A city that knows how to deliver. A remarkable growth for a 30 year old emirate. (edit: my reference is to the overall development of the emirate since independence)
28 October, 2005
Visiting Dubai in Summer
Some interesting exchange of views on this one (please click on the photo to read comments). It's sad to note that only few understand. Before we start to educate others, our own people need a lot of education on what tourism really means to Dubai and what Dubai means by "Open Doors - Open Minds".
Headline: Europeans in city earn three times more than Emarati
Dear Khaleej Times:
What am I missing in your provocatively-titled article?
Is the key word "earned"? Or is the key word "families" missing?
Are you calculating your averages over the number in the group (European, Emarati) of all ages, whether in or out of the workforce? Or is it per worker?
I am your faithful reader,
What am I missing in your provocatively-titled article?
Is the key word "earned"? Or is the key word "families" missing?
Are you calculating your averages over the number in the group (European, Emarati) of all ages, whether in or out of the workforce? Or is it per worker?
I am your faithful reader,
27 October, 2005
Business school flap a 'breakout moment' for Indian blogosphere
Link: USC Annenberg's Online Journalism Review
Quote:
Quote:
Bloggers + MSM = better media?Meanwhile, in the UAE we're still waiting for this moment. I guess it could be that there's nothing to pick up and magnify. Possibly, but not necessarily.
The story of IIPM and its battle with JAM and Indian bloggers follows a familiar trajectory here in the U.S.: There's a story in a smallish magazine, picked up and magnified by bloggers, then picked up and magnified by the mainstream media (MSM). This snowball effect has bloggers exulting, and the MSM taking bloggers much more seriously.
This goes for bloggers too...
From Emirates Today:
Inaccuracy and plagiarism are serious offences for bloggers too. Always remember to attribute anything you quote, if you post anything controversial be very meticulous with your cites and sources, and bear in mind that you can always be sued by a private individual or company if you defame them, or they think you have.
Inaccuracy and plagiarism are serious offences for bloggers too. Always remember to attribute anything you quote, if you post anything controversial be very meticulous with your cites and sources, and bear in mind that you can always be sued by a private individual or company if you defame them, or they think you have.
26 October, 2005
Politics aside, Arab TV laps up US pop culture
Arab TV laps up US pop culture :: Reuters
Quote:
Quote:
Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcasting Center has expanded from its main Arabic news and entertainment channel, MBC 1, to include a channel dedicated to Hollywood movies, MBC 2, and another showing U.S. sitcoms and talk shows, MBC 4.
In Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, One TV was launched in late 2004 and offers the same mix of American fare. Like the other stations, it does not disclose how much the channel costs.
The three channels have become hugely popular across the Arab world and advertisers are chomping at the bit to buy air-time because of their growing audience in affluent Gulf Arab countries, media analysts say.
. . .
On Dubai's One TV, video montages between programs show presenters gushing in Arabic over Hollywood stars who are depicted against a Dubai skyline made to look like New York.
"We researched what our viewers would like to see and what would attract more commercial activity," said Rashid Murooshid, the channel's manager.
"We have to admit that Hollywood is one of the biggest and best producers of movies, sitcoms and popular shows. Their standard is high and can be easily accepted in this part of the world, since it's in English."
. . .
"People appreciate American culture, entertainment and to some extent their values, concerning democracy," said Jihad Fakhreddine of the Pan-Arab Research Center in Dubai.
. . .
Fakhreddine said the Arab world's binge on U.S. entertainment was another example of the intellectual crisis outlined in recent U.N. Arab Human Development Reports.
"It shows the total bankruptcy of the Arab entertainment industry. It's cheaper for them to buy ready-made products, be it cars, fridges, or entertainment," he said, adding not enough money was being put into Arabic television production.
Point Counterpoint
New Economist: Why feminists should support sweatshops
Professor Naila Kabeer from the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, has visited garment workers in Bangladesh and written about their experience in a DFID-funded research paper Globalisation, labour standards and women’s rights: dilemmas of collective action in an interdependent world (PDF). There are, as expected, some negatives. But overall, these garments workers have benefited:About Naila Kabeer: "Naila Kabeer is a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, England. She works primarily on poverty, gender, and social policy issues. She is the author of Reversed Realities: gender hierarchies in development thought (Verso, 1994) and The Power to Choose: Bangladeshi women and labour market decisions in London and Dhaka."...problems notwithstanding, my own research in the Bangladesh context suggests that the majority of women workers rated their access to employment in the garment factories in positive terms because of its improvements on what life had been like before (Kabeer,2000). They valued the satisfaction of a ‘proper’ job and the opportunity to earn a regular wage compared to the casualised and poorly paid forms of employment that had previously been their only options.
Some of the women in my study had used their newly-found earning power to renegotiate their relations within marriage, others to leave abusive marriages. Women who had previously not been able to help out their ageing parents once they got married now insisted on their right to do so. Yet others used their earnings to postpone early marriage and to challenge the practice of dowry.
25 October, 2005
Something to think about
Importing our carers adds up to emotional imperialism
Young women from poor countries come to look after our young, sick and elderly - and their families pay the price
"The solution in the west is to outsource care - pay someone else to do it - and that is often provided by migrant female labour from the developing world. So the care gap of the west is resolved at the cost of exacerbating the care gap of the developing world. It's bad enough when a woman has to leave her children alone to go to work in a factory for 12 hours a day; it's even worse when she has to get on a plane and leave her children behind for years at a time, using some of her pay to cover the cost of a maid substitute."
Those of use lucky enough to be able to afford living with our families should think with compassion towards those who cannot: which in the UAE is around three million people.
Young women from poor countries come to look after our young, sick and elderly - and their families pay the price
"The solution in the west is to outsource care - pay someone else to do it - and that is often provided by migrant female labour from the developing world. So the care gap of the west is resolved at the cost of exacerbating the care gap of the developing world. It's bad enough when a woman has to leave her children alone to go to work in a factory for 12 hours a day; it's even worse when she has to get on a plane and leave her children behind for years at a time, using some of her pay to cover the cost of a maid substitute."
Those of use lucky enough to be able to afford living with our families should think with compassion towards those who cannot: which in the UAE is around three million people.
24 October, 2005
From one side of reality...
In the UAE it seems as though we have two parallel worlds--one for Arab speakers and the other for speakers of English. And the twain seldom meet. From the English side I find it wonderful how one can function so well and be so connected locally and with the rest of the world. TV, newspapers, radio, the net, signs and billboards, or in the shops and on the streets--nearly everything seems to be accessible through the medium of English. But occasionally I flip on an Arabic channel or I see my Arabic speaking students using the net. It then seems that they are part of a totally different world even though we share a common physical realm.
For example, when I see a bit of local news on an Arabic channel all I see as the camera pans are people in dishdashas and abayas. Whether in a shopping mall, a hotel, on the streets or in an open space, the screen appears to be filled with images of locals. It doesn't look at all like the world I see every day. Then when I think about it a little more, I realize that the two language communities probably don't watch the same movies, read the same news, listen to the same music, attend the same events, etc. Although I've lived in other countries (2 to be exact), where there existed two or more different linguistic groups, there was not this degree of separateness. Eithier one or the other clearly set the tone of things, or the different linguistic communities at least shared common experiences. It never seemed like two separate realities, the way it does here in the UAE.
I share this observation because I feel there is something wrong in this regard with the way the two linguistic groups remain so distinct. That being said, I don't have any remedies to suggest. I think that the last thing that anyone should do is to try to impose or dictate on matters of cultural integration. Maybe one might endeavor to create an atmosphere where integration happens spontaneously. I suppose if there are any bi-lingual speakers who are part of this forum, they could act as a bridge to bring the two realities closer together.
For example, when I see a bit of local news on an Arabic channel all I see as the camera pans are people in dishdashas and abayas. Whether in a shopping mall, a hotel, on the streets or in an open space, the screen appears to be filled with images of locals. It doesn't look at all like the world I see every day. Then when I think about it a little more, I realize that the two language communities probably don't watch the same movies, read the same news, listen to the same music, attend the same events, etc. Although I've lived in other countries (2 to be exact), where there existed two or more different linguistic groups, there was not this degree of separateness. Eithier one or the other clearly set the tone of things, or the different linguistic communities at least shared common experiences. It never seemed like two separate realities, the way it does here in the UAE.
I share this observation because I feel there is something wrong in this regard with the way the two linguistic groups remain so distinct. That being said, I don't have any remedies to suggest. I think that the last thing that anyone should do is to try to impose or dictate on matters of cultural integration. Maybe one might endeavor to create an atmosphere where integration happens spontaneously. I suppose if there are any bi-lingual speakers who are part of this forum, they could act as a bridge to bring the two realities closer together.
Just call me Moaner
Hi all and thankyou for inviting me to this blog.
I write about anything that is good for a moan, so pls check out my blog.
CG
I write about anything that is good for a moan, so pls check out my blog.
CG
23 October, 2005
Dubai :: Economist.com - Cities Guide
Link: Economist.com - Dubai Guide
Items covered this month:
1. Freedom of the press?
2. Trump goes Nakheel
3. ___ Gulf
4. An affair to remember
5. Corporate governance scandal at DIFX
Items covered this month:
1. Freedom of the press?
2. Trump goes Nakheel
3. ___ Gulf
4. An affair to remember
5. Corporate governance scandal at DIFX
Hello everybody
I am on board ... thank you SD for the invitation. Great to be part of the UAE community blog.
Cheers
moryarti
dubai consumer mirror
Cheers
moryarti
dubai consumer mirror
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