What was that little incident along SZR yesterday morning? Was it an errant spark on top of a little tower? Or was it another TRAFFIC SNARL? Gulf News' coverage of the fire was really disappointing. They focused on the traffic more than anything else. How about the NAME of the building that was on fire. How about some mention of the developer or the CONTRACTOR whose activities most likely led to the fire. Their coverage on this was a totally useless peice of journalism. People in this country are doing shoddy work, workers and other's lives are being endangered and investors risk losing a lot of money. It's time to expose this stuff and identify the culprits.
And by the way, it was the KHALID AL ATTAR TOWER by developer of the same name, and the contractor was TRANSEMIRATES CONTRACTING.
21 March, 2007
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12 comments:
Do you still see Gulf News and gulfnews.com as separate entities?
You don't go in for joined-up media outlets?
^^ No idea what you mean.
"a totally useless piece of journalism".
So, business as usual then. I always put 'journalism' in quotes when I talk about it in the UAE.
Here's BD again with his contractor crusade!
Hate to admit it but you got a point!
Mind you, here from the UK it was good to see such detailed pics of the fire (I don't care much about the jams as I'm so far) but it was interesting to note the fire.. and I've never seen GN give us 16 pics in one story!
From a technical point of view, I can say that fires while a building FRAME is being built is very rare because the main materials are concrete and steel which are non-flammable. However it seems there was site welding which caused the incident.. But I fail to see who would weld at 4.55am and why would they weld on an obviously concrete-framed building (hence no bolts/welds/connections to worry about).
I hope we hear more about it.. and I'll keep an eye out in the engineering journals for the cause.
I'm sorry - everyone knows the constraints upon which the media works under.
Things are changing, slowly, but they are changing. Think about whether the story would have been in the papers five years ago.
Think about whether the interview with the ECSS guy highlighted elsewhere on this blog would have appeared one year ago.
I don't see any of the brave bloggers putting their heads above the parapit and criticising, using their real names, and allowing the authorities to know where you work?
I don't see any of you out there lobbying the government, petitioning the contractors, talking to your local FNC reps, protesting at the property and contracting companies...why not? Because you can't. So what makes you think the media would be so stupid (7days aside) as to push things too far, too soon.
7days is the prime example of what overstepping the mark and trying to run before you can walk will do to the UAE media. One step at a time.
Things will change, they will just take time. Think about how far the media in the UAE has come in the past two or three years. It's a long road, but hey. It could be worse. You could have to rely on the appallingly racist Arabic press.
"Things will change, they will just take time. Think about how far the media in the UAE has come in the past two or three years."
TRUE THAT!
"It's a long road, but hey. It could be worse. You could have to rely on the appallingly racist Arabic press"
True that - again!
Buj - me thoughts exactly on the "cause(s)" of this fire at 4:55AM - that too in a spring (UAE spring) weather? GN (as always) fail to extend any information on the investigation factor, i.e. foul play or an accident - instead had a "traffic jam" write up?
I don't see any of the brave bloggers putting their heads above the parapit and criticising, using their real names,
How true, anonymous, how true...
"I don't see any of the brave bloggers putting their heads above the parapit and criticising, using their real names, and allowing the authorities to know where you work?"
The reason for this is that the UAE government has a history of having supposedly tracked down, fined and arrested a blogger for posting photographs of reckless drivers.
Quite Sam...so why do people think newspapers should go all out and put themselves out to be closed down. You have any idea how close 7days came to being closed down?
It's a slow game, but change is a-coming. Things are being printed, topics are being discussed that would have resulted in editors being jailed and papers being closed two years ago.
Anonymous said...
I'm sorry - everyone knows the constraints upon which the media works under...
Got it... You're right. I suppose a lot of us do take the relative freedoms here for granted, forgetting that things still have a way to go. At that same time, we're careful to tip-toe around subjects when our own skin is on the line. So we should give GN some credit for spotlighting an incident, even if it had to be couched in "traffic" headlines.
Not just GN. Every media outlet. Things will open up eventually.
The media can now mention AIDS, prostitution, drinking, drugs, labourers protesting, ...all of these would have resulted in the government coming down like a tonne of bricks two years ago.
Believe it or not. 7days flamboyant, baiting tactics moved the game along at the beginning, but now it has backfired in the short term.
The much maligned Xpress did a story about the problems of Wasta last week, and named clubs with racist door policies this week.
Could be a good contender for 7days crown.
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