The UAE's first female fighter Pilot

Happy to see that the UAE is slowly opening doors to women in non traditional jobs, here is one article about the UAE's first female fighter pilot, Maj. Mariam al-Mansouri

Is Dubai trying to be more modern?

I was truly impressed this morning when one of the headlines was "Dubai pardons rape  victim".

Dunno if it was due to international pressure, or if the UAE is realizing it's laws offer no protection to women who are raped?  As I've stated in a previous blog, rapes often occur where there are no witnesses, the laws of the emirates have no provisions for this.

Looking foward to the day rape gets taken seriously everywhere in the world.

This article made headlines today. It's sad that this Norwegian woman was not aware of Dubai laws. For instance she should have known better then to drink in Dubai. Just because alcohol is available does not make it legal.

That does not excuse the douchebag who raped her, nor does it excuse the laws of Dubai which require either a confession from the rapist, or 4 male witnesses  to be considered a rape. So in cases where a woman is drugged and taken to a quiet place to be raped, she always ends up in jail for reporting the crime in the first place

How to be able to leave Dubai

Great article in Gulf news to those who go work in Dubai. It's way too easy to get caught up in the mirage that is Dubai.

Dubai a clear winner in the Arab Spring

Almost 2 years ago now I had mused that Dubai specifically and the UAE in general would benefit from the Arab spring.  I wasn't wrong in the least. Not only are they benefiting from the instabilities in the Arab world but also from the war in Afghanistan.

The rate of growth isn't the same as before the 2006 crash but it is one of the few places in the world where construction and crazy projects are booming again. 

This isn't new. Dubai is a prime vacation destination for anyone with money in the region. It's one of the few places that benefit from stability even though it's system is really crappy. The way workers are treated like slaves and yet if you are a Westerner from the US, Canada or Europe you can benefit and live really comfortably so long as you have a contract and employer.

I still think Dubai can be called the Las Vegas of the Arab world. It's still very much a place where everything isn't what it appears to be. 

Which reminds me I interviewed 2 students from Dubai this spring.  One was from an ex-pat family, probably from India, and while it was obvious he grew up somewhat privileged in Dubai, he seemed to have a good grasp of life outside Dubai. The 2nd one was visibly the son of a well-off Emirati family with no sense of how to behave.  My colleague asked him how he found Montreal and in front of a female interviewer went on to make vulgar signs and comments about the lusciousness of Montreal women.  The comment actually disturbed my male colleague who used to be a player before he settled down!!!! It was obvious that kid had never had to interview for a job in his life and had no idea how to behave because he's never had to care!   I wonder how a female from Dubai would interview?!?

Dubai - some things don't change

I remember being appalled in 2007 by the conditions of the construction workers. Treated like cattle, and working in heat sometimes over 50C.  There's been a strike, which is illegal for foreign nationals in the UAE.

It's now 6 years later and things have not improved for the poor workers who slave in the sun and heat, and risk death and deportation. This is a form of slavery, except people sign up for it voluntarily thinking it can't be worse then at home!!!!

UAE to lift the Visa requirements for Canadians!

Good news, apparently Canada and the UAE are ending their row on landing rights.

According to this article, within a month Canadians travelling to the UAE will no longer need the current visa's.

One pissed off wife is all it takes

I've written about this before and I really feel sorry for the poor British woman who's in jail in Abu Dhabi at the moment for having dinner alone with a married man.  I hope that she doesn't end up spending several years in a Dubai jail before being deported. 

The sad part is that unless someone lodges a complaint it's unlikely you will be arrested for having dinner with someone or even drinking wine without a license. But once someone complains they are obliged to apply the law. I'm hoping they do modernize some of their laws.

UAE releases 5 jailed Activists

This is great news for the activists in the United Arab Emirates. Five of the activists detained and jailed for more then 8 months have been pardoned and released today.

The UAE is so afraid of having an uprising Arab Spring type that it squashes any form of dissent almost instantly.  You cannot criticize those in power in the UAE, doing so can land you in jail as it did for these 5 men.

Photo's show the darker side of Dubai

Tonight I stumbled upon this Photo Essay of photo's of the poorest workers in Dubai. Those who often are stuck in the UAE and can never go home and who live in appalling conditions.

Dubai it's not all Dark for women

Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi - I was
taking picture of fountain, woman is
incidental. December 2007

By North American standards perhaps Dubai still looks like it has a lot of work to do before men and women get treated equally by society. But from Middle-Eastern standards, Emirati women are the best off in all the Arab world. For starters they are the best educated women in the middle east. Education is payed up to the doctorate degree and many women have taken advantage to get an education. In any subject that interests them.

Wearing an Emirati style matching
Abaya and Hijab. This one has a
simple pattern some are more fancy

One thing I can say from observing Emirati women moving around Dubai is that they do not walk like women who are oppressed. We've all seen in photos and sometimes in real life, women who appear to be carrying the entire world on their shoulders, you can sense the oppression. Sometimes it's almost palpable. Most of the Emirati women I've seen, walk like they are gliding. It's really something to watch a few young Emirati women walking through the Mall of the Emirates, it's like they walk on air with their bejewelled abaya's and matching hijab.  I know the majority wear plain black abaya and hijab, but it's gulf style. They don't wear an abaya/hijab because they are oppressed and have to wear it, they don't wear it because a law imposes it on them, they wear it because they are proud of their culture, proud to be Emirati's. Proud to be recognized as Emirati's, considering in some parts of the UAE they are only 10% of the population.

Linked from a blog - Emirati women
wearing stylish black abaya's.

Those who want it all can have it all. When we opened our bank account at the Jebel Ali HSBC, we were served only by Emirati women. It was interesting, one wore a simple bejewelled matching abaya and hijab, one wore a plain black abaya and hijab and  her abaya was opened to show western clothes underneath, and another was just dressed in western business attire. One of those working at the bank was glowing with pregnancy.  From what I understand those women who want to work can work. The UAE has recently opened both their military and police force to women.  Sure there are some jobs that aren't accessible to women right now, but it is changing really fast.

From a Western standard we may think our Emirati sisters are being oppressed but from their perspective they have it good. They have access to a free education as far as they would like to go. They have access to careers should they want one. They can marry who they see fit and they can also get a divorce if it didn't work out.  They are entitled to a dowry.  Even if they chose to stay home, undoubtedly they have help with the children and with the house care. An American woman has a good blog entry about women in contemporary Dubai Culture.

Emirati women and child walking on
Dubai beach. One of my original
pastel drawings finished 08-03-10

From my perspective Emirati women seemed respected by their male counterparts and pampered and treated like princesses by their male relatives/husbands.  Fifteen Emirati women are in the list of the one hundred most successful Arab women When I look at the rights I have as a woman here in Canada and compare to the rights the women have in the UAE, I can see that there is room for improvement in both cultures.

I'd would have loved to have pictures of Emirati women to illustrate this blog, but I was respectful of the Emirati's right to privacy and have almost zero photo's of them going about. The ones I do have were incidental shots, and the majority are of Emirati men. I was taking a building or fountain and someone happened to wander through.

Here's other entries on Dubai:
The dark side of Dubai
More on the dark side of Dubai
The dark side of Dubai laws
Dubai Benefits from the Instabilities of the Arab Spring 

More on the dark side of Dubai

Dubai Desert December 2007 - Its all sand. Nothing else.

Those who live there and those who visit notice there are different classes of people in Dubai. There are certain jobs in Dubai reserved exclusively for the Emirate's. They are about 5-10% of the population  in Dubai but they are on top. Then below them or almost equal are the gulf state Middle Easterner's, followed by the westerners from Europe and America, then "westerners" from Russia and the eastern bloc, then other Middle Easterners [Like the Lebanese] and then finally those from south-Asia at the bottom. Some might argue the Filipino's are the best off in this group but that might be disputable, depending which Filipino you talk to.

You can have 5 people in an office doing the same job and each will be earning a different salary based on their ethnic background. The lower down the scale you are the less rights you have. Companies might find it difficult to ask westerners to give their passports to their employers for "safe keeping", but most employees from other parts of the world will give them up. Once the guy you work for has your passport, he can pretty much have you do what he wants.  It's when your 9-5 job is no longer 9-5 and you really have no leverage because they have your passport.  It may also be when your $4000 per month job suddenly becomes a $2000 per month job as well.

Sheik Zayed Road going towards new Dubai in rush hour, December 2007

That's another thing I find crazy. You're paid once a month. If you're not used to balancing a budget that might make it difficult to have money to eat every day of the month. That's when you start going into debt. To make your end of months meet, you start using your credit card.

Then there are living arrangement scams. When my hubby first arrived in Dubai in 2006, rents were pretty steep, you know the whole supply and demand. Also unlike here where you might be asked first and last months rent, they expect the whole years rent to be paid up front. Imagine, you've just arrived in Dubai, and you need to pay up front the entire years rent. So this is where your company comes in graciously to give you a loan and pays your apartment for you.

Fountain at the mall of the Emirates in Dubai UAE

Often the deal between your employer and landlord means your employer is stiffing you of your salary.  For arguments sake let's say your rent is $1000 a month, meaning your company paid up front $12000 for your rent. So they keep part of your salary each month to cover the rent. Except that the rent was really $10,000 and the extra $2000 is money they are pretending to pay you and then taking right off your salary.

At the same time every luxury type store is available in Dubai. From memory the top floor of the Mall of Emirates has a lot of the top European designers boutiques.  It's also reasonably easy to get a loan.  So those who arrive get fancy cars on credit.  It's very easy to drive a Mercedes or a convertible Mustang in Dubai. It's easy to get lost in the glam.  So long as you have a job, they practically run after you to offer you credit and lure you into spending money you don't have.

Why buy a car? You really couldn't get around other then by CAB if you didn't own your own car.  Public transport was really non-existent back in 2006. I know they have opened a subway/train type system now, but I'm not sure how many people it really benefits.  Travelling by taxi is a joke. Most taxi drivers couldn't find their way out of a brown paper bag. Calling for a cab means having lots of time to wait. Even if you can get into a cab, if you don't know where you are going, good luck ever getting there. Maps are almost useless as every other day they decide to change the roads to accommodate new roads or new construction.

For those who think "Ride a bike" or "walk" or "in-line skate". For starters there are no sidewalks anywhere for pedestrians [Except maybe in the old Dubai in the tiny little streets].  It used to amaze me to see South-Asian workers run across 10 lane highways between cars coming at them at up to 160km per hour.  Also try walking in 50C heat for more then 10 minutes. You will feel like you've been BBQ'ed, One of the things people told me looking at my Dubai pictures were "Where are the people it looks deserted". Well they aren't outside in the sun, no matter how much glitzy buildings and artificially sustained trees they put out there, it's still the DESERT!!!!

Suddenly lose  your job, they tell the bank probably before they fire you. The next day your accounts are frozen and you have no job, no means of supporting yourself, and often no way of finding another job. And you end up as one of the destitute in Dubai, who don't have their paperwork, either the bank or your employer kept your passport, and you cannot leave. Dubai also has laws to prevent you to leave if you owe money.  But everything is set up to make you fail. Other then relying on help from family and friends, either in Dubai or elsewhere you're pretty much shit out of luck.

Burj Khalifa - still in construction in December 2007

Most people went to Dubai thinking they would make a killing. The salaries seemed high and their seemed to be no taxes. Sure there is no income taxes, but there are all sorts of  hidden sale taxes. The only thing who's price wasn't unreasonable was gasoline, which in 2007 I estimated to be half of the price of gasoline in Canada at the time.  Clothing seemed to be about the same price as in Canada. Food was expensive - no surprise, Dubai is the desert, there's no where to grow food, restaurants were expensive. Water was cheap all things considered. Hubby managed to save up 25k as a nest egg to come to Canada in the close to 2 years he was there. He is one of the very few who pulled it off. He also worked crazy hours and had no life to talk about in Dubai.  He went from his AC'ed job to the AC'ed mall to pick up essentials to his AC'ed apartment, surrounded by noise and construction.

Construction in the Dubai Marina area of New Dubai - February 2007

Those in the worst shape today are those who bought property. At some point it became possible for non-Emirates to buy property.  Due to the hype back in the boom, property prices were incredibly inflated.  Now since the economy crashed, the value of some of these properties has dropped by 55%  up to 70% since their peak in 2008.  So people owe more mortgage then the property is worth and banks are calling in mortgages. In most places, buying property is an investment. Buying property in the UAE was sheer folly.

Never mind those crazy people who bought properties in the various Palm projects or The World. I think most of those projects have been stopped and I'm sure any money people have payed for these properties is long gone.

Here's something else. Who builds large high rises in the SAND????  I mean I don't care what the construction companies told the investors but my gut tells me that about half of the buildings won't survive 20 years with the current conditions in Dubai.  When you build a building it has to be on solid foundations. How solid is a foundation built on sand? I don't care how many layers of concrete were put on top of the sand, I still know it's a disaster waiting to happen.   Some buildings have already started to sink  less then 10 years later.  Heck one building's entire facade fell in 2009 several days after workers reported the ground sinking. It wasn't even finished.

You can see how the poor live in shacks and tents in the desert.

We joked in Montreal about our Olympic Ruins. The newest ruins in the world after the fiasco of our Olympic stadium.  Well I'm going to joke that in 20 years, Dubai will sport the newest ruins in the world. I bet 80% of the high rises that were built or partially built, will stand empty, half of them partially sunk into the ground. Around them sand dunes will have started taking over the land.  And instead of the traditional Emirate Bedouins living in tents in the desert, all those people who came to Dubai seeking financial gain, who got stuck passport less and unable to leave, will be living in tent communities in the desert. The new desert dwellers.

Canadian Business men stranded in Abu Dhabi airport

Visa rules are now in effect for Canadians traveling to the UAE. It means that if you are a Canadian traveling to the UAE you should be aware of what type of VISA you need for your trip ahead of time and apply for it before arriving at an airport in the UAE. 

Obviously the 2 Canadian business men that got stranded at Abu Dhabi airport did not do their research, or the staff that booked their flight didn't. They were going to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and then back to the UAE. Common sense would imply that they needed a multiple entry VISA not a single entry VISA.  So if they got stuck at the airport for several hours it was their own fault. Not the UAE's fault, beyond of course the fact that they imposed their VISA' on Canadians because we would not grant their airlines more landing rights.

When I traveled to Syria this September, I knew I was going to enter the country twice, so I got myself a multiple-entry VISA ahead of my travel dates. I had no issues crossing borders either, other then 1 border guard wanting a small bribe when I crossed from Jordan back into Syria. It is not uncommon in that part of the world and it is not worth arguing over a few dollars and getting stuck for hours at a border, and my husband would argue, especially at the Syrian border.

Sure it's a little unexpected to us Canadians to have to get a VISA, since most countries welcome Canadians with open arms. But each country has the right to rule as they see fit and impose VISA' on us Canadians as they see fit. If we're not happy with that, then we should choose other travel destinations.

UAE acting like spoilt child over Canadian landing rights.

I remember when I traveled to Dubai in February and December 2007, that I just needed to show my Canadian passport and I would get a 30 day VISA no questions asked. 

Starting January 2nd, this will no longer be the case. You will need a VISA before arriving in the UAE and it will cost $250 for 30 days. More expensive then visa's to most countries. Considering that the UAE isn't a common travel spot for Canadians, it won't affect us all that much. Especially since the crash last year, people are no longer looking for jobs in that part of the world. 

I mean the UAE has been lobbying the Canadian government for more  landing rights for UAE airlines flying to Canada. I know Canada limits landing rights to keep Air Canada somewhat afloat.  I guess the UAE figured that since we aren't giving them more landing rights, we should pay to enter their country.  Personally I think Canada should reduce whatever landing rights they have at this point. 

One of the comments from a Globe and Mail reader basically said that it was no great loss to Canadians. That any country that treats it's women as property, where kissing in public can get you tossed in jail and where being gay can assure your death isn't somewhere most Canadians want to be.  Admittedly this is stereotyped and overall my experience in the UAE was better then that.... but in some ways it's not too far off. 

Since I doubt Samer would ever want to go to UAE again, it's not a big deal for us.