Post-Races 2008

The Dubai World Cup this year was quite different to past experiences. Didn't have as much fun this year as the last couple. Got there late because of traffic. When we asked some people on duty at the blocked road entrances to the racecourse vicinity why we were not allowed to go right in, we were met with shoulder shrugs and a couple of incomprehensible mumbles. Great. We had friends accompanying us from abroad, and, trying to promote Dubai, when presented with the question "So...(would you leave your $$$ job overseas)...when are you moving to Dubai?" I wished I had some bodyguards to protect my little ears from the verbal backlash I had to endure!

Being forced to walk 20 mins to the main entrance when you've spent thousands to come to Dubai especially for the races and don't happen to have a Burj Al Arab chauffeur driven Rolls to take you there is out of order. My designer-label clad friends from overseas were not too happy. Thousands of people at the only 2 gates to the racecourse even at 7pm.

And, this year, taxis were not officially available upon exit. We had 'luxury coaches' to take us out of the desert and into the city, and those standing in the aisles had nothing to lean on, unlike what the upcoming Dubai Metro will offer...those swinging things on the ceiling that you can hold onto while involuntarily being swayed around.

I think the highlight of the night was not that America's top-rated horse won, but the fact that the football results were announced towards the end of the night. I heard "Scunthorpe". Quite a different review to my last Post-Races post.

It was a really fun night and I would recommend it for next year. Upon official approval, camping outside the night before might be a good alternative: after all, it's the desert.

Domain names in Arabic soon online

"The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said it is co-hosting the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Regional Meeting in cooperation with ICANN. .........
A key topic to be discussed at the meeting which will take place in Dubai, on 1 - 3 April 2008 is the possibility of getting domain names in Arabic online and making them available to the public......." Source

UAE troops help win Afghan minds

"Troops from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been delivering humanitarian aid to their fellow Muslims and, on occasion, fighting their way out of Taleban ambushes. Though Jordanian forces have been carrying out some base security duties, the UAE's troops are the only Arab soldiers undertaking full-scale operations in the country.

Until now, their deployment has been kept so secret that not even their own countrymen knew they were here."

"We try to convince the people about the US, about British. They came here to give you peace" UAE Maj Ghanem al-Mazroui.

More here

How banks sell off your personal details

I'm sure you all have a story of your own on this subject. But it really starts to bother me big time! Over the last years I have been contacted numerous times by telephone sales people on my MOBILE, at any time during day or night and even including weekends. Whenever I complained to these companies' management, I eventually was always informed, that they had received my personal details from my bank! So much for the protection of personal data.Most banks here have a privacy policy, at least theoretically. Such as for example Citibank UAE:
SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATIONThe security of personal information about you is our priority. We protect this information by maintaining physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that meet applicable law. We train our employees in the proper handling of personal information. When we use other companies to provide services for us, we require them to protect the confidentiality of personal information they receive...yeah right. I am sick of my bank selling off my personal data. I think it should be illegal for that matter.

Get Steve Wozniak to visit Dubai

You may or may not know who Steve Wozniak is, but if you're a geek or an Apple fan I'm sure you do. He's the co-founder of Apple Inc and he's still an employee of Apple although it's more of a symbolic thing these days. We'd like to try to bring him to Dubai for a visit; to speak to interested users, to interact with the Apple community here, to see what Dubai is all about, etc. Join our efforts at http://wozindubai.com.

Your Child Is My Child, Let’s Protect His Future Now!

Justice Without Frontiers, the coordinator of the Lebanese Coalition for the ICC, has launched a campaign, entitled, “Your Child Is My Child, Let’s Protect His Future Now,” dedicated to the Lebanese people, and particularly to the Lebanese children, who have been devastated, disfigured, burned, and killed by Israeli weapons.

Justice Without Frontiers invites and urges all national, regional and international NGOs, to participate and support this campaign and support Lebanon’s accession to the Rome statute for the ICC by signing a petition and forwarding it to others.

Dubai Demo Camp

Check out Demo Camp Dubai. It seems like a very nice idea, people come along to a monthly get together and four people "demo" their idea. The idea can be most anything it seems which should mean there'll be good variety. Most recent Demo Camp was yesterday but I'll definitely look out for the next. On their site it's explained like this: "DemoCamp Dubai is a Dubai-based launch event for new products, technologies and companies, it’s all about people presenting their new stuff and people giving them feedback. It’s an effort to entice excitement around creating cool stuff, find great innovation wherever it occurs, identify market trends through the focus of the products coming to market, and expose everyone to new ideas and exciting opportunities."

Explosion & fire at Al Quoz

A fireworks factory in Al Quoz had an explosion around 7am, followed by a huge fire which at 9am the fire service is still fighting.

One person is reported killed and another injured. The story is still developing, so let's hope that no-one else has been hurt.

UPDATE

I'm afraid Civil Defence now say two people died, plus one seriously injured.

They're also saying "illegal fireworks factory". And that up to 100 warehouses/buildings are on fire or damaged.

Medical advice is to stay indoors because of the chemicals in the air.

"Hemaya" programme

" More than one million people clicked through the 'Hemaya' website (www.hemaya.ae) in only 25 days after it was launched by Dubai Police to boost continuing efforts to comabt drugs and raise awareness against addiction,......" WAM

3 days to go!

It's that time of year again - the world's richest horse race kicks off on 29th March, here in Dubai.

It's an event not to be missed - and, in my opinion, one of the 'most fun' on the city's social calendar.

Here is a post I wrote pre-races last year, and one post-event... My overall sentiments were echoed in letters to 7Days, the local paper, reflecting racegoers' experiences of the event. Here are extracts of responses to these letters:

Louis Cypher..."I would not be able to stand seeing this place turning into the kebab strewn streets of some down market area in the UK, this is Dubai and it needs to be protected from lo life chavs who give myself and every other law abiding Britsish expat a bad name, even if this means getting tough and kicking out offenders and making sure people know about it & closing down bars and clubs that repeat offenses such as under age drinking, discriminatation etc. You see there are people here who are just waiting for this kind of letter so they can launch an all out attack and turn it into something political instead of just focusing on the facts here,which is, drunken unsightly chavs causing trouble as they have no respect for themselves or others. Bad behaviour at home is one thing, being disrespectful in public ref points made in this letter is undefendable, such as the couple by the entrance fondling each other, this is a Muslim country for gods sake,look around you, understand the culture, take an interest, talk to people, talk to local people and get an idea of how your antics affect them and conversly us!. I am not sure how many people at the races came over especially and therefore had been tourists as I cannot imagine for one minute that they could have all been residents like myself and others on here as they surely would have known that this behaviour is greatly forbidden, if they did then this is again very disrespectful. Ladies dressing up and making the effort however should not be attacked just because they are not all size zeros and catwalk models. Respect the people & they will respect you - respect their culture and they will respect yours - Respect their country and they will in turn respect yours."

Homer Simpson..."I have a very low regard for chavness, as do most people, and it's sad to see them lowering the image of an entire country with their slobbish behaviour. Wasn't so long ago that Britishness was synonymous with impeccable manners and discretion after all. I just hope Dubai doesn't sell its dignity down the drain for the sake of high occupacy rates"

Reportedly, tickets for the public enclosure are sold out, as of yesterday.

At the gallop

Sheikh Mohammed is making waves Down Under after spending half a billion dollars on Australia's biggest horse breeding stud:

AUSTRALIAN horseracing's most lavish supporter, Bob Ingham, has sold the vast Woodlands Stud to the ruler of Dubai for more than $460 million.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is the world's biggest owner of thoroughbreds, and the deal means he will dominate the breeding and racing of thoroughbreds in Australia through his Darley Stud.

Darley will take Woodlands' 1000 horses, two studs, a pre-training farm and racing stables in Sydney and Melbourne.

The deal is subject to approval by the Australian government which will take another month.

Dubai to join 'Earth Hour' blackout

The Gulf city state of Dubai is to join two dozen cities around the world later
this month in turning off the lights for one hour to raise awareness about
global warming. "Dubai is the first Arab city to declare its support for Earth
Hour" slated for March 29, said a statement on Tuesday by sponsors of the move
in Dubai, one of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates.
Residents in Dubai were urged to switch off all non-essential lights for one hour at 8:00 pm local time (1600 GMT) on the day "to send a message around the world that we have the power to take action against global warming."

read more here.

im just curious as to how people would define essential vs non essential. but here's a question. what would incentivise you to not "waste" - having to pay extra (as in the case of slab tariff introduced by dewa), or the thought that you were umm... contributing to the greater good of mankind... or saving the world... or something?

does the earth hour blackout (where you get to keep the essential lights on) mean anything to you?

Bad publicity for Brand Dubai

The jailing of Cat Le Huy for six weeks, before he was released when the case of drug possession was dropped, is still getting international media exposure.

Today The Times of London runs the story: "Endemol exec sent to Dubai jail after police find 'speck of dirt'

"Officials at Dubai airport claimed they had found 0.03 grams of hashish in the Endemol television executive’s bag...They accused him of possession — which would have led to a mandatory four-year prison sentence had he been convicted. After he spent six weeks in Dubai’s jails protesting his innocence, prosecutors dropped the case this month.

Mr Le Huy, 31, a German citizen living in London, claims that Dubai officials are paid a “bounty” for arresting drug offenders, a practice confirmed independently to The Times by sources who did not wish to be named.

'People shouldn’t go to Dubai until the laws change,' Mr Le Huy said. “They are running a risk. Even if you’re innocent and know about the laws, if they suspect you of anything, you run the risk of incarceration.'

His experience is common, according to Fair Trials International, a legal charity, which says that drug-related arrests have increased rapidly since 2006, when the laws changed in Dubai so that trace amounts of banned substances picked up by airport detection equipment were deemed to indicate possession.'

Dubai's laws, their implementation and the differences in sentence handed down for various offences are coming under more and more international scrutiny, and criticism. I won't talk about the human side of injustice, just the commercial implications. It's not helping us to get the 15 million tourists, and more, a year that so much of the economy's future is based on. The vast majority of people caught up in it and readers comments left with newspapers and websites say 'don't go to Dubai'.

Our new Justice Minister really needs to have a look at this with some urgency.

The full critical story is here.

Towards a World without Walls

Today's NZ Herald carries an interesting read penned by Mike Moore, a former Prime Minister of New Zealand with a longtime interest in Foreign Affairs and Overseas Trade. As well as being a prolific author, in 1998 he also decided to run for the post of Director General of the World Trade Organisation - a position that he won after a protracted contest, and which he held from 1999 to 2002.

His column, titled: Arab states on the frontline of progress - gives a summary of his business dealings in the Middle East.

Some of his statements include interesting information.

For instance, he writes about the discussions around the UAE creating a new currency. If they were to do this, it would rank 4th in the world behind the US$, the Euro€ and the Yen¥. That's no small-time impact on the balance of foreign currencies!

Other points that caught my attention:
~ if the Gulf Co-operation Council (the GCC - made up of Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates) ever got their act together, it would be the seventh-largest economy in the developing world - twice the size of Turkey, South Africa, or Argentina. Its global savings are higher than China's, and its current account surplus on a par with China.
~ The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is second only to the Bank of Japan in terms of assets.
~ The International Monetary Fund suggests infrastructure investment will reach $800 billion by 2010. On the respected index of economic freedom, the GCC is well ahead of Russia, China, and India. Half the GCC states score ahead of Italy.
~ Only 40 per cent of Dubai's income is now resource-based.
~ Dubai now enjoys more tourists than Egypt. (I don't know that "enjoys" would be the word that I would use to describe it!)

The article is an interesting read written by a man whose credentials and experience in Foreign Affairs and Overseas Trade make him an authority in this area.

Link to article
Mike's website - Towards a World without Walls

Du begins blocking

Du has gone and gotten itself a proxy page!


The page that has been blocked? Secret Dubai's blog! Congratulations!

Thanks to anonymous for tip and screenshot

(reportedly blogger/blogspot is now working on Du connections once again--except for Secret Dubai's blog)