Gitex 2009

My first Gitex, some years ago, I was overwhelmed with the new technology.

This Gitex, I went to the Home of the Future. They had a display of a new charger system for those with multiple devices constantly in need of recharging, but whose flat has only one plug. The system could simultaneously recharge three devices and only needed one outlet.

'How does it work?' I asked. The exhibitor said, 'I'll show you,' and picked up one of the devices. The alarm went off, thinking the exhibitor was trying to steal the device. The alarm was quite loud, and none of the exhibitors knew how to turn it off, so I slipped away, not wanting to remain around as the ultimate cause, if not the proximate offender. And, in any case, I couldn't hear what the exhibitor was saying over the alarm.

Then I wandered into a talk on social networking. Basically, every young, with-it person is now part of multiple social networks, while we old fogies aren't.

I recall a paper newspaper reporter talking about her joining Facebook after being 'invited' by her daughter, who had access since the daughter was a student at Harvard (NB: the mother had gotten into Harvard only because her parents were from Harvard; her daughter had gotten into Harvard entirely on merit, without regard to her parents). What the reporter didn't say was that Facebook originally had no search function: you were offered to 'poke' only those Facebook members at your own university, and those whose Facebook accounts you already knew, so the reporter poked her own daughter, but was rebuffed. The mother's only friend was the default Facebook friend. Facebook is no longer like that: you no longer need either to be a Harvard student or alumnus to join, nor do you need an invitation from a Harvard student or alumnus, but paper newspaper reporters still write articles that their children do not appreciate having their parents poking them on Facebook. Whatever 'poking on Facebook' means. (As an old fogie, I have no idea.)

Since Facebook is a closed book to me, I again wandered off, and found I'd seen most of this year's Gitex, without seeing any technology that overwhelmed me.

Mainly because I now resist all new technology, unlike five years ago when I welcomed it.

But then, five years ago was before social networking.

Columbus Day, 2009

In the Kingsley Amis novel Lucky Jim, Jim is a young history lecturer whose department chair forces him to write a paper on fifteenth century European sailing ships, a paper Jim finds totally boring and useless. I suspect Mr. Amis found himself at the faculty dining table, buttonholed by one of the history faculty who was excited by a paper on the same subject as the one in the novel, and Mr. Amis made his character feel about the subject just as Mr. Amis felt, making for a great comic novel, and one I recommend.

However, the fifteenth century European sailing ship developments probably led to European domination of the entire world for several centuries, and on this day in 1492, one of the major successes took place as Columbus reached the West Indies.

In school, I was taught that Columbus was the first person to realise the world was round. This, as it happens, was a facile explanation for school children. The real story was the Italians had developed a ship that could beat against the wind, and were building a fleet with which to dominate the Med. Columbus took the ideas to Spain, and others took the ideas to Portugal, and both Spain and Portugal began sailing: Spain heading west and Portugal south against the prevailing winds.

Before the fifteenth century, all ships used oarsmen when they had to travel against the wind, which usually meant that their holds were full of oarsmen, who, when rowing, needed lots of food and water. The Vikings managed to row to Iceland and set up a viable colony, and managed to row to Greenland and Canada, but their ships could hold so few women and provisions that both the Greenland and Canadian colonies failed.

But a ship that travels under sail without any oarsmen has a hold that can be filled with food, water, passengers, horses, sheep, cows, and matériel. However, without oarsmen, it must either be able to beat against the wind, or else it can only run before the wind. The 1066 invasion of England used sailing ships that could only run before the wind, and the Normans had to sit and wait for favourable winds. Hoping for all favourable winds is not really an option when exploring new parts of the globe.

Columbus had favourable East winds for two weeks, and feared a mutiny: if the ship ran out of water and no land had been found, there would be no way to get back to Europe before everyone died horrible deaths from thirst. Then the winds turned Westerly, and the crew relaxed, knowing that, as long as they were beating against a strong headwind, they could quickly make it back to Spain when the water began to run low. The crew allowed Columbus to beat against the wind for two more months until they spotted land, which would not have been possible before the European fifteenth century sailing ship.

Which was why my imputed history faculty member was so excited about the paper, and why he button-holed Mr. Amis, providing Mr. Amis with the opening scene for Lucky Jim.

Cityscape, Dubai, 2009

Not being a Real Estate professional or investor, I hadn't heard of Cityscape, but this morning Farook called and asked me to go with him 'for an hour or so.' I should have known.

First, we had to pick up Farook's nephew who needs a job. The Arab extended family tends to be close knit, so Farook must help his nephew. (I should note that they are not Citizens of the UAE.) As best I can tell, Farook invited me along because he thought I might be able to help.

'What is your university degree?' I asked. Before he could answer, Farook said, 'He engineer.' 'What kind?' 'R-squared.'

I have no idea what that might be, but Farook volunteered, 'He engineer buildings.' 'Oh, in English we call that a civil engineer.' 'No, he not civil.' So I have no idea what the nephew's degree is in. It is clear that the nephew went to school in Egypt and speaks absolutely no English, so, even if I did know a place that was hiring, they wouldn't be able to use Farook's nephew, since I only know places where the main language is English and where the Director only speaks English. For Arab owned and operated places that only do business in Arabic, Farook knows much better than I. So, as usual with Farook, I had no idea why I was dragged along.

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Cityscape is a travelling International Property exhibition, with many nations and developments trying to sell properties, including, of course, many from the UAE, since this is the UAE Cityscape.

We first saw a water display board, and Farook approached the exhibitor and asked, 'You have smaller?' 'I'm sorry, this is the smallest we have.' 'I want buy one, but I need smaller. I take one today, but you must sell smaller one.' The negotiation for a smaller one went on for about fifteen minutes, but the exhibitor had brought his smallest one to display. I was impressed by the water display board. It drops water in the shape of letters and backlights them so the message is displayed in the water in different colours. Finally, Farook asked, 'This work in rain?' The answer is, 'Yes, if it's covered,' but the exhibitor just said, 'Yes' (after all, he's trying to sell as many of the things as he can). If rain (or anything else) comes between the backlight and the falling letters in waterdrops, the effect would be marred or spoiled. Finally Farook wandered off.

Farook spent 30 minutes to an hour at each exhibit. If it was Malaysian property, he asked, 'You have property in Thailand?' and kept asking and asking. If it was villas, he's ask for industrial properties, if industrial, he'd ask for flats. I wandered through Cityscape, which fills six large halls and has hundreds of exhibitors. Farook spoke with somewhere between half a dozen and a dozen exhibitors in the first open hall.

As I wandered through all six of the huge display halls, I saw hundreds of exhibitors selling property, selling tools to market and manage property, selling property analyses, selling anything and everything to do with properties from all over the world.

Finally, Farook saw the exhibit for the company where his son works. It is a captive loan company, rather like GMAC or Ford Finance, but for the owner's property developments, not for the owners' cars. It will only loan money to buyers of one of the owner's six developments, a fact of which Farook was well aware (but I wasn't).

It was also late, and I needed to have been home at least two hours earlier.

So Farook asked, 'You have villa for sale?' 'No we are a loan company. If you want to buy a villa, we can loan you the money to make the purchase.' 'Very good. I need villa in Fujairah.' (I should note that they are not based in Fujairah, and cannot loan on property in Fujairah.)

I tried to intervene in order to expedite matters: 'They are only a loan company. They only make loans. do not ask about villas, ask about their interest rates.'

'This haram. Interest haram. I no want interest. This Western way. West is Shaitan. West now rich, but West come down. This place is Arab place. we do things Arab way, not Western way. You no interrupt me again, I do business with these people and you just make problem.' Farook turned back to the exhibitor, 'You have villa in Sharjah?'

'No,' I said. 'They only make loans. Ask them about their loans.'

'Loans haram. I never ask about loan. You keep interrupting me, I cannot do business. I take you home and come back,' so Farook took me home, and I was grateful.

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I think I know what was going on. About seven years ago, Farook was making about $100,000 a year, and the techniques he was using today worked. But Farook told me has hasn't earned anything for the last two years, and business was very slow the year before that, so his problems have nothing to do with the current crisis, but with the fact that the UAE, and especially Dubai, have changed. So, since Farook is my friend, I want to help him.

What I think Farook was doing was using a negotiating technique of which I do not approve.

First, you ask the other party totally inappropriate questions, such as, 'Very good, I like you, you sell me villa in Thailand?' when the other party is a representative of the Malaysia government selling a development in Malasia. This is just to get the other party off balance. Next, you waste time, lots of time. To the point where the other party will do anything just to get rid of you. Finally, you manage to get a great deal on whatever you were trying to buy or sell. Farook has been using this technique for years, and it used to work, but now it doesn't. Dubai, it seems, has changed. And Farook would say, not for the better. (Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for Farook's opinions, I just report them.)

Farook has no money (he spent his savings just keeping his family housed and fed for the last two years), so he is not buying any property. I was trying to tell him, 'Go get information from as many exhibitors as possible, then try to present the properties to your clients, and try for a few small commissions.'

But Farook hopes that, by getting the people off balance, they might reveal something they shouldn't. What that might be, and how he might profit from it, Farook didn't know, but a few highly profitable successes from many years ago leave hope eternal in Farook's breast.

I, however, felt bad because I can't help Farook re-start his business, and because he'd wasted a day when I had other things I really had to get done.

Comments on my last Post

I got two comments on my last post, one reasonable.

As Farook says, 'Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all tell people to do good things, but then people do bad things.'

One comment said I should leave the Middle East since I hate Islam. I have no idea where he got the idea that I hate Islam, though I do not approve of Muslims who think their particular school of Islam is the only one that is correct, any more than I approve of Christians who think their sect is the only one that is correct. But my criticisms of misguided Muslims or misguided Christians are not an attack on either Islam or Christianity.

Both Christianity and Islam call themselves 'Religions of Peace,' and both, religions, I think, strive to achieve that status. I have not observed either religion achieving perfection, this world being a place of fallibility and sin.

However, any objective observer is required to admit that Islam comes much closer than Christianity to achieving the goal of being a 'Religion of Peace.' A relatively small number of people have been killed or injured in the name of misguided versions of Islam compared with those killed by misguided Christians.

World War II included one atheist nation, but most of the 50 million killed were killed by the Christian nations who took part in the war, and most of those killed were civilians. The controversial concept of a 'just war' under some versions of Christianity and Islam does not includes killing innocent civilians.

The 'War on Terror' in Iraq has resulted in more than 93,000 confirmed deaths of innocent civilians according to Iraq Body Count, and this war was initiated by Christians and largely prosecuted by Christians against people who had absolutely nothing to do with any attack on the US.

I am not condemning Christianity, but I do condemn Christians who violate Christian principles.

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The commentator was also furious that I quoted a hadith about giving water to a dog and he said there can never be any such hadith in Islam. The hadith was Hadith 1:174 Narrated By Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, "A man saw a dog eating mud from (the severity of) thirst. So, that man took a shoe (and filled it) with water and kept on pouring the water for the dog till it quenched its thirst. So Allah approved of his deed and made him to enter Paradise."

The trouble with hadiths is that not all Muslims accept all hadiths, and the person who posted the comment obviously does not accept this one, which I grant is his right. I have a bit more trouble with his saying that no true Muslim accepts any hadiths that the author of the comment rejects, and anyone who is not 100% in agreement with the author is 100% wrong and must immediately leave the Middle East.

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The comment also said that Christians should help Christians and should not expect Muslims to help Christians.

But I've known Christians who donated generously to help people in need regardless of whether the people were Christian, and who considered that to be part of their tithe, and I've known Muslims who consider it part of their Zakat to help anyone in need, regardless of the needy persons' religion.

Overall, I've seen more tolerance and hospitality in Dubai than anywhere in the West, but I know that this tolerance and hospitality does not meet with universal approval, since, in this vale of tears, nothing meets with universal approval.

Eid al Fitr, 1430

Today is the third and last day of Eid al Fitr, the Islamic festival after the end of Ramadan. For the last two days, I've seen relieved smokers puffing away during the day, and most businesses are closed for the Eid (since, if they don't close, they must pay a special tax), so people have the time to stand around and smoke.

One commentator said I was 100% wrong because I didn't get all the details about Zakat correct. Zakat is the mandatory contribution every adult Muslim must make, and is approximately 2½%, but the details are a) quite complicated; and b) I wouldn't have gone into all of them if I'd known them; and c) I don't know all the details.

According to the commentator, part of Zakat must be paid during Ramadan, and it has a different name from the part that's paid in other months and the two Zakats must never be co-mingled in anyone's mind, such co-mingling being 100% wrong. The easiest way to describe Zakat is just to say that it's similar to the Christian tithe, but the word 'tithe' means 10%, and Zakat is not 10%, but saying it's similar (but a different percentage) is close enough for me.

Several years ago, a Muslim told me that all Zakat must go to Muslims; Farook says it can go to any meskin, Muslim or not. I suspect, after reading some Islamic writings, that Farook is closer to being correct than the person who said it can only go to Muslims: there's a famous Islamic saying (called a hadith) about a man who barely made it out of the desert. Almost dead, he came to a well, climbed in, and drank until he was fully revived. On climbing out, he saw a dog panting, almost dead with thirst, and climbed back in to get some water for the dog, which, the hadith assures us, was the correct thing to do. Which should mean by analogy that feeding non-Muslim meskins is acceptable.

But, as is implied by the commentator who said I was 100% wrong, these things are a) quite complicated; and b) vary between the different schools of Islam (of course, only his school has things 100% correct).

I tend to go back to my basic understanding: Zakat is an obligatory contribution every adult Muslim must make, is similar to the Christian tithe, and includes (among other things) feeding meskins after sunset during Ramadan.

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Several of my sources (including the aforementioned commentator) said that the food (and/or money) handed out for Eid al Fitr should be given during Ramadan, so the recipients can prepare for a bounteous Eid. The next Eid in about 10 weeks time celebrates the time the Prophet Ibrahim (AS) (Abraham in the Anglicised form), went to sacrifice his son but was told at the last minute to sacrifice a ram instead, so for that Eid (but not this one) fathers should take a kid or lamb and their sons out to commemorate the day. There doesn't seem to be any requirement to sacrifice a kid or lamb for this Eid, Eid al Fitr.

However, my first Eid al Fitr in the UAE, I heard the bleating of lambs and kids coming from many of the villas in town the last day or two of Ramadan, and shortly after the early morning Eid prayers, I saw people leading their lambs and kids out to make a feast for Eid. I assume some of the meat went to the meskins these people knew. It's not clear where the custom of sacrificing a kid or lamb on Eid al Fitr came from, but it seems quite common in the UAE outside of Dubai.

Last of Ramadan, 1430

It is now Saturday, 19 September in the Western calendar.

Today should be the 29^th and last day of Ramadan, since, according to my Chinese lunar calendar, the crescent moon should be clearly visible tonight at sunset, so tomorrow should be Eid al Fitr, the festival at the end of Ramadan. Of course, if there is a dust cloud obscuring the moon in Saudia, then the crescent won't be seen here, and tomorrow will be 30 Ramadan 1430.

As Ramadan runs down, Farook must pay his Zakat, the Islamic equivalent of the Christian tithe, only a bit less (2½% rather than 10%). Farook showed me his pot, which is huge, much too large to fit into any home cooker. On alternate nights, he either buys a goat and a 20 kg sack of rice, or a bunch of chickens and a 20 kg sack of rice, then takes them to a public oven for cooking and gives some to the Dubai religious authorities (called the Awqaf) to distribute, and distributes some himself to the meskins he knows. One of these meskins is Dubai@Random, so I've been given huge quantities of goat or chicken biriani and harees (whatever that is) every night for the last 10 days or so (and I've managed to put on several kilos as a result).

Last night, we went to a Ramadan tent. People sit around and talk from around 10 pm until 11:45 pm when they bring out six roast goats on beds of different items, plus accompaniments such as pancakes with date syrup, pasta, and beans, and everyone digs in for fifteen minutes, then goes outside the tent for tea, coffee, thanks to the host, and goodbye (in Arabic is masalama).

As we ate, I kept asking, 'What's this,' meaning, not the goat, of course but the different items on which the goats were sitting. 'Shhh,' I was told.

After, Farook explained that it is very rude to talk while eating.

'But I want to know what the dishes are called,' I tried to explain.

'Why? You must eat what is put before you. No need to know name.'

So (other than goat) I have almost no idea what I ate, except for the pasta, pancakes and beans (and they wouldn't tell me the Arabic names for the type of beans or for the pancakes or pasta).

So, after today, Eid meaning festival, for a few days, then back to what is considered normal for this part of the world.

New York Times on Dubai Financial Laws

The laws in the UAE are remarkably similar, qualitatively, to the laws in the West; the differences are quantitative. In the West, if one buys something on credit, one signs a note, and, if the debtor fails to make the payments, the creditor might send someone to repossess, or might ask the courts to garnish the debtor's wages. But this is civil law, so debtors cannot be gaoled just for debt. And, as I understand it, neither must one necessarily be gaoled just for debt in the UAE.

In the West, if one knowingly writes a bad cheque, that's fraud, and one can be gaoled for fraud under the criminal law.

In Dubai, if one borrows money, the lender always demands a post-dated cheque, and, if one fails to repay, the cheque is used as proof of criminal fraud and the debtor/bad-cheque-fraudster goes to gaol.

So the laws in the West and in the UAE look similar, but in practice debtors who cannot pay usually do not go to gaol in the West, and generally do go to gaol in Dubai.

The New York Times writes that debtors in Dubai go to prison, unlike in the US where writing a fraudulent cheque is a civil offence which cannot possibly result in criminal penalties such as imprisonment. They find this terrible, and think Dubai must modernise and implement the New York City criminal and civil code.

The problem is that, on paper, the UAE laws look very similar to New York City laws: people must dress modestly in public; fraud is illegal; the rights of immigrant workers on H1 visas are similar.

But 'modest dress' has a different meaning; debtors are forced to write post-dated cheques in the UAE; and workers on H1 visas are less than 1% of US residents, but more than 80% of Dubai residents, so, as I said, the laws are qualitatively similar but quantitatively, drastically different.

Dubai Metro

On Wednesday 9/9/9 at 9 pm the Dubai Metro carried a trainload of sheikhs from Mall of the Emirate to Rashidia. I have no idea where Rashidia is, but I trust the sheikhs' drivers were able to find it to deliver the sheikhs' cars.

On Thursday, 10 Sept, meskins were allowed to ride, and I meant to be among those first riders, but on 9/9/9 at 11 pm, Farook insisted I join him for shisha and discussions of the Holy Koran, and I didn't get to sleep until 6 am, and wasn't up to taking the Metro. When I finally got up Thursday evening, I found an e-mail of what was captioned as the Thursday morning, 10 Sept, first public run of the Metro, and it was empty.

For the last 10 days of Ramadan, devout Muslims spend much of each night (especially the odd numbered nights of Ramadan) inside the mosque, so I was not shishaed out Friday night, and made it to the bus stop today. Two busses pick up travellers from my stop, one goes to Union Square (next to Al Ghurair Mall) and the other to Bur Juman Mall. The bus to Union Square came first, so I got on and read the local paper about how great the new Metro was.

The Union Square Station is underground (as is the station at Bur Juman, called the Khalid bin Waleed Station, since Bur Juman refused to pay to have its name on the station). I went to a machine, but the machine only recharges tickets, so I had to buy a ticket first. I stood in line until I reached the teller who said her computer wasn't working. So I had to get in another line and wait until I reached the next teller.

There are First Class tickets (called Gold Tickets) and Cattle Class tickets (called Silver Tickets) and I got a Gold Ticket. I wanted to put $25.50 on the ticket, but the teller only took $5.50 and gave me a ticket and $20 change. Of the $5.50, $2 was for the card, and $3.50 was for fares on the Metro or on Dubai buses.

They announced the next train, so I tried to race to the platform, but the station was congested, and I missed the train. By the time the next train arrived, there was quite a crowd on the Gold platform, and I was crammed into the already full train by the people behind me. Not only were all the seats filled, so were all the straps, so I couldn't even find a strap on which to hang. The Gold Car was the front half of the front car, so, had the front window not been completely filled with people, I would have had a great view of the Metro's progress.

We stopped at the Khalid bin Waleed station, where a large crowd was waiting, but there was no room. We skipped the next station (not yet finished) and stopped at Jaffiliya, which is where the Immigration Department is located. Again a crowd, and again no room.

We skipped a couple of stations then stopped at the Dubai Financial Centre, then skipped a few more stations, and finally ended up at Mall of the Emirates, where I pushed my way off the train. The Mall of the Emirates station is small, with only a few tellers and machines and long queues to use them, so I thought I'd recharge my card when I got back to the larger Khalid bin Waleed or Union Square Station.

I made a quick trip to Carrefour at the Mall, then went back to the train. A long queue was waiting to get on. When a train arrived, a few people managed to cram onto the already full train, and the queue moved slowly forward. Eventually, I was crammed into the Gold car, where, again, all seats and straps were already taken. Going back from Emirates Mall, the Gold car was the last half of the last car at the end of the train. If this was First Class, I can only shudder to imagine conditions in the Cattle Class (Silver) cars.

When I got back to Khalid bin Waleed Station (i.e., Bur Juman Mall), my card didn't have enough for the $4.50 round trip fare, but it let me out of the train with a $1 deficit. It's not clear why I really had to pay the deficit, but I paid it anyway, plus what I thought would be enough for the bus home.

However, when I used my Metro Card on the bus, no money was deducted. The newspapers had announced that, if one uses the Metro, the Feeder buses (labelled 'F' buses) are free, but I didn't take an F bus; however, it appears that, if your bus leaves from a Metro station, there's no additional charge to take the bus from the station to your final destination.

So my ride left me with one question (but two parts):

Once the novelty has worn off, will riders be able to find seats, or at least straps, a) in First Class? b) in Cattle Class?

I noticed that a lot of the riders had neither silver nor gold cards, but just one-day (or one-way, or single round trip) tickets, so many of the riders were strictly there for the novelty. Many drove to a station at one end of the line and purchased a round trip ticket to the station at the other end, and do not plan to use the Metro for commuting, they only wanted to ride it one time just to see what it was like.

And, of course, it was clear that the video of an empty train was taken Wednesday on a Press run where only card-carrying photo journalists were allowed, and, at least for the first weekend, it was not representative of an actual rider's experience.

So I'll be riding again in a week or so, to see how things are progressing.