If You Can't Handle the Heat...

[GRG55]

...move to Dubai?

Biggest energy source region in the world...and can't keep the AC on. BTW, 45C is 113 F for the metric challenged.

The problem the emirate of Sharjah has is that its power is generated from natural gas and it is running out. Its main source, a BP operated gas plant has seen steady volume declines from the source fields for many years now. Now if only BP could figure out how to capture all that methane that Matt Simmons is worried about, and pipe it to the Middle East. Imagine what that would do to the USA current account deficit...

Sharjah wilts without power in over 45°C heat for second day

Women and children flee to relatives' and friends' houses in Dubai and other emirates to escape heat

By V M Sathish
Published Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Families living in industrial areas and certain residential pockets of Sharjah were left at their wits’ end, some close to desperation, as power shortages continued into the day on Tuesday.

With mid-day temperatures rising to more than 45°C, if you were in the Sharjah industrial zone and certain parts of Rolla, Buteena and Al Tawuun, you were sweating it out.

In fact, many employees skipped office this morning as they had not slept the whole night and power had not returned in the morning.

“Many families with small children have sought refuge in the homes of friends and relatives in Dubai. My husband is in India and I have a four-year-old daughter. For the past three days we have been living in a friend’s house in Rolla,” said Bindu Suresh, a housewife.

Workers in labour camps too could not sleep after toiling for the entire day. And they feared they would go back to rooms without power once again.

“Nearly 3,000 workers live in the Sharjah Municipality Accommodation in the industrial area 3. Officials came and just consoled the workers,” said a municipality staff resident in the camp.

[Rajiv]

Homeless in Dubai

...move to Dubai?

Then there was this - Homeless in Dubai: How a Successful British Businessman Lost Everything in Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Once a business development manager but ruined by credit card debt, Nicholas Warner is now one of Dubai’s new homeless.

The 42-year-old British national sleeps every night by Dubai Creek, the emirate’s main waterway, after losing his job, his home, and finally his passport.

“I’m homeless and I’ve got nothing,” Warner told local newspaper 7Days.

“I’m desperate to pay my way but without a passport, I can’t work. I wish they’d just send me to jail so all this could be over with,” he said.

Warner was arrested in January after returning from a Christmas break in Spain. His passport was seized by police after an instruction from banks, and he later lost his job.

Seven months later, Warner’s case has not been taken to the courts, and a repayment plan has not been agreed upon with the bank.

“Now, I think I’d be better off in prison,” he said. “At least I’d have food and a roof over my head and I could do my time and be deported.”

He said he had tried to turn himself in to police, but they told him he was free to go.

“If someone told me last year I’d end up sleeping rough [British slang for sleeping on the street], I wouldn’t have believed them,” he added.

A spokesman for Emirates NBD, the bank Warner had an account with, said that officials had tried to settle the case in an amicable manner.

“The bank had no option but to apply the due process of the law and hand the matter over to the relevant authorities,” the spokesman said.

“Emirates NBD sympathizes with customers who find themselves in a debt default situation, and makes every effort to help them resolve the matter in a manner that is mutually acceptable.”

Defaulting on credit card debt or bouncing a check is a criminal offense in Dubai, and the emirate’s prisons are filled with thousands of white-collar workers.

In February it emerged that Safi Qureshi, a British-born businessman who bought the man-made island of ‘England’ in the offshore ‘World’ development in Dubai, was in jail over a bounced check worth tens of millions of dollars.

However, thousands of cases go by unreported, as the emirate suffers its deepest downturn in its history.

Radha Stirling set up a U.K. charity called ‘Detained in Dubai’ to handle the growing number of expatriates who are facing jail in the emirate over financial crimes.

She said that she now receives around five calls a day from residents facing the threat of jail.

She said that the typical story is that a loss of employment leads to bank accounts being frozen, passports confiscated, and eventually jail.

“They don't envisage that a default is possible and believe their employment is stable,” she said.

“When they get into trouble, they realize the banks can actually prevent them from obtaining further employment and lead them into a full default.”

Aside from the advice to avoid debt at all costs, Stirling has a warning to those who find themselves in trouble.

“If you lose your job or think there is a chance you won't be able to meet your commitments, leave the country as a matter of urgency as the results of staying can involve a prison sentence,” she said.

[DRumsfeld2000]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

'Warner was arrested in January after returning from a Christmas break in Spain. His passport was seized by police after an instruction from banks, and he later lost his job.'

Oh really, successful was he! So he was overloaded with debt, knew that the banks were after him and yet he still goes on a holiday to Spain using his credit cards. Sounds like a typical indebted arrogant twat who has finally got what he deserves. Sympathy zero.

[Rajiv]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

Not too different than what is happening in Minnesota - In jail for being in debt

[BiscayneSunrise]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

GRG, You are the expert here so let's dig deeper. It is my understanding that the sheik of Sharjah is somewhat backwards in his thinking. By and large, rejecting the hyper growth of Dubai and was just happy being a bedroom community and gritty industrial support for Dubai. Lots of money spent on Mosques and Islamic universities, not so much on modern infrastructure.

Is this power failure due to that dynamic?

[GRG55]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

GRG, You are the expert here so let's dig deeper. It is my understanding that the sheik of Sharjah is somewhat backwards in his thinking. By and large, rejecting the hyper growth of Dubai and was just happy being a bedroom community and gritty industrial support for Dubai. Lots of money spent on Mosques and Islamic universities, not so much on modern infrastructure.

Is this power failure due to that dynamic?

Unfair charge. "Backwards" requires some sort of measurement reference. By the values and standards that we fortunate North American's use, most of the rest of the world [including parts of Western Europe] is "backwards".

The Ruler of Sharjah eschewed the "Dubai model", and has created what I consider to be one of the more livable places in the Emirates. A place more in keeping with the traditions and values of the citizens of that region.

We need to recognize that there is an enormous tension between modernity and the traditions of the Arab world...it's a very difficult balancing act for any Ruler. In Saudi Arabia we have an example of one extreme of how they are trying to cope with this. Saudi is trying a "Progress without Change" policy...which is just as ridiculous observed in real time, up close, as it sounds. Totally hopeless...but they cling to it for fear that any other alternative will prove politically destabilizing [for the Al Saud clan].

Dubai was the other extreme. Let's call it the "Booze, Broads & Bucks" policy. One of the seamiest, corrupted, most unsustainable governance models I have ever witnessed. If the "real" Dubai [the one the casual tourists never experience] was proposed for your neighbourhood, you would vote it down I am certain. The first wonder is that it lasted as long as it did. The second wonder is that it hasn't suffered a bigger collapse [yet?]. The attitude that all of us "non-Dubai" professional expatriates in the region had was to enjoy the cheap weekend flights to Dubai, and have some fun while it lasted. None of us with one functioning brain cell would ever have considered living in that place. Any expat that didn't understand that, and the reasons behind it, was naive beyond belief [no shortage of those btw].

Sharjah, like all of the Arab region, is not without its problems...serious problems. However, [imo] its Ruler has done a much better job than most recognizing that the country's [emirate's] first and foremost responsibility is to its citizens...and not the Russian or Indian mafia looking to launder money, nor the tourists enjoying the sex trade between visits to the malls, the water parks and the indoor ski hill.

As for power outages, there's not a place in the Gulf that has not suffered from serious power outages in recent years...including Dubai*. The Gulf region as a whole has seen a roughly 6% per annum compounded increase in electricity consumption over the last decade. Most of this is the result of population growth and improving living standards [e.g. more air conditioners], not industrial consumption. Peak power consumption in the summer is double demand in the winter...that's a tough gig for any power utility. The problem is compounded by almost universal subsidies [the citizens of Qatar, for example, all get their electricity for free, so never shut off the air conditioners when they leave for Europe for the summer] and the security role** the Electricity Directorates play in these police states [and don't kid yourself; to one degree or another every single one of the Gulf States is a police state by our North American point of reference].

* Power failures hit parts of Dubai

Power failures continued to hit Dubai on Sunday, with the worst blackout affecting the Al Barsha area, including the Mall of the Emirates.

Published: 00:00 June 19, 2006

Dubai: Power failures continued to hit Dubai on Sunday, with the worst blackout affecting the Al Barsha area, including the Mall of the Emirates.

After several reports of power outages in recent weeks, Mall of the Emirates was plunged into darkness at around 2.15 on Sunday afternoon, according to mall officials.

"Mall of the Emirates and most of Dubai's Al Barsha area was affected by a power failure on Sunday at around 2.15pm," Jim Badour, Vice-President of Mall of the Emirates, said in a statement.

Cinemagoers, shoppers and even skiers on the slopes of Ski Dubai were affected by the blackout. However, shops assistants and customers alike said people maintained their calm, with many congregating in the central, sunlit area of the mall...

** Electricity is the one thing that no one can survive without in the Persian Gulf The 135 deg F plus temperatures at the peak of the interminable summers mean that the government can track the location of virtually every family...you have to have a power connection and billing account to live. This is one of the reasons that I expect electricity will be the absolute last sector of those economies to be "privatized", and it is the primary reason there are chronic shortages of power throughout the region...the Electricity Directorates are not exclusively devoted to serving their customers [unlike our North American utilities]...they are devoted to serving the Public Security administrations first and foremost. This is also the primary reason that solar power has not made any material inroads in this region of "relentless" sunshine...nothing strikes more terror into the hearts of officials dedicated to controlling the public than the idea that electricity might be produced in a distributed and independent fashion by citizens and residents. Where I lived in the Gulf it required approval of the Electricity Directorate to import photovoltaic cells...such approvals were, of course, largely unavailable to any but the most politically connected.

Once again, appearances can be deceiving, and assuming things work elsewhere in the world the same as we are used to can be fatal.

Hope this helps.

[Jay]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

Then there was this - Homeless in Dubai: How a Successful British Businessman Lost Everything in Dubai

Did Charles Dickens write this? Are stories like this going to become so common to be mundane?

[mfyahya]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

Did Charles Dickens write this? Are stories like this going to become so common to be mundane?

Actually it's quite uncommon. Most expatriates that were deep in debt left the country when they lost their jobs or businesses. It was much more common to see abandoned cars and houses in Dubai than people sleeping on the streets.

Electricity is heavily subsidized for citizens in Qatar and UAE, but citizens make up less than 25% of the population. Expats don't get the subsidies. Power failures in Dubai at least are very rare, a handful of times in the last decade, and they were not due to shortages. Sharjah could buy power from Dubai, but they don't even have the infrastructure to connect to Dubai's grid. There are also disputes between the ruling families no one has a clue about. Sharjah city's administration and planning is hopelessly inefficient, bureaucratic and apathetic to the expat portion of the population. The recent power cuts are more due to incompetence than anything else. Several hundred skyscrapers have sprung up like weeds in Sharjah during the past five years along the Dubai-Sharjah border. They're mostly empty, and the city has no capacity to provide electricity, water or sewage facilities for them, but they were all given building permits by the city's officials.

I don't know about other Gulf countries, but there are a number of residential solar companies companies in UAE. I haven't heard of anyone using it, because electricity is still cheap even for expats. Abu Dhabi in particular has a few solar projects in the pipeline, including this one:http://www.popsci.com/science/articl...t-be-built-uae

For tracking people, I would think cellphones are far better than residential Electricity connections. Recording location history and datamining for movement patterns is well within the reach of today's technology. The govt likes to track everything. Blackberry's are being considered a threat because the encryption they use is not handled by the UAE ISPs. All Internet traffic is subject to Deep Packet Inspection to prevent use of cheaper international VoIP providers as well as to spy on the population.

Dubai is not a bad place to live; living standards are comparative (or better in some cases) to anywhere in the developed world. However, I agree with GRG55, despite living here most of my life, I would never buy any property or anything that can't be disposed off quickly or shipped abroad when the situation here inevitably changes and it's time to leave.

[GRG55]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

...and the security role the Electricity Directorates play in these police states [and don't kid yourself; to one degree or another every single one of the Gulf States is a police state by our North American point of reference].

...

...For tracking people, I would think cellphones are far better than residential Electricity connections. Recording location history and datamining for movement patterns is well within the reach of today's technology. The govt likes to track everything. Blackberry's are being considered a threat because the encryption they use is not handled by the UAE ISPs. All Internet traffic is subject to Deep Packet Inspection to prevent use of cheaper international VoIP providers as well as to spy on the population.

...

BlackBerry Services Will Be Halted in U.A.E. as Traffic Can't Be Monitored

Aug 1, 2010 8:08 AM MDT
Sun Aug 01 14:08:21 UTC 2010

Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry services will be suspended in the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East’s business hub, from October because of security concerns as the company faces similar restrictions in India.

BlackBerry’s Messenger, e-mail and Web browsing services will be halted from Oct. 11, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement on state-run Emirates News Agency. “In their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the U.A.E.,” it said.

Countries like India have struggled with BlackBerry’s data encryption technology as they seek to monitor wireless communications. Saudi Arabia’s telecommunications regulator ordered phone providers in the largest Arab economy to suspend BlackBerry’s Messenger service, Reuters reported today, citing unidentified industry sources. Bahrain is imposing a ban on sharing local news on BlackBerry to avoid “confusion and chaos,” Gulf News reported on April 9.

The U.A.E. regulator informed local phone companies Emirates Telecommunications Corp., known as Etisalat, and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co., known as Du, of the suspension of BlackBerry services and instructed them to shift clients to other services...

...U.A.E. authorities arrested a BlackBerry user who sought to use the device to organize a protest against an increase in retail gasoline prices, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on its website July 29...

...The company faced obstacles recently in Pakistan, where the national telecommunications regulator said it blocked Internet browsers on BlackBerry handsets, citing concerns over blasphemy...



Saudi telcos ordered to freeze Blackberry Messenger

RIYADH | Sun Aug 1, 2010 8:50am EDT

RIYADH Aug 1 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's telecoms regulator has ordered local operators to freeze the Messenger function for Blackberry users this month, industry sources said on Sunday.

Sources from two operators in the kingdom said the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) sent a memo notifying them of the order without explaining the move...

[BiscayneSunrise]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

Unfair charge. "Backwards" requires some sort of measurement reference. By the values and standards that we fortunate North American's use, most of the rest of the world [including parts of Western Europe] is "backwards".

The Ruler of Sharjah eschewed the "Dubai model", and has created what I consider to be one of the more livable places in the Emirates. A place more in keeping with the traditions and values of the citizens of that region.


Once again, appearances can be deceiving, and assuming things work elsewhere in the world the same as we are used to can be fatal.

Hope this helps.

Fair enough. Thanks.

[mfyahya]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10886413

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in BlackBerry talks

Lebanon is the latest country to say it will assess the device
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will hold talks with the UAE over the ongoing BlackBerry dispute.

The UAE ISPs are offering equivalent data plans and alternate smarphones (Apple iphone, Nokia N97...) to current Blackberry subscribers for free. Shows how serious they are about this.

Time to short RIM ?

[jk]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10886413


The UAE ISPs are offering equivalent data plans and alternate smarphones (Apple iphone, Nokia N97...) to current Blackberry subscribers for free. Shows how serious they are about this.

Time to short RIM ?

i've been short rimm for a few months. 50% of current blackberry users say their next phone will be apple or android. fewer corporate it offices are insisting on blackberry.

[mfyahya]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

This was front page news today
http://thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/...708089866/1133

ABU DHABI // The capital is to be a global pioneer of the “smart” electricity grid, a technological innovation that could lead to a solar panel on almost every rooftop.

The Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC), which supplies electricity to the city and surrounding areas, will have installed digital electricity meters in all buildings by the end of this year, its deputy managing director Abdulrahman al Dhaheri said yesterday.

The new meters not only calculate power usage, but also allow consumers to sell their own solar-generated electricity back to the grid.

Two other changes are under consideration by the Abu Dhabi Executive Council: a subsidy scheme for rooftop solar panels and the first increase in power prices in 15 years.

ADDC has proposed subsidies that would pay homeowners to install solar panels on their roofs with total output capacity of 500 megawatts, a third of the Government’s renewable energy target.

[GRG55]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

This was front page news today
http://thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/...708089866/1133

Just don't try to discuss any of this with your friends using your Blackberry...

[mfyahya]

Re: Homeless in Dubai

What could happen?

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/ge...-hike-1.666232

By Bassma Al Jandaly, Senior ReporterPublished: 00:00 August 10, 2010
An Emirati man has been interrogated by police for attempting to organise an illegal march in the country, and subsequently fired from his job, Gulf Newswas told on Monday.
A top Ministry of Interior official said the man, who apparently circulated messages though a Blackberry Messenger (BBM) in an attempt to organise the march, in response to the recent fuel price increases, worked for Dubai Police

I wonder if they learned about this via access to the Blackberry messages. Maybe RIM already caved in.