What you see...

...is often not what you get.

Particularly with real estate advertising in Dubai.

This is the artist's rendering of The Jewels in Dubai Marina.

They look great and they're sitting in a park with views all around.



The actual buildings look just as they did in the drawing, but I wonder how many of the owners who bought off-plan are not so happy about that promise of greenery and views all around.



I don't know whether RERA, or the advertising industry itself, has looked into accuracy in advertising...

ID Card - amazingly quick update.

I thought it might be days, but here I am less than four hours later updating The ID Card Saga.

The speed and efficiency of the internet. Dubai style.

I tell you what. It's a struggle.

I got into the Emirates Identity Authority website and less than four hours later I've registered, have my application number and a bar code. I'm told to present myself, my documents and the barcode printout at one of the EIDA offices.

There may be a small problem though. My application is based on a form which ignored what I entered and instead put answers it came up with by itself, several being totally different from my entries.

For example, it decided I work for the Dubai International Financial Centre. I do not. I did not enter that on the form. But it wouldn't change to what I wanted to enter.

When I go in person to the office I guess I'll find out whether the incorrect information will invalidate the application.

I've been told other people have had the same problem. Female being changed to Male was one example.

I'll let you know what happens at the next stage.



Apart from that you may like to know how interfacing with the EIDA through the magic of the e-world is.

As I said, it's a struggle. Apart from ignoring what you type in it takes half an hour or more to move to the next page, and things don't appear as they should.

For example, it asks which Emirate you live in, you click Dubai on the dropdown menu. Next is City, then Zone but neither will move from the Abu Dhabi dropdown default menu. So you're registered as living in the emirate of Dubai but in an area of Abu Dhabi.

I pressed on regardless and after two and a half hours I got to the end, clicked to Print. The form came up for final checking and approval and it contained too much information different from that which I'd entered.

I thought I'd better cancel and start again.

Second time was a bit quicker, both for pages to load and because I knew my way around it a bit better.

There's some mysterious stuff. Mandatory is Middle Name. I don't have one, but it won't let you past if you leave it blank. There's a dropdown demanding "Please type the father name'. I typed my father's name...and now on my application confirmation I am known by my first name and my father's, but with no family name.

Apparently optional, strange information is asked for. For example after First Name, Middle Name, Family Name it asks for Other Names. And Famous Name.

Something lost in the translation or a basic lack of communicating what they want maybe?

For the delivery address you can put in Dubai for emirate...but again the dropdown menu for City and Zone defaults to Abu Dhabi, they won't move to Dubai.

There were location inaccuracies and some fictitious answers entered by the website but I'd lost patience by then and just printed it.

I'll attempt to get to an office to finalise it next week.

The ID Card saga begins here

I think most of us now know that 'professionals' have to register for the national ID card by the end of the year.

The other day Gulf News reported that a senior official from the Emirates Identity Authority complained that we, professionals, had not registered earlier.

On the recently published deadline he said: "It was not new but announced in May and everybody knew about it."

Everybody? I didn't.

I read several newspapers each day, I listen to the radio and I didn't know.

I also renewed my Residence Visa last month and no-one said a thing about an ID card.

I was aware that Emiratis have until December 31 to register, but until last week I did not know that the deadline also applied to expat professionals.

Even the recent announcement was confusing and unclear. As we've come to expect.

For example, exactly who are 'professionals'? The announcement talked about white collar workers and quite clearly specified degree holders.

There are many professional, white collar workers who are not degree holders. Does the deadline apply to them or not?

We are told that there are 28 registration centres. The nearest I've come to discovering where they are is to read of one in Karama and one in Al Barsha. Those are big suburbs, so where are they exactly? What are the phone numbers?

I've discovered that there's a website - only because reports the day after the announcement said it had crashed under the weight of traffic and was being expanded in the future.

A simple campaign giving basic information would be nice. Stuff like exactly who has to register, by when, where and how, the process required, contact numbers and addresses.

It isn't hard to do something as simple as that, yet it never happens.

Changes to rules are made, vague and confusing announcements are put out, the next day they're 'explained' or changed. Think of the recent new visa rules, the 'one villa one family' campaign. Exactly the same problem. The only information we're given is unclear, incomplete, confusing...and then it's changed.

On and off over the past few days I've been trying to get into the website, with no success.

I'm going to try again now, and throughout the rest of the day if necessary.

Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted.

What's going on at Dubai Eye?

Apart from the excellent Business Breakfast and evening business show, every time I tune in to Dubai Eye radio they're playing repeats of old programmes.

Or "recaps of a previous programme" as they call them.

I've seen no news about it and the website gives no information. Not that that's unusual for Dubai, most websites are years out of date.

The site does say that they're in the process of improving transmission (long overdue in my opinion) and they're experiencing a few technical difficulties.

But that's quite different from programmes and presenters not being broadcast.

Anyone in the know who can enlighten us?

Back to buzzing

Buzzing - the use of frantically trendy buzzwords in place of words which should be used.

A worldwide problem and I spotted another fine example on the side of a delivery truck in Dubai Marina:



A bed? Wrong. It's a Sleep System.




I have a solution to human capital fatigue syndrome. A horizontal period utilising a sleep system.


*shakes head*

Incongruous...

Being such an international city we do get some strange meldings of cultures.

This one struck me as incongruous - the traditional regional architectural style housing a chippie...





Not only incongruous but helpful by the way. If you have an urgent need to write 'fish & chips' in Arabic, it's like this:

Singapore Dubai similarities

I've been meaning to post some photos from our last trip to Singapore for the past couple of months, but as usual time slipped away somehow.

At last here they are, but I have a point to make with them.

There are often comparisons made between Dubai and Singapore, with some justification because there are similarities.

Both are in ideal central locations to bridge parts of the world together, both are commercial centres, the commercial base is changed to meet changing situations and demands, both are authoritarian, they're amongst the safest cities in the world.

They're also similar in that they have 'iconic' (how I hate that word) buildings.

As in Dubai, there are plenty of shopping malls in Singapore too, a whole row of them side-by-side on Orchard Road for example.

But there's one big, big difference that the death of Dubai's old Satwa suburb has highlighted.

I know I keep on about preserving what little there is of historic, or even old, Dubai, but it's the heart and soul of a place.

On my earlier posts regretting that old Dubai wasn't being preserved several comments were posted which argued that they needed to be demolished.

For example: I think we have to demolish all the old villas as it is not save for living; sanitary system of Satwa is worst compare to any other city in dubai. By demolishing, new building structure is taking place, which is more hygienic, fire protective, accommodate more number of people etc.

I've never agreed with insanitary conditions, unsafe buildings, inadequate infrastructure. It should all go.

My point is that things can be renovated. Power and water can be piped in, buildings repaired and renovated. Bastakiya in the city is a good example of what can be done.

Some years back Singapore was going in the same direction. Everything was being torn down and replaced with modern high-rise and malls. The PM talked about the shame of tourists coming to see people living in run-down houses.

Then they woke up to the fact that they were destroying their history, their heritage, their heart and soul. So the policy changed and whole areas were renovated instead of being demolished.

The famous Bugis Street had to make way for a Metro station but they rebuilt it a few metres away. Shophouses on the river in the centre of the city have been renovated and it's now a thriving dining and entertainment district.

So here are a few photographs of some of the buildings which were saved, renovated and given a new lease of life. Which add immeasurably to the city's look, feel and culture.

From the roaring twenties some Art Deco buildings have been preserved, with their memories of tea dances and early cinema

And in areas such as Chinatown and Little India, traditional buildings take on a new life:

Many of the larger renovated buildings are excellent restaurants:

Running right in to Orchard Road, the main modern tourist street, beautiful old shophouses probably look better than they ever did.

That's the big difference between the two cities. I think it's sad that Dubai hasn't followed Singapore's lead.