UAE Community Blog

Fan pictures of Abu Dhabi 2009 FIFA Club World Cup

2009-12-21T02:16:00.005+04:00

Last week was an action-packed one with Barcelona playing Estudiantes de la Plata of Argentina at the Sheikh Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi at the UAE 2009 FIFA Club World Cup.

While pictures of the players are all over the news, here are images of what it felt like to be among the fans and watch the game live...

Fans arrive all geared up for action in an Abu Dhabi public bus

Isn't that the sweetest fan - loyal RCA supporter!

The best seat in the house - view from the top

The one face that I will remember from my visit to the Abu Dhabi 2009 FIFA Club World Cup.

You are more than welcome to see more amazing fan pictures on my copywriter blog.

City Center opens in Las Vegas

2009-12-17T17:39:00.001+04:00

"CityCenter" has opened in Las Vegas yesterday. No, not the CityCenter Mall as we know it in the region; rather the kind of one, where you go in, spend your money and usually get nothing much in return.

Further to the last post on this topic and after all the financial turmoil Dubai is going through, I find the timing and price tag of the project rather ironic. Not any less ironic is the title used in the Media "reviving sin city's economy". Watch the Bloomberg video here.

See the firework on the opening night of the MGM Mirage - Dubai World joint venture:

Scientologist in the UAE

2009-12-14T15:54:00.003+04:00

As the gibber goes on about UAE culture, they oughta had the CID at the Sharjah book fair, last month. His, could be fake holiness, L. Ron Hubbard of Dianetics, the science of the mind that has Will Smith and Jada Pinkett looking all glassy-eyed has arrived in the Gulf and they are taking no prisioners.

Posing as two education institute, called Applied Scholastics and The Way to Happiness, they were raking it in at the Bookfair, as everyone wondered "how did they get in?" When approached some officials said the didn't know, others said they new, but kept mum, while others said, they do the same in Arabic. But in UAE, of course anything goes, and one day, this might mean in like those Africans in Mexico, who once ruled, our own Locals will be no more.

Abu Dhabi to the rescue

2009-12-14T12:14:00.002+04:00

"The Government of Abu Dhabi has agreed to fund $10 billion to the Dubai Financial Support Fund that will be used to satisfy a series of upcoming obligations on Dubai World.

As a first action for the new fund, the Government of Dubai has authorized $4.1 billion to be used to pay the sukuk obligations that are due today."

That's from a WAM report, which you can read in full here.

"UAE urges developed nations to make carbon cuts"

2009-12-10T11:40:00.002+04:00

"The UAE made waves at the Copenhagen climate talks yesterday by putting its name to a joint statement calling on developed countries to commit to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
The document, which was also signed by Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Iceland, Singapore and Slovenia, is one of the strongest statements on climate change to come from an oil-producing nation.
Members of Opec, the petroleum exporters, have generally sought to downplay the issue of global warming.
......
The UAE has maintained that developing states should not be committed to obligatory emissions cuts, a position reiterated on Sunday by Dr Saad al Numeiri, one of 22 senior officials representing the UAE in Copenhagen.
As an oil-producer, the UAE would suffer economically from measures to reduce the world’s dependence on oil. But yesterday’s statement focused instead on the need to strengthen co-operation among the international community.
.......
Mari Luomi, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, said the statement represented a break with tradition for the UAE. “This is a significant departure from the Opec position, which the UAE has been inadvertently supporting. It is very bold in a way,” she said.
Opec, she said, has been “very vague” on what should be the maximum permissibly level of warming. The Saudi government has insisted on financial compensation for oil revenues lost due to measures to reduce the fossil fuel consumption of developed states."

___________________________

It's bewildering that the UAE would take such a stance. If a binding 'cap and trade' agreement for emissions gets endorsed by the Copenhagen conference, it may lead to declining consumption of oil world-wide.

It's a little counterintuitive for an oil-producing country to support such a move.

But it's also noteworthy that the UAE "maintained that developing states should not be committed to obligatory emissions cuts", which means that it'd only be limited to developed nations. In other words, it's business as usual for China and it'll continue to emit smoke like a chimney.

So, simply put, the final agreement will either be insignificant, or it will be stalled by developed nations.

Have a nice weekend.

The first Domino

2009-12-10T11:09:00.001+04:00

Surprisingly our local newspapers seem to have missed this story yesterday. Never mind, we at the UAE community blog are happy to assist them with the dissemination of relevant news.

According to this report by Dow Jones Newswire (printed in the Wall Street Journal Asia online edition and picked up by Zawya.com), Istithmar World (Dubai World’s investment vehicle) defaulted on loan payments on a hotel investment in NYC in October, which led to a foreclosure auction a few days ago where they got $2 million for their equity in the property.

The whole thing is terribly complicated and involves ‘junior debt’ and ‘mezzanine financing’ etc. but this really just obfuscates the issue. Let’s ignore debts and defaults for a minute and simply look at the bottom line. Which, I think, is the whole point of investing after all.

According to the article, “[I]stithmar spent about $50 million in cash and borrowed $232 million to buy a 90% stake in the trophy hotel in October 2006. In June, Istithmar bought the remaining stake from UBS AG for about $4 million”.

So, Istithmar spent more than $50 million in cash and got back $2 million for their stake at the auction.
OK, someone will pick up the debt and with it, loads of negative equity because the value of the property is now less than half of what Istithmar (and their lenders) paid three years ago at the height of the market. But the bottomline is that Istithmar put more than $48 million in the sand in the space of three years. And this - involving New York City prime property and not, say, a reclaimed lump of sand in the the Persian Gulf - is quite an achievement for an investment firm. (You have to remember here that Istithmar means ‘investment’ in Arabic and not as you might think perhaps ‘reckless and shortsighted debt splurge’.)

As the saying goes: the money is in the buying. Clever investing means not to overpay.

The first Domino has fallen.

By the way, the report makes a mistake by muddling up Dubai World with Dubai Holding. Its closing paragraph states that “[D]ubai World is expected to sell some non-core assets including Central Park South landmark the Jumeirah Essex House..”
Jumeirah Group (which owns and manages Essex House) is of course part of Dubai Holding, Sheikh Mohammed’s personal investment holding company. It has nothing to do with Dubai World other than the name Dubai in it and the fact that ultimately one man controls everything.

Ehm, you can clearly see the difference...

Burning the candle at both ends

2009-12-08T10:54:00.001+04:00

I read in the local press about a Dubai resident who is organizing a ‘candle light vigil’ on Umm Suqueim beach tonight to raise awareness for climate change. But actually, she doesn’t want to just light candles. What she really wants is to save the planet. The organizer encourages people to bring along families and friends. To save the planet or light candles; I’m not sure which.

I believe you’ll find that you don’t actually need candles on the beach next to Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the Burj Al Arab. The area is usually well lit by several thousands of metal halide floodlights of the hotel grounds, so ‘Hopenhagen’ won’t have trouble finding its way here.

But anyway you should go and help her light a candle. You know deep down that you are making a difference. For example to the small grocery on Beach road that sells candles.

And when you reach there please note that there is ample parking for your 4.8litre Range Rovers and 5.6litre Ford Exhibitions close by.

An honest start to keep Happy "happy"!

2009-12-07T22:59:00.003+04:00

‘Happy to be in Dubai; I’ve a better life here’ – says Ms. Happy Bulosan (not her real name), a 22 year-old Filipina resident from Dubai. She and her name – Happy – represent the general state of mind of an estimated 2 million+ Filipinos working in the Middle East. Usually, whatever the time of the day or the place, if you come across a Filipino in the UAE / Middle East, you’d definitely find yourself being charmed by his/her good sense of simple humor, colorful, decent and stylish dress sense, and overall a “Happy-go-Lucky” attitude towards life in general.... (Read On)

For comments on the original post, CLICK HERE

What is Abu Dhabi's thinking?

2009-12-06T05:39:00.004+04:00

He's back.

The man with his own UAE community blog category has added his voice to the speculation about what the Dubai default ways about relations between Abu Dhabi and Dubai:

The answer to this conundrum lies in both the past and the present, as an age-old rivalry has resurfaced that sees Dubai unwilling to part with its autonomy and come to the table. Dubai, after it broke away from the sheikhdom of Abu Dhabi in 1833, survived repeated attempts at reintegration only because of its peace treaties with Britain. Even in the 1940s, with Britain fully engaged in the second world war and less able to give attention to the region, there was an armed conflict between the two sheikhdoms. In 1979, just eight years after the UAE was formed, a constitutional crisis threatened to break the UAE apart, with Dubai resentful of increasing Abu Dhabi-led centralisation. It is remarkable that Dubai agreed to merge its armed forces - the Dubai Defence Force - into the federal military only in 1996.

In the light of this history of some tension, Abu Dhabi has taken an unexpectedly shrewd stance on the financial disaster. Its thinking appears to be that Dubai’s bad debts really are bad, and could well end up becoming black holes. Moreover, if Abu Dhabi gets involved now, then the lawsuits that will almost certainly be coming Dubai’s way may land on the desks of the federal government or even those of Abu Dhabi.

There is a deeper point. Sheikh Mohammed, his crown prince, and his top lieutenants are now all exposed as having long circumvented the truth; as a result, the ruling family has suffered a massive loss of legitimacy, both internationally and in the eyes of Dubai’s business elite and citizenry. Yet at the time of writing there have been no signs of humility; on the contrary, the ruler stated on 1 December that investors “do not understand anything”.

Read it all.

Christopher Davidson has not always been popular with either ruling family, but he's a favorite of the reporter looking for a quote.

Vote for Dubai in before and after contest

2009-12-04T22:02:00.002+04:00

As we all know, the 2005 shot is so dated compared to today. Even so, take a look and compare it to the other eleven cities in the contest.

Family of murdered boy: 'Execute the killer'

2009-12-03T23:07:00.000+04:00

Parents of four-year-old boy who was raped and killed seeks death for the murderer.

Dubai: Residents of Al Qusais were in shock over the gruesome rape and murder of a four-year-old Pakistani boy inside the toilet of a mosque where his father prays regularly.

The parents of Mousa - who was found dead on November 27 - said they do not want "diya" or blood money.

The father, Mukhtiar Ahmad Khuda, 30, a driver for Ahmad Eisa Ali General Trading, said that he will accept nothing less than capital punishment for the murderer. "I hope he gets executed," said Jamala Khatoun, Mousa's mother.

Police detained a Bahraini suspect, 30, who they said confessed during interrogation that he killed the boy after sexually assaulting him. He told police he had been drinking alcohol on the night before Eid.

Read the whole article here.

The Daily Show: United Arab Emirage

2009-12-02T22:36:00.002+04:00

This has been flowing around twitter today:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

United Arab Emirage

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

Media Council to the Rescue!

2009-11-30T11:46:00.003+04:00

You can count on British newspapers: After the shock, the ridicule. An image accompanying an article in the Sunday Times which shows Sheikh Mohammed ‘floundering in a sea of debt’ is deemed so offensive to the nation’s frail and fickle sensitivities as to spur the National Media Council into action and order removal of the ‘The Sunday Times’ and ‘Times of London’ print editions from the shelves of local news stands, according to this report in ‘The Wall Street Journal’.

Never mind the matter at heart of the controversy. The fact that investors were kept in the dark about Dubai’s ability and intention to repay its debt on time. The fact that this inconvenient truth was released only weeks after Dubai’s ruler told critics to ‘shut up’ and repeatedly reconfirmed that Dubai would honour its obligations - which evidently it is not. That fact that this announcement was made just hours before the financial markets in the UAE shut down for several days of public holidays and the government went ‘incommunicado’.

No, these facts matter not! What really matters is that nobody in this country reads about it.

The National Media Council can be relied on to save the day, and face. Never mind the cock up – as long as people don’t see the photo or read the story, ‘nothing happened’. Thank you, NMC; we can sleep easy in this country, unbothered by troublesome news.

Since the NMC hasn’t heard of that newfangled invention called internet yet, you can see the “offending” article and image here:

2009-11-26T23:02:00.003+04:00

Wishing everyone Eid Mubarak.... :)

Selected Pictures from Abu Dhabi Art 2009

2009-11-25T13:04:00.003+04:00

Heads up folks

2009-11-24T09:39:00.004+04:00

Banks will be officially closed from Thursday to Sunday (26-29th November), which means the little elves will not be around to stock up your ATMs for you.

To avoid unnecessary frustration in the coming days, fill out your wallets today. It will give the nice banking people one more day to refill the ATMs for all the uncool people who do not read the UAECB.

Pass the word around so you and your friends are not stranded at a petrol station because the ATM was out of fuloos.

Etisalat talks back!

2009-11-23T15:38:00.001+04:00

Update on the annoying Etisalat text message saga. The good thing is that I got a reply from Etisalat's Customer Care Centre by email the very next day. Somebody must have got the message (17 times)…

The bad news (in bad English) is that “In reference with your case, we would like to inform you currently there is no provision to block incoming SMS from Etisalat.”

Maybe I didn't clean my ears properly this morning but to me this sounds like an admission of providing an incomplete amateurish service.

But behold; apparently “a solution for your request is currently under development and you will be informed accordingly once the solution is developed and approved. We apologize for the inconvenience faced by you.”

Apology accepted. But I wonder just how long it will take them to develop a solution to the problem of blocking SMS from a particular source, because at the same time the message from the Customer Care Centre goes on to give me precise instructions on how to block SMS from a particular source:

“Note: To stop incoming message from the company, simply send the message b followed by the content provider's short code or name of the message sender to the number 1011. The message is "b (4 digit short code)" to 1011”

Etisalat's SMS do not show a short code, but a name. Although I completely trust Etisalat's admission of applying the blocking command to any other company but themselves, I thought I better check and immediately sent “b etisalat” to 1011.

“Sorry can’t process your command. Unknown request.”

A question of Ethics and Sensationalism

2009-11-23T13:13:00.002+04:00

My entry into the UAE blogging world was more or less inspired by Secret Dubai Diary; I was sort of a fan of her reporting / blogging style, and was even more impressed by the way she has been maintaining a parallel voice that... (READ ON)

(Also read some comments here.)

GeoEye-1 flies over Dubai Airshow

2009-11-20T01:23:00.003+04:00

Orbiting at an altitude of 681km, GeoEye-1 is the world's highest resolution commercial earth-imaging satellite.

It passed over the Dubai Airshow and captured this awesome image.

You can go to the GeoEye site to see the original and to download the 11mb high-res file.

If you're interested in aerial imagery, click the Back to Gallery link on that download page and check out the other wonderful photos. Interesting AUD one at #7!

Satellite image courtesy of GeoEye

Blog Rank???

2009-11-19T21:20:00.002+04:00

Anyone ever seen this? Came through on my email.

http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/Dubai

FNC & English language requirements

2009-11-18T23:25:00.002+04:00

The FNC has some recommendations for the education sector: "The committee also said federal universities should be more lenient in their admission requirements for students when it comes to English language proficiency..."

To me, lowering the bar is a disservice to students, to their future employers and the economy in general or is it just me not understanding the logic behind this suggestion?

facebook group

2009-11-18T15:55:00.002+04:00

Funnily enough, someone has gone and created a new facebook group. It is called 'I bet I can find 1 million people who hate Etisalat spam text messages' and is open for membership now.

Dear Etisalat,

2009-11-18T10:59:00.001+04:00

"PLEASE,

STOP SENDING ME TEXT MESSAGES IN ARABIC.

STOP SENDING ME TEXT MESSAGES IN ANY LANGUAGE.

I AM NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR PROMOTIONS.

I AM NOT INTERESTED IN ANYTHING YOU HAVE TO TELL ME.

IF I WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING I WILL ASK YOU.

MY NUMBER IS 050-xxxxxxx.

REMOVE THIS NUMBER FROM YOUR SMS LIST.

Yours sincerely ..."

After receiving 8 unsolicited text messages this morning from Etisalat in Arabic I wrote *) the above message to Etisalat customer "care" email address. Let's see what happens now.

*) I sent the email 17 times.

Emiratis blacklisted over job-hunting attitudes

2009-11-17T02:29:00.000+04:00

I guess this might be a good step forward:
"More than 500 Emirati job seekers have been placed on a blacklist designed to combat lax work attitudes that include refusing a number of employment offers.

Al Mulla added that other job seekers had been blacklisted for not attending interviews and citing reasons such as not being able to wear a uniform or inability to work shifts as an excuse for turning down jobs."

The pros are realizing that Emiratis should take more jobs in every sector, rather than wanting to be "boss". Nothing wrong with aiming for the top, but if the UAE wants to truly step towards having its citizens take over, they have to be willing to work everywhere.

On the flip side, forcing people to take jobs within a certain amount of interviews seems a bit much. I would not like to be forced to take the next job available simply because I may exceed the allowable limit and get blacklisted.

What do you think?

2009-11-16T14:04:00.002+04:00

I’ve been living here for the last 8 years now, and I can say that Public holidays here are primarily “Emirati affairs” - with the expatriates rarely participating in it like the way they do in developed countries. Instead, their celebrations are restricted to enjoying it just as a holiday.

Recently however, I saw some interesting developments that could change this attitude, and could perhaps also bridge the Local-Expatriate culture gap... (Read On)