With regard to the employment ratio - the ratio applies to the number of employees of the enterprise as a whole, not just the dive centre. The small independent centres are almost entirely Egyptian, a medium sized operator will have more Egpytians employed as drivers, equipment technicians, tank boys as well as DMs and instructors and therefore they are able to apply for foreign work permits.
The really big centres are all owned by larger co-operations or hotels, so foreign work permit ratios are not an issue, because there's a few hundred other staff employed by the umbrella company.
I'm all for the education of the locals to a higher quality of diving standard because sadly, I see a lot of improvement necessary - but then it HAS improved significantly over the last few years. The CDWS is not everybody's favourite organisation and yes, it is (or possibly was) run by dive center owners and for sure there is (or was) a great deal of money being quietly shuffled here and there. That's how it works here. That's also how it works in Europe, actually, just it's hidden better by people with clever words and shiny suits. But, the CDWS did try to make some genuine changes to safety and environmental preservation, however it was funded.
And if I was told I had to attend Arabic classes as a condition of my work permit - I would not think this was unfair.
The attitude in the quote that macrobubble posted does, sadly exist, and I think you could compare it to the level of people in - for example - the UK, who would like to see pakistanis, africans, chinese (maybe not them because we love chinese food), polish people, scottish people, whatever, thrown off the island. There is a minority who want them all out, there is a growing population of native British people who are uncomfortable with the massive influx of foreign workers. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the same.
That attitude is reflected in Sharm but here it's on a smaller scale. One thing I think is true though is the sentiment that the dive industry is just a "blue collar job". I spoke with one of my Egpytian instructor colleagues about this protest movement and he actually e-mailed the group to ask them to take it easy because throwing the foreigners out might actually lead to an overall loss in income when people start to stop coming here. For sure it will work out in the long run, but nobody cares about the long term, the immediate question is "where is my next paycheck coming from", and he has a point, I think.
He told me that I have to understand that most Egyptians actually do it just as a job. Yes, some are very good at it, many love what they do more than some foreign instructors I could mention. But - a lot of them don't. The people who are delivering the rhetoric in macrobubble's post about "wiping out your mates" are, indeed, some of the blue-collar workers of the dive industry and I think they don't really understand the bigger picture. For some, the money is the main focus and yes, the Egpytian staff are often doing it to feed a family, but foreigners do it because they love it (for sure we don't do it for the money!)
Let's also not forget, the whole country just changed. What was effectively a military-led dictatorship in a different kind of pin-striped uniform has been replaced by a military "interim" caretaker government that have so far been very lenient in their attitude to outspoken protest. In January, it was the people versus the Mubarak regime. Now it's the people versus the army.
If Mubarak had one good legacy to leave the country, it would be stability in a region with, to be fair, unfriendly neighbours, and i have high hopes that everything will work out fine in the end, and it's nice, for a change, that people have a voice to be heard, much as we might disagree with it.
I'm willing to take a chance and see how it all works out; I'm starting to settle here, almost 2 years now; I'm in a good position and already have a work permit. And I still love it. I do have my concerns about what the future holds, because I really don't want to leave, but we all have to give the dust from the revolution a chance to settle. Business was hit *hard*, and the repercussions are still being felt - even the big name centres had to tighten their belts (we're really not as rich as one might think) and there is still a distinct lack of tourists from certain countries that some centres rely on.
For sure it's picking up here in Sharm - but not as quickly as it needs to, in some cases. We wait and see....
Well that was a lot longer than intended but malesh!
C.
