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Boats boats boats boats bobbing up and down again

Grumpy Goat — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 07:47:00 +0000

The principle of having to obtain some sort of certificate of competence before being allowed out with a motor vehicle is a sound one. Imagine the chaos if anyone with access to a car could simply leap in and drive it without any tuition.

This lack of compulsory training has been the norm for boats since forever, although various agencies have introduced voluntary schemes over the years. The Goat passed his BSAC Diver Coxswain exam many moons ago, which gave him an instant Powerboat 2 certificate from the Royal Yachting Association. He subsequently qualified as a Diver Coxswain Instructor and Examiner.

Here’s the thing. As of yesterday, the Goat learned from the local media that Dubai has introduced a ‘Boat Driving Licence’. It is now not permitted to take any form of powered craft on to Dubai’s waters without the ‘driver’ being in possession of this driving licence. Jet-ski pilots are apparently exempt.

The Goat spent a happy hour searching Los Interwebs for information relating to this ‘boat driving licence’. He found these:

https://plus.ibinews.com/article/rarVzGvRhQI/2013/03/07/dubai_introduces_marine_driving_licence/?nsl=XWlHRrznQvs1

This one says the new licence is the first step in regulation of jet-ski usage. Which is a bit odd, given that Dubai Eye 103.8 said jet-skis were exempt… The Goat missed this one when it was published in March, but it’s not like there’s been much ‘Get Your Boat Driving Licence’ publicity over the subsequent three months. Perhaps the Goat should spend more time hanging around the docks.

http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/new-marine-driver-s-license-required-in-dubai-2013-06-19-1.510976

Neither one spells out the requirements; nor does the Dubai Maritime City website. The Goat phoned DMCA and learned that there were indeed no rules, regulations, or requirements for the new licence posted on the website. He suggested that posting something appropriate might prevent DMCA’s telephone helpline from being overwhelmed by concerned boat owners.

As a public service, here is the list of DMCA requirements before a boat owner is permitted to set the iron topsail:-

·        The application form, obtainable from Dubai Maritime City.
·        One colour mugshot.
·        Copy of passport, residence visa, and ID card (because the ID card alone isn’t sufficient).
·        A certificate of fitness, obtained from the Ministry of Health.
·        A police Good Conduct certificate.
·        Evidence of training. A RYA Powerboat certificate is seemingly enough, but a list of suitable qualifications is not currently available.
·        AED600 fee.

The Goat asked how long the licence is valid, but Mr Helpdesk didn’t know. He’ll phone back in a few days, he said.

It seems to the Goat that this is a monstrous pile of fuss and palaver to be foisted on the maritime community at, apparently, one day’s notice. It may be that, once the Clarification is issued, it’ll only apply to commercial outfits and not Joe Public and his water-ski speedboat, nor the local dive club.

Another point of concern that falls way off the edge of the map is what befalls all the qualified BSAC boat handlers. Do they now all have to lash out AED600 and jump through the above list of hoops? Or will they simply limit their boating to Fujairah?

]}:-{>

I Don’t Want Any Yes-Men

Raouf — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 06:53:02 +0000

100 Reasons Why The Internet Is Cool. Reason 82. Crowd Investing.

Alexander McNabb — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 06:25:00 +0000

So you’ve started a digital business and you want to take it through to the next level without giving away all your equity to an greedy angel investor or venture fund. You’ve got some options – you would win a reality TV show, for instance, or perhaps even look at crowd investing. Or even both!

I first met LouLou Khazen Baz last year, we worked together on a project to position the company she and co-founder Rima had dreamed up, Nabbesh. LouLou was in the interesting position of having won the Dubai One TV show, ‘The Entrepreneur’ – in which startups competed to be the winners of a Du-backed prize of a cool million UAE Dirhams in cash and half as much again in ‘kind’.

She won the show, which gave Nabbesh much-needed funds to see it through to its next stage of development. In interviews, LouLou was always noting – having herself worked for a VC – that the longer you can keep going without asking the market for money, the more value you could build in your business and consequently keep when the ~~sharks~~ lovely investors come knocking.

Nabbesh is a skills marketplace – an online exchange where people can post their skills and talents and then others can hire them for those skills. So if you want a bunch of developers or copy writers, designers or a tennis coach, Nabbesh is the place to go. It means you can hire talent from the Levant or further afield – or from home – although there is some debate as to the legality of freelancing in the UAE, Nabbesh is also somewhere where people with trade licenses can offer their wares too.

Nabbesh has just signed up with PayPal – that’s the business model: the business partnership between talent and hirer takes place over the site and it skims a slice off each transaction. The model works elsewhere in the world, Nabbesh wants to localise the service for the MENA area.

So now LouLou has taken something of a brave step – in that she’s put her need out in public – and sought funds through crowd investment platform Eureeca.com – take a look here for the Nabbesh proposition. Note you have to sign in to Eureeca before you get all the info.

The really cool thing is she’s already ~~25%~~ 30% of the way there, one day into the campaign…

Dubai scores another first – Blackberry Q5

Dubai Photo Story — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 06:18:00 +0000

Dubai scored yet another first and continues to take a leadership position in the global mobile devices business. Blackberry has announced that its latest introduction to its portfolio, the Blackberry Q5, will see a global launch in Dubai. Customers in Dubai will be able to buy the model 2 weeks before the rest of the world where the model is expected to launch in the first week of July. This is the first of Blackberry’s BB10 offerings in the mid segment with the new model expected to retail at AED 1,449/-. Based on a dual core 1.5 GHz processor and Blackberry’s popular keypad, it is expected that a whole new segment of customers will now be able to experience the new BB10 operating system.

The Blackberry Q5 will be available exclusively at the new Blackberry store being opened at Dubai Mall. This is also the first Blackberry store in Middle East. As per media reports the store is being operated locally by Axiom Telecom

Is After Earth really a bad movie? Or is racism at play?

Yahya — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 05:15:00 +0000

As summer blockbusters go, After Earth is certainly he most ethnic movie to ever come out of Hollywood. With a mostly black cast (Will and Jaden Smith, Sophie Okonedo and Zoë Isabella Kravitz taking the lead roles) and an Indian director, the famed M Night Shyamalan at the helm of the project, should it be of no surprise that the film has performed so poorly at the box office? Would it be fair to pull the race card on the critics who have lambasted this film, or is After Earth really that bad?

It has been several years since a major Hollywood feature like After Earth has been both critically and financially maligned in such an unforgiving manner. During the 80s there was Hudson Hawk while the 90s had Battlefield Earth, two films that have gone down in cinema history as expensive examples of poo-on-a-stick. Akin to a criticism aimed at Will Smith, (who takes both a writing and producer credit for After Earth), both of those earlier movies serve as examples of vanity projects left unchecked and gone awry. With only 11% on Rottentomatoes and 33% on Metacritic, the media had generated so much negative word of mouth prior to its release, After Earth is not expected to even make back a significant fraction of its combined production and marketing budget. So what went wrong?

There seemed to be an almost celebratory tone to the failure of After Earth as both The Fast and The Furious 6 and Now You See Me beat it into first and second place. Social activists have long noted that African American stars can only go so far in Hollywood and Will Smith may have out stayed his welcome. Spanning over two decades of Uber A List recognition since he was the Prince of Bel Air, if he was going to fall, they believe that Hollywood would ensure that he went down head first. Some could argue that M Night Shyamalan is also subject to such racism. Being the only Indian director of his stature in Hollywood today, he has by default a painted target on his head. Consequently, despite having a mixed bag of good and not so good movies (and that one bad movie… which was really bad), both the critics and the public alike have been unduly harsh over his efforts. Shyamalan has endured so many critical failures over the past decade that his name is no longer used to sell his own movies.

Till now, Will Smith remains a box office pull. 2012’s Men In Black 3, the most successful in the alien busting franchise, proved that he has neither lost his charm or business prowess when it comes to making movies. Yet what sets After Earth apart from his previous efforts is the racial makeup both in front and behind the camera. As an exercise in storytelling and filmmaking, After Earth is no better or worse than most other genre movies. But it is also a ‘black movie’, so regardless of quality, a general perception of what such a category entails is formed in the viewers’ mind. ‘Black movies’ are usually aimed at black audiences and so if one is to ever take a browse around IMDb, the largest online forum on the planet for movie reviews, these movies almost unanimously rank significantly lower than ‘mainstream movies.’

Speaking at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con, Tony Puryear (screen writer for Eraser) said that during the pitching process for a new African American sci-fi project he was developing, he was bluntly told by those senior within the industry that “Black people don’t like science fiction… It’s because they don’t see themselves in the future.”

Although this statement is probably false, industry perceptions are paramount to the success or failure of a movie. Will Smith maybe a bankable star, but Will Smith in a mainly black movie? Not so much. So with whom does the fault rest? The general audience? The critics? Or the black audience?

Regardless, the bad publicity After Earth has garnered is unwarranted. To briefly summarise the pros and cons of this film, as summer blockbusters go this project is a fine feature. While it is not in the same league as Men In Black, Independence Day or I Am Legend, the film does have to it some strength. The acting is good, the set design and special effects are amazing, while the story – albeit simplistic, never attempts to get too ambitious, remaining simple yet engaging. However the casting of Jaden Smith as the movie’s lead may not have been the wisest move. Although he is a good actor (ignore the naysayers, because this child definitely has potential) he so far lacks the charisma needed to anchor a movie of this magnitude.

A significant improvement over The Last Airbender, Shyamalan’s directing and writing is adequate, yet still lacking the spark of Unbreakable and Devil. Unfortunately a problem with After Earth that is also evident in his other apocalyptic feature The Happening, is its distinct lack of scale. The viewer knows he/she is part of something larger, yet the movie still feels oddly small.

While other critics are saying this could be the end of Will Smith’s career, and definitely the end of M Night Shyamalan, this reviewer would recommend watching before judging. A surprisingly mediocre movie, it is little better and little worse than the majority of films that have been released this year. For whatever reasons the critics have exaggerated its faults, After Earth is still fundamentally a good film. 6.5/10

Genre: Sci-fi
Bad Language: Very Mild
Sex and Nudity: None
Violence: Moderate

Photocredit: Screenrant.com (Shyamalan) Collider (After Earth) Zee News (Smith)

fake watch

dubaisally — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:54:00 +0000

Some days ago I am reading something that make me think. There is this lady who is doing divorce for her husband because he is giving her fake watch for dowry. I explain. In Dubai there is custom that man is paying dowry for marrying a woman. Like he is buying the girl. I think maybe in before times they are paying camel or something to the father. Now they are paying money. or maybe watch or car. There is even competition in men who is giving more money. Who is paying more for his wife.

Anyway this lady is getting some expensive designer watch in her dowry. But it is stop working and when she is taking for repair they tell her watch is fake. She is getting so angry with husband she is divorcing him.

This man is giving his wife a watch that is worth less than a real designer watch. And he is also getting a wife that is worth less. So actually he got what he paid for. First I think it serve him right. He is like doing cheating on his wife by giving her something fake.

But then I think this. If the fake watch is still working then they will still be married. Fake watch break means fake marriage break. If he is giving her a real watch he is never seeing who his real wife is.

With a real watch he will still be married to his wife. but he will always have to watch out. Because all their time together is fake.

Top Five Tips To Reduce Work Stress

Raouf — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 05:30:16 +0000

Around 92% of employees in the US alone have been more stressed out at work over the past five years than they were before the recession, according to Right Management.

Additionally, the American Psychological Association states that nearly a quarter of Americans currently feel like they are under “extreme stress,” largely related to job security and financial issues. This life-wrecking pressure can’t go on and has to be addressed and reduced, for a long healthy and productive life and career.

Recognizing that the first step to a more laid-back, and healthier lifestyle is reducing stress in the workplace, Online office supplies retailer OfficeZilla offers five strategies to help employees effectively decrease personal stress in the office each day:

1 – Avoid Stressful People

Stress is a contagious poison, and stressful people will demoralize you. Try to distance yourself from people that are stressed, while getting closer to cheerful and optimistic colleagues. You’ll notice a significant change in your mood afterwards.

2 – Prioritize, Manage your Time

To tackle a heavy workload all you need to do is to prioritize, not procrastinate. At the beginning of each day, identify what absolutely must get done now and, most importantly, set a timeframe for the rest of the work to be done that day. Keep a to-do checklist and cross off items as you go. Crossing off items is gratifying and you will feel much less stressed throughout the day when you can physically see that things are getting done.

3 – Slow it Down, Pace Not Race

Life is not a race, no matter whoever would tell you otherwise! Slow down and breath slowly, and you will notice a significant drop in your stress levels. Leave plenty of extra time to get places. Plan ahead for work deadlines so you are not always cramming under pressure. Take a moment to enjoy life around. Remember the famous quote: Slowly but surely.

4 – Take a Break

It’s a common fact that when employees are stressed and overwhelmed, their productivity drops significantly. When you find yourself overwhelmed, take a break. Even 10 minutes away from the task helps to refresh your mind and soul. Take deep breaths. Go to your happy place. When you come back, you’ll feel fresh, revived and ready to take it all on.

5 – Don’t Bring Work Home

Working after hours is a recipe for social life disaster. Sometimes it’s necessary to work overtime and bring work home, but it should never become a daily routine. Before bringing work home, think about whether the project absolutely must get done that night. In most instances, it can likely wait. If you work from home, choose a cutoff point and stick to it. And, watch out for that mobile device … constant emails on your phone outside the office are unhealthy on multiple levels.

[Photo credit: Flickr / bottled_void]

Cargo: An Arab perspective on human trafficking

Yahya — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:48:00 +0000

Human Trafficking has been a taboo subject tackled in a variety of ways over the years by some of Hollywood’s leading directors and actors. From Liam Neeson’s action packed Taken to Val Kilmer’s monumentally bad Spartan, an element that has been consistent in all of these movies is the Middle Eastern component. More often than not, the word ‘Dubai’ or ‘Saudi’ or ‘Arab’ is thrown around within this genre to help emphasize the threat of ‘the evil other’, amplifying the Western audience’s fear of the Middle Eastern male.

The painfully overlooked feature Cargo, is a horror/thriller (emphasis on the word ‘thriller’) that somewhat subverts this trope as it follows the journey of Egyptian ‘human transporter’ Sayed, played by Iron Man and American East’s Sayed Badreya (pictured right), who has been charged with the delivery of the kidnapped Russian waitress Natasha (played by Natasha Rinis).

Natasha’s journey is harrowing and at times difficult to watch, as she is stripped of all humanity to become just another faceless commodity that will eventually be sexually used and discarded. However unlike Taken and Spartan, the terms ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are not so black and white. There is a moral ambiguity at play here as both the kidnapped and her transporter are both revealed to be victims of circumstance. The Arab ‘bad guy’ Sayed, has a complex history that like his heart of gold, is hidden under a tough and at times psychotic exterior while Natascha has a shameful past she is running away from.

Cargo is a low budget art house film that unfortunately shows the symptoms many other low budget features have; i.e weak acting, less than creative art direction and of course little money. Although the script is good, a lot more could have been done creatively with what little they had, and it shows. However the strength of this movie rest primarily on the excellent performances of its two leads. Sayed Badreya gives a brilliant and nuanced performance of a man with a troubled past and a dark future, who has made one wrong decision too many, while Natasha Rinis faultlessly plays a woman who is not as innocent as she seems.

From dialogue spoken by the characters designed to manipulate each other and the audience, to subtle eye movements and body language that betray their hidden selves, the chemistry between the two leads is palpable. Both actors successfully play off each other in a story that shows the painful growth from enemies to friends. One just wishes more would have been done with the story and the actors than what was given. Regardless, ironically for a genre about how humanity is stripped from individuals, Cargo comes across as the most human yet. 7/10

Genre: Thriller/Horror
Bad Language: Strong
Sex and Nudity: Brief nudity and strong sexual references
Violence: Moderate/Strong

Looking For Funding? Heed Those Top 10 Fundraising Tips

Raouf — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:58:06 +0000

Fundraising (or fund raising) means soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions (in the form of money or other resources), by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, or charitable / governmental entities. Fundraising mainly refers to gathering money for non-profit organizations, but it can be also used to refer to the identification and solicitation of investors or other sources of capital for for-profit enterprises.

Individuals looking for fundraising have to rely on their own wits and the support of friends and family members in the beginning, before they land a generous donor or investor. Kathryn P., a veteran writer working for GoGetFunding.com compiled her 10 most effective tips for individual fundraisers to get maximum results.

1. Make Clear Plans

Once you have a cause you want to follow, establish clear fundraising goals and set firm yet reachable deadlines. Determine an expense budget for the duration of the fundraising, till you achieve your goals. Set an end date – or else your fundraising activity will drag on forever.

2. Gather Inner Circle Support

The first place to start fundraising is your circle of family and friends. Set up a meeting and discuss your clear fundraising cause. Sign up supporters, and assign roles to each of them. Make sure everyone knows the objectives, and project deadlines.

3. Create A Fundraising Page

Do your research and choose a good fundraising website for individuals, and create your own page. Write an inspiring and honest description of your cause, letting people know what their donations will achieve. Post plenty of pictures and videos documenting your cause.

4. Set Up A Free Blog

Post quick updates and thorough articles on your cause and encourage contributions from your inner circle and readers. Post pictures and videos pertaining to your cause. Also list all donation updates and place a call-to-action button on every page, which links to your fundraiser page. Stay loyal to your cause, and work on gaining more supporters and fans.

5. Tap Your Social Network

Facebook has more than 1.1 billion subscribed users and growing. Leverage this fact and get everyone on your inner circle into your Facebook network. Create a Facebook Page for updates, and also a Facebook Group so that you can send direct messages to your supporters’ inboxes. Consider investing on Facebook ads to gain more followers who can help you spread the word about your fundraiser.

Photo credit Phillip Capper / Flickr

6. Use Facebook Tools To Obtain Donations

Apps such as Fundrazr and Crowdrise are available to help you raise funds within the Facebook network., that you can use to reach a wider Facebook audience. Look for influencers within your target demographic and try to build relationships with them.

7. Look For Sponsors

For individuals, their local community is the best place to start. Try your community center, the mayor’s office, your local church group, universities, restaurants, food chains and so on for donations and prizes. Anyone can be a sponsor / ambassador.

8. Offer Incentive Prizes

Offer incentive prizes to donors, to motivate them. Make sure that the prizes are relevant to your target demographic. It’s a good idea to offer early bird prizes, and also prizes for donors who’ve donated more than a certain amount and so on.

9. Approach Corporates

Most companies dedicate funds towards their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) endeavors. They will be happy to offer donations to your cause, so long as the cause is relevant to what they represent. Some companies will even agree to matched donations, as long as you achieve the primary sum.

10. Leverage Local Media

If your town has a local TV and radio station, approach them with your cause and ask for a 5 minute appeal spot. You can reach into several homes via these channels. Approach local celebrities to spend a few minutes talking about your cause on TV or radio.

Kathryn P is a freelance writer working for online fundraising website GoGetFunding.com

[Money photo credit - Quote photo credit]

Sharjah – Radar Down

Alexander McNabb — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:46:00 +0000

(Photo credit: brizzle born and bred)

As eagle eyed observers will recall from earlier posts, Sharjah has been suffering from a mysterious and expensive spate of radar shootings.

Someone has been regularly taking out the traffic radars on the Mileiha Road – the arterial route that leads from the notorious National Paints parkabout all the way out to the delightful East Coast littoral of Khor Kalba across on the other side of the Hajjar Mountains. It’s a delightful drive, BTW – and you can pop across the border to Fujeirah for a bite to eat for lunch before coming back, say, over the Masafi/Dhaid road.

This morning’s drive to work took me along the road from Sharjah Airport to junction 2 on the aforementioned Road To Mileiha. That connecting road contains, among many other things (including a co-op and loads of huge palatial villas) two radars.

Standing by the second one was a copper and a couple of puzzled looking blokes. The radar on the northern carriageway (one of the expensive new models) had been pretty comprehensively smashed. If that was a bullet, it presumably means the perp’s still at it. Now all we’ve got to wait for is Gulf News rehashing that quote they use every time they report on a new radar ‘kill’:

“We are collecting evidence from the spot and will soon nab the person who committed the crime. We will find out what motivated him to commit such a crime.” He goes on to add, “The person responsible for shooting the radar will be arrested soon. “He will be punished according to the UAE law.”

It’s no laughing matter for Sharjah’s finest, by the way – that’s now a total of 15 radars ruined and, at Dhs250,000 apiece, we’re talking about almost four million Dirhams. To give it a sense of perspective, that’s almost four days’ revenue from the RTA’s Sharjah-bound Salik gates!!!

When they catch him, the radar shootist is undoubtedly in for the high jump in no small way!

UAEBlogging.com

Boats boats boats boats bobbing up and down again

I Don’t Want Any Yes-Men

Related posts:

100 Reasons Why The Internet Is Cool. Reason 82. Crowd Investing.

Dubai scores another first – Blackberry Q5

Is After Earth really a bad movie? Or is racism at play?

fake watch

Top Five Tips To Reduce Work Stress

1 – Avoid Stressful People

2 – Prioritize, Manage your Time

3 – Slow it Down, Pace Not Race

4 – Take a Break

5 – Don’t Bring Work Home

Related posts:

Cargo: An Arab perspective on human trafficking

Looking For Funding? Heed Those Top 10 Fundraising Tips

1. Make Clear Plans

2. Gather Inner Circle Support

3. Create A Fundraising Page

4. Set Up A Free Blog

5. Tap Your Social Network

6. Use Facebook Tools To Obtain Donations

7. Look For Sponsors

8. Offer Incentive Prizes

9. Approach Corporates

10. Leverage Local Media

Related posts:

Sharjah – Radar Down