Etihad and other problems?

The joy of the internet and lounges!

Stuck at Abu Dhabi airport for the second time waiting for a flight to the UK from Etihad. This time the flight had technical problems so we were all told to come back in 90 minutes and in 60 minutes food would be served in the grotty airport restaurant to keep us from starving.

We all went down to see if we could get a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly with over 100 people the queue was long, people tried to get food early and the usual chaos ensued.

Gave up and decamped to the Ghazel lounge, a haven of peace and tranquility with food, drink and no queues. OK, it cost 70 Dirhams but has to be the bargain of the airport for that. You can eat and drink like you are in the frequent flyers lounges (another large black label please) and chill out. Shame it's too early to drink (much). I have to drive the other end anyway.

Etihad are trying hard. New airline with leased aircraft but mostly killer prices. You do get what you pay for at times with a schedule almost as tight as Easyjet things are bound to unravel. Had a nice letter from a Richard Bate in PR last time I flew. Better than KLM. Never had a word from them ever.

No News Today

The employment market here is based on the use of a large number of cheap workers who come from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan and any other Asian country with a Muslim population. On the whole this works well because most people earn enough here to sent money back home to support their families and other relatives. I once had a talkative taxi driver who told me that by being here he was able to send two of his children to university and they were now a lawyer and a doctor, something he never would have managed by staying at home. Others own villas and farms back home and have done well for their relatives.

There is always a however in any tale like this. There are many people who pay relatively large sums of money to come here, taking out loans in the process, and arrive and find that they work for months, even years and their employer does not pay them. The Government here is attempting to stop this happening, but has not as yet been very successful.

There is another group of people who come here and either don’t like their jobs or only come on visit visas or enter illegally and these are a group used for casual labour, car washing and “Shifting”**. Some help with paper deliveries

My paper man normally risks his life moving between the cars at the local set of traffic lights. Several people at all the traffic lights in Abu Dhabi stand around in the morning attempting to get you to buy whatever periodical they have. This morning there was nobody at my set of lights or any other. Finally got a look at a paper at lunchtime and found in small print a ban on the sale of newspapers and other publications at traffic signals, roundabouts and intersections across the country came into effect today. Dubai had banned the selling about two years ago. Thought this was based on the dangers to the people selling stuff, but no, it was to “correct wrong practices to maintain the civilised image of the country”. Forget safety, it looks bad to have street hawkers.

As usual they get rid of one system without putting anything else into place. Have to see if the local corner store will get Gulf News in for me in future.

** Shifting is the term used when you want something moved e.g. furniture shifting, office shifting. When you move you shift flats.

You say Dhabi and I say Darby!

Abu Dhabi always seems to live in the shadow of its more famous neighbour, Dubai. It doesn't help that the names are similar. Many people think that they are one and the same place. It confuses further that the airport here is Dhabi International Airport and the other Dubai. I have had conversations with people from the UK who I tell I live in Abu Dhabi and they then reply, “So how is Dubai”. After a while you give up and say “Very nice, you must visit some time”. I wonder if that is why I have heard people talking about living in Abu Darby.

The development of Abu Dhabi has never been as quick as that of Dubai and this has pluses and minuses. The traffic volume is much less bad, although the driving standards are equally atrocious. The accommodation is much harder to find at reasonable rent (Dubai uses Sharjah as a commuter town). The nightlife is less exciting, but is more approachable. Abu Dhabi had allegedly the largest flag in the world but Dubai had the largest flagpole. Dubai has the Burj Al Arab and Abu Dhabi now has the Emirates Palace Hotel, different but similar.

One of the problems for Abu Dhabians has been that nobody knows (or cares) that Abu Dhabi is the Capital. Everyone else in the world thinks Dubai is in charge (I won't get political in this blog). They were going to host the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) conference here last year. All of the road signs in Abu Dhabi and the surrounding countryside – sorry sand-side – were changed to read “Abu Dhabi – Capital of the UAE” in English as well as Arabic. This meant that you struggled to read them due to the smaller text size. I note that this has been changed back again now. A bit sad because it was always good for a laugh.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

I was back in the UK for last week for a wedding. Got the opportunity to see the film version of the Douglas Adams book that has just come out there. It was a pleasant change to not have mobile phones going off all the time, loud conversations in Arabic and small children who cannot understand the film mewling all the time – not to mention the Arabic sub-titles. Not so pleasant to have no air conditioning and very expensive ticket prices.

The film has large elements of the book, radio series, record, TV show etc. but has too many Americans (more than 1) and an obligatory happy ending.

Still, I think that Douglas would have approved.

When it reaches the UAE, who knows. Films tend to be here for only one or two weeks, partially because there are fewer viewers here and partially because we get Indian, Philippine and some Sri Lankan movies together with the Arabic ones. Why don’t we get English sub-titles for Arabic films? They can’t all be that bad.

Censorship is in the news today. I wonder if any of it will be censored. It seems to be quite random. Got Meet the Parents on video a while back. There was one scene that was missing (pool scene) and made a total mess of the next 15 minutes. However when it appeared on local TV the missing part was there.

I do, however, miss the 9pm watershed for children’s programs from UK TV. Violence is OK at any time of day here. Crazy!