On Your Bike – an Untrue Ad Executed Badly
ALEXANDER MCNABB: My delight is enhanced that the latest piece witless buffoonery originates from HSBC, the bank that likes to say ‘Is there anything else I can do to help you?’ at the end of calls where they have been signally useless.
Privacy and the Law
ALEXANDER MCNABB: One month in jail and deportation for filming an actual incident and posting it online may appear madly draconian, but the UAE (and the Gulf in general, actually) has always had a fraught relationship with photography…
UAE Media Shame and ‘The Tent Next Door’
Gulf News deserves to be held to a higher standard than Gulf Today, though. And in this, it has failed. Its silence is nothing less than shameful – and its shame is clearly exposed by The National.
Sad day for UAE as Last ‘Founding Father’ Dies
This really is the passing of an era rather than one man, the passing of the last of the men who brought this country from a scattered land of tribal peoples to become a modern nation.
Taxis in the UAE – Who’s Being Taken for a Ride?
It’s expensive stuff, this taking a taxi. And yet the drivers seem to be worse off than ever – although I don’t see the large numbers of middlemen at the taxi companies and regulators suffering.
Why Tone Matters in Reporting
We have two ways to look at what was said from two different media reports about one event – and I am deeply concerned that papers can report one man’s words so differently. So which one is wrong?
PRs, Blogging, and (Not) Understanding Your Audience
Anyone that wants me to go to a launch announcement ‘as a blogger’ has similarly not invested the time to work out that not only do I not care, I actively do not care. I vocally and negatively do not care.
Telcos & Disintermediation: Slow Motion Car Crash
Telcos are staring looming disintermediation in the face and don’t have the faintest clue what to do about it.
An Adventure Begins: Watching A New Life Unfold
A powerful, evocative and compellingly detailed account of the experience of starting a new life on the West Bank.
‘Surprise’ Poll – Banks failing to win over customers
Nobody I know who lives in the UAE is happy with their bank… Nobody has ever been able to recommend their bank to me.
Wedding Night: A tale by Deaf Brown Trash Punk
I wanted to bring Sabina, writer and short film maker, onto the radio show I co-host but there’s a slight glitch – being deaf is a slight impediment…
Labour to let – why ‘workers stranded’ stories are set to rise
‘Labourers Stranded’ stories are likely to increase over the following months as projects finally get completed, but precious few new ones move in behind them to keep workers gainfully employed.
Google Voice, Censorship, Media Idiocy
There has been a great deal of concern and speculation this week regarding a possible move against Google by the UAE’s telecom regulator, the TRA. Much of this concern has been triggered by appalling journalism…
Nosy Parker
How Alexander McNabb plans to ignore his rule of having as little to do with his bank as possible on the grounds that it’s invariably bad for his health, and bankrupt HSBC Middle East 20 dirhams at a time using valet parking.
Die Telco! Die! Facebook rings in a new order
Facebook has tossed its hat into the mobile handset ring according to TechCrunch today, joining Apple and Google, a trio five years ago you would have never have associated with the phone business.
Sticker Scratcher
Quite properly, the UAE insists that products sold to consumers here are labelled in Arabic – the national language. However, once again, there is trouble in paradise.
