USATODAY.com - Trump, Nakheel to make tulip-shaped hotel

Image.

Quote: "The Trump Organization is not required to invest any money, but is providing its brand to projects that could be entirely financed and built by Nakheel, Bin Sulayem told Dow Jones Newswires.'We're tapping into his knowledge and ability in the high-end sector,' Nakheel Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said of Trump."

Cyborg Writes to Paper

Over the "bangladeshi mounted a camel" saga, someone started cussing at secretdubai for not mentioning his nationality, as it somehow is important, and the "relegen" of the UAE prohibits beastiality, and somehow that means no one from the UAE could ever possibly do it...

well, it seems they were not the only "cyborgs" (i am calling these people this from now on) in the UAE;
Stop attacking a decent expat over homosexuals
Thursday, 06 October 2005

To all those people who attacked a decent expat (Penny Francis):

not a decent person would attack Penny for what she wrote, stop hiding you are all nothing but what you support.

Pretending that you are only standing up against discrimination or anybody who takes away the poor gays' rights; it is sickening to see what kind of people are allowed to not only enter and leave within our decent communities, but also to stand up and feel no shame whatever to support homosexuality.

What is really sad is that I have been reading these shameful articles attacking a person who stood up and talked against it, over and over. Very few articles from my fellow locals to say anything about it.

Is this what has become of our beloved country? A place to support gays? I wonder what will our brothers and sisters from the Gulf would say reading these articles?

What will our Muslim brothers and sisters all over the world say? But above all, what will we say in front of Allah allowing filth to be promoted in our Muslim country?

It is forbidden in our religion and our society. It is against the laws of this country too.

7days seems to be touching on quite a risque subject by even considering letters with "gay" in the title.
This will probably turn into a flamefest, and if so i will delete.

accident at 4pm

maybe just another accident along sheikh zayed road... see the actual footage from an office window.

The Quiet Religious Policeman

The RP has given up allowing comments on his marvellous blog. I can understand why. Some of his posts were getting several dozen comments and some of these things were turning into regular flame-fests. But it made for fascinating, if sometimes uncomfortable reading.

I hope he feels able to turn them back on sometime soon though.

Nocturne

By Labiba Laith (10-10-2004)

The days go by, I await impatiently as any lover does, to the sleepless nights and drowsy days of Ramadan. Anticipation makes my heart throb from the tips of my fingers to the ends of my curls, round and round till it vibrates energy, carrying me higher to unknown levels mystique.

I look deep into my closed eyelids and recall those days from childhood when we looked forward to Ramadan, when we were forbidden to let our tiny minds wander to foods and little white lies! As it waited at our doorsteps the eve of the lunar month, we gathered to feast for suhoor (the last meal at night prior to holding the fast) to prepare for the day ahead.

I lay me down on my magical carpet that takes me across my memories on a mystical ride from Baghdad to Casablanca…


Casa (as it is fondly known by all who’ve been charmed by it); the tense buzz of the fasting day can only mean exciting nights of times of yore. We stroll through the souk amongst the little shops displaying their wares of Jilbabs and fine cloths and we hear the muezzin’s (the mosques caller) sweet voice beckoning the faithful to Maghreb (Sunset) prayer and breaking the fast. The shop owner pleads with us to share his glass of milk and his neighbour offers us his Harira (a fragrant Moroccan soup), another brings a boiled egg whilst a fourth one offers a shabbakkia (a potently sweet mesh of honeyed dough) their Iftar (break of fast) is light lest they hesitate to lift their observing bodies to prayer, the dinner follows much later, a gentle coaxing for the system to slowly awaken itself to the feasts ahead.

I close my eyes and smile, I am back to that life that I’ve only read about in long told tales, of nights and days, perhaps a thousand, maybe more by one, the spirit of humanity lives on in that little street down the old souk of Casablanca.

At home we prepare the foods and drinks that will take us through this month of twenty nine odd days, and I prepare, my mind, body and soul to reflect and in this pensive state to discover, yet another dimension in its infinite capacity to surprise me of its tolerance.

It is not a mere cleansing process, rather, a purification of the psyche, the id, the spirit, the essence, call it what you may, the nether part of ones being that wakes us up of our somnambulist reverie when we forget for a moment who we are.

I dream of Palm trees and their beckoning fronds swaying to the mystical words whispered by dwellers of the night, of the crescent moon bowing its head in reverence of the day ahead, of the waters edge curling its grasp on the banks that it embraces. I dream of Iraq.

Body and mind abstain.

The days were long and hot, the nights short and sweet, as sweet as the multitudes of sugary delights displayed on everyone’s table. We gather across a long table cloth placed on the ground, hands aloft as eager as falcons who pounce on their prey. A cool yoghurt drink and a thick apricot sherbet sit side by side whilst the fragrant lentil soup teases the slivers of crispy onions atop it. The long plate of teshreeb (a.k.a. Thereed, a.k.a. Fereed in Emirati; cut up squares of bread covered with a meaty vegetable stew) with boiled eggs crowns the centre. From the side, the simmering plate of Hareess (a porridge concoction of grain cooked with finely shredded lamb) drenched with melted butter, ground cinnamon & sugar reaches out to the finest of senses without hesitation.

We roll away reaching out to fragrant, tangy dried lemon teas.

As the second third of the month folds away, us children prepare our sacks (or even old pillow cases) to go out for Gergeeaan (in the UAE it’s called Hag il Layla; for this eve, and it’s usually in the middle of the previous lunar month of Shaaban) the arabic manner for trick or treating. All across the world, whether its October or Shaaban or Ramadan, kids become supremely excited at the prospect of sacks full of candy, sweets and nuts, maybe even if we’re really lucky, some coins are dropped in to add to the excitement. And we as children of the world become one.

January 1998, Ramadan in Dubai, My father hurries me and I stall… I am mesmerized b the echoing of prayer calls, and a spell is cast, I fall and tumble hopelessly in love with the melodious resonance across the twilight air, a rosy glow covers the shadows and for once it has a myriad of colours unlike any other.

As we prepare to set the table for Iftar, it should have been only natural to hear a soft knock on the front door; I peek through the curtains and see a little boy carrying two plates. As I open the door and greet him, he bows his head with a shy smile, passes me the plate and rushes away before I have a chance to thank him and his mom for their kindness, asking God to bless him & his family.
I turn back inside and look at my parents with dewy eyes and awe transcribed poetically on my face. I had just been hit by the sweetest and oldest of customs; share your blessings and delights with your neighbours. I felt lucky to have experienced this tradition, that may only have existed in the countryside of anywhere in the world. It reached out its hand and held me in Dubai, it may have been sixteen years since Casablanca, but humanity still thrives over here.

With age comes maturity, and a forlorn longing to the simpler past that we hurried at so we may grow up faster. Ramadan seems to bring back many of those times. It is not only a time for fasting and feasting, but a time for some spring cleaning of the soul. After satiating our earthly appetites, a need comes calling deep into the last third of the night to satisfy a never ending hunger for blessings & forgiveness. The spirit convenes in a multitude of ways with its creator and in those deepest and darkest of hours one finds solace from the scorching noonday heat of thought; revelation. A shroud of patience descends to envelope us, help us understand our fellow man, ourselves, our misgivings, our short-sightedness at a life we think of as eternal, and one lets go of worldly delights, of all that binds us from absolution. We thank the Almighty for being able to observe this holy month, for being capable of doing the good deeds to fellow humans as we must, for blessing us with life to see it for another year, It is then that we wish that all our days were Ramadan…

Saudis block blogger.com? :: TigerHawk

Link. Quoting TigerHawk:

Reporters without Borders reports that Saudi Arabia's national ISP is blocking the blogger.com domain:

Reporters Without Borders today called on the Internet Services Unit (ISU), the agency that manages Web filtering in Saudi Arabia, to explain why the weblog creation and hosting service blogger.com has been made inaccessible since 3 October, preventing Saudi bloggers from updating their blogs.

Let's note that blogger.com itself was down for maintenance on October 2, so at this point there's some fog of doubt around this story.

Bloggers, journalists, and freedom of speech and of the press

Yesterday Khaleej Times and Gulf News reported on a meeting of the UAE Journalists Association.

Where do bloggers fit in? Do they have adequate protection? Should they seek to be treated like journalists? Is blogging from the UAE comparable to blogging in other parts of the world?

The Right of Return

The following paragraphs are extracted from an article in today's Gulf News:

[Fouad Siniora, Lebanese Premier] added that Lebanon would not sign any peace deal with Israel unless Palestinians return to their homes.

Lebanon is hosting 400,000 Palestinian refugees in designated camps.

They moved to Lebanon in the exodus after the 1948 and 1967 wars with Israel.

Some Lebanese sects have rejected any attempt to settle Palestinian refugees in the country because such a move, they claim, would affect the demographic balance of society.

The Arab League also had called on host countries not to give Palestinian refugees full citizenship as this encourages Israel to deny their rights to return to their homes in Palestine.

The position of the Lebanese Premier and the Arab League as described above is that the Palestinians must sacrifice citizenship and full rights in what is for many the country of their birth in exchange for harbouring a dream that one day they will be allowed to return to the lands they lost in 1948. Whatever the injustices or practicalities surrounding the right of return, it is true to say that this issue may not be resolved for another 100 years, if ever. After 50 years, are the Palestinians still putting the right of return at a higher premium than full citizenship in their country of residence, and are prepared to do so indefinitely? Are they having this premium imposed on them against their will? Or are they divided on the subject?

Any Palestinians out there, I'd be interested to hear your views.

Khaleej Times makes news : Albany Democrat-Herald

Quote:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A Dubai-based newspaper said Sunday it stands by a story in which it quoted Iran's president as saying he might curtail oil sales if his nation is referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear program.
. . .
After the story quoting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared Saturday, the president's office issued a statement saying he 'never had an interview, either oral or written' with the newspaper.

On Sunday, the Khaleej Times acknowledged that the confusion might have arisen because the reporter, a freelance journalist, told the president she was working for another paper.

The newspaper said the reporter on several occasions 'presented herself (to Ahmadinejad) as a reporter with the American-based Arabic News, and not as a Khaleej Times reporter, though she has given this report exclusively to Khaleej Times.'

The paper's editor, Prem Chandran, told The Associated Press: 'We support what we published.'

Watch the skies - Nasa's keeping tabs on the Palm

From Nasa: Palm Island Resort, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is featured in this image photographed by Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao from the International Space Station. The resort is under construction on reclaimed land silhouetted against the dark waters of Dubai’s Persian Gulf coast. Advertised as "being visible from the Moon," this man-made palm-shaped structure displays 17 huge fronds framed by a 12-kilometer protective barrier. When completed, the resort will sport 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, cinemas, and other facilities. When completed, the resort is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people.

Image Credit: NASA

See those quote marks in Advertised as "being visible from the Moon"? Nasa sarcasm, cool!

Just to clarify, this whole "visible from space/the Moon" is largely a load of rubbish and/or marketing hype - click here for more on this.

But you can try to spot Beckham's villa on this high-res version. WARNING! That's a 6.2Mb file, so don't click it unless you've got speedy net access, which technically rules out all Etisalat subscribers.

Invest Dubai

As of last week, I am an investor at the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). It's not much but I have decided to put away a certain percentage into the markets here. Last year the DFM grew by 118%, I think this year it will continue to grow at this pace due to the high oil prices. The UAE is expecting close to $300 billion in oil revenues this year, eventually this capital will flow iinto other sectors including the stock market.

I have invested in two companies, Shuaa Capital and Amlak Finance. Shuaa being the major investment and Amlak smaller in number.

Reasons why I got in now,

1. Ramadan period has traditional been a low activity period, so the prices are low and you can get stocks at fairly decent prices.

2. The Dana Gas IPO meant that a lot of money was sucked out of the market, this forced the index to come down and it will remain at this level till the end of Ramadan.

I have played the markets before in India, thanks to ShareKhan and made a modest profit mainly on Tata Power. The stock trippled in a year and for a few weeks I was a very rich 22 year old :-)

Things you never knew about Dubai, #4764

The police play bagpipes:

Promoting your blog

Lots of people are clearly putting a lot of effort into their blogs, so here are some (legitimate/non-spam) ways to promote your online journal:

1. Settings
For Blogger.com users (LJ and other blogs have similar options) go into your settings (via the Dashboard) and make sure the following options are enabled:
- Add your blog to our listings: YES
- Notify weblogs.com: YES
- Enable post pages: YES
- Publish site feed: YES

2. Interaction
Posting on other people's blogs is a way to alert people to your own blog, because your username (and signature) often includes a link to it. Many of the members here were "discovered" after they posted to someone else's already known UAE blog.

3. Linking
Linking to your favourite blogs on your own blog, and getting links to your blog in return, is a great way of promoting yourself to people in your target interest group.

4. Blog guides
If you Google, there are a lot of blog sites around that allow you to submit yours for listing, such as GlobeofBlogs.

5. Wider online participation
Joining relevant online communities, such as UAE forums or Middle East travel forums, and posting helpful advice is also a way to promote yourself, as you are usually allowed to have a signature where you can link to your blog. Interesting UAE-relevant forums include BritishExpat.com: Middle East and DubaiForums.com.

If you find blog guides where UAE community blog isn't listed, do feel free to submit it yourself - this is everyone's blog. As users such as The Emirates Economist have noticed, many referrals to UAE blogs actually come from UAE community blog.

Anyone with other ideas, do post them!

Missing Children.....

I was sad after reading about that the 3 yr old missing girl's body was found.

Also read in KT abt the children going missing at the malls. I have often seen this scenario at the malls. Children are often seen roaming unaccompanied as their parents are busy with shopping.

I just pray & hope that no parent should ever undergo the pain of losing a child.

KJ

To boldly go despite adversity :: Gulf News

Gulf News editorializes today about press freedom, the public's expectations, and government officials.

Here are some key quotes:

the public has demanded greater disclosure, less toeing of the party line, more investigative reporting and "telling it like it is". That call also comes from government officials who claim any story can be told as long as it is accurate and truthful. . . .

it is noticeable that when we ask for comment, many people who requested greater press freedoms decline to reply or subsequently condemn us for publishing the story.
This is a nonsensical position in which to put the media. . . .

Gulf News will continue to publish fearlessly, accepting that there will always be so-called spokesmen who, in fact, prefer instead to remain silent.