Comments on: International House Saudi Arabia

By: anthill

anthill — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:47:57 +0000

Can someone please explain what this ‘NO THAI WIFE’ thing has got to do with Jubail Industrial Academy?

By: Roland

Roland — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:59:04 +0000

Chance Dugan has some wise observations about IH Jubail, grammar is out, as far as I remember. Regarding the primadonnas, couldn’t agree more, IH (and KSA generally), is not the place for them. There were only two cases in 2007 when I was there, one finally got sacked and the other conned into going to Jeddah. These changes have improved the general atmosphere in the staff room- the low pay hasn’t changed of course. For me, the worst part was actually living with a premadonna in an IH villa, where, incidentally, I was subjected to some nasty racist abuse (the fact that it came from an Arab hamming it up as a wannabee snooty French waiter made it doubly ironic). The other premo was left on his own in a villa with 5 rooms- all to himself, while everyone else was packed in the older villa like sardines simply because his behaviour was so unstable. Bizarrely, the DOS actually likes this guy and won’t have a bad word said against him- adhering to the ‘we’ve just got to try and understand him type do gooder philosophy’. More sinisterly, the fact that premo No.2 is also a Brit and a Muslim probably also helped him out, of course. There are by the way some wonderfully kind, patient, long suffering, hardworking and scholarly western Muslims, especially an incredibly decent American Islamic scholar, though all of them were extremely pleasant and committed, one, a Canadian however lacked experience. The Brit-Americans are ok, one is very competent and also very witty, there’s a Palestinian guy in the admin (don’t confuse with the primadonna who had never taught before and wasn’t a teacher and yet- suicidally- wanted to be a DOS!), who is good natured enough and tries his best. There’s also a very decent S. African military type, very high up apparently, and well liked by all. There are always going to be Premodonnas however, is it insecurity, a sense of inferiority or gross inexperience, again, so long as you don’t have to live with them, then letting them run on auto until they burn out is probably the best strategy. Above all, as attention seekers- what they want is RECOGNITION. Looking for that in IH is like looking for love on the Phat Phong road.

By: BIGMAC

BIGMAC — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:58:11 +0000

IH operates a cynical strategy, employ one or two competent Angol-American types leading Still, by my estimation, IH paying 8,000 if you have no experience is not such a bad gig. The problem is that if you are the exhibtionist type- you are highly likely to fall foul of the powers that be, this organization is as tightly controlled as Albania in the 1970’s, be warned, keep your big mouth shut!. On the other hand, you might like to collaborate like the above poster then IH will as he himself says, ‘Always there for you’. This is a STALINIST outfit, play along and you will do just fine! It’s a nasty piece of work, manipulative, scary, always on the lookout to promote the collaborator and nail the premadonna- but hey, you need the money right? And they always pay on time, toe the line and you’ll be fine, you may even prosper. IH cares nothing about standards, only its profit margins, suitable only for those who can bed down with a fascist totalitarian culture. Still, you will be looked after, why, if you collaborate, they’ll downright protect you. Nice world we live in, isn’t it?

Edit; Personal Attacks have been edited