Property and Investment in UAE

Property for sale in Abu Dhabi Soars in Value, PN, 30 May 2008.
The $300 billion Arabs are Coming, Evening Standard UK, 29 May 2008
Not all Freehold comes with a Visa, Gulf News, 28 May 2008
UAE Foreigners…Main Buyers Dubai Property, MENAFN, 27 May 2008
How Foreign Cash is Driving World’s Property Markets, Kipp Report, 27 May 2008.
Palm Jumeirah Apartments, Arabian Business
Abu Dhabi Property Prices up 53%, Kipp Report, 27 May 2008.
Freehold Residence Visa Confusion rages, Kipp Report, 27 May 2008.

Sounds of Silence in the Emirates

I wrote in an earlier post about my visit to the Fujairah Islamic Guidance Centre—the welcome, the tour, the literature, the sumptuous dates, the Arabic coffee and the talk with the Director.

There is another memory that I didn’t write about then but it has been triggered by the reading of Jeremy William’s valuable book, ‘Don’t They Know It’s Friday?’

The man giving my wife and I the tour couldn’t have been more hospitable. He called on the phone and then reported that the Director of the Centre would be arriving soon to have refreshments together.

We met with seven or eight others in the Director’s office waiting for his arrival. There were lots of ‘Salaams’ to begin with and questions about where we were from and how we were finding the UAE.

Then I noticed that the conversation petered out. People were just sitting and waiting. I thought this was a language thing—in Arabic and in English we had exhausted our vocabularies and did not have any more words with which to make conversation. Looking back, I remember thinking up more questions, not so much out of curiosity but to fill in the silence. I am part of a culture that has grown up being awkward in the silence.

Among all his cross-cultural considerations about business and life in the UAE and the Gulf, Jeremy Williams offers these pertinent comments:

“Most Westerners find silence embarrassing and will seek to fill a gap in conversation. Many Arabs are wholly unembarrassed by silence and are content, usually, simply to be ‘together with friends’, savoring companionship by being in another’s company. Speech is not always essential on such occasions, and there can be long periods of silence, intermingled with periods of good gossip and story-telling.”

“Many Arabs are aware of, and are perhaps amused by, the stress which silence can cause Westerners, and it is not unknown for an Arab deliberately to create an embarrassing period of silence when bargaining, perhaps to encourage a concession from the other side. The solution is to be ready to fall silent, and to remain silent.”

Source: Jeremy Williams, Don’t they know it’s Friday? Cross-cultural Considerations for Business and Life in the Gulf (Dubai: Motivate Publishing, 1998, 2008), 71.

This book is reviewed at Reviewing Books and Movies.

Dr. Geoff Pound

Image: “content, usually, simply to be ‘together with friends.’”

UAE Consumer Confidence Still High

It is interesting to see that while inflation has been soaring in the Emirates and wages have not been keeping up with the cost of living, consumer confidence still remains high (or at least higher than in other countries).

Reuters reports:

“The United Arab Emirates ranked among the top five nations globally for consumer confidence despite fears over rising inflation in the oil-fueled economy, a U.S. research agency said on Wednesday.”

“Despite double-digit inflation, the UAE's strong economy and booming employment prospects won the Gulf Arab state 111 points on the Global Consumer Confidence Index compared with a worldwide average of 88 points, The Nielsen Company said.”

Full article: Consumer Confidence Study Puts UAE Among Top Five, Reuters, 18 June 2008.

Dr. Geoff Pound

Image: Consumer confidence.

Check out:
New Federal Laws to Safeguard against Quarries, Fujairah in Focus.

Discovery Channel Examines Dubai’s Exotic Engineering

What does it take to build the largest artificial islands in the world? How are 65,000 fish moved from the Arabian Sea to the world’s largest aquarium? How can a joystick and a robot impact the outcome of a camel race? These engineering and technological mysteries are explored in the latest instalment in Discovery Channel’s groundbreaking original MegaWorld series.

Premiering Sun., June 29 at 7 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT, and simulcast on Discovery HD, MegaWorld: Dubai examines some of the innovations that are pushing the emirate to the forefront of engineering, construction and emergency preparedness. From a small trading port to a thriving economic hub and the most populous region in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dubai is quickly proving it is more than just a striking locale but a dynamic region on the cutting edge of exotic engineering.

Source: Discovery Channel, Canada, 17 June 2008

UAE Assessing Environmental Health Risks

Medical News Today reports on an important development:

“The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) has signed a contract with researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health to lead an assessment of health risks due to environmental factors in the country, one of the fastest developing nations in the world.”

“‘The U.A.E. is developing at an unprecedented pace and scale,’ said principal investigator Jacqueline MacDonald. ‘In the past 40 years, it has gone from a small, mostly nomadic and seafaring economy to a major industrial nation. While all the developments have brought some vast improvements in public health, they have also brought some concerns about risks due to environmental hazards that come with an industrialized economy.’

More on this assessment contract:
Medical News Today, 11 June 2008

Image: Dubai: “from a small, mostly nomadic and seafaring economy…”

Dubai House Prices up 42%

Gulf News discusses this alarming trend and provides some reasons.

Dr. Geoff Pound

Image: “alarming trend.”

Why we should learn Arabic

TimeOutDubai.Com asks the question in their 16 June 2008 edition. They ask:

“Why learn Arabic? For many, the notion of doing so faded straight after arriving in the UAE and the discovery that most people speak English, or at least some variation of it.

Movies are in English, road signs are in English, government documents are in English…well, actually, the latter is no longer true, after Arabic became the official language this year.

Throughout 2008, the UAE’s year of National Identity, Arabic’s influence is only set to grow, both in the Emirates and across the globe. Time Out finds out whether speaking Arabic is the secret to a better life – and how to conquer it in a month.

TimeOut Dubai is convinced that people living in the UAE should learn Gulf Arabic and they include these three sections:

Arabic phrases: 20 Arabic phrases you really should know.

Entering the Arabic age: The importance of learning Arabic today.

Lessons made easy: Ten places to learn Arabic.

Types of Arabic: Which type of Arabic should you learn.

Dr. Geoff Pound

Image: Learning Arabic by computer and native speaker.

Related:
Learning Arabic in the UAE and the Gulf, Experiencing the Emirates
John Kirkbright, Spoken Arabic Step by Step, Reviewing Books and Movies

Terrorist Alert for UAE

The British Foreign Office has warned its nationals -- traveling to or living in the United Arab Emirates -- about the increased threat of a terrorist attack.

The alert, posted on its Web site, urged Britons in the oil-rich Gulf kingdom to be vigilant -- especially in public places -- because of a "high threat of terrorism."

The UAE is among the most moderate Gulf states and is home to thousands of expatriates.

"We believe terrorists may be planning to carry out attacks in the UAE," the Foreign Office statement read.

"Attacks could be indiscriminate and could happen at any time, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travelers such as residential compounds, military, oil, transport and aviation interests."

According to the British Foreign Office, more than a million British visitors traveled to the UAE in 2006, while over 100,000 British nationals live there.

The country is an ally in the United States' "war on terror," and its ports host more U.S. Navy ships than any port outside the U.S., according to the U.S. State Department.

Two of the attackers who took part in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington came from the UAE. And it was among a handful of countries that recognized the fundamentalist Taliban regime before the September 11 attacks.

Dr Geoff Pound

Source: British Foreign Office

Image: Terrorist alert levels

Most Beautiful Goat

Earlier we posted an article on a Camel Beauty Contest in the Emirates.

Now a rare Damascene goat has won the Most Beautiful Goat title at the Mazayen al-Maaz competition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Via: A Welsh View, 14 June 2008

Dr. Geoff Pound

Image: The winner!

Nationals Try to Fit into the Emirates

Here is the introduction to a new article on Emirati identity:

“It's Friday night in Dubai. Well away from the hotel beach parties, bars and restaurants, young Emirati girls peruse Dubai's mega-malls dressed in embroidered abayas, clutching unapologetically glamorous bags. They don't mingle with the hundreds of foreigners that surround them. Like a junior school dance, the girls huddle at one end of the wall with an "us against them" attitude. They aren't hostile, but they are unapproachable.”

“This is a nation wracked by divisions between communities: from the Indian to the Lebanese, the British to the Filipino. But the biggest chasm divides Emiratis from the rest of their nation's population. Although they are nationals, they are quickly becoming the "national other," marginalized by a lack Western education, conservative cultural values and weak vocational skills. Finally, as the smallest ethnic group in the country they are marginalized by demographics.”

Check out more on how Emiratis are trying to fit into their own country:

The Tricky Business of Integrating UAE Nationals, KippReport, 16 June 2008.

Dr. Geoff Pound

Image: “But the biggest chasm divides Emiratis from the rest of their nation's population.”