Meant to be moving to Dubai in 4 weeks

[Medesres]

We've been planning a move to Dubai for a while now. Dh's work has an office out there and it seemed like great opportunity to live abroad and experience sth different. I've got a couple of friends out there already too who love the lifestyle.

Watching the news for the past 24 hours and I'm really starting to question things. I had no idea how close to Iran it was and who knows what might happen next. Part of me is hoping it will all be resolved soon but hard to believe.

My friend who already lives there has spent the night sleeping in one room with her dh and kids scared of all the missile noises.

Look at how quickly all wars are not ending right now then decide if it's only going to last days or fire up again. I wouldn't be going

Astounded that the responses you got are not more practical!

Your DH needs an urgent talk with his employer. His employer will almost certainly postpone the move, at very least until things are more settled. Has he signed a contract already? Is this a secondment? He might want to explore with them whether he continues in his current UK role, or if he works remotely on the new role until a move is possible. I don’t know what his work is, but events may severely affect their operations.

Have you also organised to let your UK house out or signed any leases? Cancel it all if you possibly can.

@VaccineSticker umm of course many people know Russia borders on to European countries like Norway, what with a good part of Russia being a European country itself and a big player in many major land wars in Europe over the last few centuries.

Not everyone wallows in ignorance.

Unfortunately, none of us have a time machine that will enable us to go back and put a stop to slave trading earlier than the UK stopped it in the 1830s.

Time has moved on, and most people have realised that human rights are important. The minority that haven't and are still happy to live in and travel to countries with pisspoor human rights only have themselves to blame when it goes tits up for them.

My DH & I are openly affectionate,holding hands & sharing the occasional peck (not snogging) in public as many do.This being prohibited is enough alone to make me concerned about going there never mind anything else.

I don't blame anyone for not seeing this shitshow coming so suddenly but I absolutely will raise an eyebrow at anyone who doesn't know where Dubai is. Especially so if you're planning to actually emigrate there, but even if you have no plans to go anywhere near Dubai you should know where it is on a map, and you should know where Iran is. It's basic world geography and you shouldn't even have to look it up. I am genuinely astonished that anyone can get to adulthood without this knowledge.

I keep thinking of that bit in the Bridget Jones book where she doesn't know where Germany is.

But Dubai is the very opposite of culture and history. People go there specifically for the hotels and shopping malls etc.

My neighbours went for a weeks holiday last year and considering moving there. No mention of anything in any way cultural. They like the swimming pools, the shops, the cheap luxury goods, that they would be able to afford housekeeper and nanny etc. They didn't go outside at all because it was too hot. They could have been anywhere.

And now the UAE is making genuine reforms to protect these workers and trying to improve things for them.

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/crime/dubai-man-sentenced-to-3-months-in-jail-deportation-after-assault-leaves-wife-disabled

I have met a few people that have lived in Dubai, all of them intelligent enough to make a lot of money - so certainly not dim, if thats what you are inferring.

I am sure the OP is glad she posted here asking what she should do.
Only about 10 posters have actually answered her question, but at least she has been fully informed that the rest of the pps are cleverer, more enlightened, more geographically and politically aware and just generally better people than she is.

Also if you were moving to UAE for culture... why not another town or city that is less westernised?

There is culture in Dubai, for sure. It's a very old place. I have been to ancient museums there. The spice souk and the gold souks are living historic monuments to a way of life, and the boats on the river are a sight. I can't remember what they're called, but they're a shape specific to the area. Then there's the natural wonder that is the desert.

Ask to delay the move for 6 months and reassess then. You can’t make a sensible decision now, it’s far too early in the conflict to know how this is going to play out.

Probably because Dubai has jobs for Westerners, having welcomed so many companies. And the business language is English.

No security guards in the gold Souk despite so much gold around. Felt super safe compared to London jewelry stores.

She did know where Germany was. She just couldn't name all EIGHT countries that surrounded it. Not being able to name every surrounding country when there are so many is not the same as not knowing where somewhere is, geographically. It's not like she thought Germany was south of Spain, is it!

And of course the OP knows that Dubai is in the ME and where the ME is. But it's near many other countries, at least seven.

Isn't the distinction that you're not planning to emigrate there?

That's not true.
There are security guards employed there, and a high level of surveillance.
Of course there are, they're selling gold!

France, Italy, Switerland, Netherlands, Poland, Latvia

Austria

countries surrounding Germany

is that correct

no Italy doens't boarder Germany - Denmark does

The only country bordering Germany that it might be acceptable to not know as an adult is Luxembourg because it's so small. The other seven are really really obvious to anyone who's looked at a map of Europe once.

But this isn't about a fictional character's ignorance being played for laughs, it's about not knowing that Dubai is in that bit of the map and Iran (which is quite large and unmissable) is just over the gulf from it. Adults should know those things. Adults who are about to emigrate to Dubai should definitely know those things.

Actually you sound perfect for Dubia @Medesres

Anyway sod Dubai, anyone concered about the cost of living would do well to educate themselves on what and where the Stait of Hormuz is.