And on a lighter note...

Thanks to the Egyptian Mail for these snippets of news, translated from stories in the Arabic press:

Still digging.

The last two Thursdays I've posted about the endless digging up of just-finished developments. They were about, this time, the Marina Mansions holescaping.

Last Thursday I said Yes, the road is ankle-deep in water again. The diggers will be back in a day or two. Again. Inevitably.

And here they are, this time they've tried a different place, cutting through the concrete this time...

Chaos is not the RTA's fault.

For months before it was introduced, many of us said that Salik would create problems.

The wrong toll system was selected, management of it was inept, the 24/7 toll timings were wrong, the tollgate locations were wrong, it was introduced before the alternative roads & bridges and the Metro were ready, incomplete information was given to us.

Well, the results were as we predicted. But we were obviously wrong to think the RTA was in any way to blame. Here's part of their advertisement in today's Gulf News:



See, nothing to do with the RTA. It's all down to drivers not being ready or not being able to understand what to do.

And to 'delays in opening alternative roads'. The RTA is in charge of the alternative roads. They knew, as we all did, the bloody roads & bridges were nowhere near ready. But delay the start of Salik until alternatives were ready? Not a chance with the arrogant RTA.

Then to the Hotline - and the website.

The fault is not that they didn't get it right. Like having enough tags available in time at enough outlets. Like explaining what it was all about. Like texting confirmation of account details. You know, stuff that would mean people didn't have to contact them.

Oh no, that isn't the problem. Nor is not having enough people in the call centres, not having an efficient system of texting in place. Or sending 135 identical texts to people, as detailed in letters to the papers.

No, no. None of that is the problem. The problem is 'the volume of calls to the hotline'. Our fault again.

So 'be patient and keep trying' the hotline, hanging on for hours. Or 'refer to the website'. That's been impossible to get into too.


The taxi stupidity.

By the way, a further chaos-causing decision has appeared that I wasn't clear about before. Taxis have to pay the toll and the toll cap of Dh24 a day does not apply to them. If they don't have a passenger the poor driver has to pay the Dh4 every time he passes a tollgate. So the alternative routes are clogged even more with empty taxis.

Morons.

One of the worst-hit areas is Al Barsha and the flyover from Al Sufouh. And here's the sort of driving we have to contend with when we're stuck in the jams. Late-morning last week, fifty minutes to get from the ramp of the flyover from Al Sufouh to Lulu Hypermarket in Al Barsha. That would be less than 2 kilometres I would think.

Cars behind me decided to push onto the hard shoulder onto the adjoining slip road...




...then across the grass, around behind the truck illegally parked in the middle of the junction, to try to force their way back into the traffic less than fifty metres further on.



Arrogant, ignorant morons.

Work standards

Last Thursday I was talking about the incessant digging up of just-completed projects, in this case the area outside Marina Mansions in Dubai Marina.

In the post I said "Laying some plastic pipe, some cables, is hardly rocket science is it. Even if the labourers can't get it right surely there's some supervision, someone qualified to check that it all fits as it should - and is paid to do just that - before the hole is filled in and the drive/footpath laid on top.

Well, they spent a few days fixing the water problem, they filled the new hole, re-laid the pavers, re-planted the garden and yesterday it was all finished.

This morning...



Yes, the road is ankle-deep in water again. The diggers will be back in a day or two. Again. Inevitably.

What's the latest on Dubai's zoo?

That sickening story in Gulf News about the puppy found hanged and hanging from a window in Satwa had a para about the new animal welfare law that, it says, is in its final stages.

It reminded me that we were told back in May that an official contract for the design of the new zoo in Dubailand was expected to be signed early in June. I've heard nothing about it, have you?

We were also told that "the building work will start in July or August". Again, there's been nothing that I've seen or heard since.

Meanwhile the animals continue to be kept in their appalling tiny prisons.




The two Gulf News stories are here and here.

The power of words.

Excellent news from Gaza that BBC journalist Alan Johnston has been released unharmed.

A news clip on radio about it once again raised something that I'm endlessly fascinated by. The way words and phrases are used to put a completely different meaning on the same thing by people with different agendas. And the power of the words to create perceptions in the mind of the listener or reader.

The phrase used was that Alan was 'surrounded by Hamas gunmen'.

Hamas won the democratic election, declared fair and valid by international observers. Yet their people are 'gunmen'.

Had they been Fatah people they would almost certainly have been described as 'security personnel'. Had they been westerners in Iraq they would have been described as 'civilian contractors'.

That last one is a new phrase too - such people have always been called 'mercenaries'. They do exactly the same work but the new phrase removes any suggestion of guns & violence. It makes them sound like plumbers or carpenters, not the heavily-armed private armies that they are.

Israel says it has 'settlers' living in 'settlements' in the occupied territories. Very benign, soft, harmless. Others say they are 'colonists' living in 'colonies'. They're talking about the same thing but the perception the words put in the mind of the reader is very different.

We no longer have 'civilian casualties' - that phrase says innocent people are being killed. Innocent people are indeed being killed, but that's hidden in the new phrase 'collateral damage'. No death and destruction, no bereaved families there then. Just a bit of damage around the edges.

Troops are no longer killed by their own allies, we now have 'friendly fire incidents'. They're still killed by their own colleagues, the result is the same but it's made to sound so much more harmless.

What annoys me about it all is that the media either falls for it without thinking or, much more likely, is complicit in the misrepresentation to push its own political agenda.

The more the truth is obscured by the words, the more our problems will increase.

However sordid it is, we need the truth so that we can form sensible, honest opinions.

Salik's working well then.

According to the RTA salik was going to reduce traffic on Sheikh Zayed Road by 25%.

It has, by more than that I'd say, so I'm sure they'll claim it's a great success.

What will probably be ignored by them is the fact that every other alternative road is jammed solid, as predicted by just about all of us. All of us who, according to the RTA, don't know what we're talking about as we have no experience in traffic flow, unlike the RTA which does know what it's doing.

Oh yes. The evidence about whether they know what they're doing or not is all around us isn't it.

Remember the Gulf News item back in May? Headline was "Authority dispels fears of clogged Dubai roads" and it went on to quote Engineer Maitha Obaid Bin Udai, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Traffic and Roads Agency at the RTA, as saying that the toll system would not create traffic congestion. The full story is here.

That was in response to Brigadier Mohammad Saif Al Zafein, Director, General Department of Traffic, Dubai Police, saying the new road toll system will clog traffic rather than ease it. That story is here.

The Brigadier was right, we were right, the RTA got it wrong yet again. Inevitable isn't it.