Moving abroad has made me realise how bloody dire the UK is

[MattHancocksPrivateNurse]

We moved abroad 4 months ago and after the normal wobbles and adjustments I am now shocked at how different (and much better!) life is. We have considerably more spending money despite paying for private school and healthcare (which are much much better than the UK). It’s safer, considerably cleaner, better public services and much better food quality.

already I can’t see us ever going back and already want to explore somewhere new eventually! But if anyone is feeling low and despondent about the uk which we really were and gets an opportunity (or has a transferable job) I would 100000% recommend looking into it.

i wish we had done it 10 years ago tbh. AIBU to never come back bar the odd visit to see family and friends?!

You have precisely zero way of knowing that about OP. How can you possibly know if they were “poor” in the UK or not? Or that they want to live the lifestyle of “very high earners”?
Or do you believe that being a “very higher earner” in the UK is what it takes to have decent health care, to be safe, to have some money for extras, to have decent education? And if you do believe that, it’s reflective of a problem in the UK, wouldn’t you think?

@ilovemylogburner that isn’t what’s meant by the “rule of law”. 🙄

Yes, we received responses from the police.

Well the grass is def greener here ( in Wales) because it rains so much !

Foreign workers make up roughly 1.8 million of Oman’s population. They are largely excluded from national minimum wage rules, universal government cash allowances, and state safety-net programs, leading some low-income laborers to live in cramped or impoverished conditions.

Sounds great. Of course you love it Op, you’re one of the privileged classes there.

Life of Western expat anywhere in the third world is not the same as what ordinary poor locals' life is. Even the ones who are educated, middle class and aspiring to the western lifestyle.

Its fucking offensive when some western fucker proclaims how amazing country is without ever knowing what life is like if you did not have benefits of Western style education, work and passport.

Everyone who shits on UK are free to move to China and live there to see how their kids would do competing with local kids without benefits of UK schools, universities or money.

I’m really quite sure that the people who stole from me believed the “rule of law” didn’t apply to them.
You were stolen from and the police actually turned up? Investigated? Took forensics? Really?

OMAN 😂
With two daughters. Fuck's sake.
Thought you were going to say you moved somewhere actually good like a Nordic country. Glad you're enjoying the highly sanitised side of the country you've been permitted to see. And genuinely hope you don't see the other side of it. Especially for your little girls. Are they going to a school which teaches them homosexuality is a sin, the king must be obeyed, and husbands can beat their wives? Or did you decide that you love the country but not quite enough to turn down international school?

Exactly. Integrity is more important than money

I’ve just realised that the part of my post covering our health device is missing from my post but I’ll come back tomorrow and re do it. Suffice to say that anyone who needs to see a GP sees them the same day.

Whilst I am sure that you treat everyone with respect as an individual and family, personally I would be very uncomfortable being part of of that culture as Id feel extremely uncomfortable and morally challenged. The money would definitely not lure me . i would also not want my dc s in that sort of environment.
I dont feel that its about an individual s ‘ better life ‘ - it would feel to me like I was being part of the problem - having a better life at the expense of other s.

4 months is no time at all. It’s all new. It used to take me a good year before I got fed up of living abroad.

You can pretty much beat your wives in the UK and society doesn't give two hoots about trying to stop it. May as well enjoy hot weather and beautiful architecture with decent pay. Her daughters will do much better over there.

EvieBB ·

what you said ! You put it better than I did .

Exactly. I have an Egyptian friend who lived here for ages, married an English woman who converted, had two girls and moved back because "UK was too bad and life is so much better in Egypt". He is back here now and is very quiet.

The marital rape thing is sad and disgusting there's no doubt about that.

Only Muslim men can marry 4 wives and that's from their religion.

I think for marriages etc I just read that non-muslim expats have a whole different ruling system applied and they can chose to have the law from their home applied as well. So there's that.

I used to live and work in the ME, i did it decades ago to earn enough so I could buy a house back in the UK.

Yes healthcare and schools all shiny and lovely but it is one of the most unstable areas in the world.

Not a chance would I do a permanent move there particularly with kids.

Good luck to you op, you'll need it once the rose coloured specs come off.

My intention was never to win you over? Why would I even want to? I suspect you think too much of yourself.

Oman? Yuk. I’d rather stay in the uk despite how shitty some things are at the moment

Not in a million years would I want to live in Oman. I just couldn't live my life in a sheltered bubble of Truman like fantasy while outside others are abused and vilified. Rest easy then OP if you can.

The UK is like many Western countries, a mixture of good and evil. But violence , abuse of powers , poverty have existed for thousands of years . And yet the human spirit overcomes and there is still good kind people everywhere.

Marital rape is actually a crime in the UK (albeit belatedly). As is domestic assault. And homosexuality isn't illegal (maybe you don't care about that being criminalised as you chose to ignore that bit).

Also here if your husband beats you, or even if you just get bored of him, you can divorce him. In Oman he can divorce you whenever he likes for no reason. Or he can marry someone else while you're still married. But you can't do the same, you need to go to court to get permission from, you guessed it, a man.

Ha yeah I'm sure all the men who want to behave badly in Oman will choose to have English law applied to them 😂

Yes I was expecting a more impressive reveal than Oman

I would have accepted Canada 😂

Oman? Are you having a laugh?
Culturally, I would miss the variety of British theatre especially small scale, fringe productions.
I would miss church choirs and the sheer number and range of concerts that are available in the UK. I know there is some top rate classical music and opera in Oman but there aren't the same amount of opportunities by any stretch of the imagination.
Today, I went to the Renoir exhibition at the National Gallery - couldn’t have done that if I lived in Oman. You’re out of luck if you’re interested in following the contemporary art scene if you live in Oman too.
There are also a lot fewer opportunities to attend book festivals, music festivals, comedy shows - the list of things you and your daughters will miss out on in Oman is endless.
Plus, it’s too hot. You’ll be trapped indoors where there’s air conditioning for much of the year.
Not to mention the issues around worker’s rights, women’s rights, gay rights etc which I personally couldn’t turn a blind eye to.
The locals really do despise you as well. It’s all fake OP. Living on a “compound”sounds totally soulless too.
Above all, I would be frightened about the proximity of war. It’s not safe there whatever they tell you.

@ilovemylogburner I wouldn’t normally share details of this with someone intent on misunderstanding me. Whatever. In my case, I was raped. The police were amazing at the time and have been subsequently. I was interviewed by specialist officers. I knew the man who violently attacked me as I was once in an (abusive) relationship with him. That’s ongoing. There have been delays and frustrations, but overall I have been treated with respect and professionalism and I never doubted they wanted a conviction.

My son (16) and a friend from school had the phones stolen on the street and his friend had some money stolen. The police interviewed them.