The EU Islamic lexicon

BRUSSELS — Austria, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, has drafted a document of common vocabulary on Islam as part of linguistic efforts by the 25-member bloc to issue the first public communication lexicon aimed at avoiding stigmatizing terminology in dealing with the other.

How many words in the lexicon?

The common lexicon, for the moment, consists of just three terms: "Islamist", "fundamentalism" and "jihad".

Telecare

I was once looking into the market of 'old people' in the UAE, and how technology could take them out of old people's homes and make them more independant. Oh the benefit of market research! While this could have been a lucrative market, with the money dedicated to health, I quickly found out that old people's homes were culturally insensitive. For Muslims, they must look after the parents through the difficult years. What the means is that when they can't look after themselves, the family looks after them, up until the point that they need hospital care.

historically, the market has been like this:
west: independant - old people's home - hospital
gulf: independant - childrens's home - hospital

The western market is moving to replace old people's homes with home living, assisted living, with general montoring solutions. But the Dubai, UAE and Gulf market is a difficult one for a telecare provider to enter. There is no doubt that old people's homes exist here, but not worthwhile to try and tackle the cultural element.

Understand nursing / old people's homes from a Muslim perspective - IHT
Understand the telecare market from the lead worldwide provider - Tunstall

Revolutionise Television

In April 2002, the world was informed about the news that the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had been removed from office and had been replaced by a new interim government. What had in fact taken place was the first Latin American coup of the 21st century, and the world's first media coup. And so the now legendary film entitled “The Revolution will not be Televised” was borne citing history's shortest-lived coup d'état. The coup was both a lesson in the power of the media in the modern world and, ultimately, the limitations of that power in the face of popular protest.

Of course, we live in a different place and although not so long ago, these are different times. However, the message is clear, the viewer, the reader, the listener, the audience - they are in control of the successes of the media, under the constriction of legislation. However, without them, TV is nothing, nada, rien, nichts, niente. And remember, audiences are a fickle bunch – one false move and they will leave, never to return. However, the other side of the coin is this: prejudge the market and the audiences will flock in their thousands. Either way, TV Media needs to be in a position to change when the market dictates or when they want to dictate the market. This is driven by the need to meet the audience expectations with a new found malleability unsurpassed in the Arab world.

For much time, I have been unimpressed by the TV here. The problem is the very diverse audience that exists, especially in the UAE, the minimal expenditure on production and difficulty in montoring the real stats that could drive the advertising revenue. Words are thrown around like radical upheaval or shake up. TV Channels should think of retuning and identifying their audiences, refocusing their strategy and recreating the backbone that will propel the taker to further success. The leader will be recognized both in the Arab world and beyond. Let the revolution be televised.

The Thriller from Manila

One of the most legendary boxing bouts in history was between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier when Ali professed "It will be a killer, and a chiller and a thrilla when I get the gorilla In Manila". The bout, titled the "Thrilla in Manila" is a whole world apart from the Filipina girls forced to ply their trade on the streets of Dubai where punters are offered the "thriller from Manila".

Luckily the practice of luring girls to a new world in Dubai, where they get forced into the sex industry working as prostitutes under the connected pimps has now been exposed by Philippine Overseas Employment Administration:

Here is how the syndicate works:

• The illegal recruiters scour their hometowns or malls and bars in Metro Manila for prospective victims. They also seek former entertainers in Japan who could no longer get entry visas to that country.
• The recruiters promise the women they would be hired in Dubai as waitresses, salesgirls, mall or hotel employees. They are lured into entering Dubai with visit or tourist visas which can be easily obtained from travel agencies in the UAE.
• The victims leave the country on the cheapest airlines for Dubai. On arrival, the women are escorted by the recruiters’ contacts past the immigration booths.
• To facilitate their departure, the victims are given roundtrip tickets. The return tickets, however, are fake. The contacts immediately take hold of the women’s passports, visas and plane tickets.
• Brought to their quarters, they are told not to communicate with the consulate or embassy. The victims are threatened by their “mamasans,” or caretakers, who boast connections with the UAE immigration and police authorities.
• Most of the mamasans know each other and even lend “girls” to suit the tastes of their customers.
• Closely watched by the mamasans, the women are taken to discotheques and bars to look for customers.

Human trafficking of any sort is despicable, whether this be illegal purposes (prostitution or camel jockeys, say) or for other "jobs" sold as better paying than they actually are. The UAE is clamping down on such practices in general, but prostitution has taken a back seat in the headlines as the contruction workers took centre stage. It's time to clean up the streets of Dubai, and repatriate these girls so that they can try to rebuild their lives.

Dancing Towers Dubai

I saw this a few weeks ago, and thought someone was jesting. For some reason these Dancing Towers reminded of those battery operated flowers from the 80s that would move to the beat of the music. My take it that as a concept, it is cutting edge. It is ingenious. If the building moved, that would be insane. And Dubai constantly treads this fine line between both of these, veering either way.

3,4,5,6,7 star

Time to measure our hotel stars - all true. When I pay for a 3 or 4 star, it should at least be clean. When I am paid to stay in a 5 star, it should be plush, and I should be treated well. I haven't ever staying in anything better, so I'll just imagine. The current star rating is a mess, for sure, and this should be tackled before then next wave of hotels are built at Bawadi. However, I still don't think that 75% of hotels in Dubai should be 5 star. I don't want to be forced into making a choice between squalor and luxury. Standard does me just fine, sometimes. Not everyone is a tourist, and not everyone rents by the hour.

The Ramadan effect comes early

If you haven't noticed, Summer has arrived. The Summer's end will more or less coincide with the beginning of Ramadan, bringing supposed levels of lower activity in some industries. While higher level decisions may be made, from now until September, lower level commitments aren't necessarily made. Around the 24th of September this year (2006), Ramadan will start where the business will really start to be talked about, with a mint tea and grape shisha. Come the middle of October, people will be forced to work long hours to: catch up with the lag of the summer period; rework the changes made on previous decisions that were committed up on during Ramadan; and plan for the coming of 2006. It's a weird cycle, but that's life! There is always talk every year that the Summer effect is less of a factor in an increasingly Western business environment, but you just need part of an industry to slow down, and the knock on effect will follow. Couple this Ramadan, and your planning could go pearshaped, unless you planned for it - which most companies do!

Lies about Dubai

We've talked about topicality before, and so CNBC have decided to write a 3 article "special feature" on Dubai. I skimmed through the first one today. This sentence caught my eye:

“There were two buildings when I moved here in August of 2004, and that is no lie. Those two buildings and nothing else existed,”

Yup, two years ago, everyone was living in tents in the desert, and travelling up and down the Sheikh Zayed Road by camel.

The Talented "White Arab"

As a precursor to this post, let me say that my intention in using the term "White Arab" is not to be derogatory. I use it in reference to discussions mentioning the term. If it is taken badly, I apologise at the outset.

The Western expatriate is afraid. They are afraid of the increasingly educated Arab who has been educated overseas and posess the skills that used to be short in supply. The UAE Labour Law states that preference in employment should be given to UAE Nationals, Other Arabs, followed by other nationalities, in that order. In previous years, especially at the Middle to Senior Management level, there would be a shortage of professionals, say as a senior accountant. And while there used to be some Arabs in these positions, Western expats would bring Western education, and Western experience to the table. The tables are now starting to turn. Many Arabs are choosing to educate themselves and gain experience overseas before looking at the UAE to continue their career and bring their supposed "best practice" here in the UAE and within the Middle East. And so those who had generic middle management type skills are now having to compete with Arabs who are higher up on the UAE Labour Law pecking order, speak Arabic and have the skills and experience to boot.

Does this mean that the numbers of Western Expats will reduce? No - what it does mean is that specialist type positions, in the banking arena, for example, will be the main area for Expats and specialist skills will be required to be in such positions. I don't forsee a major shift any time soon, especially in the free zones, but just be aware that this shift is occuring beneath the surface. While business transactions generally occur in English, Arabic is becoming increasingly important. And with the Middle East taking the stage as third in the sentence of developing regions, after China and India, and with double digit economic growth an everyday occurrence, the "White Arab" will continue to lead this growth.

(Aside, I don't like the term "White Arab". I would prefer the term Western Educated Arab)

No need to overly wow

People in the know have been party to the fact that Abu Dhabi has been planning its own ski slope for some time, and while it will not be as grand as Ski Dubai, it fulfills exactly what Abu Dhabi needs. Abu Dhabi doen't need the wow factor. It doesn't really need to compete with Dubai. Abu Dhabi does what it needs as does Dubai, and in that sense they complement each other. A ski slope is nice to have, for the residents, and won't be a pulling factor to come to the emirate. What Abu Dhabi has, at present, are many of the things that Dubai has, but less numerous, and less busy. Therein lies its charm. Many will rubbish Abu Dhabi, but many of those negative factors exist elsewhere. Abu Dhabi aims to woo a few tourists and make it a nice place to live. In that respect, it is well on course. And, after all, it is a government city.

Three jokes

Someone anonymously posted these jokes to me. Some were very bad, some were verging on racist. I particuarly liked these three:

What is it called when you are on growth hormones in the UAE?
Inchallah

Why would you move to the UAE?
You might have had to emmigrate

What's the best protection against the mad drivers in Dubai?
Karama

Boom Boom. You should have seen the bad ones!

Dubai versus the Other Gulf Cities?

Is there really that much resentment between the two booming Gulf cities of Dubai and Doha? Apparently so. We have heard before about conflicts existing, usually due to the shuffle to gain supremacy over the financial markets. And the conflict appears deep, if we take what Lex has said in the FT as fact:

While Dubai has undoubtedly established itself as the region's financial hub, a base there may not be enough on its own. For example, bankers turning up in Qatar with Dubai addresses on their cards have been known to be sent packing. And other states in the region have much larger oil reserves than Dubai – and consequently more money looking for a home.

The real competition for Dubai lies in Qatar and to some extent Bahrain and Kuwait. Saudi is a a different kettle of fish, despite its own massive projects. There are more pieces to the Gulf pie than one city can handle - the Gulf states need to look to differetiating themselves based on their strengths. Dubai has just gone out there and said, we're going to do all of this and this and that and whatever else seems good. And people like that - that is its appeal. If either of the other cities could take elements of what is not wholly covered, and become a powerhouse in specifics, there would be several regional hubs rather than just the one.

But, as we know from living in the Middle East, the main issue is pride - no one wants to play second fiddle to Dubai.

Cyberflix Vs The Chinese DVD Lady

The concept of Cyberflix is a simple one and has been shown to work well elsewhere in the world (Blockbuster, Amazon) whereby you pay a monthly fee and can hold up to a certain number of DVDs that you order online, and send back by post) Cyberflix are taking a bold move in a market where this does not yet exist. Why is this bold?

1. The big guys are not here yet
2. The postal system in the UAE works on a PO Box basis
3. The general UAE consumer is not yet Internet savvy
4. Payment systems are problematic
5. The Chinese DVD lady...

While the first four areas are workable, the Chinese DVD lady, who provides dodgey DVDs, usually taken in dingey cinemas in the US or the Far East provides titles, direct to your home, for a cheaper price, and before they are officially released. While this is completely illegal, there is not enough being done to clamp down on such practices. It will be interesting to see if Cyberflix are able to get the consumer to go legit and opt for quality. If they are, they will establish a big market share before other players come in. If not, they will sink and burn in cyberspace. Good luck to them.

American versus Foreign Perceptions

Sometimes you come across a piece that you wish you had written, because that is what you believe but weren't too sure it would be taken seriously, because you had no backing to your inkling.

Please read Clyde Prestowitz: The View From Dubai at "The Washington Note". It talks of democracy in Iraq, the conflicting relationship with Saudi, how the US depends on the Gulf States currently, and the future of the Dollar.

Bodged up Banking Systems

The banking industry should become the cornerstone of Dubai as it seems, firstly to compete with Doha and Manama to be the regional finance centre, and then to link in as the centre between the east and the west. However, much still needs to be done, going forward, starting at a grass routes level. I am well aware that the term banking could encompass the basic current account, all the way through to large scale sukuks. However, any problem in one area reflects negatively on the others, whether there is a link or not.

Much has been made of the skimming device at Emirates bank. This is one way by which criminals have attempted to swindle the public at the cash point. It is an age old trick, one that has been done to death in the West. This should make it easier for the authorities here to clamp down on such things happening again. I am just surprised that there weren't any preventitive measures in place beforehand. However, with big brother in play, I'm sure that criminals will be too scared to pull a swifty once those responsible are lashed and deported.

Skimming and the like doesn't bother me too much. What worries me is the basics of some of the retail banking operations. For example, are you aware that some of the banks in the UAE have to rekey your transactions between one system and another, overnight so that it is updated on your account. That means you transact something on your bank account, or example pay a bill, but this wont get updated until the next day, after someone has rekeyed that on your main account. Sounds bizarre that such things still happen, and as any techy will tell you, a few bits of code and an interface and you have a feed between two systems to update automatically. Such basic issues in retal baning are things that were dealt with about 15 years ago in the West.

On another level, with Basel II compliance deadlines somewhat close in many countries, it is refreshing to hear that banks are volunarily investing in risk and compliance systems! Does that mean that risk monitoring was done on a manual basis before? It is high time that the banking industry invested some of the cash that it gained from the naive stock market investors and create robust systems that mitigate against risk at all levels, from credit card scamming, to cash card skimming to Basel II implementations.

To be treated as world class, you must act world class. That would also go for some of the World Cup teams playing this month.