Christmas or some other celebration comes early!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Petrol prices are set to surge 31.5 per cent at UAE service stations, starting September 1, 2005.

Gasoline prices at all service stations in the UAE will be increased by Dh1.50 per gallon and diesel prices by Dh1.40 per gallon as part of gradual steps to stem substantial and spiralling losses in the petroleum business of all the distributing companies in the region, petroleum retailer Enoc said in a statement.

http://gulfnews.com/Articles/BusinessNF.asp?ArticleID=179488

seems like everything in the UAE is going to hike heavily upwards in the next few months, thats of course except for the minimum wage!

East v West advertising

Lulu from Arabian Adventures has spotted this fascinating post about advertising. Here's a taste:

The 25,000th visitor just arrived at my blog...

...I do hope it is not President Bush.



Sitemeter and other stats users, do feel free to share your milestone visitors here (like The Emirates Economist does). It's nice to see the growing interest in UAE blogs, and the variety of places that visitors are from.

NB: Sitemeter is free to put on your blog, and for blogspot users Sitemeter actually installs it for you, so there's no need to worry about inserting the code.

Abu Dhabi names projects open to foreign "ownership"

link

To me there is a difference between ownership and a lease, and the difference is a lease is for a fixed period of time and ownership is for an unlimited amount of time. What is described in the link above is, to me, a lease.

From what I've read in the last few months, it remains unclear whether any property in the UAE is available for foreign ownership. And it remains a matter of dispute whether federal law permits the individual emirates to allow ownership.

Please comment if you have some thoughts on the question.

Dubai women storm world of work :: BBC

link

The article appeared August 4, but I'd missed it until now. The "representative" comments received from readers are perhaps the most interesting part.

management

This powerpoint presentation is a funny yet truthful look at management in Dubai and other places;
i just found it on my FTP server and remembered it, please share!


http://www.samurai-sam.com/management.pps


(try again now, i f'ed up the link)

Embarrassing and disappointing

These, according to Google AdSense, are the top search queries done through the Google searchbox on my blog. I am so embarrassed that I am putting them as a graphic, to avoid the keywords mistakenly "attracting" anyone to this place:

Rajeev Nair 's story on the UAE blogosphere

Buzz-time in the UAE blogosphere:: TimeOut

Read the whole thing. It appears the link above may expire. I'll post the whole thing in an update should that happen.

Is that Secretdubai's picture on the cover of TimeOut?

Whale Shark at Dubai Marina 28-08-05

Junior was taking an afternoon swim at the Dubai Marina during lunchtime... Seeing him was an amazing experience, I believe most of us onlookers wished we could go into the water and swim beside him.

A man climbed over the railing and tried to touch him but he was out of reach, I was running along trying to take as many shots as I possibly could of this beautiful creature and amassed around 41 images!

My day haden't started of well, and yet after this small yet extraordinary adventure, I had hope and was positively energised... today was going to be a beautiful day!

I remembered my dream, the colour of the ray was the same as that of this beautiful creature. You cannot but be amazed by it's enchanting and humbling serenity. Life wasn't all that comlicated, yet we humans seem to have an uncanny talent of creating complexities to no end.

Emiratesadventure

We've just moved to the UAE and there's so much new stuff to take in and get used to (or not!). How would you ever get used to the gas-delivery truck's constant ringing of the bell? :-)

We started a blog just a few days ago primarily as a way to facilitate telling everyone at home about what's going on with us (http://emiratesadventure.blogspot.com). We're Magnus and Crystal and we're from Sweden and the US respectively. The last four years we've lived in the US and now we're in the UAE. Really, the blog is Crystal's but I guess I'll pitch in from time to time.

New Blog

I just found a new blog (just started posting on Friday). Emirates Adventure, by an American [oops! Swedish-American; sorry Magnus :) - That will teach me to blog at 6:30 in the morning ] couple in Abu Dhabi.

The pace of change

Just over a decade or so ago, Channel 33 was allegedly taken off the air for a week for broadcasting an episode of Benny Hill by accident (the screens apparently went black after about fifteen minutes of titillating antics).

Now in 2005: Virgin Megastore City Centre proudly displays this poster:

Expats in Dubai yet to get promised raise in salaries :: KT

Link. Quote:

DUBAI — Expatriate employees in various government departments in Dubai are still waiting to receive the 15 per cent hike in their salaries, almost three months after an announcement to this effect was made by the Dubai government in May last. The raise for local government employees was announced by all the emirates following a similar announcement in Abu Dhabi, which took effect on May 1, 2005. Sources confirmed that all local departments in the other emirates have effected the raise both for its nationals and expatriate employees.

While the expat government employees in other emirates may have received the 15%, from what I have heard there remains inclarity about just who is considered a government employee, especially in the education sector.

JBC - http://emirateseeconomist.blogspot.com

hi!

[censored]

Life in the UAE - two quick polls

What annoys you most? Etisalat Traffic Other people The heat Discrimination Soaring rent Sand and dust Current Results

What do you love most? Camels Low crime Multculturalism The heat Luxury living Tax-free salary The beach Current Results