Dubai's Power Future

Given that

1. the US is the Saudi Arabia of coal

and

2. Dubai plans on generating 20% of its electrical power from coal

Does this mean that in the future we could hear Arabs complain about funding religious fundamentalists in West Virginia? Hmm...

At Least We Know Exactly How Many Tickets

So there may be conflicting police stories of how many died on the roads over Eid, but the Dubai Police seem to have a better idea of how many tickets were issued during Eid: 26,937 (Gulf News) or 26,057 (7Days), along with 138 confiscated vehicles.

Actually, the Gulf News version makes it sound like 26,937 tickets were issued and another 17,057 speeding tickets issued via cameras (at least that is how I read "traffic patrols and traffic control teams issued 26,937 traffic offences, while radars caught 17,057 speeding offences", but that seems both very high and unlikely (in that the police would manually stop and write out more tickets than the cameras would catch). But their total seems more accurate over all (for the 7Days figure to be right, the police would have had to written exactly 9,000 tickets, so I'm going with 26,937). So this means that on average a little less than four people per minute were ticketed during the five day period.

The only problem with raw numbers like this is that there is nothing to compare it to. It would be nice to know what the average is both for any five day period as well as previous Eids. I did see this story from July 2006 that the police issued 25,000+ speeding tickets during a nine-day safety campaign, so rate during Eid was about three times as high as that.

I Guess It Depends on Who You Ask

We, in theory, live in the Information Age. But how good is the information that we are being given? Take these seriously conflicting statistics about accidents during Eid, all taken from the police, reported in the three main English language papers:

Khaleej Times:

During the Eid Al Adha holidays, more than 500 traffic accidents were reported in the emirate of Dubai, resulting in injuries to several people. However, no casualty was reported.

(I assume from the context that the author meant "no fatalities" and not "no casualty", since injured people are casualties.)

7Days:

In Dubai, officers said there had been 65 accidents, with four people left dead and 46 injured - some seriously - over the three days.

Gulf News:

Two people were killed and several others were injured in traffic accidents during Eid holidays in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

7Days:

In Al Ain, eight people died and 39 injured in crashes...

So, in Dubai, the death toll was either zero or four. In both Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, the death toll was two, or in Al Ain alone the death toll was eight.

Dubai - Al Ain commuting

On some discussion boards, I've seen some people inquire about living in Al Ain while working in Dubai. This has always seemed like a bad idea to me, but if the average commute time in Dubai is almost two hours, with some of those living in Sharjah suffering through almost three hours, I wonder if I wrong about this.

Now, I don't know how rent here is compared to Sharjah and Dubai (because I'm very lucky in that the university pays for our rent), so if it is more here than in Sharjah, that would make a difference.

But time-wise, I'm fairly certain that you can get to Al Ain in less than two hours from pretty much anywhere in Dubai. I know that we once left the area of Dubai where the Oasis Mall used to be (I forget what that area is called) on a weekday evening about 6:00 pm, when traffic toward Sharjah was bumper-to-bumper and not really moving on Sheikh Zayed Road, and we still made it back home in less than two hours, and without the stop-and-go traffic and its concomitant frustrations.

I should also note that I don't even drive at the 120 kph speed limit on the Dubai-Al Ain road. Also, this is all pre-Salik, so that could affect things too.

Dubai Yacht Accident at Snopes

This report and photos about a yacht transporting accident in Jebel Ali from March are apparently going around via email.

One more reason to be glad that I don't live in Dubai

The UAE University hosted a meeting of several regional libraries last winter, and during one meal we sat around comparing traffic stories. Hearing horror stories of 4 km commutes taking a half-hour or more reminded me again how lucky we are to be here in Al Ain instead of there (for the record: distance to work for me - about 8 km; time to work, when traffic is at its worst - 11 minutes).

Reading about the implementation of Salik just gives me another reason to feel this way. My favorite part of the story: 'RTA officials said motorists will receive an SMS after they puchase [sic] a tag which will include the account number and pin. "Even if you do not receive it shortly, the tag is automatically activated."'

I especially love the fact that this quote is apparently anonymous. Also, what do you reckon the chances are that those who do not get an SMS confirmation and their tag does not automatically activate will not be able to get out of the fine that will be imposed?

Sure Dubai is great, but...

I understand people from Dubai being proud of their accomplishments and their city. In just a short time it has been transformed, for both good and bad. But come on, this editorial about the purchase of the QEII has got to set a new record for over-the-top silliness:

"Move over Las Vegas, we've got Bawadi. Paris? Our Eiffel Tower will be bigger than yours."

Uh, yeah, sure, Bawadi will make everyone forget Las Vegas. And maybe it is just me, but the Eiffel Tower is not the only thing that I would want to go to Paris to see.

"Now a grand old dame of a vessel that has crossed the Atlantic 800 times and circumnavigated the globe 25 times will spend her glory years inspiring awe in tourists who've come to gawk at Dubai's modern wonders."

Um, wouldn't the QEII's glory years by the years she spent crossing the Atlantic and sailing around the world?

"...the mascot Modhesh is developing an international reputation."

OK, the way that this is phrased now makes me think that whoever wrote this realizes how silly this is at this point; I love the ambiguous phrasing of "developing an international reputation". The only reputation that I have seen it developing is not one you would brag about. Some typical reactions are "Kill Modhesh", or "The Tide of Evil", my personal favorite.

"Good luck finding someone who hasn't heard of the Palm Jumeirah."

Actually, luck isn't needed if you just get out of the Emirates. I would be surprised if you went up to people at random in the US or Europe and asked "What is the Palm Jumeirah" if anyone could tell you. I know that no one that I know in the States could do so.

Special Police Team

This story about the Dubai Police Difficult Missions team saving a teenager from his suicide attempt is great. First and most importantly that they heroically saved this young man's life. Second, that there is a Difficult Missions team in the Dubai Police. What a great name. It does seem a little strange that the the Difficult Missions team had the ability to quickly deploy an air cushion but lacked the ability to get through a locked door. Wouldn't locked doors play a fairly prominent role in difficult missions?

Slow News Day

You know that it is a slow news day when "Supermodel 'blown away' by Dubai" makes the paper. So, what in insights does Ms. MacPherson have about Dubai? It has a "dynamic energy".

Wow. I am, like, blown away.

Oh, and she is selling something apparently. The article seems really reluctant to discuss that part of the story.

Jobs in Dubai

I periodically get email asking me how to get jobs in Dubai (and the UAE in general). I really don't know, I found out about my job from a friend. The university lists their jobs at this site. There are a lot of sites on the web that claim to be helpful, but according to this article at ITP, you need to be careful.

Arabic in Dubai

I know that in some ways English is more used than Arabic in Dubai, but doesn't it seem more than a little strange that a foreign consulate wouldn't have an Arabic speaker available to translate for one of their citizens?

Dubai

I just got back from Dubai. (I stupidly forgot to take my camera, so I don't have any photos). I think that I have successfully found a car, and if everything works out, I should have it late next week or early the next.

Dubai seemed like another world from Al Ain, not just because it is so much bigger, thought that is certainly part of it. My only other experience in Dubai was landing at the airport and then immediately riding to Al Ain (and at midnight at that), so I seen nothing of Dubai before. And while on this trip I only visited just a few places (the bus station, a bunch of used car dealers, the Deira City Center mall and a little bit of walking around), but I did get to ride through a good bit of the city (mostly because one of my cab drivers got lost). I don't think that I have ever seen so many contruction cranes in such a concentrated area. There is so much contruction going on all at once, it almost feels like much of the city is missing, if that makes sense. I guess by that I mean that the huge gaps where the construction is taking place made me feel like things were missing.

But walking around the mall also felt very different. There were so many more expats than nationals, it almost made it feel as if I was in a different country. I think that I understand more SecretDubai's comment about my being lucky to be in Al Ain and having a chance to experience the culture here in a way I couldn't in Dubai.

The other thing that surprised me when I thought of it was that about early afternoon I was thinking, "I'm ready to go home" but I meant Al Ain. It is amazing how quickly I have come to think of this as home, which I suppose is another sign of how warmly I have been welcomed here.