Employment and Salary Trends in the Gulf 2009 – 2010

A survey on 'Employment and Salary Trends in the Gulf 2009 – 2010' has just been released and can be read in full, here.

So, what can you expect will happen salary-wise, if you're still in work, in the Gulf?

*Around 12% of professionals in Bahrain have been made redundant this year
*Almost two-thirds of professionals in the Gulf did not get a pay rise this year
*Average pay rises in Bahrain dropped to 6.7% in 2009, from 10.5% last year
*Salaries in Bahrain are forecast to rise 6.4% in 2010
*Audit professionals enjoyed the highest average pay rise across the region.

'Coz Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

When Arab women marry they will always receive a shabka [shab-ca] or a set of jewellery (ring, earrings, a bracelet and a necklace, recently expanded to a tiara) from their husband-to-be, or their husband-to-be family.

Arab women usually wear sets of jewellery in everyday situations, but what makes the shabka different from other jewellery sets is the addition of the bracelet.

Traditionally Arab brides go shopping in the gold suq with their mothers and sisters or friends and choose the shabka themselves; it has to be something they like. The husband will then visit the shop at a later date and pay for it.

Image: shabka holder at a wedding. unfortunately i was too slow with the camera and the bride had put on the shabka before I could take a photo of it :-(


In the Arab world jewellery is not just about being decorated, it's also a way of saving. Jewellery given to a woman becomes hers absolutely and as a consequence women can act as the families' bankers. Women are given jewellery as children and will continue to collect throughout their life, with many women receiving jewellery (on the whole wedding presents consist of jewellery to the bride, rather than the Western tradition of household items) when they marry.

Women in the Gulf have traditionally bought and sold: as new fashions arrive the jewellery tends to go back to the goldsmith to be melted down and reworked, making old pieces quite rare.


Why 22 Carat?
Gold in the Gulf is always 21 or 22 carat which gives it the deep dark mustard yellow colour. The 9 carat jewellery found in England is described by jewellers here as being, “Not really gold at all, is it?”

When I first arrived in the Gulf and visited the gold suq I thought the gold shab-ka sets must be fakes, they were just so big and there were so many of them.  I could not believe all that gold was for real.

I found out many years later one of the reasons for the jewellery being so big and so pure was simple.  Originally the wearer would be sitting in a dark tent and small jewellery just wouldn't reflect any light, whilst the 22 carat purity would mean the colour of the reflected light was soft and orange, not hard and yellow.

Wosta

Wosta (also spelt, woster/ waster/ waster but all pronounced in the same way, [wass-ter]) is an Arabic word which describes a polite form of corruption.

Wosta is the non-monetary method way of circumnavigating the prevaling system, or, short cutting the rules and getting what you want without waiting.

For example, say you need a job. What you will do is go visit your friend explain your situation, suggest they might be able to help and their friend goes and sorts you out a job.



Or you need a specific police report to disapear which mentions you attacked your wife.  You go to your friend in the police/ traffic department and there it is, gone.

An 'old boy's network' if you will.


Grammar Points
In English, the term 'wosta' is used as a noun, for example; "He's got lots of wosta."
You can not say, "He's wosta-ing" (verb) or "She's a wosta-ly girl" (adjective)

Urban Legends
1
A friend of a friend worked for a very large shipping company. One day he received a phone call from a man who was shipping lots of fireworks from China to the Middle East for the opening event of a festival.

The shipment was late and the man who was supposed to be supplying the fireworks was beginning to panic and the pressure was beginning to build.

He asked,
“Why hasn’t the shipment arrived yet?” to which he replied,
“Fireworks aren’t just any old shipment, they need lots of paperwork and clearance. Surely you were aware of this before you said you’d ship the consignment?”
The man replied,
“Do you know who these fireworks are for? They are for xxxx, now do something.”
My friend had heard it all before, and so replied,
“I'm sure they’re not bothered in Hong Kong or Singapore about xxxx, they want the paperwork. And that’s why your shipment is stuck in Beijing.”



2
Years ago, whilst in an Australian railway station a friend was getting a cup of coffee when the Gulfie man ~man from the Gulf~ behind the counter spotted some Arabic writing on one of her posessions. He struck up a conversation and found out she worked in the Middle East and immediately suggested she find him a job.

3
A friend of a friend had an accident in her car and had the car fixed at the dealership garage. Several years later when she wanted to sell the car, someone went to the garage to make sure the car’s history would not be divulged to anyone who might come along and ask.  The car was now accident free.



Some Background Information
Al-Faleh (1987) found the Arab management style has the following characteristics:
1. Organisation members are motivated by friendship and power needs, rather than by performance objective
2. Social formalities are extremely important
3. Managers rely heavily on kinship ties to get things done4. Nepotism is regarded as natural and acceptable
5. Punctuality and time constraints are much less concern than in western cultures
6. Subordinates act with deference and obedience to those above them in the hierarchy





The Images
The Images on today's posting come from a variety of Arabic blogs including:
www.blog.sweetestmemories.com
www.alarcheef.com
www.mab3oos.com
www.assennara.net

Going out for a Meal

When an Arab invites you out for a meal at a restaurant, the person who does the inviting will always pay for the meal, no matter how many people are invited.

There might be a pretend fight to pay for the meal, but the inviter will always pay. It is not unknown for the inviter to find the cashier and pay for the meal before the bill is brought to the table.


Urban Legend
I remember one work colleague who’d just arrived in the Middle East and thought it would be good for our company to go out for a meal and so sent an e.mail to everyone, suggesting a time and place. Everyone turned up and we had a great evening getting to know one another.

Then when it came to paying the bill, there was much confusion. The locals had expected her to pay and she’d never heard of the idea of the inviter paying the bill, she'd just presumed the bill would be divided amongst those present.

The only one with any money was the boss (a westerner) who was forced to pay for the entire bill; he was not amused and subsequently took the cost of the entire meal out of her next salary.

Islamic Banking

Within the GCC most countries run a dual banking system, using both the western and Islamic banking systems side by side. Bahrain has the largest number of Islamic banking headquarters (at least 24 + 11 Islamic insurance companies), whilst Oman currently bans Islamic Banking.

Islamic banking takes its rules and strategies directly from the relevant verses in the Koran (a key verse being: 2:279) and in general attempts to work with borrowers, to the benefit of all relevant parties (the lender, the borrower and the bank).


The 4 Tenets of Islamic Banking
In Islamic banking, four basic tenets must be followed:
1. Interest, either for the borrower or the lender, is forbidden.
2. The lender shares in the profits and the losses made by any enterprise it lends money to
3. Excessive uncertainty, risk and speculation [GHar-rrarr] is forbidden
4. No business should support products forbidden in the Qur'an, e.g. alcohol, gambling, vice and pork. In Islam these products are forbidden and known as halal [haa-lal] {see wgaw blog archieve: halal or haram}

In addition to the four rules above, Islamic banking attempts to encourage investments benefiting the community at large ~but that would be an opinion or point of view not shared by everyone~




Image taken from: http://thetakaful.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/islamic-finance-manages-over-500b-assets/


1. Interest or Usury; riba [ribb-bah]
In Islamic banking only one kind of loan is allowed, a 'good loan’ or qard-el-hassan [KHaard-al-Ha-saan]. With a qard-el-hassan the lender can not charge the borrower any interest, or any additional fee because money has been lent.

On hearing this, many people want to know how the lender makes money. In Islamic banking the lender takes a share of the profits rahter than a monthly interest payment. You could say waiting for the profits from a business is very similar to waiting for interest, however the difference comes from there being a pre-determined profit-sharing ratio, rather than a specific monthly rate of return.

Interest, or riba, is written about in four different places in the Koran and I have quoted these references so you can feel the strength of dislike, in the Qur'an for the concept of ursury/ interest/ riba:

1. Al Baqarah, 2:275,
“Those that live on usury shall rise up before God like men whom Satan has demented by his touch, for they claim that trading is not different from usury. But God has permitted trading and made usury unlawful.”

2. Al Baqarah, 2:276-279,
“God has laid his curse on usury and blessed almsgiving with increase. God bears no love for the impious and the sinful. Those that have faith and do good works, attend to their prayers and render the alms levy will be rewarded by their Lord and will have nothing to fear or to regret. Believers have fear of God and waive what is still due to you from usury, if your faith be true; or war shall be declared against you by God and His apostle. If you repent, you may retain your principal, suffering no loss and causing loss to none.”

3. The Imrans, 3:130-2,
“Believers, do not live on usury, doubling your wealth many times over. Have fear of God that you may prosper. And then it goes on to say (Al Nisa, 4:161), “Because time after time they have debarred others from the path of God; because they practice usury - although they were forbidden it - and cheat others of their possession.”

4. Al Rum, 30:39,
“That which you seek to increase by usury will not be blessed by God; but the alms you give for His sake shall be repaid to you many times over.”


2. Profit & Loss Sharing
In Islamic banking the lender will share the profits and suffer the losses made by the business to which it lent money. That is, the investor becomes a business partner or in western banking terms, a 'sleeping partner'.


3. Excessive Uncertainty, Risk or Speculation [gha-rrarr] is Forbidden
Every single transaction carried out by an Islamic bank must be free from uncertainty, risk and speculation and all parties involved (1. the bank, 2. the depositor of money and 3. the business/person being lent money) must know what they will gain from the financial transaction. However a guaranteed profit is not allowed.

This forbidding of risk means the options and futures trading, as well as forward foreign exchange transactions, are considered un-Islamic because the rates are determined by interest differentials.


4. The Selling of Haram Products Should not be Supported
Before investing in any business, Islamic banks check to make sure the business does support nor trade in products forbidden by the Koran (i.e. alcohol, gambling, vice, or pork and their dirivatives) {see wgaw blog archive: haram} and does not invest in any business which supports these activities or industries.

This means the preferred long term investments for Islamic banks is often in areas such as real estate and manufacturing.



Image taken from: www.ameinfo.com/179388.html


Problems for Investors with this System
As an investor, Islamic banking limits the number of options for investing your money. In reality you will need to choose between the following two options:
1. invest with risk; that is, invest in a business, or
2. keep your money idle; and slowly loose your capital through devaluation.

Although most Islamic banks do offer deposit accounts for investors, the return on investment is very small (maybe ½ or 1%, per annum). This means your 'rainy day fund' or 'retirement pot' is highly likely to devalue over the years. Your money will be safe but the ammount of capital you own, in real terms, will slowly become smaller as inflation eats into your capital.


Additional Information
For far more detailed information on the intracies, the benefits and the problems with Islamic banking try:
http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/category/shariah-mortgage/
http://www.iifm.net/