Office Space and the Real Big Bad Wolf

Naturally, Dubai residents worry abou their own rent. Of course, businesses also suffer, depending on the shortage of office space. So research by Colliers suggesting that rental space has doubled in price in four years is a particularly icky situation for those small companies trying to make a few bucks in a dynamic environment. Forget about the Big Bad Wolf - the rent will eat you up, if you are not careful.

While everyone is investing in the UAE...

..the UAE is investing in Morocco

"The UAE has become the single largest source of foreign investment in Morocco," said Salaheddine Mezouar, Morocco's Minister for Trade, Industry and Economy. " We anticipate more investment of this sort in the future."

20 billion dollars is certainly big cheese money. Looking at investment, you know where to go.

Or does it explode?

Great little blog that I stumbled on covering civil rights in the Middle East with a summing up on recent issues.

Black Points

Further to the issue of tracking of traffic that we highlighted last week, OBG picked up on the new system that we suggested would benficial. If what we are reading is correct, this could be the start of the war death rate from ego driving.

Penalties range from fines between Dh600 ($163) and Dh2000 ($545) to permanent cancellation of a valid driver’s licence. For each small violation, a black point will be added to the offending driver’s record. If the total reaches 24, the licence is cancelled.

But remember our proviso on enforcability.

Paradise Lost

The mistreatment of workers will continue to surface amongst the big publications, until something is done about it.

"Either they pay us or send our corpses home," said Imtiaz Ahmed Siddiq, one of the South Asian laborers, who has made the trek to the court more than 50 times since last year. "If they pay us, we'll go home alive. If they don't pay us, we'll go home dead."

The Washington Post article is here.

The Fast and the Furious of Dubai

Jay Kay will be revving his engine at the UAE Desert Challenge.

Dubai and Charity

Dubai Aid and Humanitarian City (DAHC) will be a crucial focal point for charity and charities over the coming years. If Jan Egelund thinks so, it must be. This is a very worthy part of Dubai that is overlooked by the critics.

Dubai's Dark Side

Another look at the camps from the inside.

"Welcome to the damaged camp," Ghulam Mustafa, 35, said with a smile at the entrance of one 35-room compound where he and some 600 other migrant workers live in this desolate desert area on Dubai's fringe.


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Profile of Grapeshisha on Gridskipper

It was humbling to be highlighted in Gridskipper, the urban travel guide. It's a great resource, and very well done.

The Structure of Dubai Holding

Dubai Holding is a powerhouse amongst Dubai companies, semi government and also investing overseas. It's a great amalgamation of different companies including Tecom, Internet City, Jumeirah etc. They've now increased the scope of DIP to create Sama Dubai. While all of this is all very exciting, there must be some guy who is concerned with change or organisational design who must be having a hard time. If change is this frequent from a structural standpoint, goodness knows what it must be like froma process point of view.

Tea and Trends

It's interesting that the whole tea craze is following suit in the UAE. While this is not wholly interesting in isolation, as a general trend it can be argued that the speed by which this has followed the Europe and North America is particularly so. Trends that usually establish themselves either in these places some how end up in the Middle East. But as time goes by, they are being picked up quicker and quicker. Whether this is to do with the make up of the population, or due to consumer savviness is unknown. But what you can deduce, is that there is some follow through in consumer tastes, even if the culture defines the norm scales of those tastes.

Emirati Women's Struggle

What it is really like for a number of females growing up in this society.

Before leaving her house, she must obtain permission from her mother and determine whether a female domestic worker is available to accompany her. She is not allowed to go out on her own and the family's Islamic beliefs prohibit her from being alone with their driver, a foreign-born man.

This article will help you understand what it is like for these women.

Forgotten once more

The Observer goes underground to get the real story on what is going on with the construction workers.

'If we are caught speaking to you here, we are finished, you understand that? They will throw me in prison and deport everyone in this camp, not just the people in this room. They are actively looking for us,' he tells me.

It appears as if some people in middle want to shut this up lest it eat away at their profit margin.

The article is an eye opener, and testament to real investigative journalism.

Copying Dubai's Reclaiming Strategy

Could Dubai's "Island" model be used in the UK? Is it being copied already? Was Dubai just the tip of the iceberg? The Business Online plays devil's advocate and looks into the detail.