Scott Snowden Why did you choose to become a freelancer?
I didn't really. I relocated to the UAE to join my wife who had landed a dynamite job out here nearly three years ago. The industry is extremely primitive here; the only newspaper in Abu Dhabi – where I'm based – is The National, which is in fact Government-owned. Consequently, it's far from independent and that fairly important fact, combined with poor quality editorial and very low circulation figures, ultimately equates to professional suicide. Thus I have chosen to remain freelance and that way I can still write for many UK-based newspapers and magazines.
If you trained, where? If not, how did you become a freelancer?
I studied at university and have more than 15 years experience...and I have been freelance before, when I've had to be – both back in the UK and when I was living in Sydney many years ago – so I was already aware of how that particular approach works.
Do you specialise in any particular field and what areas do you write about?
I used to. My background covers the travel and tourism industry, both consumer and trade. But these days, I write a lot about issues concerned with being over here. And, as I'm sure you know, Dubai for instance is never out of the news for very long. But this can only be written for publications outside of the UAE. Anyone writing anything deemed to portray the country in a negative light can be deported. Seriously.
Which publications have you been published in?
Since I've been freelance..? Every newspaper in the UAE (there are four) and just about every consumer magazine and some of the business titles. Plus, the Sunday Times, Esquire, the Evening Standard, the Mail on Sunday, CNN, Travel Weekly and so on.
Which articles, in which publication, are you the most proud of?
I wrote a feature on Easter Island for a UK national newspaper after a visit looking at whether tourism had crossed the line and was now having a negative effect on the tiny South Pacific island, rather than a positive effect. I've written reviews and features on big attractions here and enjoyed being far more critical and analytical than anyone else seems to be.
What are the best and worst aspects of freelancing?
Good grief. Out here freelancing is a risky undertaking. You have to be prepared to be...ripped off, ultimately. You might get commissioned to write 2,000 words for example, but if only 1,000 words of that is printed, that's all you'll get paid for. Oh, and if it's not used at all...you'll get nothing. Magazines open and close out here all the time – many by sales cowboys who are just trying to make a fast buck. So chances are you'll be commissioned at some point by a Micky Mouse title that won't exist in six months or a year, so they'll stall payment until they close down. And the rates are dreadful. The best aspects..? Much more freedom in what I chose to write about. And I suppose out here...I actually have a chance to write about some of the...er, things that (allegedly) go on here – for newspapers and magazines outside of the UAE. Almost all of which have to be under a pseudonym, of course.
Do you have any interesting anecdotes in relation to your experience as a freelancer?
Not interesting ones I'm afraid, not since I moved out here. Only painful ones! However, one that still makes me chuckle when I think about it is the first time I was driving across the border from the UAE to Oman. The border control itself is like a small shanty town of sorts. There are three run-down, dilapidated huts made from rusty corrugated iron sheets. You enter the first one and it's hot, dusty and dark. Sunlight streams through all the cracks and gaps in the makeshift walls and a wobbly ceiling fan makes a faulty-sounding, whirring noise above your head. There's a single wooden desk in the room that has a dust covered, antiquated PC sitting on it that looks like it belongs in a museum. Behind the desk is an Arab who is engrossed in reading a newspaper. No one else was in the room.
I wait. I look around and decide not to sit on what looks like it might once have been some sort of sofa. I continue to wait. The Arab turns the pages of his newspaper. No one else enters. About 10 minutes later, the Arab folds up his newspaper and beckons me over to the desk. I hand him my passport and he looks it over. He then hands me a form, gestures with his hand and says in barely understandable English: "Next hut. Next hut."
So I take my passport and my form to the next adjacent corrugated iron hut. The interior is almost identical to the first. Same dust-covered desk and chair. Same antiquated personal computer and same broken, wobbly ceiling fan. The random streaks of sunlight breaking through the walls and ceiling are briefly lost in a flood of bright light as the door opens once again behind me. The same Arab from the first hut walks in and calmly takes position behind the desk. He waits for a few minutes then beckons me over and gestures that I should give him my passport and the form I had only just received.
At this stage I begin to seriously wonder about the authenticity of this bizarre process, but the Arab stamps my form and says in the same no-nonsense, matter-of-fact tone: "Next hut. Next hut."
I take my stamped form, pause for a moment, then proceed to the third and final run-down, ramshackle corrugated iron hut. And yes, it's exactly the same. Dark and dusty with the same desk, the same primitive PC, the same disintegrating sofa and the same wobbly ceiling fan. Again, it's empty. I wait for just a few minutes and the same Arab once again enters and calmly takes up his position behind the dusty wooden work station. He sits, shuffles a few papers, then gestures for me to come over. He takes my stamped form, looks it over, then files it in a dusty paper tray. He stamps my passport and says: "Done."
Not quite knowing whether to laugh out loud or even attempt to explain how this administrative process could potentially be speeded up for future reference...I decide to simply say, "Thank you" take my passport and exit.
I felt like I was in a Monty Python sketch.
Scott Snowden is currently based in a small boat floating in the ocean on the exact opposite side of the world and no-where near the UAE
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