Want of wasta

While Maurice broods in the bed-bug-plagued two-star Muscat Novotel, Kiki has been running round like a mad desert hare between ministries and government offices to try and lift his mistakenly-imposed work and visit ban. What is becoming increasingly clear is that this is less a case of following a process, and less even a case of "additional charge for quick processing" (=bribe) than a case of really needing some high-level wasta.

But when Kiki sits down with friends and family to discuss who they know, and who friends of friends may know, the shocking answer is basically no one. Even aged Jumeirah expats growing dusty in their villas for the past twenty years have virtually no UAE local aquaintances. Kiki has no shortage of wealthy, well-connected westerners to call on: the problem is that none of these people carry any clout when it comes to a bureaucratic crisis.