Moral Danger

The Dubai Police Department has determined that smart phones are a moral danger. They are urging parents to stop buying smart phones for their children. Apparently, people who own a smart phone are able to view indecent pictures from the internet. According to this article, children are taking indecent photos and sending them to their friends. I find that surprising because if I had a means of taking and sending photos to my friends when I was ten years old, there is no way that I would have send pictures of say, my butt, to my friends. Considering that we have a difficult time stopping professional athletes from sending indecent photos, I think it's the first thing that a ten-year-old would think of.

The article goes on to say that there is social pressure on UAE kids today as in one ten-year-old girl's class, 22 out of 24 students in her class have phones. In addition, these kids don't have a understand that every time they make a call, someone has to pay for it. That sounds like most adult Emiratis. Isn't it nice to know that wealthy countries have their problems, too?

Emergency

Today there was a bit of an emergency at work. While I was finishing up teaching a class, a member of security came into to ask the students a few questions. The main question was, "Does anyone here drive a car with the following license plate ...?" When it was determined that no one in the class drove that car, the security guard moved on. Before he did, I asked him what the matter was. As it turned out, a student parked in the director's reserved parking spot. I asked him how he knew it was a student and he replied with a look that told me, "Of course it was a student. What are you stupid?" The words he used were actually, "The car doesn't have a staff parking sticker."

I went outside to check it out and sure enough, there was a car parked in the director's parking spot. I was hoping to get a look at a student's car being towed away. When I looked out the window about five minutes later, the car was gone. That wasn't enough time for a tow truck to remove it so I guess they found the guilty party. This is a great example of the lack of respect that some students have not only for the gated staff parking lot, but also for the college director's reserved parking spot.

Censorship Revisited

I realize that I'm not covering any new ground with this post, but censorship is a topic that comes to mind occasionally, especially when it's done in a ridiculous fashion. As with the Christina Hendricks cover of GQ, someone has been busy putting white stickers on photos of women's cleavage in order to protect me from impure thoughts. This time the objectionable photo was seen on the back of a box of Special K breakfast cereal. As you can see from the photo, not only is the model's cleavage covered, the sticker with the product information written in Arabic is also being used to cover her thighs in her short dress.

Naturally my thoughts go out to the poor people who are spending their time putting thousands of stickers on magazine covers and cereal boxes to protect others like me from temptation. I wish these brave men (or women?) well for putting themselves in harm's way to keep me safe from the impure thoughts that would naturally occur were I able to see what is under the nearly transparent stickers.

Tekken Tournament

Over the past year and a half, I've suggested that the guys I teach, generally don't have many interests. Well, here is proof to the contrary, there will be a Tekken tournament held in the Abu Dhabi Men's College Auditorium, the same venue that only recently hosted former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Tekken, it is an arcade fighting game from the early to mid 1990's similar to the game Mortal Combat. From what I can tell, it is a big deal because it has been on the notice board for the past week and according to the notice is the United Arab Emirates championship. For details about the event, you can go to the web page run by the Men's College Student Council.

In all seriousness, I am impressed by the interest level and organization of the students involved for organizing this event, even if it is a video game tournament. It starts inabout 10 days andI'll be interested to see how things go for them.

Camel Beauty Contest

As everyone familiar with the story of the first Christmas is aware, Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the desert. To celebrate this Christmas season, I was planning on going to a Camel Beauty Contest. (Click here read about it.) This annual camel festival takes place in Al Dahfra, about a two-hour drive from us. It's part of a two-week festival. This contest, the biggest in the world, has over $26 million in prizes. I was hoping to go last year, but never got around to it and this year, and was too beat to drag the kids there to look at some camels. I kind of regret not going again. Hopefully, I'll make it next year.

Low Rent

Abu Dhabi relies entirely on foreign workers for its service industry. With rents in Abu Dhabi going through the roof, a question that comes to mind is, where do the people who work in the shops and restaurants live? How can they afford to live here?

A few months ago when I was in the Hamdan area of town, I noticed all of the utility poles were covered with notices for rental bed spaces. For the most part, all of the advertisements were for a bed space and had specific requirements for "men only" or "women only" or "Muslim only." These weren't the type of advertisements usually in the upscale grocery stores.

In addition, this part of town is completely filled with tiny shops that sell or repair almost anything. I don't usually go down to Hamdan street because of the construction, traffic, or lack of parking but a person without a car wouldn't have to worry about that. While I can't say exactly what part of town these advertisements were for, it's a good bet that they are somewhere near Hamdan, the center of town.

Sunset

I've never lived in a place in which I could easily see the sunset. When we moved in to an apartment where we had a clear view of the sunset, I thought that the novelty would wear off fairly quickly. It didn't. While I don't set my alarm to make sure that I see it, I do like to look out the window when I see the sunlight change to red. December 22nd officially being the shortest day of the year in Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately, because it was hazy the 21st and 22nd, here is a photo of the sunset on the 20th of December in which you can see where the sun hits the horizon.

In this photo, you can see where the sun was around June 20, the longest day of the year.

To give some perspective, here is a picture of the horizon with the Emirates palace on the left and Marina Mall on the right.
While I understand the science of it, I am still amazed at the amount that the sun sun moves on the horizon throughout the year.