Tuesday 22 February 2011

FT.com - Saudis confront gap between expectation and reality

Six years after graduating as an Arabic teacher in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, Naif al-Tamimi is still waiting for the government job he was promised as a freshman.

Splitting his day between teaching part-time at a private school and driving a taxi, he could not support his family. So he sent his wife and newborn son back to live with her family, 500km from Riyadh, and moved into a shared flat.

“When I see how rich the country is and how poor I am, I feel frustrated that I cannot live with my family,” Mr Tamimi told the Financial Times. “The government said they wanted Arabic teachers. Now they only hire maths and science teachers. It is not my problem they have changed policies.”

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