Happy (Belated) UAE National Day (Part 1)

The 38th National Day for the United Arab Emirates was on December 2 (I was away on vacation on that day so I missed the festivities). In honour of the occasion, a little background on how the UAE came to be ...

History of the UAE from the beginning until now ... executive summary:

I have been reading a book on the history of this region for the past 2 years and frankly, have yet to finish it. But I'll distill it down for your benefit to 60 seconds or less:

5500 BCE, the Neolithic period: Earliest known human habitation. Trade on land and sea: copper from the Hajar Mountains, agriculture, pearls and domestication of the camel.

630 AD(?): The arrival of the prophet Muhammad, non-Muslims are defeated and Islam triumphs in the Arabian Peninsula.

637 AD: Conquest of Iran.

Early 16th Century: Conquered and controlled by the Portugese looking for a trade route to the spices of Asia.

Late 16th Century: Conquered and controlled by the Ottomans (also known as the Turks).

17th to 19th Centuries: The region becomes known as "Pirate Coast". To combat the rampant harassment of their fleets, the British form an agreement with the Trucial Sheikhdoms for perpetual maritime peace in exchange for British naval protection.

19th and 20th Centuries: Pearls are a major export. WWI, the great depression, the Japanese invention of the cultured pearl and heavy taxation in foreign markets destroys the pearl industry. UAE falls on hard times.

1958: The discovery of bubblin' crude. Oil that is. Black gold. Texas tea. Exports begin from Abu Dhabi in 1962 and several years later from Dubai. The Emirates start building infrastructure to improve the quality of life of its people. The sheikhs of the emirates along with Bahrain and Qatar get together and decide to coordinate matters themselves, taking over control from the British (in hind sight, a pretty shrewd move!)

December 1971: The Brits pull out. Bahrain and Qatar go their own separate ways. Abu Dhabi and Dubai hook up with 4 other Emirates and the UAE is born. The 7th and last Emirate (Ras al Khaimah) signs on the dotted line several months later.

1950's to present: Unsettled land claims with Oman and Saudi Arabia. In the latter, the two counties are separated by Rub' al Khali, "the empty quarter", a virtually uninhabitable desert but contains several oases with significant ground water. There is also dispute over the 19km deliniation with Qatar and the ownership of numerous islands in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz are the most contensious of all (most notably Abu Musa with Iran ... as 5 British sailors recently found out.)

May 1981: UAE is a founding member of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) along with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the Sultanate of Oman.

September 11, 2001: Two of the 9/11 hijackers on the jet that crashes WTC South Tower are UAE citizens (I did not know that until today). There are were no other Emirati casualties.

November 2009: Dubai is broke. Err, well, maybe not exactly broke per say ... its just that the cashflow is flowing in an unfavourable direction if the rumours are true. But hey, let's not let that ruin a good National Day celebration!

Eid Mubarak!

Today is the start of a 3-day public holiday in the UAE and the greater Muslim world for Eid al Adha, or the "Festival of Sacrifice". The phrase "Eid Mubarak" could be translated to mean, "Happy Eid". Read about it on Wikipedia.

The Muslim holidays are based on the Islamic calendar which follows the cycles of the moon. This makes forecasting the actual day of any given Muslim event or holiday seem rather arbitrary to us non-Muslims since one must wait for the announcement from the "moon sighting committee" which comes only a few days (or less) before the actual date. With a company policy that requires vacation time to be booked a minimum of 6 weeks in advance, things rarely work out as planned. It was previously thought that the Eid holiday would fall on Friday/Saturday/Sunday however turns out it starts today (Thursday).

We will also be celebrating UAE National Day soon which is also a public holiday. That one is more predictable, it is always December 2 regardless of what the moon is doing.

For the Eid holidays and National Day I decided to go on a scuba diving trip to Malaysia (with a short stop in Brunei). In a few hours I will meet my group at the airport and off we go. We will be staying on the Island of Mabul for 4 days of diving and at least two of our dive days will be to a near by island of Sipidan which, by all accounts is a phenomenal dive location! I hope to see hawksbill turtles, frog fish, octopus, baraccuda, manta rays, eagle rays and whale sharks but I might pass on the "muck diving". What I hope I DO NOT see are pirates! Seems there is some risk of that in that area.

Swine Flu and the UAE

Last weekend, I was talking to my sister on the phone and she asked how the Swine flu situation has affected Dubai? She said that at the kids' school, nearly half of the students were away from school because of it! Half! Granted, it is a small rural school but still ... half! Thankfully, my sister reported that they have all been healthy and received the vaccine. It seems their family will escape this outbreak without any ill effects ... insha'allah.

To be honest, I haven't given H1N1 much thought other than to skim over an email memo from our HR department instructing us to stay away from the office if we are suffering from symptoms. In the last 2 weeks I have been suffering from some pesky symptoms but fortunately (or unfortunately) it seems to be just a plain old common cold. (My colleague in the next office has been away all week. Not sure why but apparently he had tickets to the debut Formula 1 in Abu Dhabi last weekend and missed it, he must be REALLY sick!)

In fact, UAE has fared reasonably well in the face of H1N1. The powers that be have taken precautions, educated the public and offered vaccinations to residents free of charge. There have been only 79 confirmed cases and no deaths according to the WHO website (but other sources including the newspapers have reported 6 deaths). By comparison, others in the region are far more at risk:

Oman: 2,829 cases; 25 deaths.
Kuwait: 6,640 cases, 17 deaths.
Saudi Arabia: 4,119 cases; 28 deaths.



View Swine Flu Interactive Map in a larger map


One of the 5 pillars of Islam is that every Muslim should travel to Mecca (or more correctly, "Makka" or مكة in Arabic), at least once in their lifetime if they are physically, mentally and financially able. This pilgrimage is called the Hajj. It takes place between the 7th and 13th days of the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hajjah (which translates to "Lord of the Pilgrimage") In Gregorian calendar dates, this will be November 25 to 29, 2009. Mecca is the holiest place in the Islamic religion and if a person performs the pilgrimage and the rituals correctly, all his or her sins will be forgiven. It is an important event in the Muslim world, millions of people participate; it is the single largest, annual gathering in the world.

The sheer magnitude of the Hajj presents a myriad of logistical and safety challenges without the additional wrinkle of a world-wide flu pandemic. Participants gather from all geographical corners the world, massive crowds in very tight quarters, hygenic conditions that are less than ideal and participants who then return to their place of origin ... with whatever nasties they may have picked up along the way.

World health officials and the Saudi goverment are advising "Hajj-ers" to get vaccinated at least 2 weeks in advance (some nationalities are required to prove this), they are screening travelers at all points of entry and children, elderly, pregnant and chronically ill would-be pilgrims are encouraged to stay away from the pilgrimage for this year. Mecca will still be there to Hajj another day.

How to Commit Professional Suicide

Got an email (at work) first thing this morning from my draftsman ... see below. He sends me lots of e-junk and most of the time it is pretty interesting stuff (although it leaves me wondering what the heck he's doing all day long that he has time to surf the internet).


Funnily enough, he copied this one to all of us 'senior' staff including our Department Head. Me thinks that this is not the smartest career move he's ever made.

Weather and Mosquito Bites

The fall is my favorite time of year here, the weather is awesome. When I went to the beach yesterday morning for boot camp, it was around 29 degrees, fairly low humidity, very comfortable. A portion of the boot camp session was in the sea and the water is also lovely, still very warm. During they day the temperature gets up to mid-30's which is still fairly hot but the sun is shines every day.

Some pictures from my balcony this morning:

One of the nice things about more comfortable weather is one can enjoy the outdoors again and as such, on the weekend, I opened the patio doors in my apartment for the day to let in some outdoor air. I enjoyed it immensely but there is one downside to doing this ... mosquitoes! Ya don't see them but they're around, even on the 20th floor. How do I know?

That big red blotch on the back of my arm is a mosquito bite! Yes it is very itchy. No, I have not been scratching it! No, there is no malaria or any other such other insect-borne disease in UAE (according to my doctor). Yes, its a bit freakish but it will go a way soon enough.

The last time I tried to enjoy the fresh air in my apartment, I left my doors open all night long and awoke to find dozens of bites on any patch of skin that was exposed! The following few days were the epitome of misery! Having just one bite will probably bearable and it will probably be gone in a few days.

In The News: BO = PU!

Newsflash: Dubai taxis stink! Seriously.

So Dubai Taxi Corporation, the government entity who oversees them, has outfitted all their cars with air fresheners in response to customer complaints about drivers who smell.

From Arabian Business:

Smelly taxis a thing of the past with new cab deodorant
Elsa Baxter on Thursday, 08 October 2009

All taxis in Dubai are now fitted with a deodorant in a bid to improve customer satisfaction after reports of “smelly taxicabs”.

A statement from Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) on Thursday said every one of its 3,503 taxis have been fitted with a natural smelling deodorant.

"Dubai Taxi Corporation has opted to install deodorants with natural fragrance and place them below cabby's seat and will last for one month from the date of installation,” Yousef Mohammed Al Ali, director of DTC Fleet Operations Department.

This natural scent has undergone a three-month test involving over 350 vehicles of Dubai Taxi fleet, and the material proved effective in removing odours and spreading a pleasant sweet-scented smell in the vehicle's interior.

“The success of this material has been measured in customer satisfaction surveys about the smells of taxicabs; particularly at Dubai International Airport,” he said.

"RTA in general and DTC in particular are engaged in discussions with the suppliers of Dubai Taxi vehicles about the smelly cabs,” he added.

DTC said it made every effort to ensure taxis were clean, including changing the air-conditioning filters every three months and cleaning the seats and interior.

My initial reaction to this story was don't give the car deoderizer, give the driver a bar of soap!!! Taxis are still my pet peeve but fortunately I don't have to take them often. When I do, I am reminded of why I don't take them if at all possible. They are a fickle bunch, they've been accused of "racial profiling" prospective fares and earlier this year they collectively whined loud enough to get the minimim fare raised from 3 dirhams to 10 dirhams when they suddenly noticed a dwindling customer base and a surplus of cars, a sharp reversal from the pre-financial crisis hayday (supply and demand is a double edged sword.) Airport taxis start at 20 Dirhams but arguabley, they are newer, bigger, cleaner cars ... and, unless you have arranged your own transportation, they are your only option (stay tuned for a future posting on the recently launched public transportation system, the "Metro", with stations conveniently located at both airport terminals and a not so convenient "no luggage bigger than a lap-top bag" policy - go figger!)

In their defense, taxi drivers work long hours in heavily conjested traffic which gets under the skin of the best of us and, under a competitive quota system, they are not well compensated. Since most do not meet the minimum salary requirement to bring their families into the country, most are bachelors living in meager conditions with limited access to cooking and bathing facilities. One has to sympathize with the challenges of good hygiene under such conditions. And some have not seen their families for several years despite sending money to support them every month.

Some drivers are courteous, speak enough English to ascertain your desired destination, get you there via the most efficient route in a comparatively safe manner, get out of their car to help you with your luggage and actually smell OK. But rarely do you get all of these in the same driver. And my sympathies really start to wear thin every time a taxi comes screaming up behind the Pajero, flashing his brights to pass, tailgates for all of 3 seconds, then passes at triple the speed limit while on-coming cars swerve to avoid him (true story and sadly not a "one-off".) As a general statemment, their attitude towards other drivers (and pedestrians) is astounding.

While it is newsworthy and commendable that an "institutional entity" here has acknowledged that customers matter, the success of their campaign remains to be seen. Those thirty-five hundred and three air fresheners will eventually expire and unless they are replaced regularly, the smelly taxi problem that was a thing of the past will surely return in the not too distant future. We'll be right back where we started: stinky cabs with attitude.

More Scuba Adventures

So you may be asking yourself, what was the point of that last post? It was long, it was rambling … but it was leading to something.

Firstly, I did two more dives yesterday. Both were at ship wrecks and both were at depths I had never been before ... below 25 meters. They were on the Dubai side and both were sunk by the military during target practice to learn how to sink a ship. Obviously they succeeded! Neither wreck seems to have any information or pictures on the internet so all the more reason to get my own underwater camera.

Having completed a dive below 18m (the previous limit under my Open Water Certification) and a wreck dive, I have now completed all the criteria and I now have my Advanced Open Water Certification. Advanced Certification does not necessarily mean I am a better diver but just means I can go to more places.

Secondly, I booked a 1-week trip to Brunei and Malaysia for the upcoming public holidays of Eid al Adha and National Day in the last week of November (must take advantage of the public holidays since all my vacation time is long since gone). This time I am certain I have the qualifications to enjoy it to the max.

And one more thing: I think there should be a ban on ALL men wearing speedos in public no matter what color they are (even if you are French!!!) Its just icky.

Scuba Diving Certification ... check!

One of the things on the infamous life’s to-do list, almost since its inception, was this: get scuba diving certification. At the time I didn’t really know what that entails, just that a quick introductory dive in Mexico a few years ago was pretty fun so I wanted to do more of it ... some day.

For my 39th birthday, my “to me from me” present was scuba diving lessons. Sweetie and I took the PADI Open Water Certification theory and pool sessions at Adventures in Scuba in Calgary. Last year in September, having moved to a warmer climate, I realized I that unless I did the open water dives and completed the certification before the 1-year mark, I was gonna have to repeat the whole darned course and that did not appeal to me. So on asking around, someone recommended Al Boom Diving and I booked the first of my “real” dives to close the loop on that.


The Refresher

Being a novice diver and since some time had elapsed since my pool dives, I was required to take a skills refresher. The dive master was a middle-aged Englishman who seemed competent as an instructor and he did his best to conduct the skills tests in an orderly, professional manner. But one student always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Afterwards, my fellow student explained that performing the skills wasn’t the problem so much as reading the instructions written on the instructor’s underwater tablet; difficult to do without your glasses which, for obvious reasons, he was not wearing! No wonder he was lost, you’d think an instructor of that caliber would know better.

While my dim-sighted dive buddy was fumbling blindly through the session, I have no such problems with vision and I was treated to a full-on view of the instructor’s choice of swim attire for that day. Granted, he looked good for his age, was fit and trim and tanned, but no man of any age should be allowed in public wearing only florescent lime green speedos! Period. Given the fact that objects underwater appear magnified … well, let’s just say it was difficult to focus (and not in a good way).

The assistant instructor, while clad more modestly, was entertaining in his own right. Me thinks he was a Scot. Of the 4 students that day, I was the only female and as things often go in this country, men do everything for you whether you want them to or not. The other students had to fend for themselves while the Scotsman assembled all my gear, suited me up, did my buddy check and doted over my every need. As I was about to leap into the pool, he laughingly told me how he sometimes forgets to turn on his breathing air until he is already in the water (which is a silly safety blunder, especially for someone aspiring to be a full-fledged instructor; I double checked my own air, it was on). Once in the pool, he again let out a jovial belly laugh as he had again forgotten to turn on his air. This only confirmed my suspicion that the guy was a few fries short of a happy meal.


Out of the Pool and Into the Sea

After the refresher I have taken a number of dives and along with Arabic classes, scuba diving has become my new favorite hobby. On my second dive, I was treated to a glimpse of a shark! A small one, only about 1 meter long, not sure what species (probably "just" a sand shark) but still very cool.

When Sweetie was here last October, he too had to complete his certification before the year was up and we completed Dives 3 and 4 together in Fujairah, the eastern-most Emirate, less than 2 hours' drive across the Peninsula.

Red Tide

There is a phenomenon that happens in the sea when there is an over abundance of algae called, “Red Tide”. This happens for a number of reasons both natural and man-made and the result is sometimes discoloration of the water and damage to the marine environment. This was the case on Fujairah side of the peninsula last fall. However, this was not explained to us in advance and, being newbie divers from the land-locked prairie provinces, we had no idea why the sea was brown-ish and smelly!

We geared up as usual, flipped off the boat and into an ocean of black ink. Pitch black! Like, can’t see your hand in front of your face black! After the dives, I apologized to the 10 year old boy who was also getting certified and who was descending down the line below me. It was a disconcerting experience for me as an adult and I did not have someone kicking me in the head from above! (Don’t worry, the kid’s Dad was with him and was an experienced diver, the boy was in no danger).

Once at the bottom, the water was clear and the sunshine peaked through and the rest of the dive was pleasant enough. The algae clouds swirled around above us in a murky fog that looked like oil mixing with vinegar.

Good to Go for Gear

My 2008 Christmas gift “To Me From Me” (well, one of them anyway!) was my very own dive gear and as a belated Christmas surprise, Sweetie gave me a dive computer when we met in California in March. It is a very high tech unit and I have only now figured out how to set the correct time.

Road Trips

In March I took a spontaneous trip to Cyprus over the public holidays with the intent of seeing more of the underwater world. What I discovered though, is that anything I wanted to see was deeper than what my basic Open Water Certification would allow. My one and only dive there was a bit disappointing. The lesson: plan ahead better.

My Canadian friend who visited earlier this year gave me an excuse to dive a spot I have wanted to since I came. Actually, she had to coax me. I had heard it was for more advanced divers but she convinced me to go inspite of my sparce diving resume.

The tip of the Peninsula is called Khasab, Mussandam which is part of Oman. It is called “The Norway of Arabia”, the rock cliffs descend steeply into the ocean as you would see in Northern Europe (apparently, haven’t been there). It was fanastic!





The highlight for my friend was seeing a turtle which she was really hoping to see (by the time I realized that it was too late to send her to Fujeirah where I have seen them several times). The hightlight for me was seeing by far the biggest sea creature that I have seen: a 4 meter long Leopard Shark!


Not to worry, Leopard Sharks are not dangerous. In fact there is only one recorded "incident" in California with a swimmer who had a nose bleed and even then, there were no injuries.

Sea Creatures

In the dives I’ve taken since then have all been local and I have seen some neat stuff. Since I don’t yet have an underwater camera (my birthday and Christmas are coming!) I will once again post images that turn up on Google and try to credit where possible.

Cuttle fish. Lots of them on the Fujeirah side. Very strange creatures! They change color and texture depending on the environment and the situation.

LOTS of turtles or maybe it was the same ones several times. They are cool to watch and fairly docile; one can swim within a few meters of them before they notice and swim away. The biggest one I saw had a shell that was more than 24” (60 cm) across!

Little tiny ghost-like jellyfish that look just like they do in the cartoons! Fortunately I have never been stung but others have and it is unpleasant.

Coral, eels, sting rays, star fish, lobsters, crabs, angel fish, batfish, soldiers, groupers.

Sea cucumbers: If you were to stuff a black stocking full of sand, that's what they look like. during my "Underwater Naturalist" dive, the guide picked one up (which I thought ya weren't supposed to do) and had me hold onto it. Feels like a stocking full of sand.

Black pointy things (some kind of coral?) I see them frequently but I don't actually know what they are. The dive guide picked up one of these too. I held it in my palm for a minute or so. When I was finished examining it, I turned over my hand to drop it but it had stuck itself there. I gently brushed it off and it floated back down to its home on the sea bed.

Where do you go when you can't go home?

I was in a meeting with my boss and a colleague this afternoon when my boss's phone rang. So far a pretty mundane story right? The call was from a "964" number which, as it turns out is the country code for Iraq. A colleague of ours is currently on vacation there with his wife and baby son. His hometown is ... you guessed it, Baghdad! The epicentre of the all the fuss and fury. They had delayed their visit for several months for various reasons but he was now finally taking his little 10-month old son to meet his family for the first time and he was excited about that.

My Iraqi friend doesn't talk much about his homeland and what its like there except to say that he is eager to see the Americans leave. I once asked him about life in Iraq and his response was that, for the average citizen, things were really pretty good under Saddam "until we found out about all the torture and murder and stuff." He laments the current state of affairs in his homeland and looks forward to a day when he can take his young family and move back there ... not now. Not for the next 5 years at least.

As a Canadian, I am pretty comfortable in the knowledge that at pretty much any time I choose, I can go home. No problems, no worries, I will always have somewhere to go (insha'allah). But what does one do when they can't go home?

About that phone call this afternoon? He was informing our boss that he needs to extend his stay for a while longer as it seems his father has gone missing, possibly been kidnapped. They've checked the hospitals, police, army ... but no sign. Under any circumstances that would be worrisome but in a place like Baghdad ... well ... one can only hope for the best.

True Dat!

Just finished reading a news story on the CBC website about couple of dummies ... errr, individuals who broke into the Calgary Zoo, entered the tiger enclosure and *surprise!!!* were mauled by a tiger!

Tiger injures man at Calgary Zoo
Last Updated: Monday, October 5, 2009 8:35 PM MT

A man is in hospital with serious injuries after sneaking into the Calgary Zoo overnight, scaling two fences and being injured by a tiger.

Two men, both aged 27, jumped a 2.4-metre-high barbed wire fence at about 1 a.m. Monday to enter the zoo. (wild guess here: upstanding, responsible young men with good jobs don't usually roam about at all hours on a Sunday night).

One of the men then scaled the outer perimeter safety fence around the tiger enclosure, which is just over a metre high. He didn't enter the tiger exhibit, but approached the inside fence where a two-year-old male Siberian tiger was roaming, zoo officials said Monday.

The tiger, named Vitali, may have hooked the man with a claw and pulled an arm inside the fence, said a zoo veterinarian. The second man, who came to his aid, was also hurt.

The men knew a security guard who worked at the zoo and called her on her cellphone for help. Security personnel took the men to a zoo office where they were both given emergency first aid until medical services arrived. The seriously hurt man was then taken to the Foothills hospital. (it sounds like the one guy will lose his arm)

Motive unknown

Calgary police are investigating and may lay breaking and entering or trespassing charges against the men. (Gee, ya think???) Police are unsure of the motive and don't know if alcohol was involved, said acting Staff Sgt. Rick Halford. (Huh? Who do they got investigating this, Mr Magoo???)

"There's no indication that the two offenders were involved in anything else other than just being silly, I suppose," he said.

Grahame Newton, the zoo's director of corporate services, said the second fence, which the men didn't scale, is designed to keep the tigers inside their enclosure. It's 4.5 metres high, with a large overhang and an electric component. (Typical CBC reporting, the very first paragraph stated that the guys scaled both fences).

"Certainly we will be reviewing it to see whether there is anything that can be done. But in this case here, I think it just simply appears to be a case of two individuals intent on breaching the security and they did it. Unfortunately it resulted it some very serious injuries."

Tiger to remain on exhibit

The tiger, who wasn't hurt, will remain on exhibit, said zoo curator Tim Sinclair-Smith. "Vitali has certainly done nothing wrong. It's his natural behaviour," he said. "He will go on display as he always has."

Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier defended the zoo on Monday, saying it has a good record of taking care of both animals and visitors.

"You can't foresee absolutely every circumstance. Who could ever predict that somebody would … want to get warm and cuddly with a live animal? Just common sense should tell you that is just something you just don't do," he said. (Gotta side with Bronco on that).

"If you want to pet live animals, go to Butterfield Acres," Bronconnier added, referring to a local petting farm.

The story itself was entertaining enough but ya gotta love some of the reader comments that follow:

What IDIOTS. (this is the general consensus of 99.9% of the comments ... the one dissenting voice came to the defence of his injured friend; seemed to think that people are being too harsh. Not too many thumbs-up for that comment.)

There simply is no cure for stupid, then add alcohol, and I don't think we have a word for what you get. (maybe not 'a' word but I can suggest two: effin' stupid!)

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe. — Albert Einstein

A Darwin Award Honourable Mention, for sure! (seems the Darwin Awards "pet the big kitty" category has already been awarded ... just Google "Darwin Awards Tiger" and you get 69,400 hits!)

Please publish their photos! They deserve to be recognized on the street from now on so we can get a good laugh! (in fact the CBC article DOES have a picture ...)

My kind of karma..immediate and specific. (can't argue with that)

Famous last Trailer Park Boys words: "I'd give my right arm to be able to pet a tiger!"

A flight instructor once gave me this piece of advice: "When you're contemplating doing something risky, don't ask yourself 'Is this likely to kill me?'. Ask yourself 'How stupid will I look in the accident report?'." (Words to live by).

I can't imagine what was going through their minds...I mean it doesn't get much less intelligent than this folks. My god...maybe they can hook these guys up with the lady who wanted to hug a polar bear! Wait...no....imagine the kids! (this from a poster calling him/herself 'SeymourButtz' ... hahaha!)

Please people,don't be too quick to judge these young fellows. A similar thing happened to me in Calgary. I encountered a cougar at 1 a.m.,alcohol was involved. The next morning I had to chew my own arm off. (HAHAHA!!! I laughed at this one for a good 10 minutes)

In BC, if you ski out of bounds and do something stupid, you can be billed for the Seach and Rescue costs associated with risking the lives of the rescuers to get the stupid person to safety. (this is in reference to a Quebec couple who knowingly skied out of bounds, got lost, wife died and in a rather asinine display of irresponsibility, husband sues everyone and their dog ... but back to the tiger and the tools) Same should apply here. You're dumb enough to get drunk or think it's "cool" to get up close and personal with a tiger, then they should be on the hook for the hospital costs and any costs incurred by the zoo. I agree that the headline should be changed to accurately reflect what accurately occurred.

If this moron tries to sue the zoo, I hope the zoo takes it before Judge Judy, she'll sort this dummy out. The Plaintiff will have to swear an oath with his left hand though, I'm just sayin.

Just a couple quick points. This story was about little other than sheer stupidity, and the bizarre few comments that invoke politics are clearly from those people that really need to get out more. The ZOO's responsibility is to take all reasonable precautions against ANY action that could be foreseen by any reasonable person -- this wasn't the actions of a either a reasonable person or someone acting as such. As for the "I don't want MY taxes to pay for their care" -- guess what? I might not either, but the alternative of not ensuring people with a a guarantee to health care (irrespective of whether or was brought upon by stupidity or not) is a consequence that few Canadians have had the unfortune to experience.Like "free speech" being guaranteed not just for the people that You agree with, guaranteed health care also applies to people that You don't think necessarily deserve it -- the alternative is incredibly disturbing, and all You have to do is to look at the bizarre debate going on in the US to see the 'slippery slope' that NOT insuring everyone will go ... (this comment hits the nail on the head; a lot of comments call for the injured men to foot the bill for their medical costs but, unfortunately, our system protects all equally, even the ignoramuses among us.)

BobbyClobber wrote: Just imagine the story the tiger has to tell his buddies, "No, Im tellin' the truth, it was a snack on two legs, about sooooo tall and it just walked in here by itself...."

Isincal wrote: @ BobbyClobber 2009/10/05 at 3:59 PM ETI'll be snickering over that one till I fall asleep tonight!

BobbyClobber (again): Tiger, at the local watering hole tonight, "No Tony, its more cruchy then chewy, but tasted like it was marinated in beer..."

Another thought just crossed my mind.It mentions these two were taken to the Foothills Hospital which is about 3 times further than the Peter Lougheed.The Foothills has recently built a billion dollar research center.Could this be a modern Canadian 'Area 51' were alien subjects escaped and were looking to seek shelter where no man has gone before? (conspiracy theory? or is there something the Government doesn't want you to know?! Things that make you go hmmmmmm?)

This has PETA written all over it. (... I was thinkin' more like, oh I dunno, Budweiser??? And lots of it!)

Maybe they were tweakin on shrooms and thought they were playing with Tony the Tiger? They're ggggrrrreeeeaaaattttt!!! (K, well, coulda been the 'shrooms too).

I think a Haiku is in order. Anyone else care to add one?
dumbass goes into cage
why does the tiger maul me
arms are very sore

I wonder what led up to this....some drinking...NO a LOT of drinking.....maybe a party......maybe some party games......1:03am wishing you had said "TRUTH" (True Dat. Sometimes it is just better to go with truth).

The Tallest of the Tall

I should be working today because I have a deadline for Monday. But instead I decided to blog. Actually I was distracted this morning by an article in the business section of today's The National newspaper: a story about the status of the completion of the Burj Dubai which lead me to wonder about the world's tallest buildings. So I spent the afternoon surfing the internet ... I tell myself that this is kind of work related ... isn't it???

Anyway, I came across a lot of really interesting stuff and one website in particular, the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat had a lot of information and resources. I decided to compile a Top 10 list of the the tallest of the tall based on the CTBUH list along with whatever photos and factoids I could dig up on the web.

Their criteria for measuring height is documented here.
They have a handy-dandy building height calculator here.

Disclaimer: In comparing various sources of information, I discovered a few inconsistencies (*gasp* NO! The internet ... conflicting information?!) I don't really have the time nor the inclination today to debate the facts nor decipher the truth. This is just for fun so take it with a grain of salt. I have also attempted to use what I believe to be "free" pictures wherever possible and give proper credit ... but to be honest, I lost track of where they all came from so I plead ignorance and beg forgivness in advance.

With that said and without further adieu, here's the list:

#10: Shun Hing Square, Shenzhen, GD China
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1996
Height: 69 stories, 384 meters /1,260 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office
Architect: K.Y. Cheung Design Associates

The complex consists of three main parts,the tower itself, a five storey mall serving as a podium and a 35 storey annex. All three parts are directly connected.

It is China's tallest steel skyscraper.

The tower has a public observatory called the Meridian View Centre on the 69th floor; price to go up is 60rmb (about US$12).

#9: CITIC Plaza, Guanzhou, China (Yeah China again. Gonna see them on the list a few times!)
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1996/7
Height: 80 stories, 391 meters /1,283 feet
Material: Concrete
Occupancy: Office
Architect: Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers

The CITIC complex is named after the China International Trust and Investment Company, which is a state-owned company that was established by the People's Republic of China's government to encourage investment in China.

It is the tallest concrete building in the world.

It is the fourth tallest building in China (not counting the ones that are still on the drawing board!)

The building has 598 rooms and 36 elevators.

#8: Two International Financial Center, Hong Kong (China again ... kind of)
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 2003
Height: 88 stories, 412 meters /1,352 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office
Architects: César Pelli & Association Architects and Rocco Design Ltd.

Tenants include ING Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, Fidelity Investments, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority and the Financial Times.

2IFC, which was completed at the height of the SARS epidemic, was initially available to rent at HK$25-HK$35 per square foot. In 2007, as the economy has improved, high quality ("Grade A") office space is highly sought after, rents for current leases are $150 per square foot as of March 2007.

The Airport Express Hong Kong Station is directly beneath it.

I think Spiderman was climbing this tower in the first movie out a few years back ... ???

#7: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 2009
Height: 96 stories, 415 meters /1,362 feet
Material: Concrete
Occupancy: Hotel, residential, retail
Architect: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

Client: Hmm, I wonder who that could be???

When this project was originally announced, it was proclaimed as a future world's tallest building. After the terrorist acts of september 11, 2001 the plans were scaled down a few hundred feet.

The building was originally planned with a large office section on the lower floors, but sales of the residential portion performed so well that the office floors were dropped from the plan.

#6: Jin Mao Building, Shanghai, China
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1999
Height: 88 stories, 421 meters /1,381 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office, hotel

Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill

Architects designed the building around the theme of the Chinese pagoda and the number 8(the number 8 is considered extremely lucky by Chinese people): the lowest segment of the building is sixteen stories high and each succeeding segment is 1/8th smaller than its predecessor.

The building employs an advanced structural engineering system of wind and earthquake engineering which fortify it against typhoon winds of up to 200 km/h (with the top swaying by a maximum of 75 cm) and earthquakes of up to 7 on the Richter scale. The steel shafts have shear joints that act as shock absorbers to cushion the lateral forces imposed by winds and quakes, and the swimming pool on the 57th floor is said to act as a passive damper.

#5: Willis Tower (formerly known as "Sears Tower", Chicago, Illinois, USA

Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1974 (a dinosaur!)
Height: 108 stories, 442 meters /1,451 feet
Material: Steel
Occupancy: Office

Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (these guys have quite the portfolio!)

Willis Tower is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

The building was renamed Willis Tower in July 2009 as the company [Willis Group Holdings] consolidated five local offices and moved some 500 Associates into 233 South Wacker Drive. It was not named after the little black kid from the 70's TV show "Different Strokes".

Now, here is where the CTBUH list is questionable: as far as heights go, the Empire State Building should be on the list here at 449 meters ... but its not. What gives???

Anyway, moving on.

Tie for #3 and #4: Petronas Tower 1 and Tower 2, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1998
Height: 88 stories each, 452 meters /1,483 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office
Architect: Cesar Pelli & Associates and KLCC Architects

PETRONAS, is short for Petroliam Nasional Bhd [sic], Malaysia's national petroleum corporation.

The tower's floor plate design is based on simple Islamic geometric forms of two interlocking squares creating a shape of eight-pointed stars. Upon the eight-pointed stars, are eight superimposed semi-circles softening the inner angles. These semicircles are themselves anchored by the arcs of the main structural columns of the buildings. The semi-circles were superimposed in the inner angles of the interlocked squares to create more usable floor space.

The Skybridge, a major attraction at the PETRONAS Twin Towers, symbolises a gateway to the future and is used to facilitate movement between the two towers. It can also function as an escape route in case of emergencies.

#2: Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai, China

Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 2008
Height: 101 stories, 492 meters /1,614 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office, hotel

Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox

The most distinctive feature in the design of the building is an aperture at the peak. The original design specified a circular aperture to reduce the stresses of wind pressure, as well as serve as a subtext for the design, since "Chinese mythology represents the earth with a square and the sky with a circle". However, this initial design began facing protests from some Chinese who considered it too similar to the rising sun design of the Japanese flag. On 18 October 2005, KPF submitted an alternative design and a trapezoidal hole replaced the circle at the top of the tower, which in addition to changing the controversial design, will also be cheaper and easier to implement according to the architects. In the eyes of some, the building resembles a giant bottle opener (well, I guess you can't please everyone.)

A fire broke out in the SWFC on 14 August 2007. The fire was first noticed on the 40th floor, around 16:30 (GMT +8), and soon the smoke was clearly seen outside the building. By 17:45, the fire had been extinguished. The damage was reported to be slight and nobody was injured in this accident. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but according to some sources the preliminary investigation suggested workers' electric weldings caused the fire

#1: Taipei 101, Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan (is that part of China or not? Depends who you ask I guess.)
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 2004
Height: 101 stories, 509 meters /1,670 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office
Architect / Designer: C.Y. Lee & Partners

It has been hailed as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World (Newsweek magazine, 2006) and Seven Wonders of Engineering (Discovery Channel, 2005).

Taipei 101 was the first building in the world to break the half-kilometer mark in height.

Taipei 101 is designed to withstand the typhoon winds and earthquake tremors common in its area of the Asia-Pacific. Planners aimed for a structure that could withstand gale winds of 60 m/s (216 km/h , 134 mi/h) and the strongest earthquakes likely to occur in a 2,500 year cycle.

Honorable mention: Burj Dubai, Dubai, UAE

Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: December, 2009 (insha'allah!)
Material: Concrete and Steel
Occupancy: Office, residential, hotel
Architect: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

This is the Grand-daddy of them all! 160+ stories, 818m/ 1,585 feet to the top! But it is HM on this list because it is not yet officially ranked by CTBUH; must be a) topped out architecturally, b) be fully cladded and c) open for business or partially occupied. As of yesterday, they meet criteria a) and b) but not quite there yet for criteria c).

NORR is doing the site supervision on this and at one time I was hopeful I might be able to swing a “site visit”. However security is extremely tight since a couple of base jumping lunatics (twice?) managed to get to the top to do their thing. I’m not optimistic about my chances for a view from the top but I hear there will be an observation deck on one of the intermediate levels ... and I can see it any time I want from my balcony.

And now for the “also ran” category”:

#13: Bank of China Building, Hong Kong. Why? Because I saw it when I was there last year and is one of my favorites. It is 70 stories, 367m/1,205 feet and was completed 1989. The designer was I.M. Pei and it was heavily criticized for its bad Feng Shui to its neighbors (one of which is a rival bank ... coincidence?)

#16 and #33: Emirates Towers 1 and 2, Dubai UAE:

Why? Because I go there almost every day! And because they are pretty cool buildings.

ET1, the office building was completed in 1999 and ET2, the hotel, completed a year later. They are/were a NORR project, designed by Hazel Wong (no, I don't know HW but I do work with her 'understudy' on the design of these, Yahya Jan who is becoming something of a mini-celebrity in his own right.)

Apparently, the Crown Prince of Dubai has an office in ET1. From time to time I see some pretty official looking vehicles parked out front and I once saw Shiekh Mo himself (Ruler of Dubai and father of CP), so it could be true.

#26: The Burj Al Arab, Dubai, UAE.

This one is definitely a "one of". It is the self-proclaimed “first 7-star hotel in the world” and they are priced accordingly! One cannot get past the front gate with out a reservation (believe me, I tried!), room rates start at 4000 Dirhams ($1,177CDN) and el cheapo chocolate fondue with Jen set us back a few hundred chips ... but we bit the bullet just so we could get in.

The interior is a bit on the “gaudy” side for most people's taste but the outside makes up for it, really quite amazing. I can also see this one from my balcony (on a clear day) and up close every Tuessday morning from Umm Sequiem beach when I am huffing and puffing my way through boot camp.

And just because I will always be a Canadian at heart, I must mention that Canada has 3 buildings in the top 100, all in Toronto (the “other” center of the universe):

#44: First Bank Tower completed in 1975, 298m, 978 feet in height.
#68: Scotia Plaza completed in 1989, 275m, 902 feet.
#95 BCE Place – Canada Trust Tower, completed in 1990 at 261m, 856 feet.

Well, that's it. Enough procrastinating for today, my deadline is still looming. I need to buckle down and do some real work ... right after I get back from Starbucks!

Site Visit

You may be wondering what the heck I do with all my free time here in Dubai anyway???


Very good question. Here's my answer: I play with my video camera and my new 'puter ... and I do actually work for a living too. Here's the proof:








Two colleagues and I attended meetings in Abu Dhabi a few weeks ago and visited the site we are currently working on. The property is in a really nice location: adjacent to mass transit (train, bus AND water taxi!), views of the sea and Yas Island, the iconic "biscuit" building (one of my all-time favorites) as a neighbor, easy access to the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway and easy commuting distance to either one ... should be a nice place to live when its complete!

(The little movie project was more about learning to make movies than anything; this was a short, easy one just to get the hang of it. Movie critics: be kind, this is only my second one ever!)



OK, I admit, its not much to look at right now, just a lot of sand and hot hot sun.

To help your imagination along, check out the model:

Dubai and Abu Dhabi must be a model builder's dream! In real life, the development is about 10 to 15 km long and the Master Developer has constructed a scale model of the whole thing (and a few of their other projects)!

Our site is in the center of the picture, the one with the oblong, arc thing on top (although that is not what the actual building will look like.)

Our neighbor, the "biscuit" building.

Our neighbour, the "biscuit" building in real life. (FYI, it is an office building.)

Censorship

One of my friends back home recently sent me a link to join Flickr. According to my Google search,

"Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world."

Sounds benign enough. I clicked on the link in the email and this is what I got courtesy of my ISP (which happens to be Du ... no choice in the matter, that's all that is provided in my building):

"Surf Safely!

This website is not accessible in the UAE.

The internet is a powerful medium for communication, sharing and serving our daily learning needs. However, the site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited under the 'Internet Access Management Regulatory Policy' of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates.

If you believe the website you are trying to access does not contain any such content, please click here."

I have not used Flickr before, so not entirely certain of what I would find there but I can tell you that I have come across things on the internet (especially You Tube) that would raise eyebrows, even by western standards. But somehow sharing photos with friends is objectionable. Makes you wonder how they actually monitor content on the internet.

I'm also questioning the contents of the coffee pot that the girl in the picture is holding ... I mean look at her eyes, does she not look a little loopy???

New Challenge: Get Into Shape!

One day last weekend, I was mindlessly surfing the internet as I frequently do on the weekends, more than I should really, when I came across a story about a group of men who are training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro this fall. This caught my attention as I too am hoping to climb Kili one day (its on the infamous life's "to do" list.) The article talked about their training regimen with an Aussie company called Physical Advantage , a military-style fitness "boot camp". I had heard of these boot-camps before, it looked like fun so on a whim, I signed up. Every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 7am for the month of September. How hard could it possibly be?

I have to say, I was woefully unprepared for what I committed myself to and was unpleasantly surprised to see just how low my fitness level has become! Four years ago I started training for triathlons which was very hard (at one point, I thought my coach was gonna drown me during swimming drills!) But over time it got easier and I succeeded in completing Sprint and Olympic distance races, completed my first half marathon, almost completed Sylvan Lake Half Ironman and won a bronze medal at Calgary Corporate Challenge for the Team Swim event. It was a gratifying time in my athletic career.

But then I moved to the UAE, not the most active, sports friendly place around (however there are several triathlon clubs, volleyball leagues and a big marathon event in Ras al Khaimah every February). Other things became priority, namely work, work and more work. I became a hermit and a couch potato.

Last Sunday was the first boot camp, I dragged myself out of bed at 5am (which in itself is an achievement) and headed down to Jumeirah public beach to meet my new “platoon”. That was the easy part!

What followed was 65 minutes of mortal agony – sprinting up and down the beach, push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, squats, bench-presses, jumping jacks, more sprinting, then more sit-ups, lunges and squats and finally a 1.6K run. Throw into the mix a constant barking of commands from our “Commander”, plenty of “suck it up!” and penalties for being too slow, lazy or marching out of formation and you have a pretty darned good reason to not join the military in my humble opinion! Throughout the session, our stats were recorded as a bench-mark and each of us was issued a "uniform" (T-shirt) and a “rank” based on the results: soldier, commando or elite. They take the military theme pretty seriously.

An additional wrinkle is that we are in the midst of the Holy month of Ramadan. From day break until sunset, Muslims are fasting: abstaining from food, drink, smoking and sex during daylight hours. For non-Muslims, the law says that we must also abstain from these things in public. For the most part, this is not that difficult to accommodate; my daily Starbucks is concealed in a paper bag, I hide out in my colleague's office to eat lunch, I don't smoke and I don't usually have sex in public places at the best of times, so no big deal.

It is also still summer which means, even in the wee hours of the morning, the temperature is still mid 30’s and still humidity hovers around 65%. Heavy exertion in warm weather and not allowed to drink water … this can be a problem. Fortunately, Dubai is more lenient than most other places in the region provided we are discreet. Boot-campers are allowed short water breaks inside a tent that is erected on the beach for that purpose.

And just in case I was not totally miserable by this whimsical decision to get into shape military-style, I caught a sinus cold last Sunday and have been coughing and wheezing ever since.

The one bright spot so far is that these sessions take place on the beach. It may be infinitely harder to do interval-sprints on sand than on a more amicable surface (such as a gym floor) and it may be sticky and sweaty without the comforts of air conditioning, but to swim in the ocean after an intense work out is … well, nothing short of divine! The water is still quite warm at this time of year but none the less, it is a soothing and glorious indulgence.

So for all my huffing and puffing, moaning and groaning, sniffling and sniveling, a fitness shake-up was overdue; a change in attitude was in order. I probably picked one of the more radical ways of going about it … but it will be good for me, it will get easier insha’allah and it is fun (in a warped kind of way.) For the time being, Kilimanjaro will have to wait.

I need a nap (and a good massage therapist)!

In The News: Reach Out. The world's waiting (and spying!)

Blackberry users beware: this from Engadget.com ... but it's all over the news here: Etisalat orchestrated the installation of a so-called "performance enhancing patch" onto over a hundred thousand Blackberrys in the UAE which, as it turns out, is actually a spyware software! People (especially the Crackberry crowd) are outraged but Etisalat has been conspicuously mum on the subject since the story broke almost a month ago.

FYI: Etisalat is the (government owned?) telecommunications provider for the UAE (affectionately known as "Etisal-crap" although Etisalat subscribers have more choice names for them I'm sure!) The market here is a duopoly with the only competition coming from one other provider called Du (affectionately known as, "Duh!").

BlackBerry update in UAE reportedly surveillance software in disguise
by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 14th 2009 at 4:59PM

There's not much in the way of official statements on this one just yet, but itp.net is reporting that a recently pushed out update for all BlackBerry users on the UAE-based carrier Etisalat is not a "performance enhancement patch" as advertised, but rather some spyware that could potentially give Etisalat the ability to keep an eye on its customers' messages. The first suspicions about the update apparently arose when users noticed dramatically reduced battery life and slower than usual performance from their phones, which led to a bit of detective work from programmer Nigel Gourlay, who pegged the software down as coming from electronic surveillance company SS8. While it's not switched on by default, the software can reportedly let Etisalat flip the switch on phones one by one and monitor their emails and text messages -- or it could if it hadn't completely bogged down the network. Apparently, the software wasn't designed for such a large scale deployment, which resulted in the slowdown and battery drain as some 100,000 BlackBerrys constantly tried and failed to sign in to the one registration server for the software.

A more recent account of the fiasco from itp.net. If Etisalat won't "reach out", RIM has issued a statement of their own:

It’s time for Etisalat to explain spyware fiasco
By Damian Reilly on Sunday, July 26, 2009

"Reach out. The world's waiting," Etisalat implores visitors to its website. What it doesn't mention is that if you are using a Blackberry to "reach out" - which is lately the bizarre Americanism for communicating - your emails could well be sent on to a third party.

At the end of June, Etisalat asked its customers using Blackberry devices to download a "network improvement patch." Many did. Shortly thereafter, their Blackberrys ceased to work. Investigating the malfunction, computer experts discovered that the patch did not improve network performance.

In fact, Canadian firm Research in Motion (RIM) which actually makes Blackberrys was so alarmed by Etisalat's claims that the patch was intended to enhance performance that it put out a strongly worded statement, distancing itself from the UAE's largest telecom company.

"It is not a RIM authorised upgrade. Independent sources have concluded that the Etisalat update is not designed to improve performance of your Blackberry, but rather to send received messages back to a central server... In this case, Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance system," the statement said.

Etisalat had originally claimed that the patch was "required for service enhancements particularly for issues identified related to the handover between 2G to 3G network coverage areas", but RIM would have none of it.

The RIM statement says flatly: "In general terms, a third-party patch cannot provide any enhancements to network services as there is no capability for third parties to develop or modify the low-level radio communications protocols that would be involved in making such improvements."

At the time of writing, no one from Etisalat was available for comment.

With each passing day that Etisalat remains silent on the issue, the dreams of conspiracy-theorists from Al-Ain to Ras al-Khor will become yet more fervent. Come on Etisalat - you're a huge and normally very eloquent communications company. It's time you communicated with your customers. What was the purpose of the patch and why did you ask people to download it? Over to you.

And for those of you who are saying to yourselves, "Phew! Glad I'm not in the UAE right now!", the software vendor that created this piece of work is an American company called SS8. They have sold this "patch" to communications networks all over the world and no doubt they and other service providers have learned a thing or two from the Etisalat fiasco. One more reason to stay off the grid and not get a Blackberry.

Speaking of off the grid, my internet at home is down (again)... argh! I need to make a call to Du (again!) to see what gives (did I mention that they are unofficially called, "Duh"?) On the bright side, at least I know I am not being spied on at home ... at least not my own internet (someone on my floor has an unsecure signal) ... and I should probably get some curtains in my new apartment.

In The (real life second hand) News: The Thief and The Man Tracker

As I have blogged recently, I go to Arabic class every Sunday and Wednesday evening. Since it is the summer session, we are a small class, only 4 students and only one is male, I will call him Peter (which is not his real name … kind of a standing joke in the class but wouldn’t really make sense to repeat here). Anyway, my class-mate “Peter” was uncharacteristically late for class yesterday but he had a most brilliant excuse and shared with us the events of his weekend (this is a rather long post so grab a chair):

Since we often have to speak in class (in Arabic) about what we did today or yesterday or on the weekend, we all know quite a bit about each other’s lives. Our mate Peter is training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro this winter so he frequently goes to the gym and for massages. This weekend was no different: a work out and a massage … but that’s when things took a different twist.

Some banks here have an SMS notification service; after every transaction on your account, you receive a text message. For my bank it is a paid subscription. I had it for a short trial period and the messages are nearly instantaneous! I was still standing at the ATM waiting for my money when the message came through! If only they were that fast and reliable with all their services! But I digress.

Shortly after his massage, our mate Peter started to receive a series of text messages from his bank … crikey! Seems his credit card went shopping without him! He called immediately to cancel the card and then called the Police.

For matters of this nature, the Police are rather nonchalant especially if it involves an ex-pat. One must make a claim in person and even then, without a bank statement, they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do anything. With this in hand, he returned to the Police station but still not much action. Only a, “We’ll catch him” with the feet up on the desk and an “insha’allah” which is a vague phrase meaning literally, “if God wills it” or sometimes, “hopefully” but in this case, “I can’t promise you anything so sorry ‘bout your luck, fella”.

Our mate Peter was not deterred and decided to do some detective work of his own. The first transaction, according to the statement, was at “The Nutrition Centre” for body building supplements and lip balm. So he started calling all the locations in Dubai. After a few calls he got a match, seems the purchase was made at the store in Ibn Battuta mall. Peter raced down to the mall to speak with the clerk but the description of the thief was not very clear, only that it was a man with a black back-pack.

The next transaction was within a short time of the first, about 10 minutes and Ibn Battuta is a big mall, it takes more than 10 minutes to get out of the mall to your car so the second purchase was likely also in IBM. But the problem is that the name of the retailer is usually not the same as the name of the credit card merchant. So our mate Peter walked the mall until, low and behold, he found the merchant, a perfume shop. Indeed, they also had a record of the thief’s purchase and even better, they had cameras!

Peter thought he had hit the motherlode. He had already suspected that the card was stolen from the gym and the purchase at the Nutrition place confirmed that. The gym is located in his building so the list of possible suspects is greatly reduced, probably one of the other residents and probably someone he has seen before. Not so! The man on surveillance tape was a stranger. But at least he now knew what the guy looked like.

At this point, the police were still not very helpful so our mate Peter continued the search on his own.

The next logical stop for this episode of Man-Tracker was the gym. From the sign-in sheet, he got a list of names of people at the gym for around the same time his credit card grew legs and armed with the list, our mate Peter used what any good detective would use to track a hardened criminal … Facebook! And sure enough, the thief had a profile complete with color photo! The building door man recognized the color photo and confirmed, Mr. Thief was a regular at the gym but not a resident (which tells you how reliable security really is at these buildings … mine included). Anyway, Mr. Thief was planning to be back the next day.

So the following day, our mate Peter waited around at the gym for Mr. Thief to arrive … and waited … and waited … and eventually Mr. Thief did not disappoint. A quick call to the Police (who apparently could now take action since the case was solved) arrested the thief, clad only in a pair of swimming trunks.

As it turns out, Mr. Thief was probably in the country illegally, spoke very little English and spoke no Arabic whatsoever. He spoke only Italian and might have caught a break because of the language barrier but this was not his lucky day. Our mate Peter is Belgian and as is the case with many Europeans, he speaks several different languages fluently, Italian being one of them. By now he also speaks enough Arabic to communicate with the Police and most locals, no matter who they are, are very impressed to see an ex-pat attempting to use the language.

Our mate Peter was given two choices: Mr. Thief could repay the 3000 Dirhams (about $1000CND) in charges on the card, sign a letter apologizing and swearing he will never do it again and go free. Or our mate would forego the repayment and Mr. Thief would face the courts for theft and fraud. Mr. Thief was initially very arrogant and denied everything. Only after a phone call did he come to realize the pickle he was in. Our mate Peter had already made up his mind and Mr. Thief will probably be jailed for 3 to 5 years and then be deported. We suggested to Peter that he could recoup his money by selling his story to the newspapers :-)

A couple of things come to mind about this story:

Firstly, our mate Peter recited most of his story to the class in Arabic with a little help from the teacher for some words we haven’t learned yet (and surprisingly I understood most of it.) That was impressive but now the bar has been raised. When it came my turn to speak and I could barely string together a single sentence, I realized I need to kick it up a notch … there’s that competitive streak again!

Secondly, Dubai is very safe BUT things do still happen here same as anywhere else. And don’t assume the Police will be interested in helping. There may have been a different reaction had it been a local making the accusation but luckily, my classmate was persistent and in the end, he prevailed. At the best of times, things happen in the Middle East on their own schedule and in their own way which is not necessarily efficient nor fair. That’s just the way it is.

Lastly, that SMS notification service by the bank is more than just an interesting novelty! I think I will subscribe. Also going to keep a closer eye on my wallet! Its good to learn from experience, even better when you can learn from some one else’s!

My Name ... Arabic-style

I have found a use for my new-found Arabic language skills: I discovered yesterday that I can read my name in Arabic! I was very curious about the fact that there is no sound for the letter 'p' in Arabic ... so how were they spelling it???

The obvious difference between Arabic and English is the direction of the script, right-to-left versus left-to-right but this was surprsingly easy to overcome. The capital letter comes at the end of the word and not the beginning, also not too difficult. The biggest challenge though, everyday written Arabic does not generally bother with the vowels (the slashes and squiggles above and below the script) so its a bit hard to tell exactly what Arabic words should sound like unless you already know the word. So purely based on my vehicle registration card (without vowels), this is my name:

b-ee-n-ee-l-A
n-oo-r-ee-N
z-oo-l-n-ee-R

Happy Belated Birthday ...

.. to my favourite nephew :-) When ya got the iTunes figgered, you need to teach me :-)

Sheikh Mo in the flesh

From time to time I go to Starbucks for a coffee with my boss. We work in Emirates Towers which is a prominent landmark in Dubai because of its unique shape and its location on Sheikh Zayed Road. Everyone knows Emirates Towers. I've read that the Crown Prince of Dubai has an office in ET so we are in good company. (I'm also told that there is a modeling agency in the building. On days when there is a model-call, boss and his #1 coffee companion don't invite me along ... cramps their style I guess.)

One day a few weeks ago, boss and I were heading down for a "gahwa oo Haleeb" (that's "caffè latté" in Arabic ... those classes are really paying off!) and as we approached the escalator, a large group of 25 to 30 local men appeared. Seeing locals around in their traditional local attire is nothing out of the ordinary but a group that size is unusual and a rather imposing sight! We followed them onto the escalator and my boss told me to have a look at the man leading the pack, its Sheikh (pronounced "shake") Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Vice-president of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai ... affectionately known as "Sheikh Mo". Sure enough, it was him! Haha! Looks just the same as in the photos. No doubt some of the entourage were there for his personal safety but there was nothing obvious (no men in black suits with guns and ear pieces and shifty eyes); just a bunch of guys heading to The Noodle House for lunch.

I have only seen Sheikh Mo once before ... or more correctly, I saw his white Mercedes SUV driving down Al Khail Road one Friday morning. How do I know it was Sheikh Mo's? It was Dubai license plate "1". I suspect he does not pay speeding tickets like the rest of us and I think he was in a hurry to get somewhere that day :-)

Arabic Language Classes

as-salamulakum, marhaba, ahlan ... peace be upon you, welcome, hello!

Yes, the blog is feeling a little neglected of late :-( There's been a lot happening these days ... my friend visited for most of the month of May which was awesome! My Grandma passed away so I went home in early June. The rest of the month was littered with deadlines, errands and other busy-ness ... more on all that later (except the work-related stuff which all I will say is ... argh!!!) The blog, being an extra-curricular thing, sometimes takes a back seat. But July is shaping up to be a bit more relaxed (public holiday next Monday woot woot!) so I hope to catch up here. And to make matters worse, my lap-top died ... or just went blind ... not sure what's wrong but luckily I did not lose any data, just the screen. In the mean time, I am struggling to get by on my Mac (which has issues of its own).

One of the things that has become an all-consuming hobby is Arabic classes. I started in May with Beginner I at the Arabic Language Centre. It is a rather intense program and, as I said, my friend was visiting so I had better things to do than conjugate verbs and memorize vocabulary! The teacher was ... how shall I say? ... less than patient and I went home after every lesson feeling like the class retard (I now understand how some learning-challenged kids must feel!) Since I hate that feeling (and I got PO'd), my competitive streak kicked in and I studied my buns off to spite her. Perhaps that is just her teaching style, she succeeded in getting me off my ass, but I was happy to start Beginners II with a different teacher (who is great!)

One of the differences between Beginner I and Beginner II is the use of transliterations. In Beginner I, we learned the Arabic alphabet which (surprisingly!) is not as difficult as one might think but it was always accompanied by the "latin-ized" pronunciation. Starting with Beginner II, this is not the case! It was a matter of survival and a steep learning curve to wean myself off my "Englishized" cheat notes.

So how am I doing with the Arabic language? This is one of the most difficult languages for anglophones to learn, especially one who has been monolingual for the last 40 years! And one can function quite comfortably in Dubai without knowing a shred of Arabic so there's not much in the way of "immersion". I can sound out words when I see them written in Arabic but with a limited vocabulary, I don't actually know what I'm saying. I can count and tell time and know days of the week. I can understand simple conversations (if spoken VERY slowly ... shway shawy!) No one understands when I speak, I have to repeat myself in English. Baby steps :-)

Since I am temporarily a Mac user in a PC world, I can't seem to post videos here but here's a link to a cute little clip on You Tube of kids singing the Arabic Alphabet ... sing along if you know the words!!! hehe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK9kq0UMDdY