The Intrigue of the UAE

Dubai at Random posted about the New York Times placing an article aboue RAK on its front page. A few months ago I might have thought that they were making a mockery. I just think that people are interested about what the UAE is about. They're not prepared to be brainwashed that the UAE is a terrorist nation.

Aside, here's a travellers account of his short time in Dubai. He loved it - of course it's difficult to get past the wow factor in a short period of time.

On Zebra Crossings

Blame the pedestrians for getting run over - that's what the new Capital Law on jaywalking infers.

The Abu Dhabi traffic and patrols department will launch a campaign to make pedestrians aware of the importance of adhering to zebra markings for crossing roads, the source said.

While this may be an issue, actually making Zebra crossings a safe place to cross would be one point to address. Drivers do not acknowledge such crossings, and so such a rule wouldnt really make a difference.

The real problem lies with addressing those drivers who drive in a way that should not be tolerated, yet day after day,they get away with their ego driving. The mad drivers are the problem, not the pedestrians.

Web fronting

The importance of the your web presence, these days, is just paramount to the basics of creating an impression. The Internet has a power be that for for branding, showcasing, information flow or otherwise. As the Middle East integrates with the West, the Internet will become an important point of entry for business, and Dubai as that first point of entry for Western Businesses, if they haven't already.

I was recently introduced to Saleh's blog, dotone. Saleh does a good job of critiquing DMC's latest offering in Old Grumpy DMC. He says:

A business or let’s say it how it’s said in the news; The Middle East Media Hub doesn’t care about it’s own version of online media? When you’re targeting international prospects your website is a central information bank for their apetite and for your own benefit and awareness.

If DMC aren't bothered, this will translate downwards to the many other companies looking to transact from this region, many of which don't even have a web presence, as the region starts to become web savvy.

Check out Saleh's Blog to get an unerstanding of branding and usability online issues.

A look back to Child Camel Jockeys

A few years ago, child camel jockeys was the main issue that human rights organisations had with the UAE,and although it took two stabs to get rid of this practice, we hope that it is now banished to history, perhaps replaced by AI. Why am I saying this? Well, now that human rights organisations are on the case with regard to the migrant workers, we must have hope that such criticism will win through, and although it may take some time, justice will prevail.

For those of you who didn't see the HBO documentary about the camel jockeys in 2004,it can be found at the Ansar Burney Trust website who campaigned to save the children. Worth a peak, for sure.

Dubai Property Hedging (a thought)

The Economist, this week, talks of the opening of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange opening a futures market, trading in contracts tied to American housing prices (which are expected to nose dive, by the way). For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of shorting, it essentially allows investors to profit on trading in stocks which they believe are overvalued. This is in contrast to traditional long investors attempting to profit on stocks which are undervalued by buying those stocks. (Of course many long investors have been stung recently as stocks plummeted in the Gulf Markets)

With all the construction that is gong on in Dubai, there is always some talk of supply and demand, that there is not enough supply right now and thus prices are just too high. And with all accommodation coming to fruition, won't this lead to an oversupply? Won't there be too much? And thus, won't prices crash?

There are two camps here, those that believe that the prices will hold, and those that don't. This is thus prime market for such a concept. Homeowners, worried that their investment in property will crash, might theoretically hedge the risk by selling contracts on an exchange, if there was one. And those, that believe that the price would still rise could buy those contracts.

Of course, hedging is inherently risky, especially on the short side (as the downside is limitless), and if such a market was ever set up, say at DIFX, there would be huge hoops to jump through first, with regulation and perhaps Sharia compliancy. However, it's not such a crazy concept, in theory.

On Rebranding

Rebranding is always a tricky thing once you have reached a significant size, as Etisalat have. But in rebranding, you need to consider all thing that come with the package. The logo, creatively is fresh, but corporate. I'd like to call it a work of EtisalART (boom boom). Their teaser ads this week were good. The tagline of 'reach' is inspired, and could even be used if they were venturing to western markets. I like the logo, it reminds a bit of BP, but that's just me. I think it stacks up well against other similar industry logos (vodafone, t-mobile, at&t, cingular, orange, verizon, sprint, du) and is a big improvement on the old one!

The issues that I have concern what Etisalat currently represents to the consumer and what will it represent in the future. Without any clarification, we remain in this middle grey period. The expectation is killing me! ("over the coming weeks you will see many changes, as we introduce our new brand identity"). I think they should have just come in and gone straight for it all in one go. Bang! Bang! The perception now is that we have a new brand, some promises but no action, which raises the bar for what's coming. While there may be many happy consumers, as with all monopolies, there are bound to be many disgruntled ones, and not clarifying detailed propositions at a relaunch could amount to negativity. Saying that, I hope that the service offering is changed to reflect their new mission and beliefs. That's the key in gaining trust.

I'm sure that they have this under control, but perhaps someone should remove their old "new corporate identity" which is still on their site. And I honestly hope that their website is rewritten from scratch. To be taken as a world player, especially one that is within the technology arena, it's important to be leading edge. Aside, the copywriter should be shot. The penultimate sentence is incorrect use of English. And i just don't get the "We believe in Energy" - it just doesn't sit right - now that is BP for you!

So, all in all, a good new logo and brand ready for new markets, but perhaps could have been launched a little differently. Maybe time ran out, and the launch was forced. In any case, we all look forward to the real changes, beneath the gloss.

The Shelf Life of your Car....

...is 15 years.

In a bid to reduce the rising pollution levels, the RTA has decided not to renew the registration of cars which are more than 15 years old, as the amount of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons emitted from old vehicles is higher.

Is there a resale value? Is there a substitute public transport for anyone who cant afford another car? Can people really afford to do this?

Perhaps they should use a car pooling system, whereby anyone who has a Hummer or any other gas guzzler (which I am sure are environmentally friendly, should be forced to take at least 20 people to work, maybe in a trailer at the back, farm-style.

Frequent braking and speeding also contribute to increased emissions from vehicles

Really?

Conned Sub Cons

A couple of blogs worth reading regarding worker abuse, from Sepia Mutiny:

There is a definite disconnect on the lines of urgency between labour demands and government proposals. Any movement towards improving workers lives seems to be borne of external pressure, whether in the form of international opinion or labour protest. Significant action is required on the government’s part as workers begin to realize and act on their own market value, these folks who have given their lives to build other people’s dreams should not have to settle for any less. What the U.A.E. needs to understand is that they probably won’t:

and Aqoul:

An obvious Dubai type solution is to have the Emirate provide mass worker housing somewhere, allowing companies to externalise housing costs (or continue to do so to be more accurate).

And all this while officials deny the latest report from Amnesty:

"[The allegations] are the same talk we usually hear. Right now our priority is working with the ILO because our work is directly connected to that organisation and we have signed conventions with them."

Human Rights aside, this is slowly eating away at the brand value of the UAE, as most people get affected by mistreatement. And that could even end up keeping the punters away from the country.

Combat the stress of UAE Society

There is no doubt that living in the UAE will result in some sort of stress. We recommend taking a new form of yoga, that you can do in the privacy of your own home. Next time, your rent increases by 50%, you get stuck in traffic, you get queue jumped, try this calming approach to life:

The Biggest Punt in History

Other bloggers have covered the Sunday Times articles in a lot more detail.

The growth of Dubai has been penned in so many different ways. Singapore on Speed, the Middle East Dream, etc etc all get a little boring after a while. I like this paragraph a lot:

It begs one simple question: Why? What makes a city state where gambling is illegal take the biggest punt in history: that it can use its entire current and projected oil revenue to become a modern global power. No state, no dictator, no megalomaniac Bond villain has ever tried to pull off anything so epically extravagant.

As far as the Bond villain, I'm sure he's messing with nuclear weapons or something.

Abu Dhabi in the background

By normal standards, the projects announced by Abu Dhabi should have got larger press, but with the scale of something as big as Bawadi and the mega projects in Dubai, everything else remains in the shadows. Over the last couple of weeks, Abu Dhabi announced $100bn investment in infrastructure, the Emirates Pearl hotel, and the Golf Gardens project. Although the speed is much slower and smaller in comparison to Dubai, it's again a case of lessons learned:

Aldar officials say that they have learned from the experience of the Dubai development boom. For example, the impact of the new projects on traffic flow in Abu Dhabi has been carefully considered. They want to keep the time taken to cross the city to 20 minutes.

However, with enabling work finally starting on Saadiyat Island, which is what will really change the focus of the capital over the next 10 years, the capital is growing at adequate pace. While it doesn't draw the 'wow' factor of Dubai, in isolation it is a complete transformation that will enable it to drop its nickname of the "sleepy city".

Abu Dhabbling

In my research of Abu Dhabi, I stumbled upon an Abu Dhabi blog, covering what life's like in the capital. Real expat life, and you can be selective when you want to brave the traffic of Dubai. I hope it develops to give a different view of the UAE.

Take it or Leave it - the Catch 22

That seems to be the attitude to the workers, since what the workers are requesting are not legal by current UAE labour law

"I worked non-stop everyday from October to February and then they cheated me on my overtime. When I complained, the manager told me, 'Take it or leave it'," said the worker who did not want to be named.

Horribly, it leads to suicidal desperation, and even if they are resigned to their fate of working for nothing, they could be beaten up by their colleagues who are disgusted that they are not striking.

So here it is. Workers take a loan to get a work permit. Wokers realise they have been fooled in accepting bad pay and conditions. Workers have no choice because they must pay back loansharks for the safety of their families. Some workers die because of the accidents. Some workers realise this is unjust. Workers strike. More workers strike. Government unhappy. Human rights make an issues of it. Government promise to make changes. Workers return to work and make demands, using a union approach. Employers say no. Government says it's not covered under the law. Some workers commit suicide. Some go back to work. But get beaten up by striking workers.

On top of this, there won't be a 4 hour break during the heat this year.

Try walking backwards for a while - it's easy for a while, and then you fall over.

Surreal Dubai

Dubai is the in thing to write about:

So beneath the glitz and gleaming skyline Dubai is a theocratic Islamic state that no American would want to be a citizen of for more than an hour. But it's spectacular proof that the Middle East is not monolithically backward, hopeless or anti-Western. And it shows that relatively good things can evolve in the Muslim world without the United States having to use force to create them.

Another take from the Pittsburg Tribune Review

A Business Standard

There is obviously a need for a daily business paper in the UAE. Together, all the current papers provide a certain amount of coverage of what is going on in the UAE and the region. However, the depth of coverage is sometimes an issue, whereby simple analysis of the issue is provided, or just a provision of syndicated news or press releases. Too often, data is offered without any backing to the numbers and, in many cases, glaring basic errors demonstrating a lack of understanding of the most simple concepts appear, leading to a domino effect of quotes that turns fiction to fact. While this doesn't happen all the time, the innocent reader will take everything at face value leading to a ramped up opinion. Whether that is the point of the some of the mouthpieces, shoddy media or a combination of both is debatable.

All this being said, new entrants to the market should be able to raise the bar somewhat. And when you have the former business editor of a quality paper such as the Observer heading up a publication, you can hope for good things:

Kane edited The Observer’s business section for five years and stepped down last month. Prior to that he was news editor of Sunday Business, was deputy editor at The Sunday Times and editor of its Insight investigation team.

With calibre in charge, you may indeed get a quality reporting. I hope that the Arabian Business Standard will provide just that - an Arabian Business Standard.