Happy national day!

Marhaba and happy national day! I'd just like to take this opportunity to say how proud I am of my adopted country. Over the last 35 years it has come so far and I can see a great future ahead of it. Congrats Sheikh Khalifa, Sheikh Mohammed and all the citizens and expatriates.

TRA - wake up!

This is likely to come out as a rant but I just had to voice my utter hatred for the totally pointless TRA. It has done nothing at all since coming into power last year except for make itself look stupid and behind the times. Correct me if I'm wrong, but generally such associations exist to protect the consumers and NOT the suppliers. The TRA, on the other hand, seems to have done the complete opposite. Not only has it made VoIP illegal, it is also refusing to let Etisalat and Du compete on price. Additionally, it has prohibited the entrance of foreign firms into our telecommunications sector until at least 2010. Now it says it will enforce Internet censorship on the TECOM, Emaar and Nakheel areas. Weren't these areas, TECOM in particular, guaranteed unrestricted access to the Internet by Sheikh Mohammed himself?

Meanwhile, Du says it will offer special packages for "housewives". Yeah... really forward our telecommunications sector is.

Fun times

Who can complain about Dubai having a lack of quality events when this week we have the 2nd Dubai International Vending Machines expo. And that's not it- it only gets better... also coming to town at the same time is the 2nd Dubai International Soft Drinks expo. Woo! Robbie Williams and Destiny's Child eat your A-list hearts out!

Labour problems in the UAE? Surely not!

Wow... there are labour problems in this country? Could've fooled me!

Funny, isn't it, how the government only reacts to situations when the international press covers them or they gain global attention? Why should the dishdashes (and abayas - so I don't get criticized for being politically incorrect) in power wait so long to resolve such appalling situations? How much longer must labourers, maids and countless others suffer at the hands of what seems to be a tyranny that is only interested in building the tallest, vastest and largest in the shortest possible time, regardless of how many will be hurt in the process? What can we do about it? Absolutely nothing, unfortunately. UAE government- it's up to you.

On a different note, Sheikha Lubna, our favourite Minister of Economy and Planning, is in the New York Times and various other major publications. Click here to see what they have to say about her. It's a great article and very true. Nice one Ms. Qasimi ;).

UAE continues to climb

Some doubly good news today: not only is the UAE considered the less corrupt country in the region (which, I admit, is not hard to do), it has also climbed to number 77 on the world Press Freedom Index. This is excellent, especially considering that in 2004 it was at 137 and in 2005 at 90. This means that it has almost halved in the span of 2 years. It makes me proud, especially after my post on freedom of expression ;). Look forward to the year ahead, my realistic prediction for next year is in the 60-65s.

What?! You have... Internet?!

I can't tell if it's funny or irritating that most people I speak to back home in England and France are convinced that I'm living in the middle of a terrorist-ruled dodgy desert country. They are all certain that we go to school on camels or donkeys and are forced to wear the local dress. As funny as this may sound to those of us who actually live here, they take such opinions very seriously and are terrified every time I come back here after the holidays because they think I'm going to get blown up. No matter how much I try, I cannot persuade them that the UAE is probably much more modern than my own home countries and I'm almost certainly safer here than there. And when they ask me to give them my contact details the conversation ususally goes like this:

Me: "Yeah, I have an e-mail address if you want to add me to MSN?"
Them: "What?! You have... Internet... over there in the desert lands?"
Me: "Yes, of course we do"
Them: "But how?! You can't have phones over there- have they even been invented in the UAE?"

The worst part is I'm not even exaggerating... they actually say that! Although I have to admit that recently people are starting to become more aware of Dubai in particular. Some even know about the Burj and Ski Dubai, which amazes me every time.

We want freedom of expression!

In case you hadn't already noticed by the banner on the bottom-right of my blog, I am a fierce believer in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I believe that every human should have the right to openly express their views in any format, be it on paper, radio, TV- anything.

So how can it be that a country like the UAE, considered almost developed, still lags at number 90 on the press freedom list? How, in such a country, can blogs and websites be blocked and unblocked at random without notice? Why can't constructive criticism be accepted by anyone in positions of power? Enough already! As the UAE transforms into a veritable player on the world (or at least regional) map, it will have to open itself up to criticism. It is already receiving a lot of it internationally so why not internally? More importantly, perhaps, what happened to the so-called revision of the hilariously old-fashioned UAE press laws? Weren't they supposed to have been replaced almost a year ago?

I say bring on freedom of expression!