Shhh. Keep it secret.

An interesting and strongly worded lead editorial in Gulf News today from none other than the Editor in Chief which shows a mindset I thought was on the way out.

In it he lambasts the Japanese Consul General for saying what is already common knowledge, that "Dubai companies are late on their dues to Japanese companies."

He says the CG is out of line, accuses him of violating diplomatic norms and goes as far as saying: "I urge the UAE Government to strongly condemn his stance, and summon him and his boss, the ambassador, to protest against his reckless behaviour, and perhaps the UAE should declare him persona non grata."

Ironically, it was a government-controlled paper, The National, which published the CG's remarks.

I saw no comparable editorial rant when the Financial Times ran a story about the UK's Secretary of State for Business: "Lord Mandelson has raised concerns about the failure of developers in the United Arab Emirates to pay British contractors, and has sought reassurances from local rulers that financial commitments will be honoured." No demand then that Lord M be declared persona non grata.

It leads me to suspect that the reason behind this rant was that the story appeared locally.

Local exposure goes against the old thinking of keeping the UAE population in the dark if anything unwanted is said or happens. Pointless. Those days are long gone. In the age of the internet we know what's happening, but that mindset hasn't kept up with the information age.

It really is a ferocious attack on the CG.

"Does Mr Otsuka work as a Consul General of Japan, or as an official spokesman for these Japanese companies? Perhaps the companies appointed him as their official representative and forgot to tell us.

Did the companies concerned give him a mandate to speak on their behalf, or was it just an individual effort by someone who obviously took all the wrong turns?

Personally, I don’t want to believe that the Consul General works secretly as an adviser to a Japanese company, or as a paid lawyer, which would propel him to embarrass his embassy and country. But I think the diplomat was betrayed by his ill-advised, undiplomatic comments and stuck his nose into something that is not his business.

...it seems the Japanese Consul General, through his strange comment, has joined the orchestra that has been playing all the negative tunes against Dubai, especially in some sections of the Western media"

Actually, the reality is that dilomats and business are inextricably linked. Embassies are involved in promoting and helping their countries' companies as much as they are in issuing visas and attending cocktail parties.

Even royal families promote their countries' exports. Britain's Queen visits a country and a huge business group travels with her. Her son Prince Andrew, Duke of York, is the United Kingdom's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment.

So it's a bit rich saying that a CG is out of line and exceeding his brief, which the editorial sneeringly refers to as: ... his job, which I believe is to issue entry visas."

He also says: "So far, we have not heard from the companies on whose behalf the Consul General volunteered to speak - in the process, shooting himself in the foot."

We have.

The report in The National included a quote from the GM of Mitsubish Heavy Industries saying that MHI was awaiting payments on major contracts with Dubai companies.

A decade into the 21st century, with all the strides the UAE and Dubai have made in moving on from archaic thinking, I really am surprised at the mindset and at the ferociousness of the criticism.

You can read the editorial here. What do you think?

A Secret Dubai mystery

As we all know, SD is blocked in the UAE.

My visitors this morning include this one:


Domain Name (Unknown)
IP Address 194.170.24.# (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority)
ISP Emirates Telecommunications Corporation
Location Continent : Asia
Country : United Arab Emirates (Facts)
State/Region : Abu Zaby
City : Abu Dhabi
Lat/Long : 24.4667, 54.3667 (Map)
Language English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System Microsoft Win2000
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript version 1.3
Monitor Resolution : 1024 x 768
Color Depth : 32 bits
Time of Visit Mar 25 2008 1:57:33 pm
Last Page View Mar 25 2008 1:57:33 pm
Visit Length 0 seconds
Page Views 1
Referring URL http://www.secretdubai.blogspot.com
Visit Entry Page http://dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/
Visit Exit Page http://dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/
Out Click
Time Zone UTC+4:00
Visitor's Time Mar 25 2008 2:57:33 pm
Visit Number 64,237

So someone in ADIA is coming in to me from a blocked site.

Actually, it's the second time today they've done it:


Domain Name (Unknown)
IP Address 194.170.24.# (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority)
ISPEmirates Telecommunications Corporation
Location Continent: Asia
Country: United Arab Emirates (Facts)
State/Region: Abu Zaby
City: Abu Dhabi
Lat/Long: 24.4667, 54.3667 (Map)
Language English (U.S.)en-us
Operating System Microsoft Win2000
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript version 1.3
Monitor Resolution: 1024 x 768
Color Depth: 32 bits
Time of Visit Mar 25 2008 8:42:20 am
Last Page View Mar 25 2008 8:42:35 am
Visit Length 15 seconds
Page Views 1
Referring URL http://www.secretdubai.blogspot.com
Visit Entry Page http://dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/
Visit Exit Page http://dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/
Out Click 8 commentshttp://www.blogger.c...D=765942449095148285
Time Zone UTC+4:00
Visitor's Time Mar 25 2008 9:42:20 am
Visit Number 64,177


Should I be hiding under the bed?


PS
Later in the day - they're still visiting via SD's blocked blog:


hct.ac.ae ? (United Arab Emirates)
IP Address 194.170.32.# (Higher Colleges of Technology)
ISP Emirates Telecommunications Corporation
Location Continent:Asia
Country: United Arab Emirates (Facts)
State/Region: Abu Zaby
City: Abu Dhabi

Referring URL http://secretdubai.blogspot.com/
Visit Entry Page http://dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/
Time Zone

Visitor's Time Mar 25 2008 5:11:32 pm
Visit Number 64,270

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.

Ban the bloggers!

It seems that blogging is a danger to society. From a report in 7Days:

In yet another case of a school administration trying to ban student blogging, three engineering students at a campus in Knowledge Village in Dubai have been suspended indefinitely, raising questions about freedom of speech and expression......A second year Chemical Engineering student has been suspended for posting the blog, while two others are being punished for posting responses, other students said.

If it's true that they were suspended for the act of blogging, as opposed to what was in the blog (which could have been inflamatory for example), it's a big concern.

Is the school administration stepping beyond its authority? The laws of the land are what matter, so I wonder what they say about it. Is it lawful for a college to suspend students for blogging, or leaving a comment on a blog? Can the students appeal to the Ministry of Education?

The article raises more questions than it answers.

Blog suspension

Skype is 'national security risk'.

All around the world when the authorities are trying not to tell the truth they hide behind two things these days - the 'war on terror' and 'national security'.

One of the most ludicrous is from our very own Telecoms Regulatory Authority, with a spokesman, who sensibly wished to remain anonymous, patiently exlaining to us that VoIP was blocked in the UAE partly because "...there are aspects of national security..." The report is in 7Days.

I can't even be bothered to comment on such breathtakingly ridiculous misinformation.

But it is symptomatic of the refuge officials and politicians are running to when they're caught doing something indefensible. Whether it's invading other countries, detaining people in jail without trial, illegal wiretapping, racial profiling, tearing up international conventions, removing hard-won civil liberties, blocking websites...it's all in the name of 'security' or the 'war on terror'.

As such no-one can ask questions. If you do you're either supporting terrorism or you're endangering national security.

Here's another doozie, from one of our leading banks.

Money, OUR money, is deposited in the bank. A while later we decide to pay cash for a car. Go to the bank and ask for some of OUR money.

Cashier: “What do you want the money for?”

Me: (Thinks: What the ***’s it got to do with you) Says: “What?!”

Cashier: “Sorry, it’s bank policy. I have to ask what you are going to do with the money.”

Me: (Thinks: I’ll tell her it’s to buy a containerload of Kalashnikovs) Says: “Spend it.”

Cashier: Funny look.

Me: (Thinks: She’ll call the guards, they’ll call the police…) Says: “To buy a car.”

Cashier: (Handing over money) “Sorry, it’s security.”

Security? Where the hell does security come into it. There was no check on me, I said it was to buy a car, it really could have gone to buy a containerload of Kalashnikovs.

"Stop the press!"

'Emirates Today' this morning gives us a story with three aspects to it:

A World Cup screening of the Saudi Arabia versus Tunisia match at the marquee in Media City was marred by trouble between rival supporters last night.

Fans clashed five minutes before the end of last night's game which ended at 2-2.

A fight erupted as some of the Tunisian fans asked a group of Saudi fans to sit down shortly after their team had taken the lead.

One Saudi fan, who was involved in the brawl, said: "It was a fight between Tunisian and Saudi fans. The Tunisians asked us to sit down in a way that did not show us respect, so we fought."

Emirates Today witnessed one female fan being punched in the face by youth who was running to join the fray.

Security guards tried to stop cameramen and photographers from recording the fracas before it got out of hand.

Emirates Today reporters also saw security officials trying to remove the cassette from a television news camera.

An INTV reporter and producer said that security had tried to stop them from filming and at one point grabbed their cameras to confiscate the tape. The men, however, refused to hand over the tape.

The organiser of the event, Rami Shehadeh said: "The security escorted the unruly fans out before it (the violence) could escalate."
(My highlighting)

First, it's about a fight between rival football supporters.

Second, it's about the attempt to censor the media.

Third, it's more confirmation that stupidity is rampant.

The fight was going to be reported anyway, with or without pictures. Security staff not understanding that and then creating a second, and much more sinister, story by trying to suppress it is a fine example of utter stupidity.

You're there to keep good order boys, not to censor the media.

Good news on bad news

The bad news is that there's bad news. Bad stuff happens in the UAE.

The good news is that at long last at least some of it is being published locally.

The industrial unrest (riot?) at Burj Dubai story was published overseas and there was, naturally, some discussion on blogs & forums whether it would a) appear at all in our mainstream media and b) would appear but in a heavily self-censored form.

Well, I heard it being discussed on the radio this morning and I read in Gulf News more-or-less what I'd read in overseas papers.

It's a small step for mankind, but it's a step in the right direction.

AAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now they won't even let me go to the UAE Community Blog! Are we all banned? What did we do? Who did we upset?

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