Dubai Demolition Derby

This is video taken from a police camera in a tunnel near Dubai airport. Note the selfishness, aggressiveness and the total lack of spatial awareness displayed by some of the drivers. These are somewhat extreme examples, but lesser degrees of these behaviors are observed on almost every trip to the supermarket, restaurant, parking lot or petrol station. If you are lucky it is at much lower velocities!

The scary thing is that these probably are not drunk drivers, In a country where there there is ZERO tolerance for driving under the influence (you will be jailed, lose your job, bank account frozen and deported). I find it hard to believe there are that many chemically impaired drivers on the road. They are just naturally dense and/or clueless.

The U. A. E. is a melting pot of many kinds of driving from a multitude of countries and they don't mix well. I am not going into the distinctive driving habits of certain ethnicities here, but take it from me, one can guess quite accurately after a short time from a long distance who is behind the wheel!

The link below is to a long, dry and somewhat dated discussion on the matter, but there are a lot of statistics and graphs:

http://www.salimandsalimah.org/documents/RTAsinUAEcompared.pdf

UPDATE: Opinions differ on cause of UAE dust - The National Newspaper

Opinions differ on cause of UAE dust - The National Newspaper

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The Dog Days of Summer

It is now August in Abu Dhabi which means running from one air conditioned space to another as efficiently as possible. Outdoor diversions are not practical or healthy so most residents spend the Summer behind closed doors. Expat spouses and children usually high-tail it back to their countries of origin to wait out the brutal Gulf climate in more temperate areas while the kids are out of school. Even the shortest automobile trip will turn you into a "wetback" as the car's A/C struggles to transform 120 degree air into a more comfortable temperature. It's usually a losing battle.

Another trait of Summer here is the haze. I shot the photo above at noon local time today from my balcony at the Moonbase 20 miles West of Abu Dhabi City. You can see that the visibility is severely hampered by the crud in the air. Most of my life I lived in the Southeastern U. S. and expected Summers to be a little hazy due to inversions and hydrocarbon emissions from pine trees and such, but the haze here is over the top!

The origin of the haze is a mystery to me. It is not fog. The wind is not strong enough today to kick up a dust storm. It is not pollution or smog, there is no smell. Not enough natural vegetation exists here for their emissions to be a factor. I am stumped! I can only guess that this is dust blown from far away and it is settling here. But then I remember that I also lived in a desert environment in Southwestern Utah which should have been similarly affected by dust from neighboring regions too but the Summer skies there are clear and blue. In other seasons, the Abu Dhabi skies are normal. Maybe Iran is testing some nerve gas, I don't know!

Anyway, because of the Summer climate here people are afflicted with a malaise that is usually associated with the Arctic regions, Cabin Fever. This is where the outside environment is at the least uncomfortable and at the most life-threatening so people tend to stay inside for extended periods of time which eventually drives them crazy from boredom.

How individuals deal with this depends on their situation and character. I am lucky as I don't have a spouse, children or a roommate so I deal with it by surfing the net, emails, Facebook, blogging, cooking, Playstation 3 and accelerated rates of alcohol consumption. I can't get in much trouble doing these. A side effect is that I am saving a boatload of money and the quiet afternoon naps are great. When the weather moderates, I will be back to my old restless self again looking for trouble and excitement. Also, I have a lot of leave left so I have some long weekends planned in more Northern latitudes in the next couple of months.

It must be much tougher for those that are living in close proximity to a roommate, spouse and offspring. Little things quickly become big things and soon divorce and/or manslaughter seem to be reasonable and thoughtful ways to relieve the boredom. As I have said before, if you plan to relocate here with a family make damn sure you all know what you are getting in to and that your bonds are strong. This is no place to come to with the idea that a "change of scenery" will revitalize a relationship.

Tomorrow (August 3) will mark my first anniversity here with boots on the ground in the Emirates. I have learned many things and gone through a lot of ups and downs in the past 12 months. Although it hasn't been all good or all bad, I feel this experience has enriched my life and that I would have ended up regretting it if I had not accepted the challenge. More about this soon in a future blog...stay tuned, don't touch that dial!

Photos For Wingnuts

I am a Wingnut myself. If I am having a conversation with you and I hear an aircraft passing overhead, forgive me if I look up into the sky in mid-sentence in order to look at the plane. It's not personal, I am not being rude but you must understand that I have an illness that causes involuntary upwards head movements whenever I hear a turbine whine or an unmuffled, aircooled horizontally opposed or radial engine overhead. Cessna, Boeing, Piper, Lockheed, Grumman or McDonnell-Douglas, it doesn't matter. I am gonna look.

I have been this way since I can remember. I can spend hours just looking at airplane photos on airliners.net. A perfect day for me is lying on the hood of my car at the approach end of the runway of an international airport watching the endless parade of airliners passing over my sunburned tonsils. Fellow sufferers of this malady will understand, the rest won't and never will.

To me, aircraft and the act of flying them is a combination of skill, beauty, art and technology. Nothing else comes close.

I wanted to share the attached photos that a good friend sent me (thanks Rog). They are of the F-35 Lightning II, the USAF's next generation air superiority fighter. Variants of the F-35 are being developed to serve with the Navy and Marine Corps including a VTOL version to replace the excellent, but aging Harrier.

The F-35 is chased by an F-16 Falcon. The photos are taken over the beaches of the Florida Panhandle which just happens to be where I was born and raised. The aircraft are based out of Eglin Air Force Base which is visible in the background in a couple of the photos.

To me, all aircraft are easy on the eye due to the "form follows function" rule, especially the high performance ones. Any machine designed to cheat gravity and go faster than a bullet at the same time has to have a pleasing, organic shape that gets along with, rather than fight natural forces.

The F-35 may be the last advanced U.S. fighter designed to have a human at the controls. The recent advances in remote control via satellite and the success that the UAV's have been having as armed platforms at the front lines may make manned fighters an anachronism. The end of an era for the "Knights of the Sky".

Abu Dhabi Formula One Construction Update

It has been 3 months since I posted a photo of the construction of the Yas Island Formula One venue from my apartment balcony. At that time I questioned the progress so far and speculated that exceptional efforts would be needed to have the facility fully functional by race day on October 30th.

Attached are some new photos that I took today. Although the details are hard to see through the ubiquitous Abu Dhabi Summer haze, I tried to get some different angles. The part of the hotel that spans the track seems to be completed and some of the white fabric features are up over the Southern grandstands.

I will let you judge for yourselves, but with three months to go until race day, I can imagine there is a fair amount of stomach antacid being swilled in the construction managers' Porta-Kabins!

Official Yas Island Formula One website

The first photo shows an overview.

The second photo shows a detail of the Support Pit Grandstands with the hotel on the right.

The third photo shows a detail of the South Grandstands with the hotel to the left.

The road in the foreground is the main Abu Dhabi-Dubai motorway.

I would like to attend the event, but with 2 day tickets starting at a cool $420 USD, I might have other plans. I could live like an Emperor at a NASCAR race for that kind of scratch!

The Liwa Date Festival

Liwa is an oasis community in the extreme Southwest area of the Abu Dhabi emirate bordering on Saudi Arabia known as the Empty Quarter. The name accurately describes the environs. There you will find the the real Emerati culture as it was a mere 40 years ago. It is a world away from the hustle and bustle of Abu Dhabi City and Dubai and is just 2 hours down the road.

I always am surprised at the resiliency of the human race from the Eskimos in the Arctic regions to the residents of Liwa that have not only existed but thrived in one of the harshest environments on the planet. Because of a freak geological formation, the water table is unusually high in Liwa which allowed date palms to grow in a limited area. These seeds of the date palm are what sustained generations of Emeratis in the past centuries.

Google "date fruit" and you will find out that dates are a very complete food item densely packed with vitamins and minerals with many health benefits. Those of you in Western countries miss out on eating them from close to the source. I used to hate them until I tasted fresh ones here. The Emeratis have a very enjoyable custom of supplying fresh dates and a pot of sweet Arabic tea as hospitality items in business waiting rooms all over the country. I enjoyed this perk when I waited to have my oil changed in the Jeep at the dealership last week.

I have attached a video link to the Liwa Date Festival from one of the local newpapers. I understand it will be running though the 26th of July so I just may have to make a road trip!

Liwa Date Festival Video

If the video loads slow, hit pause and go get a beer and let it load fully and hit play again.