Driving...again

Today I witnessed the following:

• Tailgating at 120KPH
• Exiting from the left hand lane across 5 lanes at the last second at high speed
• Lane weaving on the freeway 
• Overtaking on the inside lane
• Using the emergency lane to overtake
• Speaking on the phone with one hand, holding a cigarette with the other and steering with the knees
• Reading a document while driving at speed
• Jumping a red light - by coming from behind the second car that had already stopped
• Weaving round pedestrians already 1/2 way across the carriageway

Now this is all pretty routine stuff; I doubt a journey goes by anywhere in the country where you would not see all these behaviours and more.

But these were all POLICE cars.  What chance of change do we have if the police don't even try?

Magic in 21st Century

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12060507

This BBC report is about children killed by their gullible and rather stupid parents using Alternative Medicines instead of proven and efficacious treatments from a proper doctor.  These parents, while probably not criminal in the usual sense, are though criminally responsible for the deaths of their children.  In today's world, in the first world, with universal education and good health care in most places, except the US, for even the poorest there is no excuse for this level of idiocy.

So why do people choose to believe in 'natural' therapies or alternative treatments?  Why are these felt to be more effective than drugs with years of testing and proof behind them?

Part of it is certainly because people  - ordinary people not scientifically trained - find anecdotal evidence more compelling than the statistics behind a full scale regulated double blind test in a laboratory.  You can't talk to the testers but you can talk to Aunt Mary about her friend who made the mircaculous recovery from terminal cancer by eschewing the very unpleasant high tech treatments her doctor offered in favour of a nice herbal tea and a homeopathic flower remedy.  Aunt Mary never mentions how her friend later died horribly and in pain after a brief period of remission...

And this dangerous farce gets government support too.  Of course it does it is cheaper than proper medical treatment and people seem happier with the results even when patients die unnecessarily.

I despair.

So I'm off for a session with my Shaman to see if he can bring my spirit back to health.

Changes

It's coming up to Christmas and so far it looks like it's going to be little different from last year.  Despite massive optimism and boatloads of hard work none of our deals has yet turned into hard cash.

Ras al Khaimah came and went in a flurry of recriminations between the partners and left a bunch of unhappy people in the lurch.  Me included but what about the customers and internal clients we had built good relationships with?  It hurts to let them go.

The Al Khabeer training company also came and went.  Should have seen that earlier but I wasn't the only one who fell for it.  At least two people lost significant amounts of money in the process.  I had none to lose fortunately and was sufficiently suspicious from early on not to get too close.  Nonetheless there's the risk of losing a good new friendship with a good guy from KSA.  Hopefully he'll be back in the New Year and we can move on from that disaster.

And now we're looking to new possibilities - starting again but with lessons learned and new hopes all round.  A couple of commodity deals involving oil and diamonds are reaching critical stages; new businesses in insurance, security and economic development as well as political consulting look like they might make a splash. 

The new year comes with the same hope last year did but a lot more confidence that something will drop out the other side.

The critical point being that everyone is in the same boat here.  My story is repeated more or less similarly by all the expats - employed or  entrepreneurs alike.  Little new business was completed last year but the signs are good for '11.

There are downside indicators too for Dubai.  There's still far too many new properties being constructed, commercial and residential, given the numbers of empty completed offerings available.  People are still trying to hang on to the past and rents are still falling and landlords reluctant to let at current rates and instead they hang on, hoping for a recovery.  And some are still trying to persist with the old practice of a year's rent in advance.  Yet they wonder why their properties remain empty.  Jumeirah Beach Residence and Jumeirah Lakes Towers look like ghost towns at night - some long completed buildings showing only a handful of lights at night.

And rumours abound of another semi-state run enterprise going the same way as Nakheel and of huge personal defaults by senior members of the ruling family.  And the constant local cultural inability to be transparent about it.

And there's been a flurry of legislation making it tougher for expats, not least the reduction in the length of work permits/visas to  2 years.  Not to mention no sign of the long discussed end of indentured servitude in the form of 'Sponsorship" and stealth tax/state appropriation in the need for 51% local ownership of companies outside FreeZones.

I must say a relocation is looking more attractive every day.  Let's see if we can get some stability this year.  Personally and nationally.  Or maybe go to Bahrain or Sri Lanka on spec.

I love Fridays

When I lived in the UK I made it a point, for most of my working life, never to work on a Friday.  Even if that meant working all weekend to keep up.  Though if I ever did work a weekend I never told anyone as I found that an air of wonder about my short working hours helped keep fee rates up and improve people's recall of the odd consultant they enjoyed hiring or the strangely valuable yet difficult employee they never quite got round to firing.

The thing is though, it always made Fridays seem special and my wife and I could often accomplish more fun and general good stuff on a Friday than most people over a whole vacation.

Now we live in the Middle East and in the Muslim world where Friday is a holy day.  Kinda like a Christian Sunday or Jewish Sabbath.  Every one sleeps in late, goes to the mosque, families hang out together, the world is generally quiet until quite late and there is not a lot of noisy traffic.  Until the evening, when it becomes party and shopping  time.  This works well because Saturday is also the weekend and people have the second day to recover.  Then back to work on Sunday.

Unless your clients, like most of mine, are in the US or EU.  When Sunday is their Friday.  Not much to do; so I don't often work Sundays. 

I've still got my Fridays off thought the special frisson of illicit goofing off is transferred to Sunday.  But it's odd, even after living here a good while I still feel ever so slightly guilty 'bout not working Friday, just like before.  It's my anchor.

Even though I earn my living helping companies and countries adapt to change I don't like it any more than anyone else.  It's all around me of course just as it's all around everyone else.  It's wholly unavoidable and yet omnipresent.  Get over it; get used to it. 

Which is where Friday comes in. 

About the best tool you have to deal with constant and accellerating change is an anchor.  Something that doesn't change; there's always something.  It might be your family, your kids or spouse.  It might be your home, your hobby, some aspect of your work or study, a hobby, a sport.  But something; there's always something.  Find it and cherish it so that as the economy makes a bumpy handcart trip to a hot climate you remain cool and collected and unjolted by the constant battering of reality.  While your industry rockets to infinity and beyond overnight you can still come back to something familiar every night. 

There will be something;  there's always something.  I've got Fridays.