Touring a Garden of Eden using Social Media
And one fine sunny morning, I set out to tour a part of wonderland which I hadn’t been to in ages (a sector of my 24 hour weekend tours in Bahrain). Some where near the Bahrain
International Circuit, but away from the raging engines and the fumes of burnouts, a place that I’ve taken to as a Garden of Eden - because I like local despite being global 
Using a combination of Twitter, Flickr and Mobile tech (MMS & SMS) I tagged all my tweets as BahrainTour24 as I did with my pictures which I uploaded from a cellular modem while I toured the National Wildlife Reserve and Park known as Al Areen. Next time around though, I’d be enabling auto-wordpress posting via SMS to compliment the trio.
2:25 PM Nov 21st from txt: Just reached Al Areen Wildlife park, was here 15 years ago, the uplift is amazing!
2:27 PM Nov 21st from txt: The wildlife park seems to attract lots of visitors, proven by the long queue to buy tickets!
2:31 PM Nov 21st from txt: GPRS coverage appears to be relatively low at the reception area in the park, interesting.
Back from my blogging sabbatical…
It was 2 years ago back in November when I stepped into corporate world and thought I’d leave non-profit world to understand the comparison(s) in the new sphere, however, I found myself still dabbling with non-profit initiatives and projects and realize that relief politics somehow finds it’s way into corporates as well. Pretty interesting but less intense as I’ve observed.
So what have I been up to? After a bit of messing around with professional services consultancy and outsourcing gigs and an acquisition last year of my former firm by HP, and then a couple months down a line another acquisition by HP of EDS, I’d rather think it as a merger, I now work with it’s application services unit and looking forward to get my hands dirty with non profits again. I really loved my work back then, still do as non profit world has had me working in and out of it. Also got my reigns on Twitter, and though most folks terms the service as micro-blogging, I’d rather term it as conversing anywhere, any place at any time - conveniently conversing with the world!
Due to a ‘fabulous’ global credit crunch, I envision the next 12 to 18 months as slow in terms of industry growth within all verticals so that’s got me thinking, why not get myself back into education and ride non-profits’ sphere again. At the end of the day I’m not loosing out either way. There’s many options to look over, and while most large corps think that shedding staff and downsizing on their service and product offerings is the way to get by these hard times, it would rather do them good to look deep into merging or forming strategic alliances with their competitors and partners and serve the markets, but then as we all know, most industrial giants just look at their pockets rather than long-term sizing.
I can’t save the world, but at the very least, I can save myself Change is good!
Human Trafficking in the region
Is definitely growing at an alarming rate and to add my own concerns in here, am pretty disgusted with how easy it is to change a person’s name and assume a totally non-existent identity - complete with passport and all and re-enter a country where the person had originally been either rescued or deported from. It appears that that the people behind the trafficking rackets seem to have this sort of strong, invisible control over the victim, and it is mostly financial gains that convinces the victim into going through the hassle of identity assassination just to get past immigration again - sad but true. There should be a hot-line set up to track such cases.
While most folks think that it’s just women who are mostly caught in the trade, it seems that men as well are defenseless in the same industry when they are brought over from their countries of origin - mostly from the Far East, upon the promise(s) of jobs in high-rise offices, but instead are made to work in hair dressing salons, flower shops and massage parlors. Few of the masseurs, who I personally know are genuine in terms of having come down here knowing before-hand their job description, but the majority don’t and end up selling themselves to client in a desperate move to make their life here sound better.
It’s how you perceive the situation I guess.
Sushi, Shisha & Psy Trance…
If you’re a sushi fan like myself and into a variety of seafood, good music while savoring it all with a deep taste of shisha, then you’re into for a treat! I’ve just discovered an amazing underground venue which offers all of this and it’s out here in Bahrain. Sheza Tower which is located in the Diplomatic Area, plays host to Kristal Club and beats-filled theme nights run all through the week at their basement - more commonly known as ‘Party Underground’.
Dine upstairs at the Seafood Resteraunt and dig into some seafood delicacies (select your choice in ice, and request the preparation be done while you’re seated right in front of you! Simply Delicious! And get down to the fantastic sound produced by the spin docs. The set-up they have going on over there is sweet, the lighting effects are awesome and the crowd is quality, not quantity. 
As you enter the club, walk down a couple ramped-steps, pass the identity check point and into the dimly-lit up bar, across from it is a mini leather lounge bouncing into the dance floor and the DJ’s decks. You just breathe in the music and drown into your own world once you snap into the vibes.
My fav picks are Trance on Sunday nights and a ‘Drink All You Can’ for BD9 (approx. $25 USD), and it’s a great way to unwind especially, if you’re driving down for the weekend to Bahrain from across the boarder(s). More juicy details are available by giving Shami a buzz on (+973) 39227180 drop them an e-mail to kristalclubbahrain at gmail.com and join in on the latest gigs via Party Underground’s Facebook presence. And another recommendation to try their special (Russian Vodka) Stolichnaya mix.
Expat Nurses in KSA offered poor pay packages by recruitment agencies
Just to clarify, that I am happy that the Saudi government is looking to hire 10,000 new resources to handle their shortage of Nurses in the Kingdom and that the way they’re going with offering Saudi women scholarships into top medical schools across the Middle East including Bahrain (most likely RCSI-MUB) as well as around North America and Europe are amazing! A great initiative by the MOH (Ministry of Health) in Riyadh.
However, I oppose the move by recruitment agencies in the Philippines who are planning on offering a poor salary of between BD 225 - BD 400 (Less than $1000 USD) to the 2,000 nurses which Saudi is looking forward to recruiting from the Philippines.
Lets talk some numbers here: Suppose we catch the high-end of the pay being offered, BD 400 ($1,000 USD), and do the math on average expenses where a 1-bedroom semi-furnished apartment with utilities (water, electricity, telephone, etc.) costs around $700 - $900 USD per month in Riyadh while transportation costs (a rent a car or a hire purchase car, where the latter is a tad bit cheaper by a couple dollars) will come to $300 - $450 USD per month for a budget car. Expenses in terms of clothes, household purchases and food is variable, but every consultant I’ve worked with, irrelevant of how much they make at the end of the day have come out with a bill of approximately $100 USD per month. So we’re looking at something like about $1,300 USD per month in terms of expenses, none for savings and we’ve not even counted in other necessities either. And due to the fluctuating real estate market, landlords and property owners make life hard for rentals by requesting for housing advances, in some cases 3 months and other others 6 months.
If the Saudi MOH is looking for quality Nursing staff to train their local staff alongside a consistent knowledge transfer function, then I’d suggest that whoever is responsible for managing their end-to-end resourcing process, ensures that recruitment agencies in the Philippines pay higher without eating into qualified consultants’ salaries in order for a quick buck or a slice of the pie.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone to apply for the nursing roles(s) being advertised by crafty recruitment agents in the Philippines unless you’re getting a fair deal where your employer will provide you with at the very least, comprehensive medical insurance, life and accident coverage, annual air flights to your point of origin from Saudi or as per the MOH travel policy, 30 days of paid leave per year or as per MOH leave policies as well as a cash to hand package which will allow you to comfortable survive while working in Saudi.
I’ll call a spade a spade, and I have no issues in doing so, so if you’re one of the recruitment agencies who are hiring such resources at appalling rates and you’re reading this, feel free to prove me wrong.
Business Friendly Bahrain & Team Pindar
At first I figured it (Welcome to Business Friendly Bahrain) was just a way to woo investors into Bahrain (commonly known by some folks as wonderland - the term was originally coined by Silly Bahraini Girl a couple years ago), when I saw banners, placards and beautifully branded posters around the international airport - i found the idea interesting. But I didn’t take the idea of Bahrain as an off-shore international financial center seriously, until I was came across a solo-around the world championship yacht team - Team Pindar, being sponsored by Bahrain for the Globe Vendee event in France, or rather out of France.
Bahrain's Crest flying high on Team Pindar
Personally, I find the sponsorship exciting, not because, it’s just another news piece for the mainstream out there but rather the way in which the sponsor matched the cause. And the route that the championship is taking next month will see Team Pindar and Bahrain touch down in Australia, South Africa, Europe and South America and to top it off, Brian Thompson who is the go-for-gold skipper (also bagged first place aboard Kingfisher at the EDS Atlantic Challenge 2001) got featured on the Globe Vendee homepage, which means it’s all eyes on the team and it’s sponsor. Sounds like a great option of off-shore sailing meeting off-shore business.
Speaking of both, if anyone is interested in manufacturing yachts for Mideastern waters, please do get in touch with me! (Currently, it’s a known fact the majority of vessels are produced in Shanghai and other provinces in China, I am specifically looking for developers who understand the climate out here and the need for comfort and speed)
Well, we’re back! Regular programming resumes at last!
And yes, I am back to blogging. It’s a different platform, a different domain name (much personalized now), different experiences to share, but the same person with possibly a broader perspective on life. I should have done this a long time ago, but it’s never too late and so I’ve got going.
I haven’t really been on Sabbatical, but rather chose to focus on niche topics that interested me in the past, and blog less on the commercial vibes but rather magnify more of lifestyles. And in doing so, I’d expanded my social blogging engine to include conversations with folks on a variety of platforms, including Twitter, Second Life, Facebook (yes, I finally joined that social space) and a couple more. Some of which I’m looking ahead to dig out details.
