Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Definitions

Contract (n)
A contract is any legally-enforceable promise or set of promises made between parties, as such, reflects the policies represented by freedom of contract. In the civil law, contracts are considered to be part of the general law of obligations. This article describes the law relating to contracts in common law jurisdictions.

On the other hand a:

Dubai Contract
Is a worthless piece of paper designed to protect local landlords while allowing them to tear it up at any time it inconveniences them.


Contracts are what makes commerce happen and until this town wakes up to the fact that contracts are TWO WAY agreements it will remain an outpost living on the oil wealth of its neighbours, full of chancers and surviving on a south sea bubble

The Weasel is considering his options at the moment and to be honest, despite massive skepticism, one option could have been to buy a place here. However this latest display of Dubai commerce has finally convinced me that no-one can trust the commercial-legal system here. Now being evicted is not the end of the world but do we really think all these people who have bought houses here are any better protected than I was?

Where are the freeholds?
Where are the gardens and missing square footage of houses that vanished between plan and reality?
What if they just change their minds tomorrow and rip up the worthless contracts, it's one thing to be evicted but totally another to lose deposits in the 100s of thousands of dhs because they decide that, after all, actually what you had was a Dubai contract..........

Monday, August 29, 2005

Landlords

While Dubai appears to be pretty civilised on the surface long term residents here are well aware that the subject of housing or more particularity landlords is rapidly taking over conversation.
Cases of massive rent increases are now commonplace with a round 50% being the preferred figure, and it appears that landlords are also blithely breaking contracts to try and prise greater rent from expats.
This is not rumor, today the Weasel was handed a faxed eviction notice. Now we are half way through our second protected year, our fully paid up (one year in advance) rental agreement notwithstanding, it stated that the money grubbing landlord wanted me out and that 2 months notice would be fine. Now the contract does not expire until February 06 but this appears to offer little deterrent to this type of behavior.
Clearly they believe that we cannot fight this and to be honest they may be right, going against a powerful local landlord here is the definition of pissing in the wind, but if Dubai really cares about future growth they need to control this type of behavior.
It is pure unfettered greed and it is evident in almost every landlord in this town, in the short term this will fill a few grubby hands but the long term will see the cities net worth concentrated into a few hands instead of spread around shops and entertainment areas contributing to employment and commerce.
At work we have already lost 3 potential recruits who had initially accepted jobs, the reason in all cases is the cost of living here, and housing of course, is the biggest part of this, I cannot believe this experience is unique to our firm..
It is short term thinking of the tallest order, especially with thousands of houses under construction on the outskirts of town. 3 years ago rents were in a slump here and I cannot wait for the day the new stocks are released onto the market, perhaps the grubbers will then realise that their best long term returns come from looking after good tenants not turfing them out so they can put the rent up 50+ % without facing the rent committee.
This will run and run, still it should be an interesting subject .
A growling weasel.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Predictable

Entirely predictable but slightly annoying none the less was the complete inability of the "fabulous air conditioning system" to cool the tent at yesterdays Hop Fest at the Irish Village.
It was considerably cooler outside than in the tent by 5pm though it did fail to dampen the well lubricated spirit. Hopefully a repeat would see more attention to the Dubai weather which believe it or not can be a bit warm at this time of year.
Still, nice try to liven up the summer, any effort at this time of year is welcome.
Cheers
DW

Thursday, August 25, 2005

LBP (E)+(MW) strains

No not mathematics but a medical syndrome very prevalent in Dubai, lower body paralysis caused by escalators and moving walkways.
Now the weasel doesn't shop a great deal but when he does he likes to scamper along as befits one of his short, but speedy, species. All fine and well until we come to a moving walkway, whether it goes up or along or even both matters not a jot, no-one in Dubai is capable of taking one step from the moment they step on the thing till it chucks them off at the end. More than that they are also determined that no-one else should get past cos gawd only knows what would happen to society if people could walk on moving paths.
The syndrome can be observed in its purest form at the airport where hundreds of people stand on the walkways vacantly staring at the inane advertising until they stumble off the end where they stand in groups trying to work out why the scenery isn't moving any more. Trying to get past with your grossly oversize hand bagggage becomes such a chore that the will to resist (and live) is drained away and you end up becoming yet another LBP victim.
Coming from London where people regularly sprint up 45 degree tube escalators I find the LBP both fascinating and bloody annoying, if Dubai was a slim trim nation you could almost forgive, but as we all know, that is far from the case.
Off to sample the delights of the Hop Fest at The Irish Village, lets see how many people we can jam into a tent at the height of summer before the aircon packs in.
Should be fun.
DW

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Oh Dear - Neverworld anyone?

To add to the woes of the Palm developers there are reliable reports of Michael Jackson being seen emerging from the Palm sales office, Jacko is of course well known for his carefully chosen investments that have left one of the highest paid performers in the world..... several hundreds of million in Debt. I would love to see that mortgage application.
I really can't see the fascination that this part of the world has with Jacko, while Dubai is well known as a third rate star's retirement venue, surely even Nakeel doesn't think any good PR will come from this.

Back Again

Back after a very quiet holiday in France, read - deserted farmhouse next to a Buddhist monastery with one Weasel climbing the walls after a couple of days.
However it seems during my time away that things have started to hot up on the property front, the Telegraph in the UK, up until now more than happy to trumpet the fantastic deals to be had in Dubai, printed an interesting article daring to question the viability of the Palm project, read the full text here.
It does only really articulate what anyone who lives here has known for ages but may finally start to expose the development as the glorified Barrat estate that the fronds are starting to resemble. Flying over on the way out one can only chuckle at the density of housing there and wonder at how little it resembles the model that was so widely touted around Dubai and the world with it's wide open spaces between houses.
Going on past form there are many questions that need to be answered, infrastructure, especially parking, does not appear to have been considered on the trunk and that's before the more pressing problem of how to provide needs like electricity and water to an expected population density that is still a secret.
DW

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Off for a bit

Off for a few days tomorrow, going through the Uk for the first time since the bombs and attempted bombs there. Not sure what to expect really, various people have said nothing is amiss while others claim the fabric of the whole city is coming apart. We shall see.
back next week

Sunday, August 14, 2005

A little jumpy

The whole city is a little jumpy at the moment, new terror warning messages from the UK and Australian embassies have got people twitching.
Arabian business did an article speculating on how Dubai would recover from an attack, it really is a bit of a worry with the reality being that there is pretty much bugger all we can do, just have to hope the cops have it under control. Don't fancy being a property speculator here if it does kick off, tourism though will probably recover, after all the resilience of tourists is mind boggling and the stupidity that drives people to holiday in Dubai in August will keep our hotels full.
DW

Helios Crash

A strange one this, certainly appears to be a hypoxia incident but it is difficult to understand why the pilots didn't simply reduce altitude to a breathable level. However hypoxia can come on very slowly and the results are similar to getting drunk, by the time you realise you are affected you are too drunk to care, very dangerous and has killed many times before notably the case of Payne Stuart in 1999.
The worry in this case is if the flight ran into problems more than 45 minutes before crashing the voice tapes in the black box will probably have looped so we may not know what happened when it actually started to go wrong.
The later 737s have a great safety record but the type of hard life a lot of these budget airlines put their planes and people through can cause worry, there is a report the pilot was complaining about air-pack (pressure and cabin conditioning units) issues at Larnaca but appears to have taken off with the fault unresolved, as of course he is entitled to do since there will be a second pack, that does limit the altitude to 25k feet though and I wonder if this was exceeded. Good 737 tech site here . Altitude warnings come on at 10,000 feet allowing plenty of time to reduce altitude unless this had been shut off, we will need to wait for the accident investigation board to get the final answer.
The only consolation may be that most people would have been unconscious at the time of the actual crash.
RIP
DW

Friday, August 12, 2005

Faking it

Dubai is full of fake goods, most are well advertised as such, no-one buys a Louis Vuitton bag in Karama expecting to get the real thing, all pretty harmless really.
However there are other fakes that are less innocuous, car spares in particular are very dodgy, with the cops saying that they cause multiple crashes every year. However fakes appear all over the UAE.
This week the Weasel fell foul of the fakers, the item in question? Bog paper........... Having shelled out the extra for Andrex to caress the nether regions, opening the bag revealed something more akin to sandpaper. This really pisses me of, I cannot believe that Spinneys are not aware that these goods are fake, but in typical near monopoly fashion, they simply don't give a shit.

DW

Iranium

Not particularity cheerful about this Iran nuclear issue, got to say it isn't particularity likely that this is a civilian programme. With Pakistan and China around them and Russia to the north, not to mention several battle groups flying the Stars and Stripes at sea, you can understand them wanting to join the club.
All fine and well but when your country is run by a theocratic regime this could be a pretty dangerous mix, this isn't an anti Islam thing BTW, if Ian Paisley had had nukes Dublin would have been reduced to a smoking ruin long ago. Ms Weasel also makes the very good point that, worryingly, the White house these days resembles a born again convention, with all the lack of reason that brings.
To be honest though I don''t think Iran are going to attack anyone, despite the fact there are still low level hostilities between them and the UAE over a couple of islands in the North (that sit on a huge oil and gas field.)
Nope the problem will probably be the reaction to the threat, Israel is highly likely to attack and if the reactor is already working that will leave the whole region covered in fallout. Still it will save a fortune in electricity as we all glow in the dark.
DW

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Dusting out

I wouldn't be British if I didn't talk about the weather occasionally. When most people think of summer it is all blue skies and sunshine, not here. The summers can in fact produce weeks on end when the skies are a mucky white colour or even like today, totally obscured. This isn't clouds but a huge layer of very fine dust. Temps are not really affected since the heat gets through this layer just fine, the end result is a choking hot soup of dust and of course car pollution.
Loverly.
DW

Behold the behemoth

Drove past the site of Burj Dubai last night and it appears to be rising to a level that can be seen over the fence, even from the Weasel's middle-age crisis sports car.
For those that don't know, this is destined to be the tallest building in the world, until the next one is built just down the road or in China.
Now I have to say that I was very skeptical about this project in the beginning and pretty much wrote it off as another bout of collective willy waving, in a "mines bigger than yours" kinda fashion. But recently I have started to get a bit excited about it, and to be honest am really glad to be here as such a historic building is built. It promises to be an amazing sight as it rises out of the sand.
DW

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

PPP

Commonly known as point to point protocol but in this case refers to post pub posting, it's a real dilemma. I appreciate that much mirth can (and probably will) be gained from this BUT can I really be arsed to have to face the mad scramble, at 7 am, to delete last nights posts, not sure, authenticity versus ridicule...
One service I love, that could offer a solution here is that offered by Virgin Mobile in Australia. Basically the service bans certain numbers (supplied by the subscriber) between the hours of 10pm and 6 am. This prevents the all too familiar shock of finding, in your dialed numbers, your ex from 10 years ago and the horrors that that can lead to.
So a ban on posting between 10 and 6 might work, well until we go to Waxys for the Friday brunch, then all rules are off.
DW

just a quickie today

Many thanks to Secret Dubai for the link and I will post the reciprocal asap. This will of course force me to continue this even when supposed to be in the pub, like now...
Talking of pubs, Dubai is full of summer bachelors at the moment, since the women and sprogs are lazing in the rain of Europe or Australia etc. It really does change the nature of the town as these poor lonesome chaps invade the bars closely followed by girls of dubious virtue. Loads of forty somethings who normally would be happily at home with the wife and 2.4 are instead out till three checking out the latest fashions in Azerbaijan.
It appears I may also owe Etisalat an apology, the Gulf news was today reporting that a ship has been dispatched to repair the cable that, after all, may exist.
I will reserve my hat and chips until service is restored but wish them good luck with what sounds like a tricky job, especially since I am really really bored with the service now.

This forty something is now off out to the pub, ah summer.

DW

Monday, August 08, 2005

Oil price hits an new high

good for:
the region (in pure economic terms) I think (?)
Govt employees
Landlords
Infrastructure builders
Importers and resellers (much of the Dubai economy)
Car sellers, separate entry which would be clear if you could see the Dubai & Abu Dhabi roads.
Real estate sector and those who work for them (advertising marketing etc)
Shipping (repairs docks and shippers)
Oil and gas industry suppliers and explorers

Bad for:
Airlines
Anyone who has to fly due to sky high fares.
Renters and house buyers driven out of the market by a tidal wave of regional oil cash speculating in new real estate.
Inflation - now sprinting for the horizon.

mmm that's me buggered then............
DW

Worker deaths

By workers here we mean mainly the huge army of Indian sub-continent labourers and skilled workers who are building the metropolis that Dubai aims to be.
Seven Days today carries a report listing the huge number of deaths that are reported, not all from accidents but also as a result of living conditions as well as previous illness and natural causes.
It has become a bit of a cause célèbre here and to an extent I agree that some measures, especially site safety could be much better, medical cover would also help stop contagious disease spreading in the labour camps. Good contractors today provide these services but there are many bad ones especially on medium and small sites or working for subcontractors.
It is not a job that I could ever do and I doubt many European builders would.
But while site safety is poor in many cases and appalling in others it is actually good compared to the rest of the Middle East as well as other fast growing countries, I have seen some amazing sites in Malaysia and Thailand as well as India and the rest of the ISC. The building of this city has been with cheap labour and providing they are paid and have basic services and safety I kind of agree that this is a market force issue. What is does bring to question is, if this supply of cheap labour is necessary to build the city, why are buildings so expensive, over to you Nakeel et al.
DW

Etisacrap outweaseled

The French train ticket saga hopefully today draws to a positive conclusion, went to a friend's place in Media city and using their fast, proxy free, service was able to instantly book the ticket, this does however raise a question..
Surely Media city don't have their own subsea cables? I don't know a huge amount about this but it would stand to reason that they all share infrastructure, if this is the case etisacrap are probably lying again and the problem may have something to do with their censorship proxy (not used in media city).
Speculation is rife that this may be more to do with getting rid of peer to peer, purveyors of porn dodgy software and more importantly Skype the Etisalat busting VOIP application that has had their profits (made from extorting expats who phone home) tumbling.
We await developments.
Sunday Times day today, this is a great service to get a full Sunday Times on sale in the UAE on Monday lunchtime, quite a feat especially since all have to be read and any "rude" images blacked out with a censor pen, makes for an interesting read and doubtless a happy camper working in some hanger who gets to scribble on women's bottoms all day.
DW

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Rant 1

I know I said I would not rant too much but Etisalat (local ISP, telco and mobile monopoly) are now totally pi**ing me off.
Three days after an excuse that few totally believe we still cannot access secure sites fast enough to avoid time outs, I have some secure access many seem to have no access at all.
The help line is a recorded message saying it's all someone else's fault and still the service is utter rubbish 3 days on with no end in sight.
The original release was that a nasty foreign fisherman had cut the cable but to be honest if they had a resilient network and agreements to add bandwidth, losing one cable would not matter.
As it is why bother with resilience, why bother apologies, why explain, why (dare i say it) refund our extortionate fees? After all we have nowhere to go, ah the joys of the monopoly and its as yet unborn little brother Son of Etisacrap (the story remains the same).
Practically it means that trying to book a ticket on a French train has become impossible, now this may be a pretty rare task, but for me right now it's bloody vital, the very slow speed of the secure service (even from our 2 Mb connection at work) means the site time outs before accepting credit card details.
"No problem" you say, "our friendly travel agent system will do the booking for you." Well there is one agent, Al Rostamani and they would be happy to help, except they do the booking on the internet and there is this problem with Etisalat........
Sometimes it feels as if this place totters on the edge of joining the first world but then fails by restricting competition which exposes much of the gloss as being, frankly, a set of emperor's clothes.
They really do need to get this fixed or many UAE businesses will be counting the cost, Dubai inc loses more credibility, oh and
I will be stranded in France in 10 days time.
DW


Here we go 2 3 4

No idea whether this will be a regular thing or more likely utterly dependent on boredom and frequency of pub visits.
Been in Dubai for 6 years now and while that is small potatoes for some (especially the old crew who last bought clothes or had a hair-cut in 1979) it does mean I am in the the bizarre position of not really belonging anywhere.
I travel to the UK regularly but not enough to really keep in touch with changes -even simple things like digital TV are new- and of course for those not born here Dubai never really becomes home.
Since moving from East Berlin by the Sea (the delightful Golden Sands Area) we have at last been able to get Sky TV but this doesn't really help since it delivers a very one sided constantly looping view, reading papers helps too but truthfully I guess I may have to accept that the world has moved on. Which leads me to Dubai.
Plenty of others have described it well but to be honest it is best described as we go along.
I will try to temper rants with praise in at least as close a balance as possible.
DW