UAE’s New Currency: Chiclets

Every morning on my way to work I stop by a gas station to buy something to eat or drink, I pay the cashier and instead of getting my change back (25 fils or 50 fils) they give me Chiclets. This is not a new phenomena, it’s been happening with me for the past 3 years in various gas stations across the country. Once they gave me even 4 gums (1 Dirham).

It’s not the quarter, it’s the principle. I will not allow ENOC and EPCO to make more money, using my well-earned quarters.

But have you ever thought about the reason behind this trend? When petrol prices were increased in UAE over 3 years ago and the cash-only policy was introduced, they also increased the prices of the products in the minimarts.

A chocolate bar which costs 1.5 dirhams is sold in the gas station at 2.25 dirhams. A pack of chips which should be 1 dirham is sold at 1.25 or even up to 1.75 dirhams. a gum (good gum) costs 2.25 … wait a minute, can you notice the .25s here and there? Because they decided to raise prices by 25 to 75 %, they ended up having to give out a lot of quarters, and you know there aren’t a lot of quarters usually. Now, they are substituting the quarters with 25 fils gum, which cost them maybe 15 fils and they make a good 60% profit on it.

How much is my croissant please?

Cashier: “It’s 2.75 sirrrrrrr” …

Sorry I don’t have that, but here you go, 11 Chiclets for you.I'm sure you need change.

Much needed Twitter function: Report Spam

It’s unbelievable how sad and desperate spammers are. Just like they’re flooding emails with shit, they are now all over Twitter. I get at least 4 spam followers every day, I block them directly. But what I think we need immediately is a “Report Spam” function on Twitter. I don’t see why such functionality is not available yet. If the twitter team cannot afford to hire account reviewers at the moment (people who approve accounts) it can be an automatic algorithm such that if an account is reported 30 or 40 times for exapmle, it gets deleted or suspended. Really simple.

Watch out for those spammers guys, don’t follow suspicious users and do not click on suspicious links.

Relevant posts:

I’m Sick of Twitter Spammers

Twayhem on Twitter

What the hell is twitter and what’s the point of it?

The Future of Alternative Energy

I haven’t blogged for a week but I’m really not upset about that, I was extremely busy getting to know a new facinating client that I will be working with. Read on, I don’t usually include work related posts on this personal blog, but trust me this one is worth it.

Masdar is an initiative by the government of Abu Dhabi to solve the world’s energy problems, and position the capital as a leader in Alternative Energy solutions.

They are doing many things like building a green city, conducting and supporting research, and preparing engineers for the future through their Masdar Institute of Science & Technology.

It’s a cooperative program with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It’s the first university that is specialized in Future Energy, and it’s non-profit, and free to join.

If you think you have the ambition, dedication and brainpower to get a post graduate degree in the field of Future Energy, apply, wherever you are. If you get admitted, Masdar will cover all your costs including tuition and accommodation in Abu Dhabi.

We are accepting 100 students every year, 2009 is already full so get your papers ready if you want to join the next batch.

The institute is also looking to hire faculty, so check their website, apply, and join us in creating the future.

Etisalat and its annoying ad on facebook

I really don’t know who to blame, Etisalat, their ad agency or Facebook and YouTube. If you live in UAE and you use facebook or youtube I’m sure you recently noticed the annoying ad Etisalat have been showing. Why is it annoying? because it’s intrusive. As long as you are on the page, the ad keeps beeping like “hey you notice me"!

We may have the choice to look at ads or ignore them, but we don’t have the choice to stop hearing the sounds and the beeping. What’s really funny also about the ad is the “Replay” button, the ad keeps playing that annoying sound regardless if you hit the replay or not. I think we reached a very mature level in advertising sciences, companies now should know damn well that being creative is something and being annoying is something else.

P.S: I saw this ad tens of times, just blogged about it, and realized that I never actually read what’s on it.

P.S2: I just looked at the ad. ETISALAT ... WHY THE HELL WOULD I PAY YOU TO CHAT IF I CAN CHAT FOR FREE USING GTALK OR FACEBOOK OR MSN?!!!

Bull Fighting in Fujairah

I passed by the bull fighting area in Fujairah many times but I never stopped, today I drove to Fujairah for 2 and half hours especially to see that. I can’t believe that I’ve been in UAE all my life, and I never actually witnessed this brilliant tradition. Bull fighting in Fujairah has been going on for hundreds of years, some say it was brought to Fujairah by the Portuguese settlers in the 17th century, which makes sense, because I’m not familiar with any other Arabic sports that involve animal fighting.

The tradition may seem a bit barbaric, but actually it’s not at all. It’s two bulls butting each other, no one gets hurt. A match is around 8 minute where getting the bulls in the ring takes 7 minutes but the actually butting wouldn’t last more than 1 minute. It’s more of pushing actually rather than butting. The second a bull falls, the locals rush to the scene to separate the bulls before the winner bull butts the other one in the flesh and hurt him. It’s just amazing.

The fights happen every Friday at 4 pm. We went there at 4 but no one was there, so I asked one of the locals when the bulls will arrive and he told me there was no fighting today because some one passed away. (may he rest in peace). I drove around with my friends watching Fujairah and on the way back we saw some bulls arriving! change in plans. In 15 mins, there were a lot of people, and a lot of bulls. Maybe 40 bulls, and each of them had a name which was really cute. I remember “Spark”, “Lion”, “Star”, “Son of Whale”, “Son of Gandhi”, “Scorpion” and “The Bagdadi”!

It was really hot today, but we still enjoyed it. I’m definitely going again when the weather gets nicer. They said today that the activity will stop until the 24th of July.

You gotta visit Fujairah and check this out, it’s worth it.