late in the evening when it is cooler - often by myself at 10 or 11 at night and will walk many kms along the waterfront or in parks or just through neighbourhoods. It feels just as safe as middle of the day. I never worry about safety here at all. It is something I will miss as there aren't many places where it is as safe in public as it is here for women.

Hell would freeze over before i even visited those countries never mind retired there. I have standards which include human rights for everyone.

What countries do you visit that have human rights for everyone? In what country does every citizen and resident feel as though all their human rights are protected and they are an equal with equality in all areas?

What places ensure that everyone is well housed and fed, no poverty, no discrimination, no prejudice, fully accessible for those with disabilities, accessible health care for physical and mental health and addictions, inclusive of all, no migrant workers or illegal workers, full employment rights and benefits for all, no underemployment or underpayment, no corruption, full protection of vulnerable populations, no health inequalities, no education inequalities, etc. What do the poorest and most vulnerable say about their lives in those countries?

I don't disagree that ME countries have human rights issues - I just disagree that other countries don't.

*@Trinity65

How true, re Beirut. I feel so sad for Lebanon. Dh and I had a brilliant holiday there - and in parts of Syria, too, back in the early 70s.

What countries do you visit that have human rights for everyone?

@ExpatinQatar The ECHR is a good place to start if you aren’t aware.
I’m not naive enough to think there are countries where there is a Utopia but many countries at least try to provide basic human rights for everyone living in that country, unlike other countries.

Same with my cousin! And the desert landscape just looks bleak compared with our greenery.

Just stick to ECHR signees then? Ethical travel is actually quite difficult.

The problem is even within ECHR signatories.
I agree that ethical travel would be pretty difficult and I think that if doing it "properly", one would simply not travel

The racism on this thread is astonishing. "Middle Eastern men rape and abuse women" as if rape and abuse is not happening in every countries. I do not think we can lecture the UAE and take the moral high ground when we have a lot of poverty in the UK, employers have been found to be institutionally racist, homophobic and sexist. Overall we are terrible to some minorities e.g. asylum seekers, refugees look how the media portrays them in the UK plus we do not take as much refugees compared to other countries. But I guess people will ignore those things in the UK.

And you think that ME countries don't provide basic human rights?

In Qatar, there are many human rights provided. There are human rights issues but there are also many human rights. The vast majority of the workers here do not want to leave, deportation is the worst outcome for them.

Someone once described Dubai to me as the Trafford centre with the heating on full blast. It's a no from me.

Dubai is probably not the best place to live once the memory starts going.

No way. The amazing buildings and infrastructure are built on the sweat, blood and deaths of slave labour from the Indian sub-continent.

Not a chuffin' chance would I go somewhere that I might be executed for being myself.