I am heading to the Sri Lankan jungle for a two-week yoga retreat next month, in a place with no electricity, wireless, cell phone reception or hot water. All that to say, when it came time to pay for it, rather than slapping out my credit card, due to the rustic nature of my destination I had to do a bank transfer.
As I kept missing the hours I could do a bank transfer at HSBC and have not gone through the process of setting up transfers online, I just couldn't seem to get the thing done and after a few days was getting a little stressed about it. Definitely not the point of a yoga retreat.
So it was that one day I was darting through Al Wahda Mall and took a little meander into the UAE Exchange. As usual there were lines of people sending their money back to family in the Philippines, India and Pakistan (in what is a complicated, interdependent economic system known as remittances. The National did a good piece on it here. I particularly enjoyed the subhead: Does the astonishing volume of global remittances redeem the moral ambiguities of migrant labour?) and so forth. I approached a kiosk and asked if I could transfer money from my credit card and was told yes. After about 10 minutes of the teller typing many, many things into his computer, he began to look concerned at where I was sending it.
"Oh ma'am," he said. "Problem."
The name, you see, ends in the word "foundation" and not "spa & resort". He got his superior. He got his superior. Soon there was a small crowd of men standing around behind the glass, all staring at the note I'd handed him. As I explained that I was sending the money to yoga retreat, the man gave me a quick look that screamed to me "do you think I was born yesterday?" and told me it was "illegal" to transfer money to a "foundation". Even if they bank with HSBC.
"Illegal where?" I asked. "In the UAE?"
"Everywhere," he said. "All over the world."
This I doubt, because when the weekend rolled around, and I finally made it into HSBC, a staffer handily conducted the transfer without getting the slightest bit judgy about it.
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5 comments:
LOL! Ahem..sorry to hear. This is the first time, I've heard? It's a tad bit amusing. Are you doing the Bikram? I'm into Bikram yoga -- the hot yoga. I did a 8 day retreat in upstate Massachusetts. We were completely cut off from rest of the world. Our cells, berries, laptops etc all taken away. It was seren and beautiful. Loved it. Enjoy the experience.
Soulful writing by John. Estrelles, her work and life are inspiring.
There is no ban on transferring to a "foundation." The guys at UAE Exchange are morons, plain and simple. I tried them twice for very basic issues and once was told that IT CANT BE DONE.
Weird as I work at a bank and I know for a fact that it CAN be done.
Al Ansari exchange are way way more accommodating.
I honestly believe they just like to make things as complicated as humanly possible. As well as the money transfer issue I think you will no doubt need your relaxation treatment after experiencing the Sri Lankan traffic as well, if you haven't tackled it previously.
(PS - The "McGrath Foundation" is one of Australia's largest cancer related charities)
The refusal to transfer to an organisation with the word Foundation in its name might have something to do with money laundering. However, the idiocy of the employees and the lack of thinking is evident and quite prevalent in the UAE. Everything is applied literally and thought is not rewarded. Speaking of feeling like a terrorist, I feel like a criminal everytime I walk into certain supermarkets, malls and yes government offices and colleges, where I am confronted by a security guard and have to pay my obeisance to him before I am allowed to see an employee of the organisation.
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