Sunday, October 30, 2005

Hippy chic

So we live in the hippest town on earth, yeah right.......Fox news, of all places seems to be the originator of this bizarre article with the Gulf news picking it up today.

So what is a hip town? Depends on who you are I guess, but I'm afraid the fact that wacko Jacko even visited this place relegates it to the seriously sad, not hip. And because some footballers were given a good investment opportunity on the Palm projects hardly makes it a stylish fashionable hip place, probably the opposite.

In fact who even calls a place hip now? Austin Powers?

Anyway back to the nonsense.

Jacko and Rod Stewart have bought on the world, really? So how come when you walk past the place there is barely a single worker or ship working on the place, it looks like a ghost town out there, hardly fashionable even if we thought two over the hill singers were the epitome of hip.

Donald trump? WTF beats me, that one.

"Attracting major celebrities is an obvious boon to any destination seeking tourism dollars and cachet, but the sheikh's idea of turning an oppressively hot town caught between the desert sands and the Arabian Sea into a cosmopolitan city to attract the likes of the Beckhams was an idea that was far from obvious. It was an idea born of desperation."

Must be bloody desperate to believe that giving a house to a couple with a combined IQ of 14 is a basis for future growth.

Hip towns don't have to "attract" celebs, that is why they are hip, the celebs and the rest of us are dying to go there, we pay to go there not the other way round.

I could go on ripping this piece apart but hey.

Now the Weasel loves luxury, and given unlimited cash would live in fashionable clubs and spend the season in Courchevel, British Virgin islands, the Hamptons, Aspen, Mallorca etc but Dubai?
Na this place really needs to market itself as it really is....Vegas.

In another bizarre twist we have had this article circulated at work by the boss presumably in an attempt to convince us that despite our rapidly devaluing wage packets we really should be grateful as we live in the hippest city on earth. Well hip don't buy accommodation or pay for the massive inflation that this town is in the grip of.

Latest casualty is ciggies. Now since the Weasel only smokes in bars and cars (occasionally) this is not a huge issue but what is interesting is that the rise is 33%. Yet another stat that contributes to our miniscule official inflation rate and massive real one.

Friday, October 28, 2005

My kind of job

Glorious little piece in 7 days about a Japanese "artist" paid to get pissed and fall off a beam.

The original report appeared in Ananova and ignoring the blatant inflation of the amount of money paid, it still seems a stunning waste of cash. Now the Weasel likes a bit of art as much as anyone and also the odd beer or three so really this should be right up my alley so to speak.
However I truly can't see how it equals art, maybe I'm a Philistine or maybe the Japanese artist is still laughing at how she got the good citizens of Cardiff to stump up 5 grand for a pissup.

And credit where credit is due, this wasn't a lightweight job, we are talking about 48 bottles here. Now this is serious drinking, especially when you consider her likely size and the fact she is a woman (racist sexist and sizist- but probably true). The Weasel, even when egged on by faithful drinking buddy can rarely manage to polish a crate away and this girl went for two, no wonder she fell off the beam.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness"

With thanks to Keats there, but as many frustrated air travelers will be only too well aware, fog and Dubai International Airport are not happy bedfellows.

Every year for the last few years there have been major disruptions at DIA in the Autumn and to a lesser extent in the spring.
Now a simplistic rant would simply blame DCA or the airlines and leave it at that, the problem you see is that the instrument landing system, the bits of kit on the ground that help pilots to know where they are as they come into land, is not certified to cat 111, the level required for planes to land in fog.

"That's careless" you say and indeed any international airport worthy of the name is certified to level 111 in order to prevent the very problems that Dubai has every year.

However the rumored facts are not as simple as that, DIA used to have cat 111 certification, but ever since the run up to "Son of Gulf War" in 2003 the system has been playing up, resulting in the downgrading of Dubai - preventing foggy landings and forcing you and I to divert to a God forsaken strip of tarmac somewhere in the desert.

Speculation has it that the US have put into place, possibly in Qatar, communication systems that somehow are interfering with the operations at Dubai, despite consultations and protests it appears that little has changed.

So as we head into the season and if you end up spending the morning at sunny RAK airport, you know who to blame, and for once it probably actually is the Great Satan himself.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Ghazi bites the bullet.

The Weasel is strangely attracted to countries with a long history of bombings, is it perhaps a flirt with danger or simply a coincidence, who knows?

Either way Lebanon is favorite destination, the combination of scenery, history, beach, skiing and partying (obviously inverse order) is pretty irresistible. Couple that with some of the best looking people on earth and frankly it beats the pants off the rest of the Middle East.

Well it would if they could just stop blowing each other up..

So it is with interest that we see today that Ghazi Kanaan met with an unfortunate accident. As to who pulled the trigger well that's another thing altogether.

Now I'm no Syrian political expert but it always felt to a casual observer that the Hariri bombing might be representative of a movement to oust Syrian supreamo Assad. But it would appear that young Bashar may have inherited some of his father's ruthlessness and Kanaan who so long lived by the bullet ended up dying by it.

There may even be a moral there.

So the weasel will be returning to the snow and maybe to a slightly more stable Lebanon this year.
One of the best ski secrets in the World, here's a little taste

Faraya Mzaar last year. Posted by Picasa

Monday, October 10, 2005

Playing chicken with bird flu

News today that the region is woefully ill prepared for a possible outbreak of a more infectious bird flu.
The potential of any outbreak has given the Weasel a few sleepless nights recently, while I doubt that we are in imminent danger of a 1918 style outbreak even a small amount of human to human transmission could practically seize up air travel as countries try to stop the spread, not good news for Dubai.
Risk is high in this part of the world where many people still keep chickens and ornamental birds that possibly could be exposed to the disease being spread by migrating, or in Adu Dhabi, by smuggled birds.
That some greedy bird traders are quite happy to expose the country to risk should not be a surprise I suppose, the souk mentality rarely stretches as far as civic responsibility.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Now hiring

So according to 7 days, Al Qaeda are hiring internet professionals, well if it's anything like the Weasel's experience they will need all of Osama's luck.
Well for starters, in common with the Weasel's employer, they aren't gonna pay shit, see they want you to do it for the kudos or the greater good, well we all heard that before and it doesn't wash, show us the cash or we walk bad boys.
Plus there is the little disadvantage that if uncle Sam gets hold of prospective employees they are going to have the opportunity to spend a little quality time on the beach in Cuba, orange is so this year.
So who is going to apply? Well every intelligence organisation from mossad to the KGB via the CIA and M15, now I wonder how I can get hold of few of those CVs.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Burglaries

Burglaries have always been Dubai's dirty secret, all long term residents know that this is much more common than reported. Although the only thing I have lost was a car radio from my garage most of my friends who live in villas have experienced some type of incident with 3 having had the full Monty including one girl who woke to find a guy in her bedroom, another lost his car after the keys were taken while he slept.
Much of this may be drug fuelled and that may be why it is covered up since many nationals have been involved as well as the obvious scapegoats of illegal immigrants.
Now the Weasel has to follow news in the Springs since it is fast becoming one of the few options left he can afford, so it was with interest that he read in 7days of a burglary spree in the springs and Hills.
Interesting though that 7 days printed what all the rumors have been saying, that the guards employed to protect the communities may in fact be responsible. Wonder how much they get paid? Where do they live? What are their working conditions? Answer these questions and you may be getting closer to the reasons behind this spree and where to look for the culprits.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Ramadan traffic is coming

I know we are not supposed to say this but frankly Ramadan is my least favorite time of year, many reasons (including 7pm opening ;¬) but mostly its the driving.
Dangerous is one way of putting it, carnage another, and it isn't just at iftar but frankly any time after midday.
So today Dubai police have publicised their, doubtless worthy, program to lower the death and injury toll. Unfortunately this will be as successful as last year and the year before that..with the horror that of course we are now still in summer, tempreture wise, making the effects of dehydration on drivers worse.
My first year here I saw a guy in a Mercedes pass out and drive into a concrete lamp post near Um al Quain, he only survived because Stuttgart used to make very strong cars.
Of course the only effective way they could combat the horrific driving (putting police in patrol cars and actually stopping the dangerous idiots ) is not an option that appears to be open to them.
So I will do what we all do and try to stay off the roads as much as possible, won't stop the accidents but hopefully I can avoid being in one.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Sobering report today

Secret Dubai and some of the others have picked up on a report published today in the Gulf News (though it does not appear to be on the site now) from AP detailing a report commissioned by the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research stating that there is a valid and real Al Qaida threat to the Gulf States and UAE in particular.
In light of today's events on Bali I do again wonder how long it will be before someone takes it into their head to punish us (for being infidels) and Dubai (for allowing us to live Western lives here).
I do feel it is a when not an if to be honest, what to do about it though is a real quandary, I will not live in fear and certainly won't stop going out to pubs and clubs where I have always expected an attack to occur, nor do I want to leave.
The economy would take a nasty dive I have to say, real estate that has helped fuel this crazy boom would probably plummet as the tourists flee, and flee they will, people returned to Bali (eventually) because that island is unique, Dubai at the moment is a good value building site beside some crowded beach and pretty big malls. As the Sinai peninsular hotels in Egypt have discovered, beach hotels are 10 a penny around the world and it is easy to simply avoid the Middle East.
In the longer term they will return but never with the same enthusiasm and always jumpy at every report, I really hope we never have to face this, too much rides on the economy here for all of us.

Not again! Bali

Bali is one of my favorite places on earth, but it also was the place where one of my good friends was grievously injured and his best friend killed.
It now appears the terrorists are back wreaking their havoc, may they rot in hell, the people of Bali and their western guests do not deserve this nor does it advance their cause (which judging by the trials last year even they don't understand) or religion one iota.
DW