Back in Dubai

I’m back in Dubai, and the temperature is a very liveable 75 degrees. If it was like this all year round, the climate would be perfect here, but I remember the blast furnace conditions of June all too well.

I arrived last night at about 8, and had to head straight to a dinner meeting which resulted in a mad dash to the Iranian embassy at 7 am this morning to try and get a visa to visit Tehran on Monday. As Friday is the Islamic equivalent of Sunday, they weren’t too interested in processing anything so after waiting around for a couple of hours, I had to face the inevitable and call the whole trip off.


I’m staying at a hotel, which has no wireless or broadband, so I’ve had to head to a coffee shop around the corner.The wireless is FREE and they even lend customers complementary laptops, (can you imagine Starbucks doing THAT?). It's strange staying in an unconnected 5 star hotel in this day in age. It's stranger still, sitting on a sidewalk, cheek by jowl with smiling Arabs, downloading I Tunes and playing online car racing games whilst the call to prayer reverberates from the minarets.

I went to the roof top pool at my hotel and took this picture of the buildings below…..I have never seen so many satellite dishes in my life….




I was downloading some pictures and these guys asked me to take one of them and send it to their hotmail address. They’re quite a friendly group and have spent the last hour or two drinking coffee, smoking and laughing.

The atmosphere in Dubai is very relaxed. There is none of the tension portrayed by the press in other Arab countries. Somehow I think they don’t “do” protests here in the UAE. There is an interesting report of police raids on traders involved in a “Sex Doll racket”.
The Danish cartoon scandals seem absent from the press. There are a couple of notable stories:
RAS AL KHAIMAH — A sex doll racket run by a shop to cater to adolescent children has been busted by the RAK Economic Department (RED).
The immoral business which contravenes social and religious values of society came to light in the course of a regular inspection by a RED team in one of the emirate's markets. The team found that the shop was renting out a doll in the form of a naked lady in a sexual position to adolescents for a payment.
Meanwhile, in blatant violation of the rules that govern trade activities in the emirate, inspectors detected shops dealing in lady's readymade garments, gifts and medical herbs, selling aphrodisiacs. The items were in the form of tablets and creams. The errant shops are located in different parts of the emirates like Al Maireed, RAK old city and Al Nakhleel.
RED sources said that the shops were found pursuing activities not in conformity with their trade licences.
The RED slapped the errant shops with fines ranging from Dh500 to Dh1,000 and ordered the destruction of the confiscated items.


Oh dear, every hotel bar is full of hookers, but I guess sex dolls are just one step too far…….


Brokeback Mountain it seems will not be packing them in here…..

UAE bans Brokeback MountainBy Afkar Abdullah 9 February 2006

SHARJAH — The Ministry of Culture and Information will not allow the screening of the Hollywood film Brokeback Mountain in the UAE because of scenes involving homosexuals.
Brokeback Mountain is a film which has nothing positive about it. The portrayal of the sexual behaviour of its main character is offensive to eastern societies, particularly Muslims and the Arabs since Islam forbids abnormal behaviours like homosexuality, said Dr Abdullah Al Amiri, Chairman of the Committee of Financial, Economical and Industrial Affairs of Sharjah Consultative Council yesterday.
“The film will upset the people of this culture and tradition,” he said, explaining that there were scenes showing two men romantically inclined to each other.
The decision of the Ministry of Information was hailed by the members of the Sharjah Consultative Council during the meeting yesterday. The members thanked the ministry for its efforts in protecting the society from unethical and immoral practices.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, an official from the Ministry of Information said that the rules and regulations of the censor section at the ministry did not allow “these kinds of movies to be screened in the country.” The censorship department is making great efforts to review all the movies before it allows its screening in the theatres in the country. This kind of movies will destroy the values and morals of the society, he explained.
Despite criticism, the controversial movie was named ‘Best Picture’ at the 17th Annual Producers Guild of America (PGA) awards on January 22, 2006.


There was another odd and unhappy story in today’s news:
Housemaid caught abusing baby for carnal pleasureBy Sadiq A. Salam 9 February 2006

RAS AL KHAIMAH — Believe it or not, a RAK-based housemaid has been videotaped red handed while fondling a one-and-half-year-old baby boy.
The film, which has been shot by the victim’s family, features the errant woman while repeatedly taking the baby’s hand and placing it in a sensitive part of her body, apparently for sexual satisfaction, in the absence of the family’s elders.
The story dates back to a few months ago when the attitude of the domestic helper started to arouse the suspicion of the victim’s family. They began to monitor her for a long time, but failed to find any evidence confirming their doubts. Finally, the victim’s parents, a stateless father and a UAE national mother, placed a number of concealed video cameras in different parts of their house to monitor her behaviour. Not only this, the cameras caught the errant woman while severely beating the baby together with his less than one-year-old sister.
When the case has been reported to the police, the errant woman strongly denied the charges. However, after being accosted and showed the videotapes by the police, she collapsed and confessed to her crimes. The RAK Court sentenced the woman to six-month imprisonment for committing indecent acts with a baby boy and one month for beating the two siblings. It slapped her with the Dh1,000 fine. The court also ordered her deportation after completing her imprisonment terms.
The case brought to the forefront the issue of social and security impacts of domestic helpers. This paper has recently reported the case of two housemaids who tucked away money and cigarettes inside their sensitive parts to hide it from the police and their sponsors. In another bizarre incident, the RAK Court recently ordered the deportation of a housemaid on the charge of urinating into the food prepared for her employer and his family.
Police stations here receive, on almost daily basis, many complaints filled by the public against domestic helpers on charges ranging from theft and absconding to sex crimes.

Well that’s it for today. Sorry it's all a little disjointed, but I'm jetlagged and tired.

I hope this post finds you all happy and healthy…


Terry