Today is BlogDay 2006!

We’re participating in Blog Day 2006. You can too – see the post before this one for the details.

We’re now going to tell you about 5 different blogs that we like. Apart from the closer to home UAE/Middle East blogs, we also visit blogs from other parts of the world, and these 5 are from out of the ME area, and in alphabetical order, to show our impartiality!

Babasiga: Fiji stories, Labasa, South Pacific culture, family, migration, Australia/Fiji relationship

Peceli and Wendy write this entertaining blog filled with stories on Fiji, church life, Fijian history and traditions, and their life now in Geelong, Australia.

Interspersed with stories written by Wendy and her drawings and sketches, Babasiga is a trip down memory lane for M who was also born in Fiji.




India Uncut: Amit Varma

A professional writer and journalist, Amit is funny, factual and irreverently satirical. When not attending cricket matches in his role as consultant for Cricinfo, or commenting on the Indian blogging, political and social scene, he has conversations with his toes and has a running gag on sacred cow stories.

Bollywood actors beware - this man has little regard for your fame, and you'll find yourself flamed faster than a tandoori chicken.


Pacific Islander: Hawaii, Japan, Fiji, and More - Life on Pacific Islands

An American who escaped mainland America, Pandabonium has lived the Pacific Island life in Hawaii, Fiji and is currently in Japan with banana-cake cooking K and Momo the wonderdog, who also puts her paws to the keyboard to help Pandabonium with the writing. Full of wonderful tales of traditions, facts and commentary, revolving around Japanese culture both in Hawaii and Japan, aviation and trombones.



The Duh-mension: Careening merrily down my own twisted alleyway of strangeness

American Shannon is currently surviving a southern New Zealand life in Christchurch. Despite the lack of basic home essentials such as Poptarts, redemption has recently come in a passable Mexican restaurant which serves nachos with all the right trimmings for American tastebuds, including chipotle-flavoured salsa, but sadly no Margaritas or Pepsi – Coke had to be imbibed. With the aid of dubious Kiwi friends, she’s learning colloquial Kiwi, and is now acquainted with endearingly descriptive terms like Fartsack and Pak your Daks.


The World is not Flat: Our travels, your experiences

On a year-long trip around the world, Lee and Sachi Lefever are experiencing more in their year than most people do in a lifetime. Leaving the US in December 2005, they flew south to New Zealand, meeting bloggers along the way, and have gradually been edging their way further north through Australia and Asia, currently in China. Sachi appears to be the saner and quieter of the couple, while Lee seems to be hellbent on poisoning himself by eating the worst local delicacy that he can find, like 100 year old eggs and snails and getting a tattoo in Japan.


We trust that by clicking onto some new blogs that you learn a thing or two that you didn’t know before!

Technorati Tag: BlogDay2006

BlogDay 2006 - 31st August

31st August is the date set for BlogDay 2006.

What’s BlogDay?

So says the website: BlogDay was initiated with the belief that bloggers should have one day which will be dedicated to know other bloggers, from other countries or areas of interests. On this day, every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. In this way, all Blog web surfers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

How cool is that?

To prepare for BlogDay 2006, here’s what to do:
1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting – preferably Blogs different from your own culture, point of view and attitude.
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them on BlogDay 2006 on your Blog.
3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place links to the recommended Blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st)
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link: http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2006 and a link to BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org

For more information, visit the BlogDay 2006 website. There are different language pages including an Arabic page.

Sounds like fun!

Greece is the word

Click on the images to enlarge them

See Sky - I take pics of octopus too!Sigh!

At this time for the past 2 years, we’ve holidayed in Greece with a whole group of friends – sunbathing, relaxing, excessively eating and drinking and having a great time.

Circumstances prevented us from doing it again this year, but seeing Sky’s images and recounts of her recent time in the Greek Isles made us remember our times there in past years.

AthensThe Acropolis from our hotel balcony

We spent 2 days in Athens just after the Olympic Games in 2004. It was the best time to see it – clean, bright and uncrowded. We loved walking through the streets, and we walked for miles from the hotel to the Acropolis and through many side streets, outdoor markets and historic sites.

A corner of the Parthenon on the Acropolis site

Santorini

In 2004, we went for a week to Lesvos, then flew to Santorini for 5 days before going back to Lesvos. We only lasted 3 days - the island was beautiful, but after a day we had driven around the whole thing and were bored silly, plus it was expensive and our friends weren’t there!

Across the clifftop from Fira looking towards the watch tower

Nea Kameni volcano
We also caught a boat out to the volcano crater in the middle of the harbour and walked in the boiling sun up to the crater’s edge. The most spectacular part of this trip was to look back at Santorini with its towering cliff face upon which perched the white buildings of the towns, looking like snow on top of a mountain range.

Walking down from the crater and looking at Santorini
Oia
A very touristy thing to do is to head out to Oia to view the sunset. If you don’t get there an hour before the sun goes down, you may as well forget about trying to find a perch with a view of the setting sun. It’s madness – people are everywhere.

An Oia dog with a bird's eyeview - check out his elaborate collar!
We did have one of the best meals of our lives at 1800 Restaurant in Oia. Don’t ask us what we ate because we can’t remember, except that we ordered from a menu that made our mouths water just from the description of the food! After the meals arrived, accompanied by the waiter’s recommendation of a local white wine, we were lost in the sublime taste of the food, the aromatic wine and the gorgeous atmosphere - dining under the stars on the rooftop balcony with soft classical music playing in the background as we watched the ferries leaving the harbour on their way back to Athens. We floated back to the hotel giving thanks to our Greek friend Lianna who had recommended that we eat there.

Ammoudi
On the second day, we hired a rental car and drove down to the base of Oia to a little fishing port called Ammoudi. We had dinner and watched the sun set in comparative peace and quiet when compared to the insanity at the top of the cliff.
Ammoudi at the base of the cliff with Oia at the top
M was amused by the local dogs. A little white Westy-cross accompanied us across the rocks to watch the sunset, and the local king of the dogs – a big Rottweiler – sat halfway up the cliff staring out to sea. As the sun dipped below the horizon, he barked a few times, howled once, and then walked back up the cliff to Oia! The night before, we had encountered the Rottie in Oia’s town square while waiting for the taxi back to the hotel, after eating at 1800. Most people would be intimidated by his size, and he certainly wants to show everyone that he’s the boss. As he approached M, he sniffed her outstretched hand and then opened his mouth to hold her hand in it. He was just playing with her and meant no malice, but the tourists standing beside M nearly fainted as they thought that the dog had just bitten her!


Lesvos
Also called Lesbos, this is our favourite island - laid-back, quiet and with good prices in comparison to other parts of Greece.

Skala Eressou Skala Eressou
This is our hangout, and after flying from Athens to Mytilini, the nearly 2 hour trip in a taxi driven by one of the Eressou taxi mafia is best done with the passengers’ eyes averted from the road or firmly shut!

Women in the alley peeling potatoes as they chat to the souvenir store owner
We have managed to stir ourselves off the beach at Eressou and into action on a couple of occasions to visit other parts of Lesvos.

Eressos
This is the township just up the road from Skala Eressou. In winter, all the locals move from the beach up into the town. The Greek villages are centered round the town square and many restaurants are set up around the circumference. We ate great food at Sam’s restaurant.

Sam's in Eressos
Sigri
A very quiet little fishing town which was obviously much busier during WWII, as evidence of a deep water port for navy vessels still remains, with the wreck of a tank still sitting on the wharf.

The leeward side of Sigri - the windward side lived up to its name!
MolyvosPostcard beautiful
A beautiful town at the northern tip of the island, we ventured there on a stinking hot day. Nearby is a natural hot water bath right on the beach which is known for its healing powers. The process is to alternately dip in the hot, hot water in the pool and then walk outside to dive into the cold, cold sea – repeating this at least 3 times. Turkey seems so close across the water.

The upper walkways in Molyvos
Agra
A little picturesque town in the hills between Mytilini and Eressos. Lesvos is renowned for its quality of ouzo, and in Agra we found this cute little shop where the shelves were lined with every type of ouzo that is made on the island. The shop owners were a lovely couple who posed bashfully and proudly for M’s camera, but were happy to do so after we had purchased some of their better ouzo brands!

The ouzo sellers!
NisiNisi harbour just on dusk
Thank goodness for Lianna – she knows all the good restaurants. We’ve ventured to Nisi on a couple of occasions which is very brave of us considering the state of the road, the dark of night and Lianna’s rally driving!

Big groups are fun - especially at ouzo time!
It’s well worth the effort and risk, because right on the beach is a house where a lovely Greek couple cook food in their kitchen and serve it to guests who sit outside at tables on the beach - drinking wine, beer and ouzo and having a wonderful time. Home-cooked food – fish, prawns, lobster, potatoes, salad, feta cheese and the tastiest tomatoes, followed by fresh fruit such as watermelon – totally delicious.

The chief chef cuts up the dessert - sweet juicy watermelon
We hope that we soon get the chance to catch up with our friends again, to create some more great memories and wonderful times!

The dumbing down of the American Human Mind

While this cartoon is a light-hearted and humourous poke, for some people it just may be the epitome of what's happening in the Middle East!

Two valuable information websites that I've discovered in recent days:
Populist Party of America – Commentary Articles
Information Clearing House – News you won’t find on CNN or Fox

Web surfing is a great time-waster. It’s not difficult to get hooked into websites that offer entertainment diversions and others that are mindless sources of how you should not be spending your valuable time. For some, the internet has become a replacement for TV, newspapers and radio, but today where the average human attention span is equivalent to the 10 sec memory retention of a goldfish, in-depth analysis is ignored in preference for “soundbites” of news and information, where the consumers think that they get to know the whole story just by reading 3 lines of sensationalised and manipulated wording.

An article on the Netscape homepage caught my attention and enticed me to click on the link to read more. Written by Doug Soderstrom in April 2006 and only just “mainstreaming” now, The dumbing down of the American Mind explains how he believes that the American population is already enveloped in a dangerous quagmire of abject arrogance and ignorance through the:
- degradation of education standards
- Christian fundamentalists putting their religious beliefs ahead of science and philosophy
- procurement of freedom and rights at the expense of concern and responsibility for others
- tendency for the American public to become bellicose and chauvinistic
- belief that the American way is the only right way to do things, and that anyone who doesn’t believe in it is simply wrong.

While Soderstrom is writing his article based upon the American public, I believe that his reasoning can extend to a wider audience and when localised to take other religions and other countries into account, it has relevance to the populations of many other nations as well.

I liked what I read in this article, so it led me to explore the source which is a website called The Populist Party of America whose slogan is Where the People Rule, and its introductory page has this to say:

The Populist Party promotes, and strives for, Common Sense solutions; Democracy as a tool to reign in the power of the federal government and ensure a greater responsibility of all public servants to the People.

Populism, as espoused by the Populist Party, is a federal system of government where the final check and balance on the power of the politicians is directly in the hands of the people; with the Constitution and Bill of Rights serving as legal boundaries to protect the rights and liberties of all citizens. Contrary to popular belief, this is the natural progression of society that Thomas Jefferson and many of our founding fathers felt was necessary to ensure America's lasting freedom.

I wish that it was that simple - it’s a very pure and idealistic approach and eschews the effects of human desires fuelled by avarice, control and personal gain.

Common sense solutions sound fine to me.

As for Democracy, my personal opinion is that it will only be successful when there are enough swing voters who will choose to vote either way with their conscience; because they believe in an individual candidate or in the particular values which a party is representing. This means that there have to be no other dominating factors such as a blind allegiance and loyalty to a political party regardless of their policies, or a powerful religion to further divide the voting public and sway their decisions. This is why I believe that democracy will not work in places like Iraq where there is a dominant religion (Islam) involved and that religion is divided into Shia and Sunni sects. Never will the Sunnis win a majority in a democratic election because of their minority population. So they may all be Muslim and Iraqis, but there will still be oppression based upon which form of Islam is followed and by how many.

The gem for me on the Populist website was the Commentary link which leads to articles written by real reporters! I’ve lost myself in reading a lot of the links, and still have more to read, but want to share some of them with you.

One thing that I’ve recognized in these reports is the in-depth, realistic, tell-it-like-it-is journalistic style that is sadly missing from most of the “instant noodle/candy floss” news service reports that are prevalent in today’s media.

I love what I’m reading here! I love to be educated, I love to be cerebrally stimulated and to think further about subjects by what I read, I love to want to learn more about what I read – I’m so sick of the crap standards which are so commonplace today. I don’t want to turn on CNN, BBC, Fox, whatever, to hear the same 3 shallow and often inaccurate news reports repeated ad infinitum and ad nauseum.

Soderstrom refers to an article by John Pilger which is found on the Information Clearing House website. Pilger is an Australian journalist whom I’ve admired for many years and it was his publication The New Rulers of the World that hooked me into his writing. In his piece War by Media he gives examples of how media has influenced historical account and changed public perception, through his personal experiences of the Cold War, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Central America’s Contra War, Indonesia and East Timor. He tells of how Venezuela’s President Chavez is a marked man by western leaders and portrayed as a menace. Yet, in Venezuela he is loved and supported by 80% of the population because Venezuela is the only oil-producing country in the world to use its oil revenue for the benefit of poor people. They (the readers of the false accusations being made against Chavez) would have no idea of spectacular developments in health, education, literacy. They would have no idea that Venezuela has no political jails - unlike the United States.

I recently came across Greg Palast's website with respect to his Blood in Beirut article that he wrote on the Lebanon/Israel conflict and its correlation to oil. In The True History Behind the Rise of Zarqawi he describes how the Americans dismissed General Jay Garner because of his plans to restore the country back into Iraqi power holds as soon as possible. Instead, a 101 page documented plan was instigated which included asset-stripping Iraq by selling off its oil industries, banks and changing Iraq’s copyright and tax code laws. Read it – what’s happening in Iraq has happened to countless other countries that were formerly resource-rich before being pillaged by the super-powers.

Other interesting articles that I’ve read so far include:
Three Iraq Myths That Won't Quit by Scott Ritter who was the Chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 until his resignation in 1998.
How many Muslims does it take to Equal an Israeli Jew? by Populist contributing author and member Russell Cole.
Understanding the Middle-East Crisis by Steve Osborn - a clever analogy which compares the ME situation to a suburban neighbourhood setting.
Killing Iraqi Children by Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation
Does Anyone still read History? and Iraq, an Analysis - also by Steve Osborn
The Hiroshima Myth - by John V. Denson which questions why the atom bombs were dropped on Japan in August 1945 when the Japanese has already agreed to surrender in May of the same year.
I don't Support the Troops by Chas Chiodo.

I could go on! Instead, I encourage you to look at some of these articles for yourself. Hunt out others on the lists that interest you too. Read some thought-provoking intelligence from journalists and writers who are not standing in front of TV cameras in flak jackets, looking brave and quoting info gleaned from desensitised military reports and polished politicians' statements, and who are trying to get THE story or image that will win them prizes and fame.

Pictures that lie

Here are some examples of manipulated images which throughout the years have been used for humour, political advantage or vanity.

For me, the funniest was Oprah's head on Ann-Margret's body!

Worth reading is this article on how software development is designing applications that can help to detect whether images have been manipulated. It reports that Reuters is already using it, although it didn't appear to have been used during the recent debacle!

Mise from Mothisge blog, chips in with this innovative software - Tourist Remover from Snapmania. I've got to try this!

Our blog as a graph

Here's something to do when you have a spare 5 minutes - click on this link, type in your blog URL, and see the pretty picture take shape.

This is our blog in a graphic format.

The colours mean different things:
Blue: links
Red: tables
Green: div tag
Purple: images
Yellow: forms
Orange: linebreaks and blockquotes
Black: html tag root node
Gray: all other tags

We have a lot of images!

Other bloggers who visit our blog and have posted graphs of their blogs are:
Buj
Pandabonium
Sharron Kidney-Stone
Secret Arabian
I Think; Therefore I am - where Krishna also has a representation of the internet as of Jan 2005 - it looks like a galaxy!
Everyday Dubai

If you also post a graph on your blog, send me the link in the Comments section, and I'll post it here too.

M's most excellent airport adventure

If anyone can avoid air travel at the moment, do so.

Leaving DXB is worse than leaving the US, and I have that on authority from an American colleague who flew into Berlin, Germany today from Boston’s Logan Airport.

I flew out of Dubai early Sunday morning. Given that I was flying to Germany, I thought that I would escape the madness around what was happening in the UK.

Not!

11:45pm: At the first x-ray machine before check-in, I was called aside to unpack my computer, and told to unclip the battery and pack both it and the computer power cord into my small trolley as it had to be checked-in.

First issue: I do not check in any luggage. When we did this for the first time back in March, we lost our bags for 6 days. But I went with the flow.

12:10am: To the Lufthansa check-in area.

A Lufthansa representative, standing between me and the counter, zeroed in on me, asking where I was travelling to.
“To Germany.”
“Do you have a computer with you?”
“Yes.”
At which stage he became very authoritative and lost his smile.
“You must check-in the battery and the power cable.” (Would it be very wrong for me to say that I almost heard the German commandant in this Indian man’s voice?)
“But I don’t have any check-in luggage.”
“Well, you have to check your trolley – you cannot take the computer battery and cable onboard. You will be turned away at the next x-ray and told to come back here.”
“OK – can you guarantee that this time you will not lose my suitcase? The last time you took it away from me, I was without luggage for 6 days.”
“Madam,” (God, I hate it when they call me this!), “it is totally out of our control – it is the new regulations.”

With that, he turned on his heel and walked away.

Now, I know that writing this down, it loses something – my emotion and his. For me, it was a heated exchange, as I usually am pretty cool – I normally leave the confrontation to J as she’s so good at it!

12:20am: To the counter. The nice smiling check-in lady got a scowl in return and to her credit, kept her cool. My nemesis Lufthansa agent returned, making sure that the check-in clerk knew that I had a computer and that my bag had to be checked in. She just looked at him and told him that she was taking care of it – no need to press the issue. My respect for her grew!

12:30am: With boarding passes for DXB-FRA and FRA-TXL in hand, I was off to immigration – a process made easier by my precious little e-Card which allows me to bypass the often horrendous immigration queues, only to allow me to queue earlier in the horrendously long Customs’ x-ray queues. Finally making it through, I’m called aside again. They’re interested in my Masafi water bottle.

The friendly Customs’ agent asks me to drink the water. After resisting the urge to drink, pretend to choke and fall to the floor clutching my throat, I do what she asks and am waved through – able to take my water – bonus!

1:15am: We board on time at 1:15am for a 1:45am departure. At 2am, the captain announces that because there is only 1 operational runway open at DXB (the other is being re-sealed), there is a backlog of 15 planes in front of us and we have another 20 mins at the gate before we can push back.

3:00am: We’re finally rumbling down the runway, taking off to the east before u-turning to head out across the gulf and onto Europe. Thankfully, I sleep through most of the flight, and waken about 40mins before we’re due to land.

7:10am (German time): If we had departed on time, in Frankfurt I would have had about an hour to clear German immigration and get to my Berlin connection. We didn’t - and I don’t. Although some time has been made up, we still arrive 40mins late at the B section of Terminal 1 and my Berlin plane is due to leave the A section of the same terminal at 7:35am.

Now, if you’re still reading and you know Frankfurt airport, you’ll know that this means running for the immigration counters, usually queuing behind the Turkish and Armenian passengers who arrived 10 mins before you and who are now all being viewed as terrorist suspects in the eyes of German immigration. Then, once you successfully get through this, it’s downstairs to queue for the x-rays, a mad dash for the elevators, a frantic race through the 500m tunnel underneath the tarmac between B and A sections, and up in another elevator before arriving at the gate, puffing and sweating like a marathon runner.

Our plane arrives at the gate. Instead of taking us off on the airbridge, we are mysteriously walked down onto the tarmac and shuffled onto buses which then drive us to the terminal. By now, I’ve given up making sense of anything, and resigned to catching a later flight to Berlin.

7:20am: Here’s where a small miracle and a window of opportunity opens up – I’ve beaten the Turks and Armenians to Immigration! In fact, it’s looking better than I’ve ever seen it - there's no queue at all! I’m through – racing for the x-ray machines…

7:25am: …where I get to queue behind the most frustrating person on this planet. He first forgets to take his computer out of his bag. Next, there’s his leather belt with the huge metal buckle – 1st beep. Next is the cellphone – 2nd beep. Oh – coins in his pocket – 3rd beep. I’m managing to keep my cool – I’m only screaming on the inside.

My turn. By now, my computer (sans battery and power cable) is out of my pack; my solid gold bracelets are off my arm; my cellphone out of my pocket. I throw it all in the bin and walk through the detector, pushing aside the doofus in front of me to collect my things, because he’s still standing there gazing gazelle-like at his stuff on the conveyor belt.

X-ray lady asks me if my computer is mine. Upon confirmation, she asks me to accompany her for a “special extra examination” of my computer. Another guy wipes over my computer with a piece of paper, feeds the paper into a machine and pronounces my computer to be free of explosive matter. Thank God, I’ve been really worried for some time now that my computer was thinking about being the next Little Boy.

7:35am: Upon reflection, it was a miracle that I had got to where I was in such little time, but now I'm aware that this is the time that my plane is due to leave, and I still have the tunnel to negotiate.

The elevators are all down, so I take the stairs. Down 3 storeys and 6 flights of stairs and I’m running through the tunnel – ignoring the moving travelators which are blocked by a stationary group made up of half the population of China, all blinking myopically at the mad white female running past them.

The elevator god is finally on my side at the other end. Because I’ve run past the majority of my fellow tunnel travellers, there’s only 5 of us in the elevator before the doors close to whisk us up to the departure gates. 2 Americans are gasping beside me, praying that they get their flight. Asking them where they’re going brings me the next stroke of luck – they’re on the same flight as me, and as they’ve had the chance to check the gate number, there’s been a gate change to the one that I have on my boarding card.

7:40am: The elevator doors open – it’s like a scene out of The Amazing Race as we sprint for the finish line at Gate 15. By now, the signs have been turned off and we have to yell at the counter staff to ask them if it’s the Berlin flight – yes, yes – go, go, go!

We’re onboard, and the door closes behind us - we get told that they were waiting for us. My elation lasts until 10 seconds after I sit down. I made the plane in 20 mins – a miracle for sure, but now the reality is that there’s no way that my bag also made it.

8:45am: We’re on the ground at Tegel in Berlin. While waiting to disembark, over the PA I’m asked to contact the cabin crew at the front of the plane.

Nope – my bag didn’t make it - but at least they know where it is this time. I must report to Lufthansa Lost & Found to report it. It will arrive on a later flight but they need my address and contact details.

9:00am: We’re familiar with Tegel’s Lost & Found office – we spent a few hours there back in March. J has now joined me as she was already in Berlin and has come to the airport to collect me. She gives the address details for delivery of my case, and we’re told that it should be delivered by 3pm.

3:20pm: A phone call to tell us to expect the case between 2pm and 7pm!

7:00pm: Still no case and we want to go out for dinner. J calls the Lufthansa number. Now, you’d think that it would be a free number, but no, we have to pay for the privilege of phoning Lufthansa to ask after the welfare of my missing bag. €10 later and J is talking to a woman who has no access to the Lufthansa computers, can give us no details and is no help at all. I hope that she's well-paid to take all the abuse that must be thrown at her.

7:45pm: A small white van pulls up with an equally small white man inside, who gets out to pull a small green trolley bag up the path to our door – my case has arrived!

8:00pm: We’re at the Indian restaurant, tucking into very delicious chicken vindaloo, lamb korma and butter chicken, with big glasses of cold beer.

As for my American colleague flying into Berlin from Boston: he had no problems. His intact computer was allowed onboard and security was a breeze.

J travelled to London for the day today. She reports that Heathrow looks like tent city, with tents outside the terminals to house people whose flights have been cancelled or aren’t scheduled to leave in the next few hours. Negotiating the guards with machine guns is also good sport!

Get killer cars tuned or choke

Following on from the below post on pollution in the UAE, here's what's happening in New Zealand to combat the effects of vehicle exhaust smoke, as reported in the NZ Herald.

As part of an awareness campaign to educate New Zealanders on the dangers of unhealthy levels of vehicle exhaust emissions, billboards like the one pictured are being erected in city streets.

As the vehicular fumes affect the billboard, the light text will darken and become more visible.

Over 24 hours on an Auckland street, the text had already gone from invisible to light grey.

Can you imagine what would happen if these boards were erected in Dubai?

Sticking one's head in the sand smog?

I started a reply to John Chilton's post on the UAE Community Blogsite, but by the time I had finished, my response was longer than John's post, so I decided to put it here!

I had to shake my head in disbelief when I read this the other day which starts by stating: Experts from various universities, including a professor from the American University of Sharjah, have launched an international research paper, saying the dangerous levels of ozone in the UAE come from Western Europe.

The report goes on: The purpose of the research was to explore the inherent characteristics of the photochemical and dynamic structures of the lower atmosphere (up to 15km above the earth's surface) of UAE urban areas, according to Dr. Majeed, assistant professor (at American University of Sharjah) of physics.

Before they went into the costly exercises of launching ballooons (carrying expensive testing and monitoring equipment) towards the stratosphere, I would have suggested that they take a helicopter ride and sample the air a bit closer to the ground - in the troposphere. I know how this is done. I've been in a helicopter in New Zealand gathering samples of air and water with a friend who worked for the Auckland Regional Authority's monitoring department.

Take a look at this diagram which I found on the Environmental Protection Agency's website.

It shows that most smog happens closer to the earth's surface, with the higher ozone layer being mostly affected by CFCs and halons caused by things like air conditioners - and I doubt that we will see the day when this region will turn those off!

The UAE smog isn't happening 15km above the ground - it's sometimes no more than 15 storeys up. On some days I can't go out onto our balcony without my eyes stinging and my sinuses getting blocked up.

Click onto this image taken from our 21st storey office in December 2005. The top of the smog, that layer of brown crud above the natural horizon, is parallel with our office. Look how it bisects the Burj Al Arab!

It's not caused by the European smog - the air above is clear. This is a local cause, and it's mostly from all the construction traffic which spits out copious amounts of muck 24/7.

When the construction traffic wasn't around for 3 days during the mourning period for Sheikh Maktoum, (and also for Sheikh Zayed), the air was beautifully clear, like this:

Conjuring up international research papers and concentrating on Balloon-Borne Electochemial concentration cell (ECC) Soundings will be subversive to identifying the real issues. As John Chilton points out, smog from Europe would not make its way down here to just hang around urban areas, as the Gulf News article would suggest!

The authorities should be clamping down on the actual majority cause - the vehicles which emit fumes that are way above the safe levels for roadworthy vehicles.

It's the same in the sea too. There's this little gem about the yachts at the Dubai Marina with 2-stroke engines causing fouling in the water. We're talking about 50+ mostly small sailboats whose engines are rarely used for more than getting them on and off their moorings/berths. The true sailors who own these smaller vessels like to do just that - sail!

Talk about detract from the real issues!

We have greater problems caused by people with their own agendas spurting on about how the turtles aren't affected by the Palm construction, because they only come ashore on remote islands, however they are planning to build an island for the natural habitat where turtles will return to the area. So can we deduce from this statement that there were turtles here before and now there aren't any, because of the disturbance to their environment?

Longtime members of the Emirates Diving Association will tell you of protected green turtles coming ashore between Dubai and Jebel Ali to lay eggs. It's not happening now. Once while walking around the breakwater at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, I saw a green turtle as it was eating algae from the rocks about 15' down. But that was over 2 years ago when the water was still clear enough for me to see 30' away. A turtle could now be 2' away from me and I wouldn't be able to see through the muck in the water and by now, any self-respecting turtle should have high-tailed it out of the area and gone to Oman.

A ship discharging its ballast water into the gulf can cause far more damage to the environment than 50+ 2 stroke engines ever will. If the ballast is taken onto the ship in foreign waters, it may contain marine organisms that are not present in the gulf waters and which could potentially do a lot of damage in this area if they are predatory or toxic to the native flora and fauna.

The beach area in front of the Royal Mirage Hotel used to be beautiful - little waves crashing onto the beach and sparkling water. Since the Palm development, the area looks more like a stagnant pond - there is very little flow of water now.

The smog in the UAE is now comparable to what I've seen in more developed cities such as Los Angeles. It will only get worse here if nothing is done.

I was in LA during and after 9/11 - unable to return to New Zealand due to the airports closing down. The prevailing Marine Layer, (which hovers over LA, traps the smog and blocks out a lot of the sun's heat), disappeared within a day of LAX airport being closed. Astronomers in the US reported the best viewing conditions of the celestial heavens in the 3 days after 9/11 - there were no planes in the air spewing out their toxic waste.

The new Jebel Ali Airport will swing into life in the next few years. It's going to move more people and freight than DXB, and will eventually be the combined size of London's Heathrow and Chicago's O'Hare Airports. That's HUGE! It will also mean even more pollutants added to the air over the UAE.

It's about time that the authorities stopped playing games and addressed the real issues.

The water quality and marine environment is being affected by the artificial islands.

The air quality is being affected by local conditions and not Europe.

We need comprehensive studies on the cause and effect process which will be undertaken by independent agencies that do not have existing business affiliations with the UAE - although the monitoring should have started about 6 years ago if we're to get a true representation of the changes. Only then can the real issues be identified and, she writes hopefully, addressed.

Jebel Hafeet: heat-beating retreat

Want to know how to get out of the humidity for a while without leaving the UAE?

Head up a mountain.

The city of Al Ain in the Abu Dhabi emirate is close to the border of Oman, and the Hajjar mountain range which runs spinelike through Oman also invades the Al Ain environs.

The tallest peak on the Al Ain side is called Jebel Hafeet – rising up to 1240m. At the base is an area called the Green Mubazzarah – a popular picnic area with natural hot water springs. The 3-lane, 15km sealed road leading up the mountain is a work of art. It’s well–lit by halogen street lamps at night, and guarded by concrete barriers to stop the cars from driving over the edge and careening down the steep slopes to a less-than-happy fate. Judging by the scrapes and paint marks on the barriers, it appears that their presence has done much to prevent the already too-high UAE road toll from becoming even higher.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

Numerous huge car parking areas have been built along the road. In our trips up the mountain with various overseas visitors in tow, we’ve never seen more than 1 or 2 cars in any of these areas. The top carpark is easily the size of 4 or 5 football fields, and the black tyre marks which criss-cross the cobblestones are evidence that much hooning takes place up there by the resident boy racers.

On a clear day, the views are spectacular. Al Ain city and its environs stretch out at the base of the mountain; the sand and rock interspersed with areas of green which are a testament to the late Sheikh Zayed’s passion and determination to “greenify” the area, and much of the greenery is watered by his Bio-saline agricultural project. The sand dunes to the southwest are awesome, as is the mountain itself. Take binoculars, as viewing the environs through them allows so much more detail to be seen.

There are 2 amazing manmade structures on top of Jebel Hafeet. At the very top sits the palace where once resided Shaikh Zayed. It’s a fantastic engineering feat perched on the very top of the ridge.

Slightly below the palace is the Mercure Hotel. The Mercure is a popular place for weekend getaways from Dubai – and the rates are quite reasonable. There's a wonderful swimming pool and waterslides for kids (of all ages!) to enjoy, as well as a mini golf course, gym, squash and tennis courts, and a play area for the kids.

On the second floor of the hotel and only accessible to the hotel guests is a wonderful viewing deck. The wide concrete railing has a mosaic map of the surrounding vista – pointing out areas of interest, as well as describing the local flora and fauna. Markers also indicate the directions of the world’s major cities in relation to the hotel.

Being elevated, the mountain has its own ecoclimate, is less humid than the lower surrounding countryside and is also colder at night. In Summer, the skin burntime is a lot less than in Dubai - as M found out to her detriment during the July visit!

It’s a great place to base yourself when visiting Al Ain to experience all the attractions of the area. The camel market, zoo*, oases, forts and museums are among the finest in the UAE.

*I included the zoo as one of the finest sites because although it was a bit rundown and lacking in the animal department when we last visited, what is there is amazing to see - and it was only 2 dirhams to get in! The reptile house alone is worth the visit with huge pythons and anacondas, as well as the smaller species of reptiles.

Just recently there's been good news for the zoo. A 15 million dirham refurbishment has added covered walkways, new facilities and revamped animal enclosures.

Plans are also underway to include a day and night safari, as well as build a water park.

Unlike the Dubai zoo, the enclosures are spacious, grassed, and from what we can see, all the animals' sleeping quarters have air-conditioners. Whether the aircon is actually used, I can't say!

I don't understand why they can't relocate some of the poor animals out of the Dubai Zoo to Al Ain until the new Dubai zoo is (ever) ready. It would benefit both establishments, and most of all, benefit the animals.

EDIT: Ahmed wrote to us to say that the palace on top of Jebel Hafeet is actually UAE President Sheikh Khalifa's residence - thanks Ahmed!

This post was also included in Gulf News' Pick of the Week on 7th August which now appears to be a weekly column highlighting posts from the regional bloggers.