Ali Baba TV

I'm not too sure regarding the legitimacy of this story, but I thought I would point your attention to it anyway:

Wenzhou businessman buys Arab TV station

A BUSINESSMAN from Wenzhou City in eastern China's Zhejiang Province, has purchased a United Arab Emirates state-owned television station. It is the first TV station in the Middle East to be owned by a Chinese, according to a Wenzhou newspaper report yesterday. The report did not say how much was paid for the station. The new owner, Wang Weisheng, who left Wenzhou for the UAE more than 10 years ago, has changed the TV station name to "Arab Alibaba Business Satellite TV," the report said. Wang will be the chairman of the board.

I can't see how a state owned TV station out of DMC could be sold off, but this has come from official sources in China... What next? Bush taking over Etisalat?

Is too much coverage a good thing?

The New York Times are probably averaging an article a week these days covering Dubai, comparisons to Dubai and the like. While its coverage is welcome, I wonder what its local readers think of this. I like their articles - they are usually acurate, and objective. Their latest piece, Dubai, Where Too Much Is Never Enough, is a tourism piece on what is going on. It sounds a little familiar, but is warranted:

Pity the cartographers and guidebook publishers striving to capture Dubai's juggernautlike sprawl. With every month bringing announcements of audacious new hotels and leisure concepts — a huge artificial coral reef studded with World War II planes and pounds of gold is being built for scuba divers — today's top draws can easily become tomorrow's fire sales. Dubai travel guides and maps, their shelf life shorter than eggs, can pretty much go straight from printing press to pulp plant.

Dubai is pretty much cemented on the world stage.

Some predictions on the economy

I like to guesstimate on what is the future. However, sometimes, I'm completely wrong!

Here are some predictions:

1. The UAE stock markets are close to their trough. They'll go down a little more, and then will stabilise with increased trading from long termers but not much more real gain.

2. The Dirham V Pound will drop from about 6.88 to about 7.3 and then stabilise at about 7.0. It will take about 6 months to get to 7.3. With gloomy employment figures, the US is in trouble. It would hate for the GCC countries to rebase to a basket. And I don't think that will happen this year. If at all, something will happen early '07. Implementing a floating peg for the Dirham at this stage would be to destabilising.

3. Dubai Property is the next area for correction. I think the value is about right, but some properties will go down about 5-10%, before stabilising. This won't be too much of a problem. The speculators won't speculate so much any more because of the increased supply coming to market.


Let's see how long it will take for any of these three to prove me wrong. These predictions are all based on my general feel for what's going on, no analysis no nothing, but it's sometimes ballsy to do just that.

Abayas and appearances

If you have ever talked about an Abaya to a local lady, they will talk about them, in the same way that Carrie Bradshaw obsesses over shoes.

This article highlights that:

"We here must wear abayas. So, much as (other) people like to show off their clothes, the only thing we can take pride in is our abayas," said Hana Mohsen, a 26-year-old Emirati broker picking a new outfit in a Dubai shopping mall.

It doesn't talk aboutthe fact that they buy cheap abayas to wear at work because they keep getting caught in the wheels of the chair.

Sir Julian Bullard

Those familiar with UK-UAE history will know this already, but Sir Julian Bullard passed away recently:

As Political Agent in Dubai at the end of the Sixties, he had the difficult task of maintaining a semi-colonial relationship with the sheikhly rulers of what were then still the Trucial States, later to be the United Arab Emirates. The political atmosphere was fragile, following the humiliation of the Arabs in the 1967 war and the undignified British departure from Aden. The relationship was evidently obsolete and could only be sustained on the basis of personal friendship, operating almost entirely in Arabic, which Bullard had learnt mainly in his spare time at previous posts (which had included Vienna, Amman, Bonn and Moscow). This ancient and advantageous relationship was kept green by Bullard, only to be abruptly cut off by the Wilson government.

The rest of his obituary at the Independant

New Etisalat Website

Maybe I missed the launch, but etisalat have a new website, building on new logo. It looks a lot fresher than their previous offering. You can't deny that. And it is a lot easier to navigate. I did check if they had ammended their error that I pointed out previously. They had! Unfortunately, some other errors have crept in:

Our aim is to open up opportnities

There is a "u" in opportunities. Maybe that's the point...

Either way, it looks a lot better, although someone with detailed HCI knowledge will probably have some issues with it. One thing though - the URL is bit long....

Bring on the service that meets the vision.

On Outsourcing

Al Futtaim V Al Futtaim

Familiar with Dubai? Then, if you haven't heard the name before, you would have been touched by their businesses. But the real reason for why the brothers are so prominent is due to their sibling rivalry.

Often described as the 'pillars of Dubai', the Futtaim brothers, Abdullah and Majid, seem to own half of the emirate, as many here say in jest. But the real humor behind their story is that a quarrel between the two brothers over inherited wealth has actually led to Dubai's expansion.

This piece gives a great overview of the benefits of competition. Perhaps they should be involved in telecoms?

Domino Growth

This article, highlighted by John Chilton talks of how UAE Nationals don't feel part of their own country any more, and how a number of the locals don't really agree with the super growth of the country. And they are somewhat right. If you became a minority in your own country, it would feel wrong. And that's the balance that Dubai has not been able to meet. Essentially, Dubai is playing catch up on the world stage, to be a place for business, similarly to how it used to be a place for trading in years gone by. And to maintain a certain level for their citizens, the leadership has had to force the balance towards promoting growth, for a future vision. What will Dubai be like in 20 years time? Perhaps a mish mash of a city with all things to all people. But what was the alternative for Dubai? If Dubai did nothing, it would be relying on handouts from Abu Dhabi. As it is, the growth of Dubai has resulted in what I call "domino growth" for the region - starting from scratch to accelerate the process.

Arabic written backwards

Canada is more racially integrated than most countries. So this gaffe is particularly surprising. The first bit of amusement is that the actual sign is to warn people that it is dangerous to drive when smoking pot/ganja/hash etc.



But those who speak Arabic say both the sentence and words are written backwards. Unlike English, Arabic is written right to left. "I think no Arabic speaker would understand what it does mean. The first time, I thought it wasn't Arabic," said Nasreddine Ben Ali, who is originally from Tunisia. He said that once he had figured out how to read the sentence, he still wasn't sure of its meaning. Ali said the sentence translates to "Don't sacrifice your life." He guessed that it might have something to do with drinking and driving.

I think the 'backward' meaning is probably a stronger message.

Full story here.

Brand Protection

Grapeshisha V OrangeSheesha

I guess I will rely on this and this

Grapeshisha - there is no substitute.

Naji al-Nuaimi freed.

Thank God. No doubt we will here more in the coming hours. In the mean time, here's the beeb link.

Another Example of Status

I happen to be have a fairly easy extension number - the 2 same digits, followed by the preceeding digit repeated. I was allocated the number by random in the place that I am currently working, and within two weeks of being allocated it, I was offered a 3 figure sum (in dollars, not Dirhams) for it. I didn't think this wholly professional and declined. However, you can see the lengths that people will go to to attain something considered "status worthy" in the UAE. It wouldn't have been particularly if I had told you about mobile numbers - those get traded all the time. And "special" car number plates are an ultimate symbol of power, assuming you have the right colour...

The reason I got thinking of this was due to a little experiment called One Thousand Paintings. I'm not sure that it is a status thing, but it does have that "got to have one before they run out" mixed in with the million dollar home page. Who knows? Maybe this guy, Sama, will get lucky. Think he sold close to 50 today, at a total of 175. And if it does get successful,watch the bandwagon follow suit, with the same concept being copied by someone out here, selling the same in Arabic numerals or the like. Creativity or a Con, I'm itching to see whether it reaches 1000, which no doubt it will. And then the "collector's item" will be auctioned on ebay, or perhaps Sama has other ideas to bolt onto this, so that the numeral paintings are actually worth their value. Markets eh?

The Importance of IFRS

Standards present themselves in different ways. In accounting terms, standards are a mark of quality. International standards are international marks of quality, and specifically the IFRS. In the most part, IFRS is widely recognised as the leading standard to be adhered to. The quicker that local orgnaisations move to working within this framework, the quicker the investment will flow. It's all about quality and transparency, a transparency that is not so apparent in the region.

"The Middle East could follow the example of India, which is experiencing major investment growth. India is moving towards IFRS because its major trading partners like Russia and China are doing so." The UAE has no legislation mandating the use of IFRS by all companies, although the banks follow IFRS on directives of the Central Bank and listed companies because of stock market guidelines.

Those without IFRS, looking for investment could struggle against those that do, in an increasingly competitive arena, locally in the UAE, regionally in the GCC and in the greater emerging markets. Where super powers are rising up, adopting IFRS will assist in the ease of linking with the bigger players and continue in cementing the UAE as a global hub.

From monopoly to duopoly

Competition changes people. Forget the brand relaunch for a minute, whether you like it or not, and whether it represents what you think of Etisalat. Moving away from monopoly status means that it must move away from doing as it pleases. Essentially, any wrong could be pointed at Etisalat up to now. At a higher level, the power has moved upwards to the TRA. They are now in control, and while gripes will be allocated to Etisalat over the coming 2 years, some fairly and some unfairly, people should really now start looking at the landscape within which telecoms now operate. The TRA will become the soothsayer of local telecoms, and while service issues will remain at a lower level, real local strategic issues will be due to the regualtions enforced up top, with the VOIP policy decision being a prime example. As the lanscape changes, look at who you point your finger at - Etisalat will be changing for the greater good, I am sure of it. To not do, would be market ignorance of a high order.

Gold Value compared to Consumption

Let's take global instability versus precious metal price. There is a general link that says that as instability increases, gold increases. There is an almost direct relation. And as the dollar value has decreased, so has the price of gold increases. The Gulf News headline with regard to gold stated "Value of UAE gold sales climbs in first quarter". While this, in itself is true, the real story is of the decrease in demand. Gold is now expensive, and as demand for gold has increased, so has it's price. The real headline is buried in the second paragraph:

Due to the rise in gold prices, gold consumption in the UAE in terms of tonnage declined by 17 per cent from 33 tonnes in the first quarter of 2005 to 28 tonnes during the corresponding period of 2006. A similar drop in tonnage was also witnessed in other parts of the region.

Consumption decreased - that's the real story. But throw in the fact that the shopping festival was cancelled and the gold value increased year on year, you have a story that spins the focus of what is really going on.

Racism in the workplace

Acknowledge that it does exist. Maybe you have been part of the problem, or maybe you are on the receiving end. Or maybe you just turn a blind eye. But yet, we all know that racism is there, whether you like it or not. Why is it so prevalent? Is it an unspoken class system?

According to the Ministry of Labour:

"We receive very few complaints specifically regarding racism. Such cases are very difficult for the employee to prove. They come with complaints over wages but rarely point to issues of racism as being a cause of why the employer might pay them less than other nationalities," said Umr Khouri, the ministry's legal researcher

I have seen it, tried to change it, been reprimanded for trying to change it and experienced it myself. I've been treated one way and treated another. And this is the only country that I have been treated differently. It's not everyone. It's just some. And, by heck, it's a horrible thing.

The truth is, on the recieving end, most are too scared to complain. Any risk would jeopordise stability. I have tried to fight it, but there comes a time, where you realise that you are punching a brick wall.

One thing that I really hate is the 3-tier grading scale: One for UAE Nationals; One for "Europeans"; and one for "the others". It kills me every time, and it kills me that some people think that this is normal.

/end rant

The East/West Divide

I have blogged before concerning dubai and the burbs, village mentality and the like. Tim Burrowes from CampaignME gives a specific example, calling it the two Dubais. I think that as that grey area between Dubai and Abu Dhabi becomes more populous as developers search for even more places to build their monstrosities/works of art, people will begin to really have to make some decisions about where they will live. While traffic in itself plays a big factor currently, distance will become a bigger factor to the point where if something is too far, you'll just stay within your comfort factor.

I mentioned monstrosities. The FT thinks Dubai is an architectural flop.

The Offside Rule - Preamble to the World Cup

If you haven't noticed, there's a world cup starting in less than a couple of weeks, and if you haven't got a dodgey satellite receiver with 750 channels, or forked out the ridiculously steep 400 or 500 dirhams to e-vision and you are into the beautiful game, you better sort out your schedule pronto, find out which bar is showing the game (and with which supporters) or piggy back off a mate who has managed to scam the channels.

As a preamble to the most watched competition on the planet, I present you with the definition of the Offside Rule, so that those who don't actually understand it won't bother those that do, in those crucial minutes when concentration is more important than when you have a speeding Hummer swerving behind you on the Sheikh Zayed Road.

Officially Fifa define Offside as this:

It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position. A player is in an offside position if he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent. A player is not in an offside position if he is in his own half of the field of play or he is level with the second last opponent or he is level with the last two opponents. A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by interfering with play or interfering with an opponent or gaining an advantage by being in that position.

A bit long winded. How's this:

Infraction in which an offensive player does not have at least two defensive players between himself and the goal line when the ball is played forward by a member of the attacking team.

OK, that doesn't really help. How's this (courtesy of Everything a Girl Needs to Know About Football):

Imagine you're out shopping with a friend and you see a lovely pair of shoes you want to buy. You stand in the queue and wait to pay for them. In front of you are two ladies who are also waiting to pay and are standing between you and the till. You realise you have left your purse with your friend who is at the back of the shop.
It would be rude to push in front of the ladies in the queue without your purse. However, if your friend was to throw your purse and you caught it behind, or side-by-side with, the ladies in the queue, it would then be OK to run round in front of them to pay. Just remember you can't move in front of the ladies without having your purse with you first. All you have to do is swap your purse for a football, the till for a goal and the ladies in the queue for defenders and you'll soon be able to argue the off-side rule with the best of them.

So, just for clarification, here are the pictures so that you have no doubt whatsoever (courtesy of localdial):





Further analogies regarding the offside rule and Dubai traffic, cost of living, or anything else are welcome.

Whether Tunisia V Saudi Arabia will be the most watched match locally doesn't really bother me, I'll be supporting England, with the regular chants of "Who are ya?", the obvious "Come on England", "Who are all the pies?", "The referee's a w***er", and other obscenities when the Ingleezi are finally kicked out by some lesser opposition. I just hope to get to the group stages so that I can hear the excited Arabic commentary of "YALLA YALLA WENRONNI"

Over the coming month and a bit expect different toned blogs depending on the success or failure of En-ger-land. Come on UAE!

Freedom of Speech and "Loyalty"

I'm not sure I really understand this from the main man at AMG. You can have freedom of speech as long as you are positive and are "loyal" to the UAE. About radio stations, but one specifically:

"If the country is bad, if the people are no good, if we don’t have security, if you don’t have safety, if you complain about all of this, my question is: what are you doing here? If we want our government to open up we have to show them we have to be loyal. If we come to understand that, then only by that time licences will be allowed to be owned from people outside.”

So does this mean that you can not be negative about the country if you want a radio licence? What happens if you promote a balanced opinion? Is that good enough?

Make the Dowry Symbolic

COL145 brings up the high rate of unmarried women in the UAE (I assume UAE Nationals) This has brought up the issue of the dowry. While dowries are usually paid to either the couple or the groom's side on the point of marriage by the bride's side, it appears, here, to be the reverse. This means that the groom or grom's family must pay a certain amount to the bride's family. This could be anything from AED 30,000 to 500,000 (and beyond!) according to a couple Locals that I have spoke with. With the lavish weddings that happen here, the total wedding cost can be quite hefty. A part solution has resulted in the Marriage Fund where up to AED 70,000 is allocated to cover the cost of the wedding, assuming both parties are UAE National.

COL145 suggests fining the UAE National males who marry outside. While keeping the UAE blood as pure is an honourable thing in this society, I do not think this is workable. Furthermore, I think that those females who marry outside should be given equal rights as well as their children.

COL145's other suggestion is to reduce the dowry. I think this would help alleviate some of the problems. I don't think it should be removed completely, as it would foolish to think you could remove an element of culture. However, I think it should be reduced to a symbolic amount rather than one that demonstrates wealth.

The workability of this is difficult as this is not an issue of law, and more so of culture. But if it became a suggestion from those higher in society, many eligible UAE National females would not have to face the current issue.

Not everyone in this world is rich and this should not be a penalty on society or individuals.

Is this the beginning of the end of tax-free?

At some point in the future, be it in 5 years be it in 30 years, some sort of income tax will be enforced in the UAE. It just depends on when is the right to enforce it. Of course, getting that balance will be crucial to a country such as the UAE, which depends much on foreign workers to keep the economy moving. Implementing a tax system, could have far reaching effects for the economy, and would need to be investigated significantly before anything was to be implemented.

News today that Kuwait is proposing a study of a flat 10% rate on income is one step closer to T-day for the UAE and the Middle East, in general.

"Financial and economic reform cannot be achieved without developing the tax system similarly to what is being applied in both industrial and developing countries," Humaidhi told the cabinet in a statement. The agency said the new draft law "aims to provide a suitable investment climate in Kuwait, restructuring public finances and supporting economic development". It also envisages "establishing social justice ... organising the tax ties between Kuwait and other countries and reforming the current income tax law".

No doubt, the UAE and the rest of the GCC states will be looking at this closely, to see how, when and why this is best applied.

Topical and Amusing

Tim Newman has some strong views. He's also very amusing. Today he posted a joke that got a laugh from me, which is a rare thing.

Check out his Local Joke