Just about the final piece of the moving back jigsaw has fallen into place.
The shipper has e-mailed to confirm that our stuff will be delivered the day after we arrive. That couldn't be better timing, just one night camping and then we'll have the furniture and the rest of our belongings.
So after nearly six years this will be the last post on Life in Dubai.
The first post was January 20, 2006 and I've rabbited on in 1264 posts in total. I'm amazed, I had no idea when I started that it would go on and add up like that.
A sincere thanks for stopping by, for taking the time to read the posts and for the comments, I really appreciate it.
I'll leave this blog as it is because it's a report of daily life as one person saw it through a unique period of time in the development of Dubai. I won't post here any more but I'll check back every so often to see if there are any new comments; I still get comments on posts from years back.
As in future I'll be in Australia that's where I'll move my blogging to. But I'll be visiting Dubai regularly, at least for a while, and I'm sure I'll have things to say about it. You'll find me at Life in Oz...& Dubai.
If you'd like to keep in touch, as I would with you, just click on this link: Life in Oz...& Dubai..
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Friday, August 12, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Benihana Kuwait's blogger attack
Here's the review that resulted in a blogger being sued for damages:
My Benihana Experience
A few days back I posted about Benihana opening up at the Avenues and yesterday night I decided to pass by with Nat and try it out. The service wasn’t too bad for a restaurant that’s just been open for a few days and the staff were really friendly. The restaurant itself is made up of islands and bars with a grill in the middle of each one. You sit around the grill and the chef will come to your table and prepare the food right in front of you which makes things entertaining. It’s actually why I prefer sitting at the bar in Japanese restaurants in general, since you can talk to the chef and watch them put your dish together. The problem with my experience last night though was with the food, it was disappointing to say the least.
I shot the two videos above of the chef preparing our meal. Benihana are known for the live shows they perform when preparing your dish so I was expecting to see [This] but ended up with the above . Would I go back to Benihana? No I wouldn’t. Their sashimi and maki’s are pretty cheap (KD1.5 for 5 pieces of Salmon sashimi for example) but there are two other Japanese restaurants at the Avenues, Wasabi and Maki, and I would prefer either one of those to Benihana.
(You can read the original post here. )
There won't be many internet users who aren't aware that Kuwait-based blogger Mark is being sued by Benihana Kuwait for writing that review of his experience in their restaurant.
In spite of universal negative reaction, franchisee Benihana Kuwait is continuing with its legal attack. The franchiser Benihana of Tokyo has taken the decision to hide and pretend it isn't happening, isn't damaging their brand.
Benihana Inc, a separate company, has spoken out, issuing a press release distancing themselves from the debacle, saying they welcomed customer feedback and advising people to 'share your comments and opinions directly with Benihana of Tokyo, Inc'.
I originally posted about it here, under the heading 'Sued for saying he didn't like his meal'.
I also said in an update post that it was a balanced review and along with many other bloggers today, I'm reproducing it.
The reason this is being re-posted today by many people on various internet platforms is to continue to draw attention to the attack on freedom of speech.
There's nothing in the review to warrant such an attack.
Read the blogs, the tweets, the Facebook comments - the damage to Benihana is being done by the actions of the Kuwait franchisee and by Benihana of Tokyo themselves by their silence. Just google benihana kuwait or on Twitter look for #BenihanaKUW to see what's being said.
Benihana can begin to repair the damage they've created for themselves by announcing that they are dropping the legal action.
My Benihana Experience
A few days back I posted about Benihana opening up at the Avenues and yesterday night I decided to pass by with Nat and try it out. The service wasn’t too bad for a restaurant that’s just been open for a few days and the staff were really friendly. The restaurant itself is made up of islands and bars with a grill in the middle of each one. You sit around the grill and the chef will come to your table and prepare the food right in front of you which makes things entertaining. It’s actually why I prefer sitting at the bar in Japanese restaurants in general, since you can talk to the chef and watch them put your dish together. The problem with my experience last night though was with the food, it was disappointing to say the least.
We ordered beef negimayaki for starters followed by an Orange Blossom maki and a Hibachi Chicken. The negimaki arrived looking good and was probably the best thing we had there even though I prefer Maki’s negimaki which has a richer teriyaki sauce. The Orange Blossom was very ordinary, wouldn’t order it again. Now the Hibachi chicken which is basically grilled chicken, that was the worst. The chicken was very chewy (I could swear it was undercooked if not raw) and tasted terrible. Even after I had the chef add some more teriyaki sauce in hopes of improving the taste it didn’t work. I tried to dip it into the sauces that came with the chicken but it was hard to figure out if they were actually making things worse or not. Nat only ate one piece of chicken and left the rest while I needed my protein since I’m on a strict diet and forced myself to eat my whole plate (I can do that) but the after taste was really bad. Even the rice and the veggies that came with it tasted bad AND were under cooked. Once we left I considered picking up a frozen yogurt from Pinkberry even though I hate frozen yogurts but I just needed something to get rid of the aftertaste. A few moments later we ended up at Chocolate Bar ordering the gooey chocolate cake (bye bye diet).
I shot the two videos above of the chef preparing our meal. Benihana are known for the live shows they perform when preparing your dish so I was expecting to see [This] but ended up with the above . Would I go back to Benihana? No I wouldn’t. Their sashimi and maki’s are pretty cheap (KD1.5 for 5 pieces of Salmon sashimi for example) but there are two other Japanese restaurants at the Avenues, Wasabi and Maki, and I would prefer either one of those to Benihana.
(You can read the original post here. )
There won't be many internet users who aren't aware that Kuwait-based blogger Mark is being sued by Benihana Kuwait for writing that review of his experience in their restaurant.
In spite of universal negative reaction, franchisee Benihana Kuwait is continuing with its legal attack. The franchiser Benihana of Tokyo has taken the decision to hide and pretend it isn't happening, isn't damaging their brand.
Benihana Inc, a separate company, has spoken out, issuing a press release distancing themselves from the debacle, saying they welcomed customer feedback and advising people to 'share your comments and opinions directly with Benihana of Tokyo, Inc'.
I originally posted about it here, under the heading 'Sued for saying he didn't like his meal'.
I also said in an update post that it was a balanced review and along with many other bloggers today, I'm reproducing it.
The reason this is being re-posted today by many people on various internet platforms is to continue to draw attention to the attack on freedom of speech.
There's nothing in the review to warrant such an attack.
Read the blogs, the tweets, the Facebook comments - the damage to Benihana is being done by the actions of the Kuwait franchisee and by Benihana of Tokyo themselves by their silence. Just google benihana kuwait or on Twitter look for #BenihanaKUW to see what's being said.
Benihana can begin to repair the damage they've created for themselves by announcing that they are dropping the legal action.
Friday, January 28, 2011
On blogging
A lazy weekend, Mrs Seabee's gone into the office and I have a couple of hours before we meet for lunch so I thought I'd just post a couple of thoughts that came up on the Dubai Eye Radio blogging programme I was delighted to be involved with on Tuesday, and in conversations since.
It's the business equivalent of talking shop so if you're not a blogger you'll probably want to leave now, but thanks for stopping by anyway. Bloggers, addicts as we are, might stay with me...
One of the things that was touched on during the programme was anonymity when Hussein/Who-sane was asked about it.
I don't think of it as 'anonymous' though. I, and many others, are doing nothing more than using the age-old tradition of a pen name, a nom de plume. Was Eric Blair 'anonymous', or is David Cornwell?*
I've been known in business for years as Seabee, my wife calls me Seabee (among other things that aren't suitable as a pen name) so I use it, my nickname. I've been interviewed on tv and appeared in several documentary films in which I'm not masked or disguised, so I don't think I'm anonymous.
Why not use the name on my birth certificate? I suppose the main reasons are that that I'm just more comfortable using Seabee (I can't explain that), I prefer people to have their own picture of me in their mind (like a radio play where you imagine what the characters look like) and to avoid being harassed at home.
The latter comes up because in the pre-blogging days when I got things off my chest by forever sending letters to newspapers, I got phone calls from people who'd looked me up in the telephone directory. Not all were abusive, in fact they were the minority. But even with people calling to say they agreed with me I didn't want to be disturbed at home by them any more than I want sales people calling to offer deals they insist I'd be stupid to refuse.
Then there was the reason we blog anyway. How we started and why.
There are probably as many different answers as there are bloggers, we're all individual personalities. Some started to keep in touch with family and friends. Some are simply daily diaries, replacing the old paper diary. Some are specialist blogs, promoting a favourite football team, talking fashion, some are travelogues. We have awful blogs to promote extremist and racist agendas. Political blogs, self-promoting blogs. The list is endless.
For me blogging is an extension of what I've always done, but expanded through the internet. I'm interested on what goes on around me and in the wider world, whether it's a major event or trivia, and I usually have an opinion about it.
I talk about those things with family and friends, and conversations, debates, arguments, ranting, complaining, praising are the result.
That's what I do through this blog too. To me when I post I'm starting a conversation, which you join when you read the blog. Some of you actively join in by leaving a comment, and I thank you for that. The conversation may well go on for a while through the comments section - that happens in particular when I get people foaming at the mouth, purple-faced, when I touch on a sensitive subject. (Passing thought: I haven't done that for ages, I must try to think of a provocative subject to post about).
Then there's the future of blogging, where we think it might it's going.
My thought is that in a very short space of time we've gone from being a new, breakthrough medium to being old hat. We're edging towards being mainstream (traditional even?) media. Hussein and I both recounted instances where our blog posts were picked up by the traditional print media and became big stories, joining us with the mainstream.
Other example of this merging are links to this blog from mainstream media, for example such as *horror* Fox in the US (my post on a Brit facing jail for giving the finger to another motorist) and the New York Times (my response to Johann Hari's infamous 'Dark Side of Dubai' story).
Many people have moved to Twitter - dare I say the less committed, less serious, bloggers? (I really don't understand Twitter and I must do a post on it one day). I suspect that there may well be fewer traditional (that word again) bloggers in the future but that it will be the more serious of us. Again I suppose that nudges blogging even closer to the mainstream.
Another thing that came up was earning money from blogging. I seem to be in the minority (of one?) in saying that I won't have any advertising, any paid-for content, on my blog. I want absolute freedom to say, with no pressure from anyone, exactly what I want to say. Agree with what I say or don't, but what you read are my observations, thoughts and opinions. There's no commercial influence anywhere in them.
But that's me. I respect the others' views that they'd like to earn some money from blogging, as both fellow-Aussie Sarah and Micheline said they would.
Fellow guest in the studio Bebhinn has a website dedicated to fashion, at Hellwa Fashion, but to me that's a different thing from blogging. It's a fully commercialised site, much like an online magazine (and very good it is too) designed to make money from a subject dear to the heart of the publisher.
I was asked by co-host of the show Alexander McNabb whether I ever worry about censorship. It's something that's come up in more than once in comments left on this blog over the years. Usually they're from 'anonymous' and are heated claims that we all write as we're told to and are terrified of being thrown in jail if we don't.
As I didn't expect the question I hadn't given it any previous thought, and it's not something I've ever given any concious thought to so I stuttered somewhat in my reply, trying to think it through as I answered. And I think that's the point - I haven't given it any thought.
I've always believed that the laws of libel apply to anyone saying anything on the internet and I bear that in mind. I try to be reasonably polite even when I'm critical. But beyond that I say what I want to say. I certainly don't sit here thinking that I must be careful what I say in case big men in dark glasses pound on my door at 2am.
And here's Mrs Seabee ready for lunch so I'm off.
Have a great weekend.
* To save you googling, that's George Orwell and John Le Carre.
It's the business equivalent of talking shop so if you're not a blogger you'll probably want to leave now, but thanks for stopping by anyway. Bloggers, addicts as we are, might stay with me...
One of the things that was touched on during the programme was anonymity when Hussein/Who-sane was asked about it.
I don't think of it as 'anonymous' though. I, and many others, are doing nothing more than using the age-old tradition of a pen name, a nom de plume. Was Eric Blair 'anonymous', or is David Cornwell?*
I've been known in business for years as Seabee, my wife calls me Seabee (among other things that aren't suitable as a pen name) so I use it, my nickname. I've been interviewed on tv and appeared in several documentary films in which I'm not masked or disguised, so I don't think I'm anonymous.
Why not use the name on my birth certificate? I suppose the main reasons are that that I'm just more comfortable using Seabee (I can't explain that), I prefer people to have their own picture of me in their mind (like a radio play where you imagine what the characters look like) and to avoid being harassed at home.
The latter comes up because in the pre-blogging days when I got things off my chest by forever sending letters to newspapers, I got phone calls from people who'd looked me up in the telephone directory. Not all were abusive, in fact they were the minority. But even with people calling to say they agreed with me I didn't want to be disturbed at home by them any more than I want sales people calling to offer deals they insist I'd be stupid to refuse.
Then there was the reason we blog anyway. How we started and why.
There are probably as many different answers as there are bloggers, we're all individual personalities. Some started to keep in touch with family and friends. Some are simply daily diaries, replacing the old paper diary. Some are specialist blogs, promoting a favourite football team, talking fashion, some are travelogues. We have awful blogs to promote extremist and racist agendas. Political blogs, self-promoting blogs. The list is endless.
For me blogging is an extension of what I've always done, but expanded through the internet. I'm interested on what goes on around me and in the wider world, whether it's a major event or trivia, and I usually have an opinion about it.
I talk about those things with family and friends, and conversations, debates, arguments, ranting, complaining, praising are the result.
That's what I do through this blog too. To me when I post I'm starting a conversation, which you join when you read the blog. Some of you actively join in by leaving a comment, and I thank you for that. The conversation may well go on for a while through the comments section - that happens in particular when I get people foaming at the mouth, purple-faced, when I touch on a sensitive subject. (Passing thought: I haven't done that for ages, I must try to think of a provocative subject to post about).
Then there's the future of blogging, where we think it might it's going.
My thought is that in a very short space of time we've gone from being a new, breakthrough medium to being old hat. We're edging towards being mainstream (traditional even?) media. Hussein and I both recounted instances where our blog posts were picked up by the traditional print media and became big stories, joining us with the mainstream.
Other example of this merging are links to this blog from mainstream media, for example such as *horror* Fox in the US (my post on a Brit facing jail for giving the finger to another motorist) and the New York Times (my response to Johann Hari's infamous 'Dark Side of Dubai' story).
Many people have moved to Twitter - dare I say the less committed, less serious, bloggers? (I really don't understand Twitter and I must do a post on it one day). I suspect that there may well be fewer traditional (that word again) bloggers in the future but that it will be the more serious of us. Again I suppose that nudges blogging even closer to the mainstream.
Another thing that came up was earning money from blogging. I seem to be in the minority (of one?) in saying that I won't have any advertising, any paid-for content, on my blog. I want absolute freedom to say, with no pressure from anyone, exactly what I want to say. Agree with what I say or don't, but what you read are my observations, thoughts and opinions. There's no commercial influence anywhere in them.
But that's me. I respect the others' views that they'd like to earn some money from blogging, as both fellow-Aussie Sarah and Micheline said they would.
Fellow guest in the studio Bebhinn has a website dedicated to fashion, at Hellwa Fashion, but to me that's a different thing from blogging. It's a fully commercialised site, much like an online magazine (and very good it is too) designed to make money from a subject dear to the heart of the publisher.
I was asked by co-host of the show Alexander McNabb whether I ever worry about censorship. It's something that's come up in more than once in comments left on this blog over the years. Usually they're from 'anonymous' and are heated claims that we all write as we're told to and are terrified of being thrown in jail if we don't.
As I didn't expect the question I hadn't given it any previous thought, and it's not something I've ever given any concious thought to so I stuttered somewhat in my reply, trying to think it through as I answered. And I think that's the point - I haven't given it any thought.
I've always believed that the laws of libel apply to anyone saying anything on the internet and I bear that in mind. I try to be reasonably polite even when I'm critical. But beyond that I say what I want to say. I certainly don't sit here thinking that I must be careful what I say in case big men in dark glasses pound on my door at 2am.
And here's Mrs Seabee ready for lunch so I'm off.
Have a great weekend.
* To save you googling, that's George Orwell and John Le Carre.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
So where's Studio City?
Whiled away a couple of fun, interesting hours with fellow bloggers on a Dubai Eye Radio programme this morning.
Suzanne Radford and Alexander McNabb on Dubai Today's 'Techno Tuesday' decided they'd devote most of the programme to blogging and bloggers.
But that's not what this post is about. Far better, if you're interested, to go to the podcast, which Alex said should be up soon on their website. Instead of me telling you about it you can listen to the programme.
No, the post is another in my 'bloody useless signage' series.
Over the years of blogging I've complained many times about the road signage being confusing, inaccurate and dangerous. In this case it simply doesn't exist.
I've driven out to Global Village the past two weekends (I must post about that too), going from Al Sufouh along Umm Suqueim Road to Arabian Ranches.
I had no idea that Studio City, where Dubai Eye is located, is there, right across the road from Arabian Ranches.
Today I saw the reason. Following Suzanne's instructions on how to get there I found it was exactly the way I'd driven to Global Village. But I didn't see one single sign to Studio City. Nor when I got there did I see a sign identifying the place.
Millions spent on developing a new 'city', plenty of companies operating from it and not a sign anywhere.
You can get a temporary one run up for a few dirhams if the permanent one isn't ready.
Although why it wouldn't be I can't visualise. The time it took to build the impressive-ish entrance gate was plenty of time to get a sign made.
Come on guys, it isn't rocket science it's just road signage. How can you get it so wrong so consistently?
Back to the programme for a minute to guide you to the bloggers who participated in it. Reflecting the blogosphere, they're all very different. But as they were hand-picked by Alex they're all well worth a read.
Dubai-ified
Mich Cafe
Who-sane
Hellwa Fashion
A Nabulsi Story
andfaraway
And Alex' own blog is Fake Plastic Souks
You can listen to the podcast here, at DubaiEye103.8
Suzanne Radford and Alexander McNabb on Dubai Today's 'Techno Tuesday' decided they'd devote most of the programme to blogging and bloggers.
But that's not what this post is about. Far better, if you're interested, to go to the podcast, which Alex said should be up soon on their website. Instead of me telling you about it you can listen to the programme.
No, the post is another in my 'bloody useless signage' series.
Over the years of blogging I've complained many times about the road signage being confusing, inaccurate and dangerous. In this case it simply doesn't exist.
I've driven out to Global Village the past two weekends (I must post about that too), going from Al Sufouh along Umm Suqueim Road to Arabian Ranches.
I had no idea that Studio City, where Dubai Eye is located, is there, right across the road from Arabian Ranches.
Today I saw the reason. Following Suzanne's instructions on how to get there I found it was exactly the way I'd driven to Global Village. But I didn't see one single sign to Studio City. Nor when I got there did I see a sign identifying the place.
Millions spent on developing a new 'city', plenty of companies operating from it and not a sign anywhere.
You can get a temporary one run up for a few dirhams if the permanent one isn't ready.
Although why it wouldn't be I can't visualise. The time it took to build the impressive-ish entrance gate was plenty of time to get a sign made.
Come on guys, it isn't rocket science it's just road signage. How can you get it so wrong so consistently?
Back to the programme for a minute to guide you to the bloggers who participated in it. Reflecting the blogosphere, they're all very different. But as they were hand-picked by Alex they're all well worth a read.
Dubai-ified
Mich Cafe
Who-sane
Hellwa Fashion
A Nabulsi Story
andfaraway
And Alex' own blog is Fake Plastic Souks
You can listen to the podcast here, at DubaiEye103.8
Monday, January 17, 2011
A dubious award
A highly dubious 'award' sent to me by fellow Dubai blogger Alexander McNabb.
In fact it's really one of those chain letter things that we get regularly, designed to wheedle out some personal details.
Usually I ignore them, but as it's from such a noted local identity and celebrity blogger, here goes...
1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy with this? If you aren't anonymous, do you wish you started out anonymously so that you could be anonymous now?
Anonymous yes, but I think of it as simply using a traditional writers' device of a nom de plume. Of course I'm happy with it, otherwise I'd change it.
2. Describe an incident that describes your stubborn side.
Me stubborn? Never.
3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?
Depends on time of day. First thing in the morning I see a very blurred, out of focus image of someone. Later in the day I simply see me.
4. What is your favourite summer cold drink?
Since I discovered it when we came back to Dubai I have a new one, fresh lemon with mint.
5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?
Depends where I am. Back home in Oz I walk a lot and spend a lot of time in the garden. In Dubai I tend to spend time on the computer, writing or on forums.
6. Is there something that you still want to accomplish in your life?
Get better at anything I do.
Get better at anything I do.
7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the shy person or always ditching?
All of the above except overachieving. I hated school with a vengeance and my reports always complained 'he could do better if he put any effort in'. I left at the first possible moment.
8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what do you see.
My father's funeral, driving past his workplace and seeing all his colleagues lined up at the roadside for a final farewell.
9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog, or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people and events?
My blog is about what I see and hear, what happens around me, or sometimes in the wider world. Things that interest, amuse, annoy, frustrate me. I tend to give my opinion on much of it, so in that sense I guess I do show some of my true self.
10. If you had the choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?
Phone. I like talking to people, finding out what they're up to, getting different views, debating, discussing.
And the rule of these chain letter things is that I now have to annoy three other people by sending it on to them.
So it's going to three familiar bloggers, ex-Dubai now Madrid-based Keefieboy, to ex-Dubai now Barcelona-based nzm and to Dubai-based Grumpy Goat.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible...
We're flying back to Dubai tomorrow, arriving on Friday morning at some unearthly early hour as all flights into Dubai seem to do.
We're on a non-stop Emirates A380, nearly fifteen hours.
It takes an hour longer going back to Dubai, obviously because to get from down here in Australia to the Northern Hemisphere it's uphill all the way.
I'm not sure how long after I get back it'll be before I get 'Life in Dubai' back to a normal posting schedule.
It's not just the fifteen hour flight, you have to add to that the time it takes to get to-from airports, to check in hours before the flight then sit around the terminal, then wait at the baggage carousel...it'll add up to nearly 24 hours in all.
Then there's a seven hour time difference that throws the body clock into total confusion.
I'm thinking I'll be unjetlagged and untravel-tired around March some time.
As you know, I like to include photos in my posts where I can, but after a couple of weeks here when I was able to post a few photos my little digital camera decided to throw a tantrum. When I tried to fix it it got really annoyed shut down all together.
I have to take it back to the dealer in Dubai to get it repaired and I'm not holding my breath for that to happen in a hurry. Being photoless will affect the postings schedule too I'm sure.
Still, I'll try to get back into the routine as soon as I can.
We're on a non-stop Emirates A380, nearly fifteen hours.
It takes an hour longer going back to Dubai, obviously because to get from down here in Australia to the Northern Hemisphere it's uphill all the way.
I'm not sure how long after I get back it'll be before I get 'Life in Dubai' back to a normal posting schedule.
It's not just the fifteen hour flight, you have to add to that the time it takes to get to-from airports, to check in hours before the flight then sit around the terminal, then wait at the baggage carousel...it'll add up to nearly 24 hours in all.
Then there's a seven hour time difference that throws the body clock into total confusion.
I'm thinking I'll be unjetlagged and untravel-tired around March some time.
As you know, I like to include photos in my posts where I can, but after a couple of weeks here when I was able to post a few photos my little digital camera decided to throw a tantrum. When I tried to fix it it got really annoyed shut down all together.
I have to take it back to the dealer in Dubai to get it repaired and I'm not holding my breath for that to happen in a hurry. Being photoless will affect the postings schedule too I'm sure.
Still, I'll try to get back into the routine as soon as I can.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Culling the trolls
Not something I'd normally bother to give exposure too, but this is a post about trolls.
The reason for the post is not that we have a troll frequently visiting 'Life in Dubai', but because other readers have been responding to his crass stupidity.
The problem with that is response is trolls' reason for being.
This definition explains:
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
Their comments are usually extremely childish - think seven year old schoolboy trying to impress his peers by writing rude words on a wall - and their infantile egos feed on responses.
Here's an example of the high intellect, the jaw-dropping creativity of our very own troll. He repeats this and similar messages on many of my posts:
"Yes you are back indeed!
Mrs Seabee?!?! The writer is a HE?
With all the whining, bitching and whimpering, I really thought you were a woman!
Either the "we" in "We lived in Dubai from 1977 to 1984" includes your mustachioed civil partner hidden behind a 'abayah, or you are a closeted basket case."
Boy, aren't we all impressed with the cleverness of that!
BTW, our troll has an interesting obsession with homosexuality, revealing a particular liking for cross-dressing moustachioed men.
Some people think that trolling is, like attempted suicide, a call for help.
Disturbed they undoubtedly are, but I take a different view on how to deal with them.
They're simply a waste of space. If they were animals they'd be culled.
Now although we don't allow culling of humans in the real world it is allowed in cyberspace.
Moderators can hit the 'Delete' button.
So the trolls go exactly where they belong. They cease to exist.
The fun part is, I probably get more enjoyment out of culling troll than he does in leaving his messages.
If you're tempted to respond to a troll, don't. Just ignore them. Don't give them the satisfaction and ego rub of responding to them.
There's an acronym to remember - DNFTT. Do Not Feed The Trolls.
Definition of troll.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Ain't that the truth.
In his New York Times column, Thomas L. Friedman talks about the frightening divisiveness and rise of extremism in American politics.
Amongst it is a spot-on comment about the blogosphere, and the internet in general:
...a blogosphere that at its best enriches our debates, adding new checks on the establishment, and at its worst coarsens our debates to a whole new level, giving a new power to anonymous slanderers to send lies around the world.
The column is here.
Amongst it is a spot-on comment about the blogosphere, and the internet in general:
...a blogosphere that at its best enriches our debates, adding new checks on the establishment, and at its worst coarsens our debates to a whole new level, giving a new power to anonymous slanderers to send lies around the world.
The column is here.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Google reveals anonymous blogger's identity
Last week I posted about the unprecedented court ruling in the US in which Google was ordered to reveal the identity of an anonymous blogger, something of importance to all bloggers.
A reminder - model Liskula Cohen wanted to sue the anonymous blogger for defamation after derogatory posts were published. She sued Google to force them to reveal the name of the blogger and the court ruled in her favour.
I said at the end of the post: Whether Google will appeal the decision hasn't been announced, nor has how or when the bloggers name will be revealed. I guess it could be in open court or privately to Ms Cohen and her lawyers.
In fact Google simply obeyed the court order. It's reported that the blogger's identity was initially concealed, but somehow it's now in the public domain.
The outed blogger is Rosemary Port, a 29-year-old New York fashion student.
The story will run for a while yet because she says she's planning to sue Google for breaching her privacy.
Talk about naive: "Before her suit, there were probably two hits on my website: one from me looking at it, and one from her looking at it," Port said.
"That was before it became a spectacle. I feel my right to privacy has been violated."
Rosemary, you publish something on the web and it's there for the whole world to see. You want your written thoughts to remain private, write it with a pen in an old-fashioned paper diary and lock it in a cupboard.
When you read the new details it's a case of two women being bitchy to each other which has got out of hand.
Now the lawyers are involved, offering them huge publicity, not to mention a good percentage of any damages awarded, it will just go on and on.
Mr Murdoch's rag the New York Daily News has been running the story and it'll be fodder for the tabloids for a long time yet. The gossip angle will probably throw a smoke screen over the serious aspect of it all.
I read the latest chapter of the story in The Sydney Morning Herald, which rightly puts it in the Technology section.
A reminder - model Liskula Cohen wanted to sue the anonymous blogger for defamation after derogatory posts were published. She sued Google to force them to reveal the name of the blogger and the court ruled in her favour.
I said at the end of the post: Whether Google will appeal the decision hasn't been announced, nor has how or when the bloggers name will be revealed. I guess it could be in open court or privately to Ms Cohen and her lawyers.
In fact Google simply obeyed the court order. It's reported that the blogger's identity was initially concealed, but somehow it's now in the public domain.
The outed blogger is Rosemary Port, a 29-year-old New York fashion student.
The story will run for a while yet because she says she's planning to sue Google for breaching her privacy.
Talk about naive: "Before her suit, there were probably two hits on my website: one from me looking at it, and one from her looking at it," Port said.
"That was before it became a spectacle. I feel my right to privacy has been violated."
Rosemary, you publish something on the web and it's there for the whole world to see. You want your written thoughts to remain private, write it with a pen in an old-fashioned paper diary and lock it in a cupboard.
When you read the new details it's a case of two women being bitchy to each other which has got out of hand.
Now the lawyers are involved, offering them huge publicity, not to mention a good percentage of any damages awarded, it will just go on and on.
Mr Murdoch's rag the New York Daily News has been running the story and it'll be fodder for the tabloids for a long time yet. The gossip angle will probably throw a smoke screen over the serious aspect of it all.
I read the latest chapter of the story in The Sydney Morning Herald, which rightly puts it in the Technology section.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Why the rudeness?
Why are so many comments on blog postings rude, impolite, bad mannered, offensive?
Why do people feel the need to do that?
It's something that's been intriguing me for a while.
If you disagree with an opinion expressed you can say so, give your reasons for disagreeing, put your own opinion forward. That's the well mannered, adult way.
All too often though there's just rudeness and abuse.
I'll give you a relatively mild example and it's just one of many, but it prompted this post as it's the latest one to appear on my blog.
I've talked a few times about the inordinately high number of vehicle fires we have here and I've asked why it is. I've asked whether maybe our vehicle safety standads are not as advanced as other countries, which I've put forward as a possible reason. My latest post on the subject was on Tuesday.
On the live feed to Dubizzle there's the following comment - this is it in full:
"You can think of no other reason because you're not qualified to have one and therefore you amazingly just assume it must be down to poor vehicle standards.
You almost read like a quote from GN!
And yes, I am a qualified British Safety Engineer specializing in Accident Investigations and Root Cause Analysis...."
A self proclaimed expert bragging about his qualifications to justify a smart-arse comment; 'You don't know what you're talking about, I'm highly qualified and very clever'. But, you notice, not giving us the benefit of his expertise by giving an answer.
How about the alternative of an answer like: 'You're wrong in thinking that safety standards are to blame. As a qualified Safety Engineer I can tell you that the most likely reasons are (whatever they are)'
That would have been helpful and informative. It would also have been without the unnecessary and uncalled for rudeness.
I've never claimed to be an expert on the subject of vehicle fires, it's something that concerns me and I'm interested to know the reasons behind it. I think it's something that should be discussed and if the causes can be identified and prevented then that should be highlighted.
For the first time on one of my posts about it there's been a comment left from someone who claims expertise on the subject. Does he give us the benefit of his expertise? No, just a smart-arse comment and a brag about his qualifications.
It happens just about every time a blogger states an opinion and I genuinely am interested, as other bloggers probably are, to know what's behind the rudeness.
Among the people reading this are those of you who are bad mannered enough to leave offensive comments. Many of you do that regularly and exclusively, never leaving a sensible or helpful comment. My questions are to you.
Are you the same in the real world, face to face with someone in your working life who expresses an opinion with which you disagree? Or with a friend who does the same over a drink? I suspect you'd get a smack in the mouth if you did, so my guess is that you don't. The net gives you the anonymity and protection you need to be bad mannered, rude, offensive.
But that doesn't answer why you do it.
Why don't you express your opinions in a polite way, join in an adult dialogue, an exchange of opinions? Why play the man not the ball?
By being bad mannered and rude do you think you're being clever and smart? Do you brag to your friends about what you've said? Do you think it shows your sophistication and intelligence?
Why do you do it? The comments section is open for you to tell us...
Why do people feel the need to do that?
It's something that's been intriguing me for a while.
If you disagree with an opinion expressed you can say so, give your reasons for disagreeing, put your own opinion forward. That's the well mannered, adult way.
All too often though there's just rudeness and abuse.
I'll give you a relatively mild example and it's just one of many, but it prompted this post as it's the latest one to appear on my blog.
I've talked a few times about the inordinately high number of vehicle fires we have here and I've asked why it is. I've asked whether maybe our vehicle safety standads are not as advanced as other countries, which I've put forward as a possible reason. My latest post on the subject was on Tuesday.
On the live feed to Dubizzle there's the following comment - this is it in full:
"You can think of no other reason because you're not qualified to have one and therefore you amazingly just assume it must be down to poor vehicle standards.
You almost read like a quote from GN!
And yes, I am a qualified British Safety Engineer specializing in Accident Investigations and Root Cause Analysis...."
A self proclaimed expert bragging about his qualifications to justify a smart-arse comment; 'You don't know what you're talking about, I'm highly qualified and very clever'. But, you notice, not giving us the benefit of his expertise by giving an answer.
How about the alternative of an answer like: 'You're wrong in thinking that safety standards are to blame. As a qualified Safety Engineer I can tell you that the most likely reasons are (whatever they are)'
That would have been helpful and informative. It would also have been without the unnecessary and uncalled for rudeness.
I've never claimed to be an expert on the subject of vehicle fires, it's something that concerns me and I'm interested to know the reasons behind it. I think it's something that should be discussed and if the causes can be identified and prevented then that should be highlighted.
For the first time on one of my posts about it there's been a comment left from someone who claims expertise on the subject. Does he give us the benefit of his expertise? No, just a smart-arse comment and a brag about his qualifications.
It happens just about every time a blogger states an opinion and I genuinely am interested, as other bloggers probably are, to know what's behind the rudeness.
Among the people reading this are those of you who are bad mannered enough to leave offensive comments. Many of you do that regularly and exclusively, never leaving a sensible or helpful comment. My questions are to you.
Are you the same in the real world, face to face with someone in your working life who expresses an opinion with which you disagree? Or with a friend who does the same over a drink? I suspect you'd get a smack in the mouth if you did, so my guess is that you don't. The net gives you the anonymity and protection you need to be bad mannered, rude, offensive.
But that doesn't answer why you do it.
Why don't you express your opinions in a polite way, join in an adult dialogue, an exchange of opinions? Why play the man not the ball?
By being bad mannered and rude do you think you're being clever and smart? Do you brag to your friends about what you've said? Do you think it shows your sophistication and intelligence?
Why do you do it? The comments section is open for you to tell us...
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Laws governing bloggers?
Every so often there's a debate about which laws cover bloggers, indeed whether there are any laws governing what we say.
I've always believed that we're governed by the laws of libel, decency and honesty which apply to any other published material. The fact that we're the new phenomenon of blogging, are amateurs and publish only on the web is immaterial.
The debate also often touches on anonymity, on bloggers using a nom de plume.
To me that's really neither here nor there, it's a well-established practice in writing. There's even widespread complete anonymity too, such as with newspaper editorial writers.
In any case the reality is that not writing under our own names doesn't mean no-one knows who we are.
The reason I'm posting about all this is an interesting and unprecedented court ruling in the US.
Model Liskula Cohen wants to sue an anonymous blogger for defamation after derogatory posts were published. She sued Google to force them to reveal the name of the blogger, who used Google's Blogger platform (as I do).
On Monday, Judge Joan Madden ruled that Cohen was entitled to sue the blogger for defamation and to enable her to do this ordered Google to provide the blogger's name.
Whether Google will appeal the decision hasn't been announced, nor has how or when the bloggers name will be revealed. I guess it could be in open court or privately to Ms Cohen and her lawyers.
It does confirm the obvious though, we're subject to the law as much as anyone else.
You can read the story here.
I've always believed that we're governed by the laws of libel, decency and honesty which apply to any other published material. The fact that we're the new phenomenon of blogging, are amateurs and publish only on the web is immaterial.
The debate also often touches on anonymity, on bloggers using a nom de plume.
To me that's really neither here nor there, it's a well-established practice in writing. There's even widespread complete anonymity too, such as with newspaper editorial writers.
In any case the reality is that not writing under our own names doesn't mean no-one knows who we are.
The reason I'm posting about all this is an interesting and unprecedented court ruling in the US.
Model Liskula Cohen wants to sue an anonymous blogger for defamation after derogatory posts were published. She sued Google to force them to reveal the name of the blogger, who used Google's Blogger platform (as I do).
On Monday, Judge Joan Madden ruled that Cohen was entitled to sue the blogger for defamation and to enable her to do this ordered Google to provide the blogger's name.
Whether Google will appeal the decision hasn't been announced, nor has how or when the bloggers name will be revealed. I guess it could be in open court or privately to Ms Cohen and her lawyers.
It does confirm the obvious though, we're subject to the law as much as anyone else.
You can read the story here.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Checking the checker.
I was going through the stats on today's visitors to this blog and came upon a new and interesting one.
Here's a copy & paste of it:
Referrer http://dubai.dubizzle.com/blog/community-blog/pr-office-for-brand-dubai/
IP Address 91.75.44.196 [Label IP Address]
Country United Arab Emirates
Region Dubai
City Dubai
ISP The Executive Council - Government Of Dubai
So someone at Dubai's Executive Council is reading the UAE Community Blog at Dubizzle and coming from there to individual posts which obviously interest them.
Here's where they went on this blog:
Navigation Path
21st June 2009
14:39:06
Page View
dubai.dubizzle.com/blog/community-blog/pr-office-for-brand-dubai/www.dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/
21st June 2009
14:39:47
Page View
www.dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.html
21st June 2009
14:40:03
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-months-for-sally-mark.html
21st June 2009
14:40:36
Exit Link
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6516504.ece
21st June 2009
14:42:33
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-months-for-sally-mark.html
21st June 2009
14:43:19
Exit Link
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2461336/Husband-who-got-wife-jailed-in-Dubai-says-they-are-friends.html
21st June 2009
14:44:10
Exit Link
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1190249/British-mother-Sally-Antia-lover-Mark-Hawkins-jailed-months-adultery-Dubai.html
21st June 2009
14:44:23
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-months-for-sally-mark.html
21st June 2009
14:46:26
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/story-of-ebony-ivory.html
21st June 2009
14:47:44
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/story-of-ebony-ivory.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Dubai%20expensive%3F
To summarise, they spent nearly nine minutes reading the posts about the new Brand Dubai Media Affairs Office, the Sally Antia story (that's the British mother jailed after her husband dobbed her in to the police for having an affair, including going to the links I gave to UK newspaper stories), the Ebony & Ivory Towers story, in which investors claimed they were mislead by phony photos.
And then they clicked on my label 'Dubai expensive?'
I don't know about you but I think that's encouraging.
It doesn't seem to be someone idling away time at the office by surfing the net because they selected particular posts. From their choice of reading matter it seems to be someone looking for information, for feedback, in areas they're involved with.
Since blogging started, surprisingly not all that long ago, I've thought that blogs which are mainly about news, and are of the op-ed type, give a good idea of the view from the street. An indication of what people are thinking about and what their thoughts are. That includes not only the posts themselves but also the comments left on them.
The UAE Community Blog has quite a few in that category with a range of views on most subjects, so reading them isn't a bad way for an organisation to do some simple desk research.
One of the many advantages of the internet is that it's made it much easier to check on public opinion.
There was an interesting article in the 'Financial Times' the other day on the subject. It was mainly about commercial organisations and how they can use the internet, and especially social networking sites, to their advantage - although most don't.
But the same applies to government departments, particularly as we hear more and more about governments being out of touch with the people. They can, and should, use the net to find out what people are talking about, what concerns we have, what our opinions are.
I think that's what this person from the Dubai Executive Council was doing and I'm all for it.
I'd be interested to know from other UAE bloggers who've had visits from them which stories they were reading. In the to-and-fro flow of information it gives us an indication of what they're particularly concerned about.
The 'Financial Times' article is well worth reading and you can find it here.
Here's a copy & paste of it:
Referrer http://dubai.dubizzle.com/blog/community-blog/pr-office-for-brand-dubai/
IP Address 91.75.44.196 [Label IP Address]
Country United Arab Emirates
Region Dubai
City Dubai
ISP The Executive Council - Government Of Dubai
So someone at Dubai's Executive Council is reading the UAE Community Blog at Dubizzle and coming from there to individual posts which obviously interest them.
Here's where they went on this blog:
Navigation Path
21st June 2009
14:39:06
Page View
dubai.dubizzle.com/blog/community-blog/pr-office-for-brand-dubai/www.dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/
21st June 2009
14:39:47
Page View
www.dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.html
21st June 2009
14:40:03
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-months-for-sally-mark.html
21st June 2009
14:40:36
Exit Link
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6516504.ece
21st June 2009
14:42:33
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-months-for-sally-mark.html
21st June 2009
14:43:19
Exit Link
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2461336/Husband-who-got-wife-jailed-in-Dubai-says-they-are-friends.html
21st June 2009
14:44:10
Exit Link
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1190249/British-mother-Sally-Antia-lover-Mark-Hawkins-jailed-months-adultery-Dubai.html
21st June 2009
14:44:23
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-months-for-sally-mark.html
21st June 2009
14:46:26
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/sallys-out.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/story-of-ebony-ivory.html
21st June 2009
14:47:44
Page View
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/2009/06/story-of-ebony-ivory.htmldubaithoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Dubai%20expensive%3F
To summarise, they spent nearly nine minutes reading the posts about the new Brand Dubai Media Affairs Office, the Sally Antia story (that's the British mother jailed after her husband dobbed her in to the police for having an affair, including going to the links I gave to UK newspaper stories), the Ebony & Ivory Towers story, in which investors claimed they were mislead by phony photos.
And then they clicked on my label 'Dubai expensive?'
I don't know about you but I think that's encouraging.
It doesn't seem to be someone idling away time at the office by surfing the net because they selected particular posts. From their choice of reading matter it seems to be someone looking for information, for feedback, in areas they're involved with.
Since blogging started, surprisingly not all that long ago, I've thought that blogs which are mainly about news, and are of the op-ed type, give a good idea of the view from the street. An indication of what people are thinking about and what their thoughts are. That includes not only the posts themselves but also the comments left on them.
The UAE Community Blog has quite a few in that category with a range of views on most subjects, so reading them isn't a bad way for an organisation to do some simple desk research.
One of the many advantages of the internet is that it's made it much easier to check on public opinion.
There was an interesting article in the 'Financial Times' the other day on the subject. It was mainly about commercial organisations and how they can use the internet, and especially social networking sites, to their advantage - although most don't.
But the same applies to government departments, particularly as we hear more and more about governments being out of touch with the people. They can, and should, use the net to find out what people are talking about, what concerns we have, what our opinions are.
I think that's what this person from the Dubai Executive Council was doing and I'm all for it.
I'd be interested to know from other UAE bloggers who've had visits from them which stories they were reading. In the to-and-fro flow of information it gives us an indication of what they're particularly concerned about.
The 'Financial Times' article is well worth reading and you can find it here.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Catching people's interest
It's fascinating which stories catch people's attention.
The latest example is Johann Hari's piece in The Independent - another in the increasing number of articles called 'dark side of Dubai'. Not only is Johann's article being quoted or reprinted around the world, the blogosphere is buzzing with it too.
I commented on the article on Tuesday and the traffic to 'Life in Dubai' has trebled, the majority of the additional visitors arriving at that posting.
Not since my piece on Andy and the Redundancy Porsche has one of my postings attracted so much interest.
Yesterday the New York Times Freakanomics column reported on and linked to The Independent's article, and they also link to 'Life in Dubai' saying: "It’s the dark side of Dubai, though at least one Dubai-based blogger thinks the piece is overkill."
It's obviously attracted their readers' interest because several hundred of them so far have hit the link to come here. A random check tells me they're from all over the world - throughout the US and Europe, from Canada, across Asia, the sub-Continent, even Dubai.
(Welcome NYT readers, I read your paper every day so it's nice to have you here too).
I'm also getting more visitors than usual arriving onto that posting from sites such as Dubizzle, where it's also attracting many more comments than my other posts.
From Los Angeles, Xeni Jardin posts Johann's article on on BoingBoing, which is also attracting a lot of comments, and an anonymous commenter says "Another counterpoint to this article:" followed by a link to my posting. Visitors are starting to arrive from that too.
Blogging from Norway, Paul Chaffey talks about and links to the article. He also links to my post about it and, again, that's attracting visitors.
I suppose the activity reflects a number of things. The interest there is in Dubai all around the world. The fascination people have with bad news stories. The popularity of the current bash-Dubai bandwagon. The tall poppy syndrome.
As a passing thought, I'm pleased that commentators are not only linking to the original story but are also linking to pages which are critical of it, such as mine in which I wrote about the pre-determined bias of the article and its sloppy journalism.
Whatever the story, we need to be aware of both sides of it. With that thought you may be interested in other sides of the story relating to Johann's article, and to the equally well-reported BBC Panorama programme on construction labour camps.
Sultan Al Qassimi says his words were "taken out of context and butchered" in the article. That he was wearing a 'Ralph Lauren shirt' was a figment of the writer's imagination he says, a small detail but it does suggest embellishment for effect.
You can read his response in here, in Arabian Business.
I'd also be interested to hear from friends of the Canadian Karen who according to the first section of the article has been living in her Range Rover in a car park for several months. Or from these people or their friends: 'All over the city, there are maxed-out expats sleeping secretly in the sand-dunes or the airport or in their cars'.
It would be nice to verify the claims, to find out the full story, establish the truth.
Then there was the BBC programme about the way workers are treated by Arabtec, one of our larger construction companies. The CEO has also been in Arabian Business disputing the allegations. That rebuttal you can read here.
Your reaction may well be 'well he would say that wouldn't he'. So who do you believe? I suppose the truth may be somewhere in the middle, as it so often is.
The latest example is Johann Hari's piece in The Independent - another in the increasing number of articles called 'dark side of Dubai'. Not only is Johann's article being quoted or reprinted around the world, the blogosphere is buzzing with it too.
I commented on the article on Tuesday and the traffic to 'Life in Dubai' has trebled, the majority of the additional visitors arriving at that posting.
Not since my piece on Andy and the Redundancy Porsche has one of my postings attracted so much interest.
Yesterday the New York Times Freakanomics column reported on and linked to The Independent's article, and they also link to 'Life in Dubai' saying: "It’s the dark side of Dubai, though at least one Dubai-based blogger thinks the piece is overkill."
It's obviously attracted their readers' interest because several hundred of them so far have hit the link to come here. A random check tells me they're from all over the world - throughout the US and Europe, from Canada, across Asia, the sub-Continent, even Dubai.
(Welcome NYT readers, I read your paper every day so it's nice to have you here too).
I'm also getting more visitors than usual arriving onto that posting from sites such as Dubizzle, where it's also attracting many more comments than my other posts.
From Los Angeles, Xeni Jardin posts Johann's article on on BoingBoing, which is also attracting a lot of comments, and an anonymous commenter says "Another counterpoint to this article:" followed by a link to my posting. Visitors are starting to arrive from that too.
Blogging from Norway, Paul Chaffey talks about and links to the article. He also links to my post about it and, again, that's attracting visitors.
I suppose the activity reflects a number of things. The interest there is in Dubai all around the world. The fascination people have with bad news stories. The popularity of the current bash-Dubai bandwagon. The tall poppy syndrome.
As a passing thought, I'm pleased that commentators are not only linking to the original story but are also linking to pages which are critical of it, such as mine in which I wrote about the pre-determined bias of the article and its sloppy journalism.
Whatever the story, we need to be aware of both sides of it. With that thought you may be interested in other sides of the story relating to Johann's article, and to the equally well-reported BBC Panorama programme on construction labour camps.
Sultan Al Qassimi says his words were "taken out of context and butchered" in the article. That he was wearing a 'Ralph Lauren shirt' was a figment of the writer's imagination he says, a small detail but it does suggest embellishment for effect.
You can read his response in here, in Arabian Business.
I'd also be interested to hear from friends of the Canadian Karen who according to the first section of the article has been living in her Range Rover in a car park for several months. Or from these people or their friends: 'All over the city, there are maxed-out expats sleeping secretly in the sand-dunes or the airport or in their cars'.
It would be nice to verify the claims, to find out the full story, establish the truth.
Then there was the BBC programme about the way workers are treated by Arabtec, one of our larger construction companies. The CEO has also been in Arabian Business disputing the allegations. That rebuttal you can read here.
Your reaction may well be 'well he would say that wouldn't he'. So who do you believe? I suppose the truth may be somewhere in the middle, as it so often is.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Andy's Porsche and blogging
The Redundancy Porsche Man, Andrew Blair, was on Dubai Eye radio this morning, interviewed by Jess and our blogger pal Alexander.
He started by saying that his media exposure around the world began with a Dubai blogger posting a photograph of his Porsche with its message.
That of course was this very blog and you can see the photo I posted a week ago today.
The big exposure was when the UK Daily Telegraph subsequently printed the story and Andy said he'd been swamped with calls, including one from a South Korean tv station.
The discussion on Dubai Today ranged across not only Andy's story but the international nature of the internet, the new medium of blogging, laws relating to it all and so on. That led me to think about what's ended up as this post.
For those of us who blog, whether it's news and opinion or just personal diary stuff, it's something we need to constantly keep in mind and my post about Andy's Porsche is a good example.
I saw the car with its message and thought it was a great image on several levels.
I thought it was a sign of the times in Dubai, which is the caption I put on the post. I thought the fact the graffiti was on a Porsche added to its value. I thought it demonstrated either a spur-of-the-moment rage at being fired or creative job wanted advertising - or perhaps both. I thought it made an interesting photograph.
So I took the shot and within fifteen minutes I'd published it on 'Life in Dubai'.
We do these things automatically these days, but just think about that. Almost instantly the photograph could be seen by anyone anywhere in the world with access to the internet. Millions and millions of people in probably every country on the planet.
We know that the mainstream media monitors blogs, we know that other bloggers and surfers pass around things they find too.
What we post on our blogs, the social networking sites too, really has no borders. Once we publish it it's there for the world to see.
If they find it interesting the exposure can be surprising. For example I had no idea my Porsche photo and the story behind it would arouse so much interest.
The photo's been picked up and posted by various Yahoo and Facebook groups from, for example, the USA, the UK, Malaysia. It's been put on the BritishExpats website forum, the Dubai4X4 website forum, on several other English and Arabic blogs. They've shown good netiquette by doing the right thing and crediting the photo, so their readers click on the link and visit 'Life in Dubai'.
The interest in the story is amazing. For example Dubizzle has a live feed from this blog and I've never had as many visitors from Dubizzle as I'm getting for this. Hundreds a day. Almost as many visitors are coming in on my two Andy Porsche posts as as to the 'Life in Dubai' main page.
Now people are hitting the search engines to find the story. Some of the search phrases they're putting in which have led them here:
andy porsche redundant dubaithoughts
andrew blair porsche uae
andrew blair dubai 2009
porsche redundant dubai Andrew Blair
andrew blair 28, porsche dubai,
Porche redundancy dubai
redundant project manager dubai porsche...and so on.
By the way, 'porsche redundant dubai Andrew Blair' came from someone in Skopje, Macedonia.
Then there's one who perhaps misunderstood:
dubai porsche made redundant
And an ominous one Andy? The Northcliffe Newspaper Group in Leicester is looking for:
Dubai police Andrew Blair
Stand by for some more coverage in the UK press!
My point really is that we should keep in mind the borderless international nature of the internet, the wide readership our ramblings can have. Not just locally, although that's where the majority of my visitors live, but from anywhere. Although because of the Andy Porsche posts I'm getting many more visitors than usual, so far this has been a normal day for spread with visitors from 27 countries across the world from the US to New Zealand.
That's not big-noting myself by the way, it's perfectly normal and applies to blogs in general.
It's not something I think about when I'm banging away at the keyboard and I guess most bloggers will probably be the same.
But maybe we should just keep it in mind when we do the final read before hitting the 'Publish Post' button.
He started by saying that his media exposure around the world began with a Dubai blogger posting a photograph of his Porsche with its message.
That of course was this very blog and you can see the photo I posted a week ago today.
The big exposure was when the UK Daily Telegraph subsequently printed the story and Andy said he'd been swamped with calls, including one from a South Korean tv station.
The discussion on Dubai Today ranged across not only Andy's story but the international nature of the internet, the new medium of blogging, laws relating to it all and so on. That led me to think about what's ended up as this post.
For those of us who blog, whether it's news and opinion or just personal diary stuff, it's something we need to constantly keep in mind and my post about Andy's Porsche is a good example.
I saw the car with its message and thought it was a great image on several levels.
I thought it was a sign of the times in Dubai, which is the caption I put on the post. I thought the fact the graffiti was on a Porsche added to its value. I thought it demonstrated either a spur-of-the-moment rage at being fired or creative job wanted advertising - or perhaps both. I thought it made an interesting photograph.
So I took the shot and within fifteen minutes I'd published it on 'Life in Dubai'.
We do these things automatically these days, but just think about that. Almost instantly the photograph could be seen by anyone anywhere in the world with access to the internet. Millions and millions of people in probably every country on the planet.
We know that the mainstream media monitors blogs, we know that other bloggers and surfers pass around things they find too.
What we post on our blogs, the social networking sites too, really has no borders. Once we publish it it's there for the world to see.
If they find it interesting the exposure can be surprising. For example I had no idea my Porsche photo and the story behind it would arouse so much interest.
The photo's been picked up and posted by various Yahoo and Facebook groups from, for example, the USA, the UK, Malaysia. It's been put on the BritishExpats website forum, the Dubai4X4 website forum, on several other English and Arabic blogs. They've shown good netiquette by doing the right thing and crediting the photo, so their readers click on the link and visit 'Life in Dubai'.
The interest in the story is amazing. For example Dubizzle has a live feed from this blog and I've never had as many visitors from Dubizzle as I'm getting for this. Hundreds a day. Almost as many visitors are coming in on my two Andy Porsche posts as as to the 'Life in Dubai' main page.
Now people are hitting the search engines to find the story. Some of the search phrases they're putting in which have led them here:
andy porsche redundant dubaithoughts
andrew blair porsche uae
andrew blair dubai 2009
porsche redundant dubai Andrew Blair
andrew blair 28, porsche dubai,
Porche redundancy dubai
redundant project manager dubai porsche...and so on.
By the way, 'porsche redundant dubai Andrew Blair' came from someone in Skopje, Macedonia.
Then there's one who perhaps misunderstood:
dubai porsche made redundant
And an ominous one Andy? The Northcliffe Newspaper Group in Leicester is looking for:
Dubai police Andrew Blair
Stand by for some more coverage in the UK press!
My point really is that we should keep in mind the borderless international nature of the internet, the wide readership our ramblings can have. Not just locally, although that's where the majority of my visitors live, but from anywhere. Although because of the Andy Porsche posts I'm getting many more visitors than usual, so far this has been a normal day for spread with visitors from 27 countries across the world from the US to New Zealand.
That's not big-noting myself by the way, it's perfectly normal and applies to blogs in general.
It's not something I think about when I'm banging away at the keyboard and I guess most bloggers will probably be the same.
But maybe we should just keep it in mind when we do the final read before hitting the 'Publish Post' button.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Blogging becoming respectable?
There's an interesting development in the relationship between mainstream journalism and bloggers reported in Gulf News this morning.
Blogging has been, still is, much derided. A bunch of ignorant egotistical loonies ranting on, or sad people bearing their souls and giving us far too much personal information.
But it's gradually changing and people seem to be starting to accept us.
Gulf News has a full page on the State of the Press, the 'annual report on the evolution of press freedom'.
In it they report:
Bloggers and operators of cyber news sites, facing legal actions in the UAE, will become the first in the world to receive legal support from the Journalists' Association, provided they abide by the ethical and professional rules of the profession.
Mohammad Yousuf, secretary general of the association, told Gulf News the move came as a gesture from the association to improve the quality of blogging in the country and enhance the credibility of internet sites.
He said the association views the growing importance of blogging and cyber space as a "Fifth Estate" in the UAE and would like to ensure clean, credible and transparent environment of blogging activities in the UAE.
Surf around the blogosphere and you'll find just about everything it's possible to find. That includes the very personal diaries that were the origin of blogging, the keeping-in-touch-with-family blogs, mind-boggling extremist blogs of every persuasion, pornography blogs, comedy blogs. There are also plenty of news and opinion blogs.
Since I started blogging I've believed that those of us doing primarily news and op-ed blogs, although we're not trained journalists and we're not in the mainstream media, should keep laws and propriety in mind when we publish anything. After all, we put the stuff out there for anyone in the world with access to a computer to read.
'Life in Dubai' like many other blogs has links to it on several international mainstream media sites, is quoted in the mainstream media, is running at more than 12,000 visitors a month from around the world. That puts a responsibility on us. In those circumstances the laws of libel, for example, must surely apply to us as much as they do to the mainstream media.
Using that example, if we do libel someone we should expect to be treated the same as anyone in the media. But the other side of that coin is that I also think we should have the same protections as anyone else in the media.
I agree with what Mr Yousuf is reported as saying, except one small sentence.
Those who continue casting their views under vague identities will not be able to seek the association's help.
Using a nom de plume, such as Seabee, is not unusual or sinister and we each have our valid reasons for doing so. Many mainstream writers do the same and newspaper editorial writers are completely anonymous.
I've long believed that blogs can be a great source of information, can give the view from the street. In situations such as Gaza over the past three weeks, bloggers provide information and photographs which no-one else can.
Like all media you have to keep your brain in gear when you're reading the stories, don't blindly believe all you read, be aware of the perspective of the writer. Read a number of different blogs on a subject to get a broader perspective, just as you should with the mainstream media - imagine using Fox News as your only or main source of information!
If you're a blogger you should read the Gulf News story, which is here.
Blogging has been, still is, much derided. A bunch of ignorant egotistical loonies ranting on, or sad people bearing their souls and giving us far too much personal information.
But it's gradually changing and people seem to be starting to accept us.
Gulf News has a full page on the State of the Press, the 'annual report on the evolution of press freedom'.
In it they report:
Bloggers and operators of cyber news sites, facing legal actions in the UAE, will become the first in the world to receive legal support from the Journalists' Association, provided they abide by the ethical and professional rules of the profession.
Mohammad Yousuf, secretary general of the association, told Gulf News the move came as a gesture from the association to improve the quality of blogging in the country and enhance the credibility of internet sites.
He said the association views the growing importance of blogging and cyber space as a "Fifth Estate" in the UAE and would like to ensure clean, credible and transparent environment of blogging activities in the UAE.
Surf around the blogosphere and you'll find just about everything it's possible to find. That includes the very personal diaries that were the origin of blogging, the keeping-in-touch-with-family blogs, mind-boggling extremist blogs of every persuasion, pornography blogs, comedy blogs. There are also plenty of news and opinion blogs.
Since I started blogging I've believed that those of us doing primarily news and op-ed blogs, although we're not trained journalists and we're not in the mainstream media, should keep laws and propriety in mind when we publish anything. After all, we put the stuff out there for anyone in the world with access to a computer to read.
'Life in Dubai' like many other blogs has links to it on several international mainstream media sites, is quoted in the mainstream media, is running at more than 12,000 visitors a month from around the world. That puts a responsibility on us. In those circumstances the laws of libel, for example, must surely apply to us as much as they do to the mainstream media.
Using that example, if we do libel someone we should expect to be treated the same as anyone in the media. But the other side of that coin is that I also think we should have the same protections as anyone else in the media.
I agree with what Mr Yousuf is reported as saying, except one small sentence.
Those who continue casting their views under vague identities will not be able to seek the association's help.
Using a nom de plume, such as Seabee, is not unusual or sinister and we each have our valid reasons for doing so. Many mainstream writers do the same and newspaper editorial writers are completely anonymous.
I've long believed that blogs can be a great source of information, can give the view from the street. In situations such as Gaza over the past three weeks, bloggers provide information and photographs which no-one else can.
Like all media you have to keep your brain in gear when you're reading the stories, don't blindly believe all you read, be aware of the perspective of the writer. Read a number of different blogs on a subject to get a broader perspective, just as you should with the mainstream media - imagine using Fox News as your only or main source of information!
If you're a blogger you should read the Gulf News story, which is here.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Can't get into my blog
Many others too, including UAE Community Blog.
So I don't know whether anyone can read this.
The error message is:
Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site (name).
Operation aborted.
Blogger Help Group is saying it's a Sitemeter problem and by removing the Sitemeter HTML the problem can be fixed. I've removed it but it hasn't solved my problem, although I'm in my blog by a roundabout route.
If you're having the same problem try removing the Sitemeter HTML, it seems to be working for at least some bloggers.
(Among others, Buj Al Arab, Alexander and Samurai Sam give me the same error message).
So I don't know whether anyone can read this.
The error message is:
Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site (name).
Operation aborted.
Blogger Help Group is saying it's a Sitemeter problem and by removing the Sitemeter HTML the problem can be fixed. I've removed it but it hasn't solved my problem, although I'm in my blog by a roundabout route.
If you're having the same problem try removing the Sitemeter HTML, it seems to be working for at least some bloggers.
(Among others, Buj Al Arab, Alexander and Samurai Sam give me the same error message).
Friday, February 15, 2008
I've been tagged
CG has tagged me I'm afraid, and for once I'll do as I'm told.
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
'Cocktails and Mixed Drinks' by Anthony Hogg.
2. Open the book to page 123.
OK, done that.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
Alcohol is a good thing, but, unfortunately, a poison.
4. Post the next three sentences.
Drunk men tell no lies and and an extremely drunk man in a Maltese bar once told me that alcohol always caught up with you; perhaps the same night, possibly the next morning, or it might wait slyly for years to give you a stroke or cirrhosis at sixty.
So far ir has always given me a headache in the morning. Once I consulted a Harley Street Ear, Nose & Throat surgeon saying that I felt the headache's severity was out of all proportion to the alcohol consumed.
5. Tag five people.
OK, here goes - sorry:
i*maginate
HMHB
LDU
Alexander
caz
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
'Cocktails and Mixed Drinks' by Anthony Hogg.
2. Open the book to page 123.
OK, done that.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
Alcohol is a good thing, but, unfortunately, a poison.
4. Post the next three sentences.
Drunk men tell no lies and and an extremely drunk man in a Maltese bar once told me that alcohol always caught up with you; perhaps the same night, possibly the next morning, or it might wait slyly for years to give you a stroke or cirrhosis at sixty.
So far ir has always given me a headache in the morning. Once I consulted a Harley Street Ear, Nose & Throat surgeon saying that I felt the headache's severity was out of all proportion to the alcohol consumed.
5. Tag five people.
OK, here goes - sorry:
i*maginate
HMHB
LDU
Alexander
caz
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Sleuthing
Just passing the time, as I do every so often, investigating to see who comes to my blog and why.
As I've said before there are some interesting, not to say mystifying, phrases put into search engines.
Today I've come across:
Someone in Dubai asking about "Chinese girls in Dubai". Hmmmmm...
Somebody in Malaysia wants to know about "Expats run up debts in Dubai". A suspicious spouse perhaps?
What about the naughty "Getting past Etisalat" from another frustrated person in Dubai.
And one from Romania that has me totally confused, "Rummy etisalat"
The material's all here, I'm gonna write a book.
As I've said before there are some interesting, not to say mystifying, phrases put into search engines.
Today I've come across:
Someone in Dubai asking about "Chinese girls in Dubai". Hmmmmm...
Somebody in Malaysia wants to know about "Expats run up debts in Dubai". A suspicious spouse perhaps?
What about the naughty "Getting past Etisalat" from another frustrated person in Dubai.
And one from Romania that has me totally confused, "Rummy etisalat"
The material's all here, I'm gonna write a book.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Depressed in Dubai?
Browsing through the visitors to this blog reveals some interesting things.
One is the number of people living in Dubai who use search engines to find answers about life here.
Another is the interesting questions they ask.
Today a visitor living in Dubai typed into google: Dubai will not last.
S/he obviously isn't feeling confident about the place.
Another wants to know: private beach, Dubai+topless.
An interesting question to Yahoo: minimal wage in dubai uae.
Many labourers, and others, would surely agree they get a 'minimal wage'.
And another who sounds fed up with life here wants the following information from google:
dubai irresponsible.
One is the number of people living in Dubai who use search engines to find answers about life here.
Another is the interesting questions they ask.
Today a visitor living in Dubai typed into google: Dubai will not last.
S/he obviously isn't feeling confident about the place.
Another wants to know: private beach, Dubai+topless.
An interesting question to Yahoo: minimal wage in dubai uae.
Many labourers, and others, would surely agree they get a 'minimal wage'.
And another who sounds fed up with life here wants the following information from google:
dubai irresponsible.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Life & death blogging
Spare a thought for our fellow bloggers in Burma, now on the run from the regime, sleeping in a different place every night because they dared to tell the world what was happening on the streets.
Like all totalitarian regimes, paranoia characterises the military dictatorship. Because they control every part of the process they can easily check what bloggers are saying, their names and addresses.
They didn't like what they saw, so they started to crack down by blocking individual blogs, then blocking all blogs, now they've simply shut off the internet.
Their record of human rights abuses doesn't bode well for the bloggers, which is why they've gone into hiding.
What can we do? Just about nothing effective. For what it's worth we can pester our governments to take stronger action against the regime, but the world has been aware of their excesses for decades and has simply looked the other way.
It's very depressing.
The story is in The Times and you can read it in full here.
Like all totalitarian regimes, paranoia characterises the military dictatorship. Because they control every part of the process they can easily check what bloggers are saying, their names and addresses.
They didn't like what they saw, so they started to crack down by blocking individual blogs, then blocking all blogs, now they've simply shut off the internet.
Their record of human rights abuses doesn't bode well for the bloggers, which is why they've gone into hiding.
What can we do? Just about nothing effective. For what it's worth we can pester our governments to take stronger action against the regime, but the world has been aware of their excesses for decades and has simply looked the other way.
It's very depressing.
The story is in The Times and you can read it in full here.
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