Haloween Parties

Tia in front of the traditional Halloween race track.

The past two years some friends and I have arranged trick or treating in the apartment building that we live in. This year, I was too busy to organize it so we found a party for the kids to go to held at the Al Ghazal Golf and Rugby Club near the airport. While this party was only marginally related to Halloween, it involved kids, dressing in costumes, running around, and eating candy so was a pretty good deal for 25 dirham each. They had a few people in costumes running around and, some jumpy castles, games and a little track with motorized bikes for the kids to ride. Even though the kids didn't get to knock on doors and beg for candy, they had a lot of fun The bonus was I didn't have to be responsible for organizing everything.

My son ans Smurfette with some kid.

If that's not enough, they get to do it all over on the 31st after school. For the school organized party, I found it interesting that in respect for the local culture the kids were asked not to dress as witches or wizards.

Security

Something that users of free wireless services found in airports, restaurants, and cafes may not be aware of is that while they are busy chatting to friends via Facebook or sending email is that their internet usage can easily be tracked. Also, hackers can set up seemingly innocent free wi-fi hotspots and give them innocent sounding names such as "Free Airport Wi-fi" with the sole purpose of getting sensitive information.

Avoid this message and see all your favorite American shows on Hulu with a VPN.

What's more, search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, collect and store i.p. address information with the purpose of targeting advertising. Sure, the thought of someone at Google having access to all the times you Google your own name may not creep you out, but a lot of people may get anxious with the thought that there exists a record of them cyber-stalking their favorite actress after they come home from a night out.

This can be avoided through the use of a Virtual Personal Network otherwise known as a VPN. Simply, a VPN is basically a virtual tunnel through your internet service provider that comes out in a different place. The data is encoded so there is no way that anyone can detect where the usage is coming from or even what it is.

Listen to Pandora streaming radio outside the U.S. with a VPN.

An added benefit to this is that when using a service that allows you to code your internet usage, is that you can change your computer i.p. address to another country to access services available to only that country. For example, the Hulu allows you to watch American television shows for free and the internet radio service at Pandora allows you to create customized radio stations to suit your own tastes. Unfortunately, these completely legitimate websites are unavailable to those outside the United States. With a VPN, you can change your i.p. address to access these services.

Also, a VPN can help with services like making cheap international calls with Skype that are blocked in the UAE. While Skype is no longer illegal in the UAE, the site is still blocked at the request of Etisalat, the main internet an telephone provider in the UAE.

Two good sites are proXPN and Witopia, but unfortunately, if you are in the UAE and don't already have a VPN, these sites may be blocked. If that is the case and you wish to look into what a VPN can do for you, the blue banner at the top of this page should get you there. In my opinion, better security for your computer and a more accessible internet is definitely worth checking out.

35-Car-Pile-Up

The culprit in the 35-car pile-up: fog.

Once again, fog caused a large accident on the roads in the U.A.E. Please note that it was the fog that caused the pile-up and not the dangerous driving in foggy conditions. Luckily, there were only 35 cars invloved this time as opposed to the 127-car pile-up earlier this year. Also, no one was killed like in this 18-car pile up.  Still, these accidents all have only the fog to blame, not the tailgating at 85 miles per hour with 100 yard visibility.

Pet Hotel

While I believe in animal rights, sometimes treating pets as more than animals can reach absurd proportions. Here is an interesting article from a week or two that talks about a luxury hotel for pets. While the price for the "Junior Suite" at 115 Dh ($40) isn't outrageous, rooms go up to 395 Dh (About $110) per night. Also, it does seem silly to provide dogs and cats with gourmet meals and plasma screen TVs in the rooms along with "movie time." I'm guessing most pets don't know the difference.

This article brings to mind an article from the parody newspaper called "the Onion" entitled, "Study: U.S. Pets' Healthcare better than Rwandan humans.'"

Milkshake

See Kim Kardashian's milkshakes for yourself at the Dubai Mall.

The big news for Milkshake fans is that Kim Kardashian will be coming to Dubai next month to open up her store in Dubai Mall named Millions of Milkshakes. If this announcement doesn't get that Milkshake song from about 8 years ago in your head, then the article title in the Gulf News, "Her Milkshake Brings Dubai to the Mall," will.

Ms. Kardashian's reality show will follow her to record her reactions to her first time in Dubai. Apart from her celebrity, she describes her excitement over traveling to the Middle East for the first time and future business ventures that she would be open to such as acting in a Bollywood movie or open a Dash store in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. We can only hope.

National I.D. Deadlines

Once again, the government offices in the UAE have put the hammer down and are giving the final, final deadlines for which everyone must have their Emirates I.D.  If you remember, the UAE government has previously stated that everyone must have their Emirates I.D. by the end of 2009. Then it was changed to January of 2011 After having gone through the process in May of 2010, I knew there was no way that they would get it done.

The deadlines according to this article are as follows:

The northern Emirates have until December of 2011. Sharjah has until February 2012. Abu Dhabi has until April, 2012. Dubai has until June 2012. Anyone who does not have their id by that time will be fined 20 Dh (about $7) a day. We'll see how final these final deadlines are.

Horror Story 2: Escape from Dubai

The alleged finger-giver.

Some people may remember the story I talked about from last May in which a visiting surgeon from England upset an Emirati driver and was accused of giving him the middle finger. (For my version of the story, click here.) Well it seems he was given his passport back and told he could go back to his job in England as long as he promised to come back for the trial for allegedly giving the middle finger to another diver. If you read the original article in the Independent, it's pretty doubtful that he even did it.

Well, the court date has come and the good doctor has, (surprise, surprise) decided that it is not in his best interest for him to come back to face trial for this, knowing that there is no way that the court will believe his word over the word of an Emirati. You can read the article in the National for full details. (Thanks to Neil for pointing out the article in his blog.) He seems like a good man that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I feel that the UAE does itself a great disservice when they allow their citizens to make (likely) false accusations over trivial matters. Not only have they lost a doctor who was considering a post here, they have done a lot of harm to the reputation of the UAE as a desirable place to travel or do business.