Friday, November 30, 2007
Silly thought
Having coffee at Madinat Jumeirah this morning and seeing this I thought - we usually have a fairy on the top of Christmas trees...
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Good news for labourers?
Apparently about 150 major contracting companies have decided to raise their labourers' pay by 15% to 20%.
The raise was confirmed by an official of the UAE Contractors' Association, although each individual company will decide on the amount and from when the increases will be paid to their workers.
Even if the 20% is paid it's not really a pay rise, it will just bring them back to where they were before the US$ crash devalued their earnings - the AED being pegged to the dollar.
The pay levels are sobering. According to labourers interviewed by Gulf News unskilled workers get AED350 to 550 a month (that's US$95 to 150) while skilled workers are paid the princely sum of AED700 to a whopping AED1200 (that's US$190 to 326).
Not a lot is it.
The raise was confirmed by an official of the UAE Contractors' Association, although each individual company will decide on the amount and from when the increases will be paid to their workers.
Even if the 20% is paid it's not really a pay rise, it will just bring them back to where they were before the US$ crash devalued their earnings - the AED being pegged to the dollar.
The pay levels are sobering. According to labourers interviewed by Gulf News unskilled workers get AED350 to 550 a month (that's US$95 to 150) while skilled workers are paid the princely sum of AED700 to a whopping AED1200 (that's US$190 to 326).
Not a lot is it.
No surprise, it's a design error.
What everyone else seems have to been able to see from the beginning, the RTA didn't see.
Why am I not surprised.
The obvious fault in the air-conditioned bus shelter design has hit the news today, now that the shelters are appearing all over Dubai.
They ain't big enough!
The RTA's policy is to have much more public transport - excellent - and to 'encourage' people to abandon their cars in favour of it. Not a strong possibility if we have to stand around in 50C heat and 100% humidity, so the RTA came up with a good solution - a/c bus stops.
But we have already-crowded buses, the population of Dubai increasing by 800 people a day, everyone told to use public transport...and the bus shelters are designed to take a maximum of 14 people, eight seated and six standing. I must say that seems like an optimistic number, they're only 2.5 x 6 metres.
The problem has obviously been recognised - far too late - because many places have two of the shelters side-by-side...
It should have been thought of at the design stage! When you start with a blank canvass there is no excuse.
Given the culture in which we're living, another interesting point was raised by a Gulf News reader - why are there no separate shelters for ladies?
You can read the Gulf News report here.
Why am I not surprised.
The obvious fault in the air-conditioned bus shelter design has hit the news today, now that the shelters are appearing all over Dubai.
They ain't big enough!
The RTA's policy is to have much more public transport - excellent - and to 'encourage' people to abandon their cars in favour of it. Not a strong possibility if we have to stand around in 50C heat and 100% humidity, so the RTA came up with a good solution - a/c bus stops.
But we have already-crowded buses, the population of Dubai increasing by 800 people a day, everyone told to use public transport...and the bus shelters are designed to take a maximum of 14 people, eight seated and six standing. I must say that seems like an optimistic number, they're only 2.5 x 6 metres.
The problem has obviously been recognised - far too late - because many places have two of the shelters side-by-side...
It should have been thought of at the design stage! When you start with a blank canvass there is no excuse.
Given the culture in which we're living, another interesting point was raised by a Gulf News reader - why are there no separate shelters for ladies?
You can read the Gulf News report here.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Stupid, stupid me.
For a long time I've been complaining that the RTA is making it more difficult for motorists to get around when they should be making it easier.
Today I was reading the news that the trams we were threatened with some time ago are for real and work will start in January. Initially the trams will run for 15 kilometres along Al Sufouh Road from Madinat Jumeirah to Dubai Marina, and around both sides of the Marina. The route is shown very well in this Gulf News graphic:
Thanks largely to Salik these roads are jammed solid morning and evening already. Losing a third of the road space to a tramline - plus the inevitable closures & diversions while the work is being done - will make it all but impossible.
Then a blinding flash. The light came on. The penny dropped. It all suddenly became clear.
Why I haven't seen the blindingly obvious for so long I don't know.
It's to make driving difficult to the point of impossible.
That's the plan. Always has been. I simply didn't see it.
I stupidly thought the integrated traffic plan included private cars. It obviously doesn't.
It's so simple. Make it so frustrating, so annoying, so time-consuming to use a private car and we'll all have to use the Metro/tram/buses/ferries.
The plan is simply to drive us all off the roads completely.
An RTA official is quoted as saying: "The tram project will encourage people in these posh areas to use alternate mode of transport instead of personal cars."
Encourage? We'll have no option.
By the way, I'm sure I must have raised the point when I talked about a tramline in a posting ages ago - can you imagine the danger, the chaos with Dubai's motorists and trams on the same road?
The stupidity of jargon
Something that's been increasingly annoying me over recent years is the use of frantically trendy, meaningless jargon.
Look at this classic example, the opening phrase from a press release in today's Gulf News:
"Gowealthy.com, the region's global property and lifestyle brand offering comprehensive marketing solutions...
Totally meaningless and it tells potential clients nothing about the company or what it does.
In an effort to be trendy they've packed today's top-five buzz words into a meaningless jumble of nonsense - 'global', 'lifestyle', 'brand', 'marketing' and the daddy of them all, 'solutions'.
Nobody sells anything any more other than 'solutions'.
They're a reputable real estate company. Surely they're not ashamed of that fact? So why are they hiding it?
If a company loses sight of what it is and what it does it's headed for trouble.
Look at this classic example, the opening phrase from a press release in today's Gulf News:
"Gowealthy.com, the region's global property and lifestyle brand offering comprehensive marketing solutions...
Totally meaningless and it tells potential clients nothing about the company or what it does.
In an effort to be trendy they've packed today's top-five buzz words into a meaningless jumble of nonsense - 'global', 'lifestyle', 'brand', 'marketing' and the daddy of them all, 'solutions'.
Nobody sells anything any more other than 'solutions'.
They're a reputable real estate company. Surely they're not ashamed of that fact? So why are they hiding it?
If a company loses sight of what it is and what it does it's headed for trouble.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
How to obstruct Dubai's commercial life.
OUTLOOK EXPRESS
Some errors occurred while processing the requested tasks.
* Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this are server problems, network problems blah blah blah...
The last few days I've had this message on my e-mail more often than I've been able to use it.
It simply won't connect.
I keep trying, it flickers on for a few minutes, I send a couple of messages...then up comes the terminated message again.
Add to that the current unblievably slow speed of the internet connection, which is even worse than the normal slow speed, and you have Etisalat's contribution to the succes of Dubai as an international business hub. Thousands of people sitting in offices glumly staring at computer screens that load at an agonising, frustrating snail's pace. People forced to waste time, to be unproductive.
This is the 21st Century, international commerce is increasingly done via the internet. Dubai's very future depends on us being a major international business hub, with an increasing amount of business done from here, with more and more international companies relocating or opening regional offices here. Communication is the lifeblood of business. But Etisalat's infrastructure isn't up to the job. Dubai's businesses must have modern telecommunications services, with sufficient capacity, fast and reliable.
Etisalat's website assures me:
We enable people to reach each other, businesses to find new markets and everyone to fulfil their potential. Across the UAE, we provide telephone, TV and Internet services for everyone, and much more for businesses. We are increasingly present in international markets. Our customers enjoy the latest services and technologies, as well as a choice of great entertainment.
Our website will let you discover all we have to offer.
Reach out. The world’s waiting.
I'm trying to, but you won't let me!!!
Some errors occurred while processing the requested tasks.
* Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this are server problems, network problems blah blah blah...
The last few days I've had this message on my e-mail more often than I've been able to use it.
It simply won't connect.
I keep trying, it flickers on for a few minutes, I send a couple of messages...then up comes the terminated message again.
Add to that the current unblievably slow speed of the internet connection, which is even worse than the normal slow speed, and you have Etisalat's contribution to the succes of Dubai as an international business hub. Thousands of people sitting in offices glumly staring at computer screens that load at an agonising, frustrating snail's pace. People forced to waste time, to be unproductive.
This is the 21st Century, international commerce is increasingly done via the internet. Dubai's very future depends on us being a major international business hub, with an increasing amount of business done from here, with more and more international companies relocating or opening regional offices here. Communication is the lifeblood of business. But Etisalat's infrastructure isn't up to the job. Dubai's businesses must have modern telecommunications services, with sufficient capacity, fast and reliable.
Etisalat's website assures me:
We enable people to reach each other, businesses to find new markets and everyone to fulfil their potential. Across the UAE, we provide telephone, TV and Internet services for everyone, and much more for businesses. We are increasingly present in international markets. Our customers enjoy the latest services and technologies, as well as a choice of great entertainment.
Our website will let you discover all we have to offer.
Reach out. The world’s waiting.
I'm trying to, but you won't let me!!!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Yet more avoidable deaths
"Two men were killed and 21 others injured when a car hit a group of men working on a site near Global Village. Police said the motorist, believed to be speeding, lost control and hit a group of workers who were carrying out road maintenance."
What amazes me is that this doesn't happen on a daily basis. Not only because of the moronic, criminal driving we have to contend with but, equally importantly, because safety for roadworkers is virtually non-existent.
Their 'protection' is invariably a red flag and a few plastic cones.
To make it even more dangerous the 'warning' is usually, at best, just a few metres in front of them, and all too often the red flag is actually in the middle of the work. Even motorists driving sensibly have a hard time taking evasive action. And, of course, the last-second manoeuvres this forces on them increases the chances of an accident.
I flicked through some of my photographs and here are some examples:
The red flag man standing within the danger zone, no warning for motorists that they're approaching a danger area.
On the Sheikh Zayed Road racetrack, workers wandering around behind plastic cones.
On a dangerous junction in Dubai Marina, gangs of unprotected workers.
There's a whole safety issue here and it's not exclusively down to the companies arranging suitable protection barriers, the workers themselves - and their supervisors - urgently need education.
They need to understand that motorists need adequate prior warning of a hazard ahead. Grouping the work gang and the red flag man together, wandering around in the road, dashing across the road to move to a different part of the site are all recipes for disaster.
At the under-construction Interchange 6 there are concrete barriers, but still the workers wander in the roads, jump the barriers, work with their back to the traffic seemingly oblivious to the danger.
What amazes me is that this doesn't happen on a daily basis. Not only because of the moronic, criminal driving we have to contend with but, equally importantly, because safety for roadworkers is virtually non-existent.
Their 'protection' is invariably a red flag and a few plastic cones.
To make it even more dangerous the 'warning' is usually, at best, just a few metres in front of them, and all too often the red flag is actually in the middle of the work. Even motorists driving sensibly have a hard time taking evasive action. And, of course, the last-second manoeuvres this forces on them increases the chances of an accident.
I flicked through some of my photographs and here are some examples:
The red flag man standing within the danger zone, no warning for motorists that they're approaching a danger area.
On the Sheikh Zayed Road racetrack, workers wandering around behind plastic cones.
On a dangerous junction in Dubai Marina, gangs of unprotected workers.
There's a whole safety issue here and it's not exclusively down to the companies arranging suitable protection barriers, the workers themselves - and their supervisors - urgently need education.
They need to understand that motorists need adequate prior warning of a hazard ahead. Grouping the work gang and the red flag man together, wandering around in the road, dashing across the road to move to a different part of the site are all recipes for disaster.
At the under-construction Interchange 6 there are concrete barriers, but still the workers wander in the roads, jump the barriers, work with their back to the traffic seemingly oblivious to the danger.
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