Outdoor advertising-Dubai

Outdoor advertising in Dubai has taken a big hit. The huge bill boards which used to host immense real estate ads stand empty. The bridges which used to be filled with flags are now simply bridges. The lamp posts with a million and one variation of ads are now scarce and old. Some of the still standing ads have lost color and the message is still there, but the company or the project has been canceled. The building wrap ups which used to cost millions have also gone away. The good news is that you have less distraction on the roads. The bad news is that outdoor is a good indicator of how business is picking up. Recent reports also indicate that shopping centers expect a downturn in revenue. However, what is most troubling is the recent reports about the banks and bankruptcies in Saudi Arabia. Being the biggest country in the GCC in terms of population, GDP and impact, that is something to worry about.

Swine Flu

Just got back from a long trip that included using 4 major international airports and one regional airport (Dubai International, Pearson International (Toronto), Charles De Gaulle (Paris), Schilpol Airport (Amsterdam),  and Halifax ). These are known for being extremely busy. Despite the rising number of swine flu cases and the leaflets and alerts about it, I have not come across any obvious precautions  at airports. No thermal scanners, no medical teams, no one wearing a mask.  Have people grown immune to such news or do they realize that much of it is hype and this flu is no more dangerous than the regular one which kills thousands every year?

I guess while the UN and the countries are issuing out warnings, the media happily writing about the recent stats and number of dead, the actual behavior by countries is quite indifferent or more precisely contained. They do not want to create a panic, which if spread can affect the economy and the already existing crisis. Make up your own mind: to travel or not to?

Paris 2

Economic crisis? What econmic crisis? If you go anywhere in Paris, you’d see that the streets are packed, the bridges are packed, the museums and cathedrals are packed. Everywhere you want to go, you need to wait in a queue. Even if you want to go to to the washroom. With all these people and the money they must be spending  I wonder whether the crisis is nothing but a myth created by the gov and the corporate world with a little help from the media.

Paris in the Summer. Big Mistake

The last leg of a long journey, we expected to have some fun in Paris. The long drive from the airport to the hotel due to a continuous traffic jam made the trip hell and pretty expensive.
The hotel was not as expected. The three star rating turned out to be less than two: Adagio aparthotel on Rue du theatre.  The room was not ready, no room service, no WiFi, no Gym, full of cigarette smoke and completely bad service.  You need to collect your own towels, clean your own room, etc……

Paris in the summer is definitely a big mistake. The number of tourists is so high that they stop you from seeing the monuments or visiting any place. The Champs de Elysees, the famous street, has thousands of people at any given time. People queue to get into a coffee shop; queue to get an ice ream from Haggen Dazs. However, everyone can say afterwards that they’ve been there !

Summer or another name for hell

People are already placing bets that you can fry an egg in the heat and it is not even August yet. Summer came early this year and with it soaring temperatures and a sense of being fried alive. 50 celcius in the shade is common, but wait till humidity hits the land. No matter how many summers you spend in Dubai, you can never be ready for the next one. You dread it, you swear at it and you wish you could leave for its duration. However, the working people can only afford a month out of the country and that is not enough to avoid being caught in the heat.

So what can you do in the summer? Soak in a cool pool for a couple of hours, if you are lucky enough to have access to a cool one, or simply hide indoors in the comfort of a 24 hr air condition and attempt to go out at night when temperatures reach only 36-38 celcius!

Another question seems legitimate: why do you stay in Dubai at all? For the million or so inhabitants of the city, you can find a million answers. However, you can still gather these around certain clusters like: money, nightlife, beach, sun (vs cloudy/cold Europe), money (again), chance to make a fortune (may be not anymore), running away from insecure country, hype, hibernation, and may be more dangerous the fear of change if you’ve been here for a while.

The heat won’t go away it will persist till late in the year may be through January So embrace yourself.

A brave new world

Everything around us is changing. All constants became variables. All tried and tested thinking amounts to no more than speculation. Take finance, investment and banking and the only certainty is the lack of it. Take oil & gas, manufacturing and food resources and the only sure is the next 24 hours where the whole system either collapses or goes haywire. Take media and proof upon proof how helpless and distorted it is; how elusive became truth and honest reporting. Take TV and cinema and you can see that they are running if not ran out of ideas to excite and draw audiences. Take the net and the billion and one opinions about the same issue or product or technology or person and you are lost for genuine meaning. Information overload, product overload, consumption overload and you are looking at a world far from simple. When the only constant is the lack of it, then you can consider planning a thing of the past and learn to live in the ‘now’ taking advantage of every moment that presents itself as a ‘breath of life’. What tomorrow might bring is no more than a guess built on uncertain facts. A brave new world it is.

Dubai Mall – The biggest of all

Mirror mirror on the wall which is the biggest mall? Thus comes the answer “Dubai Mall” situated near the famous incomplete Burj Dubai. Very big (more than 1200 stores), yet very unfriendly when it comes to shopping, browsing, navigating and buying.. If you don’t get lost in the parking lots… then definitely you will when you enter any section of the mall and try to find your way out of it or to the parking lot.. The shops are huge.. big … actually too big for any comfortable or consumer friendly and fulfilling experience. The experience gets lost in the size. But for what purpose? Why is it that shop owners and mall builders think that the bigger the shop, the better? Aside from losing the personal touch, you get lost in the store itself never mind the section of the mall.

Despite its size, the mall has been suffering from footfall and actual buyers among those who visit. Everyone comes to play on the ice rink and see the aquarium. But where are the shoppers? Lately, the mall embarked on a ‘one month’ promotion which from the feedback we had was not necessarily successful. So what are they going to try next?

It will be some time till Dubai regains its ‘tourist’ touch and people are confident enough to start spending lavishly again. Till then, let’s watch and see what will happen in Dubai mall.

What’s with the schools?

I received an email yesterday from my sons’ school informing me that they have again hiked the tuition fees by 9% for 2009/2010. This brings the tuition fee for an 11th grader to AED 65,000 ( 17711 US $). Like one of my friends commented “Enough to get you through the first year in university”. So what is happening here?

It is funny to note that  the school does not provide a valid High School Certificate so  students who intend to apply in North America might have a problem doing so. They need to get through IB with a 5,6 or 7 average (tough). It’s also funny to note that Dubai KHDA, the gov body responsible for vetting the schools gave this school an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating but also allowed it to hike the fees by 9%. Kind of strange. Negative rating= Tuition hike !

But why do this school charge so much? It all dawned on me when I was browsing more schools in Dubai that start or have the word “American’ in them. So that is the key. Put the word “American” in the school name and you have the right to charge as much as you want regardless of the level of education you offer.

Take note.

New Year Festivities Cancelled in Dubai

Hundreds of restaurants, bars, nightclubs have been preparing for this evening only to be told that all festivities are cancelled in solidarity with what is happening in Gaza.  The human side of this gesture is evident, the economic one is high priced. With the economic downturn that the emirate is facing lately, this comes as another blow to business which is trying to make ends meet. In another 15 days, DSF (Dubai Shopping Festival) is bound to start. What is it going to be like? Again, it remains to be seen. Dubai has never been quieter and when you think that things won’t get worse, they actually do. Businesses in Dubai are in a ‘dream-like’ state. One where you suspend your belief that things can actually change in such short time. It seems January is going to give us all a sense of what 2009 would be like. Let’s wait and see.

Pollution Prevails

Sewage dumping and the effect that has on the health of residents and visitors has been the subject of a series of articles in the Dubai media. Polluted beaches and neighborhoods have left people puzzled on what the solution may be. Some media are asking the same questions in hope of getting some response from those concerned. Sewage is an issue not only in industrial or poor areas, but also in tier one residential areas. But is it only sewage that is a cause of concern? You only need to go out of your house in any inhabited area in Dubai just to experience first hand the impact of air pollution. Hanging dust particles, carbon dioxide from car and truck exhausts, fumes from cement and other factories as well as the continuous drilling and excavation have left residents gasping for fresh air. Add to that noise pollution that is the result of cars, trucks and planes passing over residential areas and you have a recipe for an unhealthy environment. There is a price for progress, this is a high one. I find myself asking the same question: what is being done about this?