WOMAD in Abu Dhabi

We attended the three day WOMAD (Peter Gabriel's World of Music, Arts and Dance) concert on the second day.  It was good but sadly security was being selective in allowing people in.  Beside us just as we entered were a couple of guys from Indai, Pakistan or Bangladesh.  An events guy held up his hand to them while we proceeded.  It had nothing to do with them being bachelors as we saw a few single male Europeans inside.  So the laborers were forced to watch from the fence outside.

The first group was The Dhol Foundation.  Details are here.   The second group we saw was Abdullah Chhadeh & Syriana. Details are here.  The last group that we saw was The Kamkars.  They had ten performers.  We saw all five performances on the third and last day and seeing Robert Plant was great!  Heck of a deal considering that it they were all free.  There were more non Westerners in attendance yesterday which was nice to see. 

I had today off and worked out and then I met Darcy for lunch.  I then walked home (only took 30 minutes but it was bloody hot out.  However, it's nice to work four day work weeks.  Below are some interesting stories....

WOMAD festival opens with a bang

UAE laws translated into English

Sharjah's tour guides put on right path

Emirate to close its bars and nightclubs

Mubadala issues first annual report

Personal odyssey into wilderness

Dubai's dark side - other stories about the UAE produced by ABC news are available

Our 200th blog post

Welcome to our 200th blog entry!  I don't know if many people have been following our blog since we started it almost five years ago but we've had some exciting times.  Darcy posted our first story way back on June 4, 2004 by announcing our engagement.   I wonder what the next 200 blog posts will be like.  Hopefully this global repression won't be around but the deepening crisis is worrisome.  It's affecting the UAE but we are fortunate to still have our jobs.  Below is the usual assortment of newspaper articles that highlight some of the things that have happened here recently.

Kurri on lookout for fresh talent  One of my all time favorite Oilers players!

The treasure trove of the QE2 I've seen the Queen Mary and it would be neat to see the QE2 if the refurbishment is done correctly.

 Frustrated in Abu Dhabi, renters flock into Dubai - the situation was reversed only three years ago!

Sandstorm engulfs Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - the storm had weakened considerably when it hi Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

How the super-wealthy stay afloat in stormy weather

Red tide threatens sport-diving clubs

Police chief says YouTube spreads hatred, but regulator will not block it

Robots no hindrance to camel racing’s appeal

Death toll confirms the risk of walking

1,000 new hotel rooms for Abu Dhabi

'Second downtown' closer to reality

Capital begins to take shape

Marching forth to a long weekend

It's only been a little over two months since our last long winter break but it has seemed longer than that. The birthday of Islam's Prophet Mohammed is on Monday but Sunday has been declared a holiday for most people to make it a long weekend. We're going to go back to the public beach on the Corniche. It's been about four months since we were last there! I guess the weather was too cool. I'm also taking this Monday off as I've stockpiled a lot of time or leave as they call it here.

The excitement over the iPhone finally being sold in the UAE with a warranty (but still unlocked) quickly abated. Etisalat's outrageous pricing schemes and bungled customer service will likely result in few being sold. Many people will probably continue to buy unlocked phone and simply use pre-paid cards. Poor Darcy's hopes were dashed as she really wanted an iPhone. Maybe she'll like thethird generation iPod Touch. You can currently download apps to make calls in WiFi zones on the device.

One of the podcasts that I listen to on my iPod Touch is about business. The story about What a difference a year makes is from this podcast. Anyway a new term that I heard is called Repression. It's supposed to mean an economic downturn that's worse than a recession but not as bad as The Great Depression. I think that it's a pretty accurate description of what's happened world wide in the last six months. Maybe the media and politicians should start using this word rather than the innocuous phrase economic downturn. Perhaps my reading of the book The Long Emergency has impacted my take on current world events too.

The last bit of news is that we've booked our flights to Canada for our four week summer vacation. The overseas airfare prices have dropped from last year by a few thousand dirhams. Unfortunately flying domestic in Canada remains unchanged from last year. We've booked three nights to stay at our favorite place in Jasper along with three nights on the Pacific Ocean side of Vancouver Island.

Capital’s parks draw the crowd

Dust off the United Arab Emirates

Etisalat puts conditions on iPhone sales

US clears AMD and Mubadala capital deal

New car speeds to lofty launch

Prophet’s birthday a time for reflection

Relics prove snakes had ancient charms

The difference a year makes This story comes from an NPR affiliate but it's still interesting about the change in Dubai

Emaar may cancel projects the repression deepens here....

Capital’s roadside recycling bins will light up the city

Why Arabic must be brought to book

Shakespeare studied in Arabic

Translating Mozart’s musical moods

It’s colourful, tasty, tempting – and mostly unhealthy - the UAE, like North America, has a mall culture that's packed with fast food joints.

Houbara conservation plan takes flight

Developers back affordable housing - this is long overdue!

Agency blames two sectors for majority of air pollution

City motorists drive towards access fee

Dubai on the rise

Shammal winds have blown away February

Wow!  Where did February go?  I haven't blogged in a while but the monotony of work and seemingly short weekends have continued to speed up the passage of time.  I've spent this weekend recuperating from a bad cold.  I seem to get them two or three times a year due to the awful climate here.  Dust storms, humidity and breathing in cold and moldy smelling air at work play can play havoc on your alergies, sinues and lungs.

Work continues to be busy for the both because our libraries are terribly short staffed.  Budget cuts and recruitment issues are the culprits.  The global recession (it seems to be becoming more like a depression) has affected the UAE's (especially Dubai) construction and real estate sectors.  The media's initial stories of it being a healthy market correction are long gone.   Abu Dhabi seems to be bailing our their neighbors since we have cash in hand.  Dubai has been paying for most of their projects with loans.   

Darcy and I have made some travel plans.  We'll be staying at the Abu Dhabi Resort, Sir Bani Yas Island for three nights to celebrate Darcy's birthday.  They have a year long special (stay 3 nights and pay for 2).  Information about the nature reserve island, with a short video is at http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/11/04/10256726.html. 

We also bought  our airline tickets for our summer vacation. We'll be in Canada from July 2 to August 5.  Prices for flying overseas have dropped from last year but domestic flying in Canada is the same inflated fare as last year.

Sandstorms sweep across region - February was a windy month!

Commuting in style on luxury bus - we want to try this but we've yet to find a schedule online

Luxury bus service a hit with commuters on opening day

Island is haven for rare birds

Survey puts unemployment at 4%

Hotels in Abu Dhabi cutting room rates

Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down

F1 park stalls for lack of financing - the headlines last fall said that this short downturn was a healthy market correction!

Taxi fares leap 30% in Abu Dhabi

Oil tanker burns after ship collision - this happened near Dubai

Call for greater online cultural dialogue

George Mason confirms closing - this was a surprise in light of more universities opening up campuses here.

no end to UAE ID card registration mess

The weather continues to cool off and dry out so night walking is more enjoyable now.  We have a hunch that either our apartment or the entire building's electrical outlets are defective.  We've had to buy a second portable vacuum cleaner, a third coffee grinder, and a second floor lamp because of electrical problems.  The motors and lamp simply shorted out and now our upright vacuum's motor was found to be defective.  Hopefully ADNOC's housing people can diagnose the problem.  Luckily our computers and stereo systems haven't been affected.  They've been plugged in using power bars although we've had those short out too. 

As usual the national ID card registration fiasco has continued with the media reporting more critical stories of the bureaucratic mess.  We're 99.99% sure that the first time that the new registration deadline for skilled expat workers was reported to the public in Arabic and English was in mid October.  The government says that it was July.  If the authorities follow through with their plans to suspend government services to over 300,000 people that logistically can't register before Dec. 31 then the UAE will be (to put it mildly) in big trouble.  See the first article below. 

So it's now been three weeks since we submitted our forms for phase one of the registration process.  We were assured that this no hassle process was to take less than one week - hence the 40 AED fee.  The good news is that the holidays are fast approaching so some of our time off from work, can be spent looking for a Plan B and Plan C. 

Otherwise life is okay - routine but never boring.  Work is hectic as usual due to juggling multiple projects because of continued staff shortages.  I will attend a two day conference in Sharjah next weekend.  We both hope to catch up more on reading our backlog of books and watching dvds during the long December break.  It's been fun downloading free iPod Touch apps including one for IMing.  We also downloaded Google's new VOIP chat and it surprisingly works for Macs (unlike Yahoo Messenger). 

At current rate, 350,000 will miss deadline

Telling it like it is.....or not

Over 75,000 ID forms distributed by UAE post offices in four weeks

Abu Dhabi to counter downturn with Western tourist

UAE takes stock of major projects

Ballooning US debt threat to Gulf economies

Price fall in prestigious developments

Surf the internet for free while you smell the roses in Abu Dhabi 


Parking free for all to be eliminated

Canadian supplier to import high end halal bison and elk

Dubai car park baffles drivers

the never ending national ID card registration saga....

Another month flew by and we're now into November.  The month got off to a good start with the election of Barack Obama.  I'm cautiously optimistic that he can make headway with issues in the Middle East.  Unfortunately the UAE's major snafu with national ID cards has worsened.  We naively thought that using the Post Office would save us time.  It did not.  Two weeks later and the bureaucrats don't know where are forms are. Hurry up and wait we've been told.  The media has become very critical of the registration process as it affects about half a million skilled expats here.  The Dec. 31 deadline looms....I've posted some stories about it below.  So we decided to cancel plans to travel to Morocco as it's too risky to be gone for half the month of December. 

My work has rearranged its bus routes so despite the pick up time being the same (6:45 am) my stop is now the first.  The good thing is I can get my own seat.  The bad news is that the ride to work takes almost one hour.  We cover about half of the city now with picking up people.  But I sleep most of the way to work.   I prefer working later in the day so I'm able to take the 8:15 am bus three times a week.  It doesn't take as long to get to work which is good.  So between working later and working out twice a week I get home every day at 6:15 pm.

We're going back to our usual spot on the Corniche public beach on Saturday as it's been three weeks since we were last there.  We'd both like to take Christmas Day off and spend the day there.  We can bring our new portable iPod speaker and play Christmas music on the beach!  The weather has cooled off and I've walked a few times outside at night.  Unfortunately it's still too humid to open the windows.


One voice to cut through confusion

Bank access could depend on ID card
 
Identity card chaos makes deadline an impossibility
 
ID card registration strain
 
UAE tops league of wasteful countries
 
Measuring the family footprint
 
Mega-mall opens with high hopes
 
Taxi call centre opens in Abu Dhabi

Ban on old cars to improve air quality significantly

Increasing number converting to Islam

Date changed for Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

The frustration of being a bidoon

almost the end of a long 4 day work week

I don't know why this shortened 4 day work week has seemed so long.  Perhaps it's because of our relaxing trip to the Bab Al Shams Hotel last weekend.  It felt like being in an old Arabian fort.  Darcy posted lots of photos on Facebook.  There were hardly any *hardships* desptite it being Ramadan.  We could still drink (non alcoholic) poolside.  The Al Hadheerah restaurant was very nice but the humidity worsened as the night progressed.  Maybe we'll go back next year when the new section of the hotel opens.

Work is crazy as usual - we desperately need a Systems Librarian.  All my other projects seem to be on hold as technical problems occur.  Darcy is also being pulled in many directions so it seems like we just spin our wheels half the time doing a thousand things and not seeming to be making much progress anywhere.  But that must be the case with a lot of people nowadays.  Severly understaffed and overworked. 

But luckily we have next week off for Eid al Fitr to relax.  We've got to back up our Mac laptop onto our two portable hard drives.  We have less than 1GB of space on the Mac.  We've also got a ton of books to read and dvds to watch.  I also have a ton of websites saved in delicious that I want to look at.  Darcy found a great one at http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=1622.  Yes - the stories were terrible but these old comics are fun to read.  I've got many of these issues packed in mylar bags in storage.  The weather is also starting to dry out a bit so maybe we can have a picnic on the Corniche Park too.

Below is the usual collection of stories, with some outrageous ones, from the past week….

Visitor surveys to help tourism plans

Emirates Palace launches a lavish Million Dollar Package - only in the UAE!  See the last article about the nation's newest hotel to open.  Will this bling competition never end?

Sweet sustenance - looks delicious!

Ramadan enters its holiest phase

Welcome to a costly tax-free life

University housing angers new staff

Khalidiya fire prompts airlift rescue

Abu Dhabi fire rescue

Air Wing patrols for rooftop shanties - 60,000 buildings in Abu Dhabi!

Lack of food and nicotine 'leads to accidents' - that's a no brainer.

Are plans for a 1.5 mile tower in Dubai a valid development or a building project too far?

UAE's first satellite 'ready to launch'

Princess Haya calls on people to join green project

Ramadan in Saudi Arabia is a different experience

Motorway to offer quicker path to Dubai - hmmm...140 km/hr speed limit?!

Academic City plans campus facilities - 40 campuses yet only 40,000 students?

Atlantis rises to the occasion - the Leap of Faith water slide has an 85 foot vertical drop with a transparent tunnel that passes through a shark filled aquarium?!  Only in Dubai.....

Meditation pool

Lamp by our door

Arrival

One week to Go!

We'll be Canada in one week from today.  The temperature and humidity have started to climb so we're lucky that it was temperate for this long.  We moved into our apartment two years ago today - sure doesn't seem like it.  I just realized that this is my last full weekend of being in my thirties - yikes! Poor Darcy is struggling at work with doing original cataloging of Arabic material.  I'm trying to finish some projects before my last work day on the 23rd.

Below is the weekend wrap up of stories from our part of the world:

GCC Cruises into New Naval Age


Swirling Standstorms Blind Pride of Fleet

Small Emirate Shares Giant Plans

Abu Dhabi Grows

Pricey Oil Helps Abu Dhabi This is interesting but one sided video news story of our fair city.   A majority of the unskilled laborers are from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and heir living and working conditions are atrocious.

Temperature Shoots Up to 52 Degrees Celcius


Registering for New National UAE ID Cards

Etihad Boosts Emirate's Future with 41 billion dollar deal
that's a big gamble to take!

I am fed up with this congestion!

Dubai vows to eradicate lewd beach behavior

Face scan system launched at Abu Dhabi airport 
Another historic first for the UAE...


Ninety years ago the Arabs gave their opinion and were ignored

The Last Supper
We've not visited this restaurant yet despite it being not too far from us.

40 Arrested in Malls for Cross Dressing


Fast Rate of Construction and Increasing Vehicles Add to Heat in UAE

Date are More Important than Oil

Using Ancient Skills to Craft Modern Designs

North Braces for Labour Surge

Eid al Fitr

The 30 days of Ramadan came to an end yesterday and the Eid al Fitr holiday has begun. Muslims celebrate the ocassion when the angel Gabriel revealed Allah's words to the prophet Mohammed where they were in turn written in the Koran. Early yesterday morning (5 am or so) we heard singing coming from the Mosque's loudspeakers. This signaled the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid. It was quite interesting to listen as we did not hear the joyful singing last year when we were in Sharjah.

Darcy and I have a five day break that began last Thursday. We've spent the first couple of days sleeping in and watching dvds. It's been a busy semester with a lot of uncounted overtime. So we needed time to decompress. We haves many dvds to watch including a ton of Star Treks. I've ordered the 49 disc 20th anniversary of The Next Generation tv series. I've also ordered the complete series of Deep Space Nine. The first season of the origional series has been re-issued (again) but this time it includes a completetly remastered version. But I'll wait until the price comes down a bit.

Darcy and I will venture outside today and do some grocery shopping at Abu Dhabi's newest mall (Al Wahda). We will start planning a trip to Musandam Peninsula. It's the northern tip of the Arabian Peninsula but it's Omani territory. It has many fiords like in northern Scandinavia and the area is drivable from Abu Dhabi.

As usual I'll mention some interesting articles from the Gulf News. There are more new building projects in our city. Construction on the the Louvre Abu Dhabi will officially get underway soon. Then there is the 2.7 billion USD commercial and residential project. Our city's old airport is getting a new facility too. Of course we can't forget Dubai. That emirate just announced a staggering project to build a 75 km canal. They're also helping to plan a 350 km cross country railway.

Finally there was an interesting article about 138 prominent Muslim scholars writing an open letter to heads of all Christian churches. I don't know if this made major headlines in the West.