Tuesday June 2 Deadline: Looking for International East/West Peace Facilitators

This looks like a cool opportunity to help promote peace:

Soliya is recruiting skilled volunteers to facilitate its Connect program for the Fall semester 2009. The Connect program intends to bridge the divide between the "West" and the "Arab & Muslim World” by empowering young adults to play a constructive role in creating a more informed, just and peaceful global society.

Through a series of online video conference discussions held between university students from the United States, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, participants will be given the opportunity to collectively address some of the root causes behind the tensions between the "West" and the "Arab and Muslim world."

Role of a Facilitator: As a facilitator you'll mediate these online-discussions intended to promote intercultural awareness and understanding. You will also engage with people from different cultural backgrounds, explore their various opinions, help them to develop a nuanced understanding of the issues that divide them and become part of the bridge.

They are accepting facilitator applications from graduate and masters students, as well as professionals already in the workforce. The deadline was Friday May 30, but they will still consider applications until June 2.

Email to: Sonja Arnold (sonja@soliya.net)

Lots more information on the Soliya website.

Time-Lapse Videos of Massive Change on Earth

WIRED has some incredible "Time-Lapse Videos of Massive Change on Earth", among them is one of Dubai...


(found via twitter)

There is also a higher-quality frame by frame version of this available on the NASA website which also has more information available

Amnesty International Report 2009

In the Gulf states, migrant workers from the Indian sub-continent and other parts of Asia were a main stay of the oil-rich economies, providing labour and skills for construction and in the service industries. Often, however, such contract workers were required to live and work in grossly unsatisfactory conditions, excluded from any state protection against exploitation and abuse. If they protested against their conditions, as in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the authorities’ response was to round them up and deport them.

While I value Amnesty International and its nobel cause, the above claim is not entirely true. There have been peaceful protests where things were resolved amicably and no one got hurt or deported.

Also of note is their soft tone towards Israel.

The rest of the report is well worth reading.

UAE bloggers protected by Journalists' Association

A new article says that UAE bloggers will be protected from prosecution by a union of sorts, provided (of course), they follow a code of ethics:

"Bloggers and "virtual" journalists have the right to be protected by the Journalists' Association, provided they abide by the ethics code, including stating of facts and sources of information, avoiding defaming without tangible proof, or provoking hostility arising from religious, sectarian or race discriminations," Yousuf said.

Mohammad Yousuf, President of the UAE Journalists' Association, also said that full-time, dedicated bloggers will be allowed membership of the association.

So the question is really, who is a "full-time, dedicated" blogger? Again, in previous debates regarding this, does it include personal blogs that ocassionally do political commentary and controversial topics, or only those that are "journalistic"? And what is considered "provoking hostility arising from religious, sectarian or race discriminations"? Expats whining about locals, or vice-versa, or both? Does all of this also include comments?

It seems like a step in the right directon for sure, but certain things still seem a bit vague to me.

Breaking News FAIL

Someone died in front of Choitram's on Al Wasl road Friday night, and the body was still lying on the road when I stopped by. There was nothing in the newspapers in the next two days, and according to Choitram's staff, it was a hit-and-run. 

Today I see this piece of 'investigative' journalism in GN.

[...] These words were posted on the social networking website Facebook in memory of Gloria, a young pupil who was killed in a car accident on Friday... the 13-year-old () was hit by a car while crossing Al Wasl street.
According to (Major Khalid Kensham, director of accident assessment at the traffic department of Dubai Police) the accident was not a hit and run as stated by some posts online. He said that the Arab man driving the vehicle was held by Dubai Police.

Next time you want to see real news, please log on to facebook, because the only information GN can give you is what has either already been published through online media, or they can quote poetry from the victim's friends.

I pray the child's soul rests in peace; and that her family have the strength to bear this loss.
Let's also light vigils for UAE's media. 

Be Alert Swine Flu is now Positive in UAE

Last May 21, 2009 while reading the Gulfnews online that there is a possible symptoms of swine flue in one of the passenger come from Canada, and this guy put in quarantine. And just this morning (may 25, 2009) while browsing again the online news there was a confirmation that according to UAE Health officials that the guy with a symptoms is now positive of the swine flu virus or what they called H1N1 virus.

Here come the French...

The rather charming (my personal opion btw) Sarkozy is here in the UAE on an official visit, with one of his 'to-do' lists being opening a French military base in the capital:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to open France's first permanent military base in the Gulf on Monday, giving Paris a strategic role in the region and a key supply route for oil.

France will be joining Britain and the United States as the few western powers to have a permanent presence in the Gulf and "Peace Camp" is the first French base opened since the end of the colonial era.

The move is widely seen as a sign of France's tougher stance on Iran since Sarkozy took office in 2007, fueled by concerns over Tehran's nuclear programme.

"We are deliberately taking a deterrent stance," said an aide to Sarkozy. "If Iran were to attack, we would effectively be attacked also."

Sarkoy also told UAE official news agency Wam: "Be assured that France is on your side in the event your security is at risk.

More here.

Get paid to 'move in'

An Embiz article reports that the tables have turned for landlords:

Landlords in UAE may soon be offering incentives such as free relocation and discount vouchers for furniture and electronic goods in an attempt to attract tenants

First they'd threaten to kick people out for higher rents - and now? Relocation vouchers. Karma can be a b*tch.

UAE rejects Gulf currency

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Banking_and_Finance/10315315.html


This story - if true - is a bombshell. It is one thing for Oman to play the UK of the GCC and announce as it did a couple of years back that it will opt out of the Gulf common currency, but for the UAE to follow up the recent announcement that the GCC monetary authority will be in Riyadh with an announcement that it will not be a part of the common currency, now that is something else. Abu Dhabi had signalled it wanted to be the location, while influential voices in Dubai have been singing the praises of the putative "Khaleeji" currency of late.

Is the unnamed official source putting in an early bid for strong UAE representation among the eventual central bank board members, or just emphasising that, in such an unintergrated economy, the common currency is not that important when most trade and investment is with the west and Asia? It might be that the UAE genuinely wants maximum national financial flexibility, especially in uncertain economic times, but then Abu Dhabi and Dubai's long standing caution, even, historically speaking, outright opposition, toward Saudi Arabia has not gone away, just as periodically Abu Dhabi's unhappiness over their (oil-related) border delimitations gets a hearing. (Partly related to this, the announcements this year that Saudi and Qatar have "finalized" their border rang rather hollow to me at least, given that without Abu Dhabi's full and unreserved agreement, this isn't possible, quite apart from the issue of who has seen the Saudi-Qatari "final" map)...Any thoughts on what is going on ?

Arab Journalists Challenge HRW Report

From Kippreport:

Worker exploitation such as withheld wages, passport confiscation and employee-paid recruitment fees are an ongoing problem at Saadiyat Island, or “the Island of Happiness” in Arabic, says Human Rights Watch (HRW). The report, titled “UAE: Exploitations of Migrant Workers on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi,” was released on Tuesday at a press conference in Abu Dhabi.

The watchdog’s findings, however, were not well received by the Arabic media. Emirati and Egyptian journalists routinely interrupted the conference to challenge the report’s credibility and accuse the authority of taking the abuses out of context.

They also criticized HRW for revealing its findings in English first, and later in Arabic, with one journalist proclaiming that it showed the organization’s true colors and ‘hidden agenda’.

Full story here.

Passengers from NYC to DXB could have ended up in Dubai

Passengers who were on a flight from Dubai to Hyderabad last week have been asked to stay in their homes after an Indian student on the plane tested positive for swine flu.The 23-year-old Indiana University student travelled on May 11 on an Emirates Airline flight from New York to Dubai. He then boarded a separate plane to Hyderabad International Airport.
................
An Emirates Airline official said that as the student had travelled on two separate flights, it was possible that passengers on the plane from New York to Dubai had finished their journeys in the UAE.

While the story is well-covered from Hayderabad's end, one has to wonder why this is not the case for Dubai. For instance, have the passengers from NYC to DXB been contacted? Even the Emirates Airlines officials quoted in the story were from the India office.

Oh, could it be because the Ministry of Health was not available for comment?

Man denies woman's claim of stalking her by phone

Link Dubai: An employee has refuted a woman's claim that he threatened to dishonour her amongst her colleagues if she refused to date him and have sex with him, heard a court.

"You do whatever I want and if you want me to leave you alone, stop threatening or phoning you, then you should date me today," the 21-year-old Emirati woman was quoted in her statement to the Public Prosecution about what a 24-year-old Emirati suspect has allegedly told her on the phone.

The suspect, who is on bail, refuted her allegations and pleaded not guilty when he defended himself at the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.
"No, it didn't happen," argued M.A. when he rejected his charges before Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout.

The Public Prosecution charged the suspect with threatening to dishonour the woman if she refused to go out and sleep with him.

According to the arraignment sheet, the suspect verbally threatened the claimant by saying "you do whatever I want and if you want me to leave you and to stop threatening you and not to see my phone number then you have to go out with me today otherwise I will dishonour and expose you at your workplace".

The woman testified that she got acquainted to the suspect at the hospital where she works.
"The relation started over the phone& then I rejected his invite for movies and lunch and our relation continued over the phone. He consistently asked me out. A month and a half later, I helped him process his health card which he insisted to collect from me outside work," the woman said. (...)

unblock flickr

The TRA asked for our feedback and here it is:

As we sit on the eve of having the worlds biggest video sharing website cut to shreds by a 500 word long list of censored keywords, aside from the obvious questions like who was paid to sit and compile these 500 words and did they get paid for doing so, I think it is high-time to ask questions about another site that was blocked, then unblocked, the blocked again, and then unblocked again and then finally blocked completely across the UAE in which status it has remained for the past 2 years.

It is extremely unfortunate that the TRA, Etisalat and Du, can’t find a way to unblock Flickr so that it may be used again by people in the UAE. It also raises a question as to whether or not they have actually tried. The usual excuse for flickr’s block is as-usual completely redundant and as-usual ‘nudity’, it also as-usual relates to someone being a bit lazy.
According to Khaleej Times which claims to be quoting a TRA statement:

“It does not have the technical facility of blocking prohibited contents, and it cannot be partially blocked; where such facility is available on YouTube, Facebook and other similar sites.”

It sounds like someone from the TRA didn't actually check on anything before making that statement; images actually MUST be categorized on flickr as being safe, moderate or restricted. This affects whether they show up in searches or whether they are publicly accessible by someone without a flickr/yahoo account.

Funnily, this is a strikingly similar policy to Google images, deviantart and several other websites, yet all of them remain unblocked; infact by the same standard prohibited images are impossible to block via Google images yet that remains unblocked and flickr remains blocked.

Also interestingly enough is this paragraph on the flickr help section:

“Note: If your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Hong Kong or Korea you will only be able to view safe content based on your local Terms of Service so won’t be able to turn SafeSearch off. If your Yahoo! ID is based in Germany you are not able to view restricted content due to your local Terms of Service.”

I wonder how much effort has been put forward to have UAE-based id’s be unable to access adult material?
Anyone from the TRA care to chime in?
(braces for TRA/RTA/KHDA/RERA strategic response 101: “unavailable for comment”

Of course placing blame upon the TRA etc is one part of the problem, the other problem is you, yes you UAE-based internet users… You wouldn’t sit there and do nothing if facebook was blocked, yet when one of the largest photo websites on the internet gets blocked no one cares. Join this facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=83349217846 and help get flickr unblocked in the UAE.

Investors are attracted by returns - GN

Yes, stating the obvious still passes as excellent journalism in the UAE. This is because Gulf News is letting its readers know that investors are attracted by returns. Along with an article a few days back about "temperatures increase as summer approaches" (or something similar), I wonder what future headlines are waiting for us:

- June to officially follow May.
- Restaurants to serve food during opening hours
- Shoppers are integral to mall revenues

Such entertainment! Such quality! No wonder Gulf News has about 50% of the UAE's readership and they are proud of it. Such is why they keep reminding us with their bar charts. I wonder what proportion of those readers need to be reminded that breakfast is taken in the morning and dinner in the evening.

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Economy/10314004.html

Wolfram|Alpha's answer for United Arab Emirates

What additions, improvements or corrections would you make to Wolfram|Alpha's answer for United Arab Emirates? What's true, what's false, what's misleading, what's missing? Before answering compare to the answer for other countries (e.g., France).

Compare UAE and Oman demographics; GDP per capita. Seem plausible?