ABN Amro Up for Sale

WASHINGTON (Menafn - MarketWatch) -- The chief executive of ABN Amro is at risk of losing his job after the Dutch bank reversed course and allowed a takeover consortium to access its books, according to a media report.

Sunday's The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that CEO Rijkman Groenink only changed his position against allowing the Royal Bank of Scotland-led group to perform due diligence on ABN ABN after coming under intense shareholder pressure to consider their bid.

ABN is weighing competing bids Britain's Barclays PLC , offering about $91 billion, and the proposal by the RBS group, which is worth about $100 billion.

more

I wonder if the Arab Investors are going to jump in!!

Emaar

An interesting article covering EMAAR and a few choice quotes from Mohammad Alabbar...

"However, he rejects western criticisms of Dubai for its refusal to sanction social changes. There are no democratic elections, press freedom is curtailed, and the decision to ban trade unions recently prompted Human Rights Watch to describe Dubai’s 250,000-strong army of Asian workers as “deportable, forced labourers”.

“Does Singapore have trade unions? No. In America, thanks to trade unions, Ford, GM and Chrysler are in difficulties,” Alabbar sniffed. Not all democratic systems work. “Do you think the election to bring in George Bush was fair, or Robert Mugabe? If that is democracy, I don’t want it.”

Press criticism of government, he said, was “a good thing but we have to leave a little bit of respect for the sheikh. People should criticise in a civilised manner. Call that censorship, if you like.”

Dubai is a benign autocracy that works. “The system is pro-progress, relatively clean from corruption, promotes education and moves forward women.”

--more here

DIFF and press freedom

Courtesy of anonymous for this article...

"Breaking his silence on whether he'd jumped or been pushed, former Dubai Film Festival chief Neil Stephenson held a tumultuous press conference in Cairo saying he was forced out.
Claiming that he could not get fair press in Dubai, he spoke on Tuesday to Egypt media, some of whom hotly challenged his statements when he said he was fired in February.

Stephenson, who said he'd declined three months' severance pay, has hired lawyers to ensure his "efforts over the past five years to create DIFF are given due and fair credit."

-- more HERE

demographic issues..

its been a while since i last posted but this is a topic that strongly demonstrates my reason for joining the forum as an israeli who doesnt even live in the UAE..

demographics is a key issue on our side of the middle east.. be it the fear of yaffo's palestinians that jews are swamping the old town's formerly arab quarters sanctioned by municipal policies or be through jews concerned that the relentless bedouin birth rate will create a whole new population balance issue down south that has yet to be confronted..

everyone wants to be a majority around here (except the christians who seem to be content with their predicament..)

i now turn to this forum to ask you for your views about the UAE.. in a heated debate on this topic i made reference to the way the UAE seems to respond to its demographic changes with the percentage of foreigners appearing to fluctuate - whether they are foreign laborers or sophisticated expats.. in my mind pondering how some have complained in the past that muslim and arab issues seem to receive less interest even though this is a blog for people connected to the united ARAB emirates..

appreciative of your views especially in relation to how demography impacts the way of life in the UAE today and what hopes fears concerns you have for the future..

grateful in advance for the insite..
lirun

How many revolving towers are planned for Dubai?

Planned, whatever. According to www.homesgofast.com,

Three ambitious new building projects have been announced in Dubai all of which will feature rotation in the design. This new concept features rotation either of the whole towers or of certain floors within.

Such technology however exists since 2001 in Brazil. The 15 storey Suite-Vollard in Curitiba, Brazil has 11 apartments that turn independently at 360 degrees an hour. ...

The first of the three projects in Dubai is the High Rise Real Estate’s ‘Rotating City’. This development has towers and villas. The villas will rotate completely with the help of a certain mechanism. These will be lifted up to six metres in height and then turn around. In another fifteen storey tower within this city, five floors will be designed to rotate as well. Vehicle owners will also have it easy with the vehicles being transported up as well.

The second project located in the ambitious Dubailand is the Times Residences. This project is headed by the Dubai Property Ring and consists of 24 towers and expected to be ready by 2009-2010. The first tower will rotate on a 24 hours cycle. The remaining 23 towers will follow the different time zones across the world. Solar energy will power this technology.

The third project is the Da Vinci Tower which will rotate as well as change shape in the process.

It's all here. Credulous? I cut&paste, you decide.

Wafi robbery arrests

Dubai: Police have arrested three people in connection with a jewellery heist at Dubai’s Wafi City shopping mall. Police told a press conference that Dh14m of jewellery had been stolen in the raid, and that it had been recovered. The daring raid on April 15 stunned shoppers at the mall, as armed men crashed through the front doors of Wafi City in two stolen Audi cars. They then threatened the staff at the exclusive Graff store, before getting back into their cars and driving away. Police revealed that two of the arrests were made in the UAE, while one person was detained in an unspecified European country. The total value of the jewellery stolen - which was recovered from a car in the UAE on Saturday - was Dh14m according to police. It was revealed that one of the suspects provided logistical support to the gang, while the second was in charge of hiding the jewellery and sending it abroad. Police also said the robbers, who were part of an international gang, used a plastic gun during the heist. More follows… Link

Is it true?

Nation/Police and The Courts

Wafi robbery arrests
Police have arrested three people in connection with the Dh50m jewellery raid on a store at Dubai's Wafi City shopping mall earlier this month.

That's on the Gulf News website Home Page. Click to read the full story and you get:

The requested article cannot be found,
it may have been moved during our recent website re-launch.

I won't comment until it's confirmed or denied, but that's what the website is saying at 2pm Dubai time.

I tried, but I still don't get it

How could file a case against a person for something like this???

Women's Town

Looks like Dubai’s visionaries have missed out on the newest concept: the world’s first Women’s Town! According to reports from China:

The 2.3-square-km Longshuihu village in the Shuangqiao district of Chongqing
municipality, also known as "women's town," was based on the local traditional
concept of "women rule and men obey," a tourism official told
Reuters….

When tour groups enter the town, female tourists would
play the dominant role when shopping or choosing a place to stay, and a
disobedient man would be punished by "kneeling on an uneven board" or washing
dishes in restaurant, media reports said.

Good news animal story

The Daily Mail (UK) is intrigued by the beauty contest for camels being held in Saudi Arabia. These camels appear to get better treatment than some humans:

"In Lebanon they have Miss Lebanon," jokes Walid, moderator of the competition's Web site. "Here we have Miss Camel."
...
"The nose should be long and droop down, that's more beautiful," explains Sultan al-Qahtani, one of the organisers. "The ears should stand back, and the neck should be long. The hump should be high, but slightly to the back."

The camels are divided into four categories according to breed - the black majaheem, white maghateer, dark brown shi'l and the sufur, which are beige with black shoulders. Arabic famously has over 40 terms for different types of camel.

Some females have harnesses strapped around their genitalia to thwart any efforts by the males to mount them. One repeat offender called Marjaa has been moved away.

It's all here.Like Miss Lebanon, the Miss Camel competition winners get large prizes.

Bad zoo news

I'm told Dubai zoo's move has been canned yet again.

This really is unacceptable - the zoo is an embarrassment, a blot on Dubai's name, an absolute disgrace in this day and age. It's particularly appalling given the billions of dollars being invested in the emirate.

Can you imagine horses or camels being imprisoned in the way the animals at the zoo are cramped into tiny, unsuitable space? Of course not. So how can it be acceptable for other animals?

I don't understand how the municipality can let this continue. It's not only damaging Dubai's reputation, it's a missed commercial opportunity - not something of which the authorities are often guilty. A good, modern zoological garden is a tourist attraction, a money-making enterprise.

It's another urgent problem that needs Sheikh Mohammed's attention.

Press freedom

Coming on the heels of the concluding day of the Arab Media Forum held in Dubai, an ironic newsreport:

Journalists charged with slander

A court will decide whether two senior journalists were liable for maligning two dignitaries by publishing a front-page article on how their horse was stripped of an award for taking a banned substance.

The Abu Dhabi Federal Court will issue its verdict against the UAE national journalists, a chief executive and an editor-in-chief of a Dubai-based Arabic newspaper, later this month, Gulf News has learnt.

The dignitaries' legal representative, of Rashid Bu Jsaim Advocates and Legal Consultants office, accused the defendants of intentionally publishing inaccurate and untrue information against the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs are also suing for publishing their pictures in a slanderous manner.
...
The lawyer [for the defense] handed the court a copy of an international sport court's ruling which stripped the plaintiffs of the award. Hashim also supported the court with a copy of the medical report (issued from the International Equestrian Federation) which proved that the horse was given a performance-enhancement drug.

Egypt's 'Dr. Ruth': Muslims need better sex

"Sex. Don't be afraid. Join me to talk about sex without shame."

Dr. Heba Kotb is tackling a taboo in the Arab world unlike anyone else: She's talking about sex openly on a show broadcast all over the Middle East. For the moment her main advice for married couples: Have more sex.

Despite the fact she addresses sex in the context of marriage, leaving aside homosexuality and adultery - we cant help but say :

Three cheers for the first female sexologist in the Middle East.

Sad and shocking

Via Mahmood.tv:



It would be interesting to see a similar experiment carried out in the US, my guess is they would probably arrest the "Arab" guy.

Help!! Help!! I 'm Stuck in Traffic

For the past three days I have been experiencing extreme traffic on the Discout Center and Sahara Center roads in Sharjah. A fifteen minute ride now takes an hour and a half!! I've called the police who said that two exits on Emirates Road in Sharjah/Dubai side, leading Ghusais have been permanatly closed. Well my Blogging Buddies I challenge you to find out what has happened. I haven't the time, cause... I'm stuck in traffic!!!