It is impossible to know whether this post at Al-Emirati.com on the victims of the recent Air India disaster is intended to be some appalling attempt at humour or satire, but by every single measure it is absolutely beyond the pale:
Not really. Not only do I not care if the victims "rest in peace" but it seems to me that they are, rather, resting in pieces!
I am of course talking about flight IX 812 from Dubai to Balglapour (or some other hell hole, they're all the same) that recently crashed (click here)
I know I know. Mean, blah blah. The way I see it is as follows. The UAE is (about) 50% Indians, Something that I, and 90% of all other Emaratis see as a bad thing.
This plane, carrying Indians who live and work here, means that 160 indians that clog up the roads, cause accidents, fail code inspections at Indian restaurants, speak like this guy, and are a general drag on the security of the UAE, wont be coming back. That is a very GOOD thing!
I can only pray that this happens every week!
Sadly, we'll probably have 160 new VISAs for 160 new Indians issued in 3 hours... And the authority in charge of this will flaunt that, as if it's a good thing.
The new facility was developed by Dubai Customs to support re-export activity from free zones to external markets within Dubai Customs’ efforts to help Dubai maintain a leading position and turn into a world economic capital. [Wired by: DubaiCityGuide.com - A Cyber Gear Company]
More than 30,000 job opportunities will be created in the private sector for Emiratis this year, Nasser Bin Thani Al Hamli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, has said. Emiratisation is a top national priority, said Al Hamli, while...
Emirates flight from Dubai landed on Wednesday morning after passengers complained of cough and fever
An Emirates airline flight from Dubai was quarantined at New York's John F Kennedy international airport on Wednesday morning after as many as 100 passengers and crew reported feeling ill, authorities said.
Emirates flight 203, carrying at least 521 passengers, landed shortly after 9am EDT, according to an airlines spokeswoman. Health workers were evaluating the passengers as the airplane sat on the tarmac, authorities said.
So I just landed from Dubai and now there is like tons of ambulances and fire trucks and police all over the place pic.twitter.com/i9QLh6WyJW
Continue reading...
He made this statement today during a media briefing in Dubai, where he spoke about the Emiratisation results for 2018 and the ministry’s Emiratisation agenda for the current year. [Wired by: DubaiCityGuide.com - A Cyber Gear Company]
An Emirati driver who racked up fines totalling Dh1.15 million over two years, was caught in a traffic inspection, Ras Al Khaimah police said yesterday. The man committed 1,251 violations, gathering the biggest amount in fines ever recorded in the...
Probably the best article ever written on Dubai, by Johann Hari in the Independent. It covers everything from wexpats:
Daniel [a brain tumour patient] was arrested and taken away on the day of their eviction. It was six days before she could talk to him. "He told me he was put in a cell with another debtor, a Sri Lankan guy who was only 27, who said he couldn't face the shame to his family. Daniel woke up and the boy had swallowed razor-blades. He banged for help, but nobody came, and the boy died in front of him."
To indentured labourers:
He shows me his room. It is a tiny, poky, concrete cell with triple-decker bunk-beds, where he lives with 11 other men. All his belongings are piled onto his bunk: three shirts, a spare pair of trousers, and a cellphone. The room stinks, because the lavatories in the corner of the camp – holes in the ground – are backed up with excrement and clouds of black flies. There is no air conditioning or fans, so the heat is "unbearable. You cannot sleep. All you do is sweat and scratch all night." At the height of summer, people sleep on the floor, on the roof, anywhere where they can pray for a moment of breeze.
The water delivered to the camp in huge white containers isn't properly desalinated: it tastes of salt. "It makes us sick, but we have nothing else to drink," he says.
The work is "the worst in the world," he says. "You have to carry 50kg bricks and blocks of cement in the worst heat imaginable ... This heat – it is like nothing else. You sweat so much you can't pee, not for days or weeks. It's like all the liquid comes out through your skin and you stink. You become dizzy and sick but you aren't allowed to stop, except for an hour in the afternoon. You know if you drop anything or slip, you could die. If you take time off sick, your wages are docked, and you are trapped here even longer."
To Emiratis:
Sultan is furious. He splutters: "You don't think Mexicans are treated badly in New York City? And how long did it take Britain to treat people well? I could come to London and write about the homeless people on Oxford Street and make your city sound like a terrible place, too! The workers here can leave any time they want! Any Indian can leave, any Asian can leave!"
But they can't, I point out. Their passports are taken away, and their wages are withheld. "Well, I feel bad if that happens, and anybody who does that should be punished. But their embassies should help them." They try. But why do you forbid the workers – with force – from going on strike against lousy employers? "Thank God we don't allow that!" he exclaims. "Strikes are in-convenient! They go on the street – we're not having that. We won't be like France. Imagine a country where they the workers can just stop whenever they want!" So what should the workers do when they are cheated and lied to? "Quit. Leave the country."
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KYO Restaurant has officially opened at its brand-new location at the newly launched hot-spot, The Pointe, Palm Jumeirah. [Wired by: DubaiCityGuide.com - A Cyber Gear Company]
