Crass stupidity

I can't believe the crass stupidity that goes on here.

Where do we get these management people from?

Have a look at this photograph. I was told by a security guard that I was not allowed to take it.

A secret military installation? A royal villa? A bank vault?

No, it's apartment blocks.



Jumeirah Beach Residence of course.

The security lady was very polite, I was polite in return (no point shooting the messenger, she's only obeying orders) and told her it was a public area and they were just apartment blocks. She said she had instructions to stop people taking photographs, it was not permitted.

Google Jumeirah Beach Residence and you're given 104,000 websites to look at. The developer Dubai Property's own website comes up first and it's full of photographs, as are the others.

But they've instructed the security guards to stop people taking photographs.

I can take photographs of the White House, of Buckingham Palace, of the Ministry of Defence, but I can't take a photograph of an apartment block.

Unbelievable stupidity.

I was on the Plaza level, which is a retail section. Plenty of shops are open and at all the staircase entry points the passing public is directed to it:



A public retail area surrounded by apartment blocks and the management has decided that taking photographs should be prohibited.

I've run into this stupidity before too.

In one of our hypermarkets I took this photograph:



A security guard there also told me photography wasn't allowed.

I simply can't get into the mindset of management who come up with this nonsense.

Do they think it's an invasion of the curry powder's privacy?

Do they think I'll sell the photographs to a terrorist organisation which has sacks of spices high on its bombing target list?

What the hell is in these people's minds that they come up with this level of stupidity?

Al Sufouh trams

Gulf News tells us that the RTA has awarded the contract for phase one of the Al Sufouh Tram project. Phase One is scheduled to commence operations on April 11, 2011.

It'll run around Dubai Marina, including Jumeirah Beach Residence, link with the Metro at Jumeirah Lake Towers and Marina stations and have a total of thirteen stops (or stations, as they're called).

That's all good news, but I still fear for safety with trams 44 metres long carrying 305 passengers trundling along rails on the same roads as Dubai's moronic drivers.

And I have a question about the planning. Don't I always!

Phase One is a tram to nowhere. Here's the graphic produced by Gulf News (click on it to enlarge it):

Why doesn't Phase One go the extra distance to Madinat Jumeirah? Or even better, to Mall of the Emirates Metro station. Why leave that section to be included in Phase Two?

The Gulf News story is here.

The beach romp final word.

The last word on the beach romp - perhaps.

There are what I think are a couple of very good columns, the first by Minette Marrin in the UK Sunday Times.

An extract:

‘Why don’t we do it in the road?” That was the question posed by the Beatles in 1968 in the song of that name....

...Now, 40 years on, we have a couple of well-to-do British expatriates in Dubai shamelessly and drunkenly doing it on the beach...

...I have absolutely no sympathy for them but I do think that given the permissive culture of the country in which they grew up – they were born only a few years after 1968 – it is understandable, if depressing, that they themselves didn’t see much wrong with their behaviour.
From their perspective it is apparently quite normal for two strangers to meet at a hotel brunch, drink themselves silly and proceed to perform sex acts on each other in public. It is normal to insult a policeman who has the effrontery to caution them, regardless of the law, and to carry on.

That is what Britons do at home and abroad. They belch, vomit, copulate, litter and barge their way through public spaces, dressed like hookers and louts, defying the police without shame or modesty. British expatriates are some of the worst: overpaid, oversexed and all over the place.

Palmer and Acors are appealing against their convictions. Yet by Palmer’s own admission, she was drunk and they were kissing and cuddling. “We didn’t have sex together,” she insisted. “I was lying on top of him.” This is rather to miss the point.


See what you think, it's here.

The Times also ran a column on Friday by Ross Clark, along the same lines.

For example:

The Dubai beach-sex couple weren't just stupid, they were irresponsible.

There is no better recruiter for al-Qaeda than Westerners thumbing their noses at the laws of Islamic countries.

It would be very easy for Dubai to turn a blind eye to the behaviour of British tourists and expatriates: to say to themselves, we may not like it, but we like the foreign currency too much to discourage these free-spending Westerners.
That is the Faustian pact into which so many holiday destinations around the world have entered, with inevitable results: Westerners start to behave like outlaws, doing things that they wouldn't dare do at home.

You can read the column here.

One for the boys

First, trivia. The photograph of the foggy junction I posted yesterday - here's the same spot a couple of hours later:



And these are what I thought car enthusisasts might be interested to see. They're parked every so often by Al Sufouh Road just before Knowledge Village

Morning fog

Friends overseas are surprised when I talk about the thick fog we get in Dubai.

Fog in the desert? There sure is, and we had some dangerous stuff this morning.

This is the major crossroad at the Dubai Marina/Media City junction:



I was pleasantly surprised at the driving. Even the usual suspects - the labourer buses and Land Rovers - were driving within the limits of visibility.

But there's still the stupidy of the lights question. Thick, thick fog with visibility in places no more than 10 metres and there were plenty of vehicles with no lights on.

Amd of course, the morons with their hazard lights going, like this bus:

Three months for beach romp

Inevitably the British tabloids' hysteria about Vince and Michelle facing six years in Al Slammer were just a little over the top.

They were charged with engaging in sexual activity in public, committing an indecent gesture in public and consuming alcohol. And they've been given three months jail, a fine of Dh1,000 and deportation.

Their lawyer says he will appeal.


The story is here.

The whale shark PR

"Representatives of Atlantis resort...did not return calls to the AP on Thursday. They also did not respond to AP's request to speak to one of the marine specialists the hotel says monitors the whale shark around the clock."

That was in the International Herald Tribune.

Atlantis' handling of this story should be written up and used in marketing communication courses as a perfect example of what a company should not do.

A large juvenile female whale shark is being held in the resort's aquarium. According to the original announcement that she was there for paying customers to see, the resort said that the animal was recued by fishermen and they were giving it medical care.

I don't think anyone will be surprised at the revelations by ex-employees of Atlantis reported in Gulf News today - another bad PR hit for the hotel:

Sammy was not rescued by the Atlantis hotel, Gulf News has learnt, after speaking to ex-Atlantis employees who say that plans to have a whale shark in the hotel's Ambassador aquarium were clear from the beginning.

According to several previous employees who spoke to Gulf News on condition of anonymity, there was never been any plan to release Sammy and the hunt to find a resident whale shark was relentless, with fishing boats heading out every night to find one.

And they continue their PR strategy:

No comment was available from Atlantis or Nakheel after repeated attempts by Gulf News on Tuesday.

Like so many cliches, the saying that any publicity is good publicity simply isn't true.

There's been a raft of bad publicty, here and internationally, about the resort, not only about the whale shark. Instead of handling it professionally their strategy, if they have one, has been to ignore it.

The bunker mentality PR plan.



IHT story is here.

Gulf News' latest story is here.