Registering for the new UAE identity card

The weather has definitely cooled and dried out over the last week.  So I've done a few walks along the Corniche at night.   The big news event this past week was the sudden announcement by the government to change the deadline for skilled expatriate workers to register for the new national smart card from 2010 to Dec. 31 of this year.  UAE nationals had until the end of 2008 to register for the card.  We had known about the new card for over a year.  The two year deadline in conjunction with employers *likely* being responsible for getting the cards for its employees were somewhat reassuring.  But this new development has resulted in a mad panic for hundreds of thousands of people to register.  A few articles below discuss the ordeal plus there is the usual assortment of fun articles.

One identity card, multiple uses

ID card deadline brought forward

Why the rush?

Crowds overwhelm ID card registration centres

Six New Parks Planned in Abu Dhabi - wow!

Outside and online: capital to offer free internet in parks - wow again!

Through child's eyes, director shows UAE's dizzying transformation

Warning on gap in climate research

Water price should go up says scientist

Experts invited to guide capital city's green plan

Cheetahs to roam free on island

Second annual camel festival aims to preserve UAE's rich cultural heritage - a related story says that a pure bred camel featured in a beauty contest was purchased for almost 3 million US dollars!

Comedians explore the Muslim experience

ADIHEX Update

In my last post, I told the story of meeting one of the Saluki contest winners, who was tired and very sweet and came over to lean on me. Karima caught a picture of that moment, and gave me permission to post it here, so here it is:

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Yesterday we bought a Bose portable speaker system for my iPod Touch.  The Bose store also gave us a free carrying bag.  The sound is great and it's so neat now to have all our music on our iPod (backed up of course!) and hear it on such a small system! It was not cheap but it's definitely worth the price.

Today we went with friends to visit the annual ADIHEX show.  There was still the heritage area but it seemed to be overshadowed by the massive gun exhibits.  It wasn't like that last year.  It was weird to be holding a Kalashnikov rifle.  Can you buy those at gun shows in the U.S.?  I don't see the connection that gun has with hunting - unless it's people and not animals! One neat area was the pimped out dune buggies.

Monday is Thanksgiving Day in Canada so we're celebrating it on Sunday at a hotel.  The Abu Dhabi Canadian Business Council is helping organize it.  Below is the usual assortment of stories from our neck of the woods. 


Abu Dhabi to host final GP of 2009

Khoury launches NYU cultural season - I attended this and although I hadn't ready the book I found the lecture quite interesting.  Turnout was about 50...


Thanks but no tanks, Sammy says - this is unbelievable....


Dubai's new dream hotel has a nightmare opening week - serves them right - see above story

Last Arabian leopard may have left the UAE - how sad - makes me think of the BBC produced Planet Earth
series and the fragility of nature and animals. See the story below too

Conservation is an endangered activity 

Cartoon star is face of Dubai - what?!  why not Freej or Ajaaj?

Genetic disorders afflict Arab world - this is still a somewhat taboo topic here.

Masdar to harness electricity from exercise

Dubai's new terminal 3 unveiled - the world's largest airport terminal building - yet another milestone for Dubai!

Palm Deira blueprint unveiled

Cityscape: Nakheel aims for the sky -  buildings over 2 km high?!!!!

Adventurers head for Abu Dhabi

Authority to tackle culture differences

Doctor calls for open play spaces - the last sentence is so true....

Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce urges rent caps due to shortages

Abu Dhabi Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition

Today we went to the Abu Dhabi Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition with our friends Rob and Karima. Not sure if we posted last year, but we went then too. The show combines heritage displays, camel and horse auctions, Saluki beauty contests, falcon sales, weaponry, and hunting and camping supplies. It takes up the entire exhibition hall, and only runs for one weekend.

Visiting the weaponry section can be disconcerting. Especially when, like this year, you have a seven-year-old child in the exhibit with you who wants to touch an try out everything. Guns, guns and more guns...all out on display and available for you to inspect and purchase. Funny, I have no qualms about archery or fencing as sports, but when it comes to shooting--even target shooting--I get very uneasy. There were video-arcade-style target ranges for people to try their luck at this year. Rob and his son Ocean tried it out, and didn't do too badly.

There were many more falcons on sale this year, and we got to watch some Emirati men doing some serious shopping. Don't know exactly how much a falcon would put you back, but they were paying in thousand-dirham bills! We also went back to the horse stables to see the horses that hadn't yet been auctioned off. The handlers were happy to show us around, and encouraged Ocean to try riding some of them (!), but we declined...

Below are some photos from the show, to give you a taste of what it was like:

Lots of serious dune-bashing vehicles on show. Here's my favorite--black with MAJOR flames:

A close up of one of the falcons on display. I would LOVE to learn falconry; I think working with and training them would be fascinating. We saw a booth from the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital, and found out they do educational tours. We're thinking of going some day for a visit:

One of the horses at the auction:

A Saluki, which is a breed of hound/hunting dog highly prized in the UAE. This one was wearing a ribbon saying he'd won best in show in the annual Saluki Beauty Contest that takes place at the exhibition. He was visibly tired after a long day and this was the best photo i could get. I kneeled down to say hello and he came right over to me a leaned on me trustingly...so sweet:

Finally, here's a cute picture of Rob and Karima's son Ocean dressed up as a desert warrior in traditional Emirati clothing. Posted with parental permission, of course! I believe they let him keep the belt and headscarf:

Our First Trip to Abu Dhabi's New Beach

Yesterday the weather was finally clement enough for us to venture out to Abu Dhabi's new public beach on the Corniche.  The opening of this beach has not been without controversy.  First it was free and open to all.  Then it was segregated into "bachelor" and "family" sections to prevent harassment.  Finally an entrance fee was instituted...with men being charged double if they were not in a group that contained women (a "family").  I'm sure some of these things can be attributed to the Michelle Palmer sex-on-the-beach-in-Dubai scandal, but authorities have also been quite open about the fact that a major motivation is to keep the labourers off the beach by making it unaffordable for them.  So now they are relegated to walking the corniche and staring over the wall until a guard comes and shoos them off. The UAE always seems to come up with some way of making even the simplest pleasures complicated.

All these reservations aside, the new beach is very nice and we had an excellent day. We packed a picnic lunch and were there from mid-afternoon to early evening. The weather is still quite hot, and the water is quite warm, but there was enough of a breeze to make you comfortable with the temperatures if you stayed in the shade. The Heritage Village is right across the water, so the calls to prayer from the mosque and the music from the Eid celebrations floated across the water off and on the whole time.

The beach is open until 10 at night, and it's beautiful after sunset. The paths are all lit up with ground lights, and the beach umbrellas and shaded benches (permanent structures on the sand) have built-in lights so you have enough light to have a picnic by. I would love to pack up and come for dinner one night. It's less than 10 minutes to drive there for us...and it's also right across the corniche from my work, so we are well situated for frequent visits!

Here are some cell phone pics of our day:

I did some henna for Eid a couple days prior...so I took a picture of it with the beach as background.

Me on the sand:

A shot of both of us.