tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105498322013-05-22T08:54:33.678+04:00Economic analysis of events in the United Arab Emirates and the GulfJohn B. Chiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18208312356775869565noreply@blogger.comBlogger3793125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10549832.post-81204987155683988262012-06-04T22:02:00.001+04:002012-06-04T22:02:03.957+04:002012-06-04T22:02:03.957+04:00

Financial Times: In the UAE, the bidoun’s difficulties have surfaced in the curious case of the Comoros passports. At least a thousand stateless residents have taken the documents, says Zoubert A Soufiane Al Ahdal, Comoros ambassador to the UAE.  Bidoun in the UAE say the Comoros documents make it easier for them to meet tougher official identity requirements for securing papers such as

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BlackBerry cuts made roads safer, police sayA dramatic fall in traffic accidents this week has been directly linked to the three-day disruption in BlackBerry services.In Dubai, traffic accidents fell 20 per cent from average rates on the days BlackBerry users were unable to use its messaging service. In Abu Dhabi, the number of accidents this week fell 40 per cent and there were no fatal

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Washington PostWhen its gasoline pumps started going dry in the United Arab Emirates’ poorer northern states earlier this year, Dubai’s oil company blamed mysterious service upgrades. Few believed that at the time, and now the company is dropping its subtlety, triggering an uncharacteristically public spat over fuel pricing policies. When its gasoline pumps started going dry in the United Arab

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In 2005, a company called CyberTrust—which has since been purchased by Verizon— gave Etisalat, the government-connected mobile company in the UAE, the right to verify that a site is valid. Here's why this is trouble: Since browsers now automatically trust Etisalat to confirm a site's identity, the company has the potential ability to fake a secure connection to any site Etisalat subscribers might

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Al Jazeera's documentary on the Bahraini revolution can be seen here.

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In the opinion of AlertNet.

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Some are pushed out, others vote with their feet.The New York Times: Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a professor of political science at U.A.E. University, said the Iranian issue was likely to have been a “small reason among many” that may have led to the closure of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai.Although the center’s license was refused before the Arab Spring began, other experts point to the move

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If Dubai is a business (it is, by the way), then the Arab Spring is paying dividends. Not in metaphorical political freedom dividends for its citizens, but in real dividends. The ever-haunting question of the recession, “Who will live in all these flats and houses?” is being answered. It’s not the answer that the city planners or the real estate developers expected, but it is an answer: they

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The call comes from Amnesty International, the Arabic Network For Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Front Line Defenders and Human Rights Watch: The call comes as the activists’ trial for “publicly insulting” the UAE president and other top officials re-opens on 18 July in Abu Dhabi's Federal Supreme Court, against the backdrop of a wider clampdown on dissent in the UAE...."The UAE government is

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The Boston Globe: ... contrary to speculation that Al Qaeda in Iraq was reliant on international donations, this wasn’t a source of funding either. The group was self-financing. In fact, the core organization of Al Qaeda in Iraq in Anbar province was so profitable that it sent revenue to associates in other provinces of Iraq, and perhaps even further afield. The group raised millions of dollars

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From what I can tell Abu Dhabi has tired of a game of chicken with Dubai over fuel prices. Since it essentially has an ownership stake in Dubai since the financial crisis it can evidently act unilaterally, taking over Dubai-owned gas stations that have stopped selling petrol.The Gulf News reports details concerning the fuel price rules that fit conjectures I (and others) have made in the past.

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And that means jail time for you. Read more here.

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Global Finance magazine has ranked countries by GDP per capita. Qatar comes out first among all nations at $90,000. Second is Luxembuorg at $74,000.Within the GCC, Qatar is followed by Kuwait ($39,000, 14th place) and the UAE ($36,000, 18th place).These numbers are not adjusted for the number migrant workers. Because of the small proportion of citizens in the UAE population, one of the smallest

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The New York Times picks up the story of petrol shortages in the United Arab Emirates: For the third time in the past 10 months, service stations across the United Arab Emirates have been running out of gasoline in recent weeks....The Sharjah Executive Council, a government policy-making body, is putting pressure on the fuel retailers for more information, after a three-week shortage in the

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Did you hear the one about the oil-rich country that had a fuel crisis?Financial Times ... the latest shortages in some emirates of the United Arab Emirates may stem from a different type of crisis: a longstanding economic imbalance rooted in intra-federal politics.The petrol stations that have “run out” of gasoline are Emirates National Oil Company and EPPCO, both owned by the Dubai

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Human Rights Watch The United Arab Emirates attorney general should immediately drop all charges against five pro-democracy activists to halt their trial, Human Rights Watch said today. The charges of "humiliating" top officials relate solely to the defendants' peaceful use of speech to criticize the UAE government and therefore violate their freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said. UAE

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Word: globalization.The reach is far.Topic one: Knockoff phones from autocratic China fuel the Arab Spring The irony is that the Arab Spring has triggered a paroxysm of repression within China (sparked by the rumblings of a “Jasmine Revolution”) which has made life harder for its cell phone bandits, who were previously hiding in plain sight. But China's crackdown can't put the phones back in the

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What is the UAE afraid of?Activists accused of criticising Government have first day in court - The National ABU DHABI // Five activists, arrested on charges of criticising the Government, made their first appearance in court this morning.Prosecutors and defence lawyers for Ahmed Mansour Ali Abdullah al Abd al Shehi, Nasser Ahmed Khalfan bin Gaith, Fahad Salim Mohammed Salim Dalk, Hassan Ali al

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Emirates 24/7 The Emarat filling stations in the Dubai and across all the northern emirates have witnessed heavy rush and a drastic increase in sales of fuel over the last two weeks, an apparent fallout of non-availability of fuel in other filling stations.Emarat, a subsidiary of Emirates General Petroleum Corporation, registered a 50 per cent rise in sales over the past two weeks, straining its

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It's life in the UAE and it's been going on for years.Khaleej Times Petrol remained largely unavailable in majority of the petrol pumps in Sharjah even as the Sharjah Executive Council’s deadline for answers from the company crept past. However, no explanations were forthcoming from the ENOC group, the parent company of retailers ENOC and EPPCO that are the most affected.To add fuel to fire,

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If you have any doubts about the evil that is the Iranian regime see this report of how it treated this woman.

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Check it out here.

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Thank you for the vital humanitarian assistance you are providing: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will keep the frontier open to Syrians fleeing violence, and the Turkish military was increasing border security to better manage the refugee influx. He singled out Assad's brother for criticism. "I say this clearly and openly, from a humanitarian point of view, his brother

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Handouts of food and fuel in lieu of jobs, and investments to raise the productivity of work to which only the privileged have access, would do nothing to enable outsiders to compete for good jobs, or to remove the barriers, such as licenses, to self-employment. Edmund Phelps, economics Nobel prize winner: The needed restructuring in Tunisia and Egypt must begin with two critical steps. The first

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The second issue of the Arab Social Media Report, and the first since the start of the Arab Spring, is now available from the Dubai School of Government (PDF, webpage)From the overview: Produced by the Dubai School of Government’s Governance and Innovation Program, the second Arab Social Media Report highlights and specifically analyzes usage trends of online social networking across the Arab

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