Trivia PS

PS to my earlier posts about the abandoned BMW which was in the same place in Dubai Marina for about eighteen months. It was finally moved a couple of weeks ago.

This one...



Well, it seems to have been replaced by another BMW...

Sound familiar?

A couple of recent overseas stories caught my eye:

One says: "There is a growing unease...against those sunburnt northern European tourists who offend the local population by walking in the streets, dining in restaurants and even doing their shopping in little more than beachwear."


The second says: "Lured by stories of the good salaries and advanced skills they could gain...they had paid high fees to (home country) brokers...believing they could earn many times more than they earn at home and return as heroes. But far from being a workers’ paradise (it) has been a country of hardship and discrimination for Mr Zhou and many of his compatriots, who are often forced to work long hours in gruelling conditions for less than minimum wages."

Typical stories about Dubai you might think.

The first is about Spain , the second is about Japan.


Spain is here.
Japan is here.

Keeping the bastards honest

The three Independents who won seats in Saturday's Australian election quickly received phone calls of congratulation from the leaders of the two main parties.

Strange that leaders of the two dominant parties, with everything that's on their plates on election night, would give priority to congratulating irrelevant winning opponents.

Not strange this time. They're suddenly very relevant. The election was a draw.

A party needs a minimum of 76 seats to take power. It looks like the final score will be 73 - 73, the balance of power lying with one Green and three Independents.

Whichever side can convince the Gang of Four to back them will be the new government.

It's going to be unsavoury. The clichéd smoke-filled back rooms with the faceless behind-the-scenes party power brokers trying to outdo the other side with bribes millions of dollars of our taxes to be poured into the four constituences.

The founder of the Australian Democrats, Don Chipp, comes to mind. Speaking of the two major parties, he said that the Democrat role would be to 'keep the bastards honest'.

It was the slogan, the rallying call, of the party.

That phrase was in mind when I visited my blogroll friends and landed in Houston Texas at Thomas' blog Mean Green Cougar Red.

His post was a teaser to have a look at Tom Scott's blog posting 'Journalism Warning Labels'.

Tom's come up with a great idea to help to keep those bastards honest.

Or at least to add some honesty to what's appearing in print. Tom's created a range of 'Warning' stickers which readers can fix to stories.

Here's an example:



Sound familiar? Here are some more, very relevant...and not just in this region:




I bet, like me, you could have used some of them on your morning newspaper.

I have to agree with Thomas' comment: "I found these labels to be humorous and depressing at the same time, because they're so true."

Tom has a whole range of them which you can print out. They come in various languages too, so they have world-wide possibilities.

What a good idea to do that and stick them to the papers in the coffee shop or in your company reception area.

You'll discover which coffee shops I use because I'm going to print out a few sheets...

You'll find Tom's post here where you can enjoy many more examples and print out your own sheets.

Forward to the past

Here we go again...biggest, largest, tallest for Dubai.

Didn't take long did it.

This time it's the replacement Hard Rock Cafe, to be opened at Festival City.

The original Dubai Hard Rock Cafe in Media City closed about eighteen months ago. The new one we're told will have the largest Hard Rock Shop in the world in the largest Hard Rock Cafe outside North America and outside it will have the tallest ornamental guitar in the world at a height of 118 feet.

Just what we need.

Gulf News has the report here.

"Take away only"

Not being a morning person I try to ease myself gently into each day by making the first port of call a coffee shop, reading the papers and having my caffeine hit.

Not today though.

Ramadan eating/drinking rules are being enforced much more strictly than they were last year.

Last Ramadan the coffee shops in Souk Madinat Jumeirah were all open for business. Like prohibition-era speakeasies they were shuttered off, doors only a tiny bit ajar, customers inside hidden from public view, but they were operating normally.

In Madinat Jumeirah I usually have my coffee in Dome and a couple of days ago they told me that they would operate as last year during Ramadan.

But when we got there this morning they told us 'take away only'.

Dubai Municipality has apparently issued a new directive and are enforcing the no public eating/drinking rule.

Are you having the same problem this year?

If you don't like it...

The commercial centre of the region is what Dubai wants, needs, to be.

They make it hard though.

Doing business is tough even in good times, so creating unnecessary obstacles and having a bad attitude culture are a huge problem.

A couple of those things have come up again.

Dubai Marina at JBR, going to The Walk.

There are plenty, maybe a hundred, shops and restaurants. All wanting and needing customers to spend money with them.

Parking for the customers? The usual lack of planning has thousands of apartments with too few parking spaces for residents and very little parking space for the thousands of visitors the businesses need.

Now an increasing amount of the limited space is being reserved for valet parking - which simply means paid parking.

Here's a section, both sides of the road. Park yourself but it's Dh20.



Forget it, I'll go somewhere else. So the retailers here lose out.

If the retailers complain I know what the response will be.

The corporate version of 'if you don't like it you can leave' which is the normal business culture of so many companies here.

There are plenty of examples of it in the archives on this blog, going back to 2006.

One of the first I came across was when the pay TV box packed up soon after it was installed. I phoned to complain, was told they didn't do service and when I asked what I was paying for the answer was simply 'do you want to cancel your subscription'.

Plenty of comments have been left on those posts with similar stories.

A restaurant manager told me a similar story again yesterday. A huge drop in footfall to the location since other attractions such as Dubai Mall opened, so they asked the management of the mall for some promotions to attract people again.

'If you don't like it you can leave. I can always get someone else to take over your shop'.

It's not only infuriating it's terrible business practice, arrogant in the extreme.

Orders from the FBI

Another e-mail from the FBI has turned up, this one from none other than FBI Director Robert S.Mueller.

The last message was from a mere Agent - I posted the details on Saturday - but now I'm proud to say I merit a Director.

He's given me a better e-mail address than his colleague too, this is mueller.cv@ic.fbi. gov

He tells me that he's "brought a solution to your problem" (Boy, am I relieved - not only that he's solved my problem but also because he exposed a problem I didn't realise I had).

I'm sort-of resting easy because he assures me that "Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved in this transaction, you have to be rest assured for this is 100% risk free it is our duty to protect the American Citizens"

The bit that worries me is whether 'have to be rest assured for this is 100% risk free' applies to me because I'm not an American Citizen.

Still, even if we're not American, if we can't trust the FBI who can we trust?

Oh, and he alerts me to the fact that "Puppy Scammers are impostors claiming to be the Federal Bureau Of Investigation."

Then using his position as Director he tells me: "We order you get back to this office..."

An order from an FBI Director - who could disobey that?

Here's the full text:


Attn: Beneficiary,

This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Impostors claiming to be Prof. Charles C. Soludo of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Aziza, MrFrank Nweke, none officials of Oceanic Bank, Zenith Banks, kelvin Young of HSBC,Ben of Fedex,Ibrahim Sule,Larry Christopher, Puppy Scammers are impostors claiming to be the Federal Bureau Of Investigation. During our Investigation, we noticed that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled your Financial Obligation given to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment.

Therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry Of Finance on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by cordinating your payment in total USD$11,000.000.00 in an ATM CARD which you can use to withdraw money from any ATM MACHINE CENTER anywhere in the world with a maximum of $4,000 to $5,000 United States Dollars daily. You now have the lawful right to claim your fund in an ATM CARD.

Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved in this transaction, you have to be rest assured for this is 100% risk free it is our duty to protect the American Citizens. All I want you to do is to contact the ATM CARD CENTER via email for their requirements to proceed and procure your Approval Slip on your behalf which will cost you $110.00 only and note that your Approval Slip which contains details of the agent who will process your transaction.

CONTACT INFORMATIONNAME: Mike WilliamsEMAIL:mikewilliams18@yahoo.cn Telephone Number: +234-803-357-0260

You are adviced to contact Mr mike williams with the informations as stated below:

Your full Name..
Your Address:..............
Home/Cell Phone:..............
Age
Current occupation:

So your files would be updated after which he will send the payment informations which you'll use in making payment of $110.00 via Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram Transfer for the procurement of your Approval Slip after which the delivery of your ATM CARD will be effected to your designated home address without any further delay.

We order you get back to this office after you have contacted the ATM SWIFT CARD CENTER and we do await your response so we can move on with our Investigation and make sure your ATM SWIFT CARD gets to you. Thanks and hope to read from you soon.

FBI Director Robert S.Mueller III.

Note: Do disregard any email you get from any impostors or offices claiming to


I'm afraid that's where it ends, and without the missing information about what they're claiming I'm afraid I won't be able to identify imposters.