Towards Less Crime in Dubai

I have been living in the United Arab Emirates for 27 years, it's my home and I saw it go from a dry desert to a warm heaven.

It was, and still is the safest place on earth to be in, however, we lately started to see a rise in criminal activity in Dubai.

The last and most interesting crime was a kidnapping of a chinese businessman by a Chinese mafia, happened in International City, Dubai. 8 men and 1 woman kidnapped a businessman, and threatened (not sure who they threatened) to execute him unless a 100 million AED (27.3 million USD) was paid. Police found the hostage in 2 days only in Ajman and arrested the kidnappers (maybe 30 miles from Dubai), thanks to Dubai's qualified and well-trained CIDs and police force.

The population in Dubai is growing increasingly with people from different cultures and background joining the city from all over the world. I think the government needs to be more careful before issuing visas. Strict security measures need to be applied, even for visitors, but most importantly, the public need to help the government identify and stop suspicious activity.

Dubai government previously launched a service called Al Ameen that allows ANY ONE to call (8004888) and give information about ANY type of suspicious activity. No matter how many bad people there are in Dubai, there are many more good people. If we all as residents of Dubai, report suspicious activity, we help make out of Dubai a safer home. I encourage every one to contribute to the safety of our community, and not think with the "none of my business" hat on.

God bless us all ...

Microsoft ... grrrrrrrrrrr

I'm not going go on about Vista or Office; this is about my Xbox Live account.

I owned an Xbox since 2006, when I first bought it I had a one month Gold membership which kept working for 3 months! Anyways, for those who don't know, you CANNOT play online with your Xbox 360 unless you have a gold membership. When my membership expired I wanted to renew it, so I attempted to upgrade through my Xbox console and failed.

Every time I put my credit card number I get an error message. I called the Microsoft's call centre in UAE and they told me buying Xbox 360 code or upgrading memberships can't be done in the Middle East as the service was not available then.

Today, November 22nd 2008, after more than 2 years, I thought about trying to upgrade my membership again.

I logged onto my Xbox 360 account from my PC, added my credit card number, and it still didn't work. I then realized that under settings, the country is USA and that's why the credit card was not being verified. I also realized that I CANNOT change my Location. The location is permanent, I have to stick with whatever I chose when I first got my Xbox. What's funny is that I don't remember choosing USA, and my email ID says I'm located in UAE.

Now regardless, if I chose USA by mistake or intentionally, how on earth can a country be permanent?!!!!!!! How can I now get a Gold membership? Do I delete my Tag and lose every thing and create a new one with the right country????

Things I hate about Dubai ...

I used to love every thing about Dubai ... now I hate a few things about it, can you blame me?

• I've been in Dubai for 27 years, and I'm still called a "Wafed" (a foreigner), need visas to work and can't stay there unless I have a job, otherwise I simply have to exit
• People treat the real estate market in Dubai, like the stock market, they buy and sell, buy and sell, now a 1 bed room house costs at least 3000 USD a month (110,000 AED a year).
• I got my Nikes from the US for 40 USD, and realized they were on sale in Dubai for 120 USD
• My rights as a "resident" are limited.
• Traffic, traffic, and more traffic. do you know that last year Dubai witnessed 261 thousand car accidents (Google it!!)?
• I am NOT racist and I have no problem with any ethnic groups, I just don't like the fact that I'm the only Arab in my building, knowing I live in UAE!
• The currency. UAE's economy is extremely strong, but the AED is pegged to the USD, which makes UAE's currency a slave to the US Dollar
• No matter how hard a person work, he is forced to "like it, or leave it". This applies to everything
• Monopoly. There is some sort of monopoly when it comes to services, that's why we pay 250 AED a month (68 USD) for a 1 MB internet connection!
  
• Salaries of labors. It just hurts bad to know that an average labor receives 600 AED a month (164 USD). It also hurts me to know that the office boy where I work lives in 1 room, with 9 other men ................ can you blame me?