Coffee with Farook, April, 2008

Farook asked me to join him for coffee to look over the English of a contract he'd drawn up. He wanted to be sure that the English was OK. In a way, this makes Farook more honest than a lot of people I've met in Dubai, who prepare a contract with a quite reasonable English version and a quite unreasonable Arabic version, and rely on the fact that, in a UAE court, the English has absolutely no standing.

I should mention that, in the West, if the contract were in English and Arabic, and an Arab who'd been cheated showed that the Arabic was completely different from the English, the court might declare the contract null and void. Or it might not, deciding that English is the language of the land. But here, under the law, if the English and Arabic are completely different, it doesn't matter, only the Arabic counts.

But Farook was honest enough to provide an accurate (if not grammatical) English translation of the Arabic.

Should anyone engage him, the contract provides for a non-refundable fee and commission. The fee is payable in advance, and the commission is payable upon Farook's unilateral determination that the mission for which he was engaged has been accomplished.

Farook says he decided to employ the contract because many people engage his assistance, then, after he has done a lot of work for them, decline to pay him.

I started to point out that in the West, vacuum cleaner salesmen (among others) do a lot of work (e.g., clean your carpet), but only collect their commission if you buy the product. 'This is Dubai,' was Farook's reply.