When the Secret Police come knocking

On October 22, 12 hours after my wife and 14-month-old son arrived, five guys in dishdash and one lady cop show up at my door with a court order to search and confiscate. The one lady cop means that they knew that my wife was there. That they showed up at my friend’s place, where I had only been staying for three days, and the fact that they showed up a little more than a day before I was taking a flight to India means, as a duty officer at the US consulate told my wife, that they were keeping very good tabs on me.

Ironic that he was probably going to spin Dubai in a positive manner, and with treatment like this, what would you expect? If Shk Mo knew about this, I am sure he would be very, very angry.

Read the whole story from bklyn_in_dubai-Five guys in white come to my door, and I get a new iPod

Thank God he's safe!

I'm on a plane

One of the last refuges from incessantly ringing mobile phones is about to disappear as Emirates plans to allow passengers to use them on aircraft from January.



Change in the air as passengers allowed to use mobiles

Dubai Prostitution

Cyclone is the United Nations of Prostitution. And yet Cyclone continues to operate without any real problem.

Detail on where the prostitutes hang out in Dubai

Guess the Logo

Etisalat and the TRA will be familiar with this game:

Guess the Logo

Rent and property - A tale of two cities

Capping the rise
Allowing the fall

It appears as if Dubai has reached the peak of its wave while Abu Dhabi is just at the beginning.

Racehorses Big Business in Dubai

Video from National Geographic, showing the high class conditions of the horses.

Video: Racehorses Big Business in Dubai

The Gulf as an investment (in context)

If you are able to, a must read article was written in the FT on Monday, entitled Foreign Investment Rolls On. It is a subscription article but it really does help put the UAE and the Gulf in context, as far as how the outside (I like to think real) world, looks at it. While much of the opinion comes from Haissam Arabi, he is very much on the money (sic) and in line with my own thoughts. Here's a representative quote of the article:

"Up to 2004, the majority of the money coming in was purely regional.In 2005 foreign investors woke up at what was happening,but the correction triggered much more foreign interest."

And so it appears that the big correction is causing less speculative and more long term foreign investment from the big players, the pensions funds and like.

Prior to the crash Saudi and the UAE's p/e were at 44 and 29. Afterwards, both reduced to 21 and 14.4 respectively. And while investors can't always invest directly, the local funds are gaining significant interest. And with Gulf nations budgeting for 30 bucks a barrel, the post budget surpluses keep coming in strong

Maybe the time of instability is over.

Corruption Perception

There always seems to be some sort of hoo haa about Transparency International's Corruption Index that is released annually, especially for the region. In context and in comparison, it is worth noting the GCC countries and where they stand between Finland in first place (ie least corrupt) and the badd boys of Haiti.

31. UAE 6.2
32. Qatar 6.0
36. Bahrain 5.7
39. Oman 5.4
46. Kuwait 4.8
70. Saudi Arabia 3.3

In the grand scheme of things, this looks about right, but based on the limited surveys undertaken per country, you may not be so sure. Ask a couple of guys their opinions on doing business in these countries and you will get contrary views. Personally, while in the bigger picture, I can see Saudi at a certain level, I am not so sure that it is that much different to the rest.

Transparency give a view. Make your own opinions.

Official CPI table
Iraq gets poor marks in corruption survey(IHT)
Haiti tops world corruption table (BBC)
US suffers fall in corruption ranking

Come get your Palm

Apparently, residents will take to their minimal space villas by the end of the year.
Oh how excited I am!

AFP - Dubai man-made island poised to greet first residents