livejournal blocked

So finally livejournal has been blocked (again) in the UAE (thanks to anon for tip)

A few weeks back I wrote a post on the website www.vimeo.com; I actually complained to Etisalat about the site and was told that they didn't care/it was against policy because it was categorized as 'dating' (which leads me to believe no matter what website it is, if some company in the US lists it as dating they dont care at all and don't seem like they even review the website themselves).

I suggested to securecomputing that the website was not dating and they have since recategorized it (which means vimeo is now unblocked in the UAE).

Unfortunately there are 3 websites (that I know of) which are commonly complained about for being blocked (www.last.fm, www.twitter.com and now www.livejournal.com); as you can see from this screenshot, securecomputing lists them all as social networking/dating, so if a website is social networking it is automatically considered a dating website too. This seems like quite a severe limitation. It is also quite unfortunate as all four of these websites have very little to do with dating (vimeo is a video website like youtube with a policy against adult material, last.fm is so people can share playlists of what music they're listening to, twitter.com is much like blogspot/blogger, and livejournal.com is like blogger too)



3 cheers for Etisalat.

the secret issue 12

Just a quick reminder for those who don't know about the secret, the little free newsletter I publish, or for those who signed up ages ago but have since changed jobs/emails, do feel free to sign up below. It contains links to interesting articles and blog posts about the UAE, small snippets of gossip and scandal that people send in anonymously, and links to various internet sites that are particularly *useful* to UAE web users. It goes out to around 2,000 people at the moment.

Issue 12 just got sent out but I can resend it to any new subscribers. Feel free to drop me a line if you ever want any back issues.

US businessman: Videos show torture by UAE royal

AP

As a trusted adviser to a member of United Arab Emirates royal family, Texas businessman Bassam Nabulsi says he safeguarded the sheik's most important documents: financial records, investment documents, and videotapes showing the sheik torturing people with a cattle prod and a spiked plank.

When the business relationship began to deteriorate, Nabulsi says, he also was imprisoned for months and tortured by jailers trying to get the tapes back.

Now, the tapes could become evidence in a federal lawsuit against Sheik Issa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a son of the late UAE president and brother of Abu Dhabi's crown prince.
...
The tapes have not been made public but The Associated Press viewed 11 still frames from one of the videos. They showed a man who appeared to be Sheik Issa beating another man with lumber, firing an automatic weapon into the sand around him and forcing an apparent cattle prod into his anus. The victim also appeared to have been partly run over by a SUV and had salt poured on his wounds.
...
The lawsuit has been languishing in a Houston federal court for nearly two years as attorneys tried to serve Issa and others with court papers. Efforts to deliver the documents to the royal family through UAE lawyers have failed and a confirmation of mail delivery was returned unsigned, according to court records.

My emphasis.

The BBC has a report of a different UAE royal in court.

BBC: Blogger arrests hit record high

The BBC reports that, world-wide, blogger arrests tripled between 2006 and 2007. The arrests are concentrated in three countries - China, Egypt and Iran:

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.

Citizens have faced arrest and jail for blogging about many different topics, said the World Information Access (WIA) report.

Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. They criticised public policies and took political figures to task.

The report said the rising number of arrests was testament to the "growing" political importance of blogging.

Of particular interest to the UAE community may be that the WIA Report 2008 also explores "diversity in the ownership of media assets in the 15 largest media markets in the Muslim world, and the ideological diversity of political content online in 74 countries with large Muslim populations."

UK Warns of "high threat from terrorism" in the UAE

So says the BBC this morning:

British nationals in the United Arab Emirates have been warned there is now a high risk of a terror attack there.

Travel advice from the UK Foreign Office said terrorists might be planning indiscriminate attacks in places frequented by expatriates...

"High" is the most serious of four terrorism risk levels which the Foreign Office uses in its warnings...

One of the great selling points of the Emirates is the high level of personal safety (well, except on the road), especially when compared to so many expats' home countries. I know that I always felt much safer walking around Al Ain, even at night, than I do now that I'm back in the US.

Here's hoping and praying that either the report is wrong or that the authorities are able to stop any plots that do exist. Stay safe everyone.

IFJ Demands UAE Overturn Ban on Pakistan TV Programs

"The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is extremely concerned that two popular talk programs transmitted to Pakistan from Dubai-based GEO TV have been taken off air at the request of the Government of United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The IFJ calls on the UAE Government to explain why, and on whose authority, it asked the independent Pakistan television broadcaster to cancel the programs.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), an affiliate of the IFJ, said the owner of GEO and the Jang group of newspapers, Mir Shakeelur Rehman, confirmed that UAE authorities had asked GEO to discontinue broadcasting Capital Talk, hosted by Islamabad-based Hamid Mir, and Meray Mutabek, hosted by Dubai-based Shahid Masood.

UAE authorities reportedly told GEO management that they did not want anything transmitted from Dubai to disturb UAE’s relationship with friendly countries.

more here

UAE Dirham Bonds, the next fashion?

Bonds are not new to the financial scene in Dubai, only now they’re starting to become popular. More than AED 28 bil worth of bonds were issued in the last seven months, and this time in UAE Dirhams instead of US Dollars.

UAE governments and corporates are betting on steady growth, selling debt at large to target the massive liquidity out there by providing safer products to the portfolios of institutional investors who were hit hard by the recent bearish trends in the regional markets.

There’s a speculation about the real reason why the recent bond issues were denominated in UAE Dirhams instead of Dollars. State-owned utility company DEWA for instance was supposed to issue bonds in US Dollars last November but it got postponed till last month where they were issued in Dirhams. It could be related to a near revaluation of the UAE Dirham or an abandonment of the US Dollar peg.

Another aspect to UAE bonds is that they’re mostly Islamic. “Sukuk”, or Islamic bonds, as opposed to regular bonds, feature something called “Ijara”, or a leasing agreement, by which the bond holder is actually receiving returns derived from underlying assets, and not interest-based coupons since interest is banned in Islam. Nevertheless, UAE bonds and Sukuk are being priced at various spreads above the interest rate EIBOR (Emirates Interbank Offered Rate), sometimes as generous as %2.15 in the case of two-year Sukuk by property developer Nakheel.

More than half of UAE bonds are not yet rated. There are no rating agencies in the region, and not enough regulations for bankruptcy and default.

The bonds are not available to the retail investor but the latter can get exposure to such bonds through mutual funds.

Some of the major issuers include: Dubai Government AED 6.5 bil, Ras Al Khaima Government AED 1 bil, Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA) AED 7.5 bil, Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) AED 3.2 bil, Emirates NBD Bank AED 2.1 bil, HSBC AED 2.25 bil, Emirates Airlines AED 1.8 bil (traded on DFM as EK-2013), Nakheel AED 3.6 bil, and Aldar Properties AED 3.75 bil.

Embassy Row

Which of these is not like the others?

Pakistan
Niger
United Arab Emirates
Chad
Libya
Malaysia
The Philippines
The Republic of Togo
Argentina
Malawi
Liberia
Bosnia
Congo

If you are thinking like I am thinking, your answer is the United Arab Emirates. And the reason is it is far wealthier than the rest (to be sure) with far less internal political and governmental dysfunction (my guess).

What do all of these countries have in common? They are the countries that make the list of countries with vacant dilapidated residences on Washington's Embassy row.

Because the properties are treated as foreign soil the city of Washington cannot use penalize the countries for trashing the neighborhood.

The tool the city has a last result -- after asking politely -- is to publically shame the countries by making the names public. I'm not even sure it's done that: it seems the Washington Post has come up with its own list.

I know enough about UAE culture to know that public shaming is taken as a personal affront, even when you bring it on yourself.

The Washington Post story is here on page A01 of the Sunday paper; with an interactive graphic here.

Legal Magic

Legal Magic is a new UAE-based poetry group:

A group aimed at joining together committed poetry writers who are working towards publication in English, Arabic and other languages in the United Arab Emirates. Where poets meet together to offer valuable criticism; to set up poetry readings, performance poetry and other poetry-related events in the UAE; to help poets achieve book publication and to further the goals of poetry and poets in the multicultural setting of the UAE.

To join, or just learn more, visit Legal Magic

The Diminishing Advantage of Living in Dubai:

Living in Dubai was heaven for expats 10 years ago, no taxes, cheap rent, crime free, no traffic, nice people, stress free, great place to bring up your family, good salary since living expense were cheap and best of all stable.

So my question now is, these advantages seem to be diminishing, the new expats who cant compare and only know what they see , most think this is the best thing ever, Is it worth all the trouble because the salaries are good? The buying power is always diminishing? Is it still better than being back home with your respective family and friends? Or is that not as important and making the extra buck make it worth while?

To marry or not to marry? That is the (French) question ha!

Okay, right. So this may not be your regular UAE-related post. But I thought it might be of interest to you (read: I’m curious to know what UAE citizens / expats living in a Muslim country think about it ha!), so please humour me! :)

The highlights: A French court granted a marriage annulment to a Muslim man in April on the grounds that his wife (also Muslim) had lied about her virginity. It was deemed that the husband entered into marriage under false pretenses and that the woman's virginity was a "determining factor" in his decision to marry her. The wife accepted the ruling.

The news hit the media last week, sparking an uproar amongst French politicians, women's rights campaigners and French Muslim figures alike. After first supporting the ruling, Justice Minister Rachida Dati made a U-turn and asked state prosecutors to file an appeal. Urban Affairs secretary Fadela Amara, a practising Muslim and women's rights activist, called it "a fatwa against women's emancipation."

You can read the facts here:

http://www.france24.com/en/20080529-marriage-annulment-muslim-france-bride-virgin-religion-justice

And some reactions here:

http://www.france24.com/en/20080603-france-repeal-annulment-fake-virgin-marriage

http://www.france24.com/en/20080604-embattled-justice-minister-gets-presidential-backing-justice&navi=FRANCE

And now, for your own reactions! Should the French court have granted the annulment? Virgin and non-virgin thoughts welcome! ;)

Have you been scammed yet? Try the UAE Pension Fund!

There are tons of scams on the Internet involving some "get rich quick-schemes" involving Dubai and the UAE.
This one really made me laugh so hard: http://www.uae-pension-fund.com/

The U.A.E. Pension Fund is a merger of six mostly European entrepreneurs who have their place of business in the U.A.E. (United Arabic Emirates). They have placed as a holding structure in the mostly known Emirate Dubai. The board of management is leaded by an Arabic sheik.The concluded insurance sum of U.A.E. Pension Fund is amounted to a total of € 300,000.00.Through your premature assignment declaration you will get a compensation payment of € 80,000.00. Additionally you will get € 3,000.00 as a commission payment for each sponsored member finally to your sixths downline level.The total membership is limited to 50,000, so that in all a very fast expiry can be occur.
Costs and duties for member?To register as a member for U.A.E. Pension Fund the member has to pay € 51 only once.This contains every administrative and transactional costs. The only duty arising for the member is the truthfully information of required personal information. Through assignment declaration all rights and duties of the insurance policy will be transfered to the holding company of U.A.E. Pension Fund, so that no additional payments will be necessary.

Shaikh Nasser Bin Zayed Al Nahyan dies

"Abu Dhabi: The Ministry of Presidential Affairs on Tuesday announced the death of Shaikh Nasser Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Shaikh Nasser died on Monday night when the helicopter carrying him and his colleagues crashed over Gulf waters.

In a statement, the Ministry of Presidential Affairs announced a three-day mourning period starting Tuesday.

Offices in the government, public and private sectors will continue to work as normal, an authorised source at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs said."

more here

Choose the better option...

• In the US (New Jersey) the government will literally pay you (ableit in petrol money) to carpool. (link found via the consumerist)



• In the UAE, carpooling requires registration in order for it to be legal (I'd say that you have to pay to carpool, but that depends on whether you have to pay to register)

Choose the better option, share your opinion in the comments section...

Dubai bans sale of cigarettes to under 20s

"DUBAI (AFP) — The Gulf emirate of Dubai on Saturday banned the sale of tobacco to anyone under the age of 20 with immediate effect and barred young people from public areas in which smoking is allowed.

The announcement was made in public advertisements in Arabic-language newspapers as part of a "Youth Without Tobacco" campaign.

A spokesman for Dubai municipality told AFP that cigarette vendors and managers of public places such as cafes and restaurants have been instructed to ask clients for proof of identity even to smoke water pipes.

Those breaking the law would be fined, he said without elaborating.

Before Saturday's ban the sale of cigarettes in Dubai was prohibited to anyone under 18 and smokers were not allowed to light up in public places including hotels, restaurants, cafes and offices."

more here