In today's issue
Blogosphere: October 23, 2007
Gulf News deputy web editor Florence Pia G. Yu plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds.
- Florence Pia G. Yu, Deputy Web Editor
- Published: 22:50 October 22, 2007
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
Gulf News deputy web editor Florence Pia G. Yu plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds.
Credit card hell
I normally fuel up at the prevailing fuel chains. Four months ago, one of the petrol companies announced that it was too expensive for them to cover the credit card fees so they would charge 1.5 or 2 per cent on each transaction. I did not really complain about the Dh2 they charge me extra but it felt crazy...
The reason for using the card should be benefiting the company probably more than me as it means no cash to move around, thus less risk of robbery.
To my surprise it was getting more and more difficult to use the cards. The attendants kept coming back to me saying, "Card no work!" Looking at at least four slips they had, it was evident that the card did work but their machines did not. Transaction cancelled was the error code, so I sent the guys back and voila, it worked!
Yesterday, I tried to fuel up and pay with my card again and the guy simply informed me: "We don't accept credit-cards anymore!"
Looking at how things work in Dubai in general, I am not really surprised. I guess it is not unlike any other place, but to stop accepting credit cards must be a novelty in this day and age. Are they on to something the rest of us don't know about yet?!
www.mats-globetrotter.blogspot.com
Car rental scams
Travel columnist Christopher Elliott gave these tips about how to avoid scams from car rental companies:
First, according to Elliott, if you return your car early, for example, you might get slapped with an "early return fee."
Elliott concedes that the only way to beat this game is to know the rules and conditions of your rental agreement. Read the small print.
In the second scam, the rental company charges you a fee if you return the car with the gas gauge needle at less than 100 per cent full. Even if it's 98 per cent full, you might be fined. Stop at the gas station immediately before returning the car, and keep all your receipts.
Third, car rental companies have been caught charging customers for damaged vehicles, sometimes billing different customers for the same dent or ding. Elliott recommends taking photos of the car when you pick it up and when you return it, in case you need to prove that specific damage did or did not exist.
www.gadling.com
Death of the innocents
We had more terrible road accidents at the end of last week, with babies and children killed. I always think it's a worse tragedy when children are involved.
Helpless to protect themselves they have to rely totally on adults to care for them, to keep them safe. It's so often a misplaced trust.
In Sharjah, two little girls, Ayeesha Diya aged six and her sister Dina Ruqiya aged only three, were sleeping in the back of their car. According to a friend their father had stopped on the hard shoulder on the Al Dhaid-Sharjah highway because he was sleepy.
That seemed the sensible thing to do, rather than drive on in a dangerously sleepy state.
But this carnage has to be stopped. It's a huge challenge because of the attitudes of drivers here and the different standards — not to mention the confusing roads and road signs that we have to try to deal with.
What will it take? An ongoing educational campaign, including school-age future drivers, a complete re-think about the way licences are issued, with none being issued automatically, every driver being schooled in one system of driving, a complete revamp of the driving school industry, a larger more effective traffic police division, rigid enforcement of the rules and laws. I'm not holding my breath.
dubaithoughts.blogspot.com
Visiting Mount Nebo
I've been to Mount Nebo some years back and it seemed closer then. I guess because I was going there on my own this time, and hesitating in trusting the touristic signs leading me there, that it seemed so distant.
Nonetheless, once I got to it, the place was as majestic and divine as it ever was.
To my utter delight, I was welcomed with a free pass at the foot of the mountain. I walked up towards the famous Brazen Serpent and then entered the church. The vast majority of the visitors were foreign; there were French, Italians, Spanish, and Japanese. I saw only one or two Jordanian groups of little numbers.
Once inside, I renewed my fascination with the typically gorgeous stained glass artistry that is usually iconic in Christian places of worship. Not much of it was present in Mount Nebo but since I do not get to see much of it in my daily life anyway, what little was there was spectacular. I wish they would add to the four stained glass windows already present. www.tololy.com
Dubai and the golden days
We are still in an era where small-talk governs a bygone Dubai: the time when Dubai was Dubai; when the old days were golden days.
What, may I ask, is less golden today than it was two decades ago? A society that enjoys economic prosperity is bound to enjoy social and cultural changes with time: and if time diversifies Dubai, the shift is for the better.
We still enjoy the freedoms and fun of yesteryear, if not on a grander scale. All this nostalgia is just such: nostalgia, and a fear of letting go of the past, when today is much better.
Without the past, we have no future. And without the future, we have no tomorrow.
www.uaecommunity.blogspot.co
Sport mania
An action-packed weekend has left me with the odd sensation of the end of week break being entirely too long. To take it in reverse, there were a lot of bleary eyed expats walking around the city this morning in the wake of a late night watching the Rugby World Cup Final.
A big group of us headed down to the Barasti Bar to watch the game and despite fears that there would be queues to get in and we would not be able to see anything the opposite was true. Barasti had gone to great lengths to ensure plenty of screens and staff on hand and the only chaos was trying to get out of the car park after the game.
From a match perspective: Congratulations to the Springboks, they have been the form team during the tournament and equally congratulations to England. They had been written off and the first pool games were dire. However the bulldog spirit showed up for the last three games and I was proud to be an English rugby supporter again.
www.an-englishman-in-dubai.blogspot.com
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