When I first came to the UAE I was strictly speaking, a salaried employee but my status and security were such that I might just as well have been a contractor. Gone on a whim and at a moment's notice with no comeback. Our labour laws here make employed expats little more than indentured servants and most would in fact be better off on freelance contracts - except the local laws make that hard and the business culture doesn't understand paying for time.
I've been back freelancing for two and a half years now. It's much tougher than in Europe and I'm barely making a long term living. I had one serious contract from a British client but the work for locals has been unsatisfying to say the least.
We have no insolvency laws here but we do have very strict laws about getting into debt and passing bad cheques. You will go to prison. And since the recession many have. So how is it clients continually get away with incredibly slow payments and invariably never paying you in full? Government and official organisations are the worst of all delaying for a year or more and then short paying. You have no practical comeback. So you build it into the price and take a lot of your money upfront. Of course that makes it harder to get work. And puts prices up since you need to allow for the costs of collections in your price.
But then what's the point of doing work and not getting paid? And no one seems ashamed. It's near universal.
It wasn't always thus. It seems wealth has made the current generation of local business people not just more stand offish but more arrogant and self centred. Perhaps that's the penalty for being in a tiny minority in your own country.
If so it is even more important to look to a future not so dependent on cheap imported labour. Time to embrace technology; a hard work ethic; a willingness to build and not expect to start at the top; and adopt a culture of learning not using.
28 April 2010
25 April 2010
Communications
I have always thought of myself as a professional communicator. I'm good at it and I'm good at people.
And yet I keep getting it wrong.
Today I've been working with one of my business partners on a document we're preparing for a potential big new client. I was totally sure we had agreed on the process after some back and forth commentary by mail and by phone.
But when it came to doing the work we were off down different tracks like scared bunnies.
Now we're friends as well as business partners so it doesn't cause real friction - more self mocking on my part and knuckling down to it on his and the end result is better for it.
The thing is ...we're professionals, trained and experienced. Yet we make communication errors like this everyday. How much harder is it for non-professionals who have to make communications work just as much? Without our toolbag.
It really brought home to me today how much skill is involved in good management and how rarely I give people credit for that.
Sorry.
And yet I keep getting it wrong.
Today I've been working with one of my business partners on a document we're preparing for a potential big new client. I was totally sure we had agreed on the process after some back and forth commentary by mail and by phone.
But when it came to doing the work we were off down different tracks like scared bunnies.
Now we're friends as well as business partners so it doesn't cause real friction - more self mocking on my part and knuckling down to it on his and the end result is better for it.
The thing is ...we're professionals, trained and experienced. Yet we make communication errors like this everyday. How much harder is it for non-professionals who have to make communications work just as much? Without our toolbag.
It really brought home to me today how much skill is involved in good management and how rarely I give people credit for that.
Sorry.
24 April 2010
The miseries or despair?
It's pretty miserable here at the moment. I'm 58 years old and I used to be quite well off. But as so many entrepreneurs have found out I didn't have a big enough bankroll to take the hits.
And after 7 years of struggling and juggling we hit the bottom. Broke and currently about to be homeless again, debts to family and friends and the next job several months away still. And today I'm really down - though possibly a little more buoyant than my wife who has had to deal with a lot of the rubbish and who didn't cause most of it.
I have a case of the "Miseries"
But as yet I'm not in despair. I'm not hungry or thirsty - though I have lost weight cuz I've been in no position to splurge of late. I will have a roof again in a day or two courtesy of friends, again, and there is a project in the pipeline. There is no reason to despair. And like so many entrepreneurs before me we will begin to climb out of the hole soon. My wife hasn't abandoned me nor even suggested the possibility - she seems to believe in my ability to dig us out. She is managing to cope with the slings and arrows with equanimity though she's patently very worried.
But to my point. There are many who don't get the difference between being broke, as we are, and being poor as are so many in the world and we are not. There are possibilities for us and with a little patience and some luck we'll be OK. We're NOT going to die from dehydration or from something nasty in the only available water supply. We are not going to starve anytime soon. We won't die from some horrible disease or from the want of a few coppers worth of medicine. Hell, we probably won't even lose access to the Internet!
So... a brief bout of feeling sorry for myself is OK on a bad day. But despair is so far from the table I can't even get a focus on the MIGHT be's. Thank goodness for the future.
And after 7 years of struggling and juggling we hit the bottom. Broke and currently about to be homeless again, debts to family and friends and the next job several months away still. And today I'm really down - though possibly a little more buoyant than my wife who has had to deal with a lot of the rubbish and who didn't cause most of it.
I have a case of the "Miseries"
But as yet I'm not in despair. I'm not hungry or thirsty - though I have lost weight cuz I've been in no position to splurge of late. I will have a roof again in a day or two courtesy of friends, again, and there is a project in the pipeline. There is no reason to despair. And like so many entrepreneurs before me we will begin to climb out of the hole soon. My wife hasn't abandoned me nor even suggested the possibility - she seems to believe in my ability to dig us out. She is managing to cope with the slings and arrows with equanimity though she's patently very worried.
But to my point. There are many who don't get the difference between being broke, as we are, and being poor as are so many in the world and we are not. There are possibilities for us and with a little patience and some luck we'll be OK. We're NOT going to die from dehydration or from something nasty in the only available water supply. We are not going to starve anytime soon. We won't die from some horrible disease or from the want of a few coppers worth of medicine. Hell, we probably won't even lose access to the Internet!
So... a brief bout of feeling sorry for myself is OK on a bad day. But despair is so far from the table I can't even get a focus on the MIGHT be's. Thank goodness for the future.
23 April 2010
So I use LinkedIn the business oriented social network a lot. It's proven useful for making interesting contacts especially as when I first became a freelance over here I had only a minuscule network of my own.
And I also play extensively on the Q&A section. It's often fun, frequently annoying and occasionally downright silly.
I have noticed as have many other regular contributors that about the commonest question posed is from people who have accidentally made themselves 2 or more accounts which aside from being against the rules is a PitA to manage. But it happens because of LinkedIn's design of the process to accept invitations from other members to link up - the core point of the service.
However because you can invite anyone to join using any of their myriad email addresses it is common that an existing member is invited to link by someone using an email address different from the one you used to join. And if you are NOT incredibly careful and don't read every line of every screen carefully (yeah like that's going to happen!) you will end up making a new account when you've already got a perfectly good one. And LinkedIn doesn't provide a way for a member to merge 2 accounts because it assumes you followed the rules and haven't got 2 accounts!
This is such a wonderful example in miniature of a problem so many businesses face. They swear they are customer focused (because, genuinely, they care about the customer being satisfied) but all their processes and procedures start from an inward facing company point of view and are then imposed on customers as the 'rules' so if it goes wrong it is now the customer's own fault!
LinkedIn is just one I happen to know as I use it a lot but you can see it everywhere. Government bureaucracies are a classic. Designed to satisfy internal needs and imposed on customers. But then spend millions on peripheral systems and processes to make the customer feel loved and wanted anyway.
It's madness.
The starting point should be something like "How do we design our processes and procedures so they are easy for the customer, have minimal risk of human error AND work for us?".
Whereas what actually happens too often is "We'll make the customer to do things our way and shower him/her with love and affection and try to convince them it's for their own good".
It's madness.
And I also play extensively on the Q&A section. It's often fun, frequently annoying and occasionally downright silly.
I have noticed as have many other regular contributors that about the commonest question posed is from people who have accidentally made themselves 2 or more accounts which aside from being against the rules is a PitA to manage. But it happens because of LinkedIn's design of the process to accept invitations from other members to link up - the core point of the service.
However because you can invite anyone to join using any of their myriad email addresses it is common that an existing member is invited to link by someone using an email address different from the one you used to join. And if you are NOT incredibly careful and don't read every line of every screen carefully (yeah like that's going to happen!) you will end up making a new account when you've already got a perfectly good one. And LinkedIn doesn't provide a way for a member to merge 2 accounts because it assumes you followed the rules and haven't got 2 accounts!
This is such a wonderful example in miniature of a problem so many businesses face. They swear they are customer focused (because, genuinely, they care about the customer being satisfied) but all their processes and procedures start from an inward facing company point of view and are then imposed on customers as the 'rules' so if it goes wrong it is now the customer's own fault!
LinkedIn is just one I happen to know as I use it a lot but you can see it everywhere. Government bureaucracies are a classic. Designed to satisfy internal needs and imposed on customers. But then spend millions on peripheral systems and processes to make the customer feel loved and wanted anyway.
It's madness.
The starting point should be something like "How do we design our processes and procedures so they are easy for the customer, have minimal risk of human error AND work for us?".
Whereas what actually happens too often is "We'll make the customer to do things our way and shower him/her with love and affection and try to convince them it's for their own good".
It's madness.
22 April 2010
The Niqab, the Lungi and the Prophet
I have read a number of disturbing clothing and tolerance related stories of late.
In Sharjah they have banned men from wearing a lungi in public. It was deemed 'women's' clothing and un-Islamic. There's an awful lot of people in Yemen, Oman and all over the Indian sub-continent who would most certainly beg to differ.
Men are now being rounded up for wearing jewellery and specifically neck chains. That means I too am under threat because I wear my wedding ring on a thong round my neck since it became worn and sharp on my finger.
I read that Belgium like France is considering banning the Burqa and Niqab, indeed all coverings that hide the face. Muslim groups are up in arms about religious tolerance.
How is this different from Sharjah's actions?
South Park is taking flak for portraying Prophet Mohammed in a bear suit. Threats have been made.
I saw an awful cartoon of caricature Jews conspiring with the Pope and President Obama in a newspaper recently over here in the Gulf. No howls of hurt outrage from anyone...
There's something wrong in the world. Reality has been twisted to remove common sense.
For the record I am sitting at home wearing my lungi and a Patriots T-shirt from the last time they won the Superbowl. My wife is in jeans and T-shirt. Is she a cross dresser?
The muezzin is calling outside. There's a lively Bollywood movie on the box right now. My pizza is on its way from the shop. This is more like it!
In Sharjah they have banned men from wearing a lungi in public. It was deemed 'women's' clothing and un-Islamic. There's an awful lot of people in Yemen, Oman and all over the Indian sub-continent who would most certainly beg to differ.
Men are now being rounded up for wearing jewellery and specifically neck chains. That means I too am under threat because I wear my wedding ring on a thong round my neck since it became worn and sharp on my finger.
I read that Belgium like France is considering banning the Burqa and Niqab, indeed all coverings that hide the face. Muslim groups are up in arms about religious tolerance.
How is this different from Sharjah's actions?
South Park is taking flak for portraying Prophet Mohammed in a bear suit. Threats have been made.
I saw an awful cartoon of caricature Jews conspiring with the Pope and President Obama in a newspaper recently over here in the Gulf. No howls of hurt outrage from anyone...
There's something wrong in the world. Reality has been twisted to remove common sense.
For the record I am sitting at home wearing my lungi and a Patriots T-shirt from the last time they won the Superbowl. My wife is in jeans and T-shirt. Is she a cross dresser?
The muezzin is calling outside. There's a lively Bollywood movie on the box right now. My pizza is on its way from the shop. This is more like it!
Bleeagh...people can be disgusting
Litter
UAE is a rich country. That’s not to deny there are poor people but on the whole it’s a rich place. We have nice cities, nice spaces both publicly and privately, Our new buildings are positively smart with marble floors and fancy decoration, lots of glass and chrome and shiny bright jingly bits that add a glitzy opulence to even a pretty run of the mill apartment block.
In public areas we have lots of block pathways that are kept up by an army of low paid but willing municipal workers.
It’s nice.
So why do people throw litter everywhere? It’s not as if there are no bins. There are litter bins all over in public areas and the back streets and alleys teem with dumpsters. Even the motorways have dumpsters and bins by the illegal truck stops!
Yet I watch people throw litter all the time.
There’s a house next to the apartments where I live. I one story local place inhabited by young Sri Lankan men; eight or nine of them perhaps more. Until a week ago there was a huge sandpile next to their building from the construction site opposite. Then it was cleared by the builders. Where the pile was is now an unofficial parking lot.
In one week by the outside of the wall of the house a pile of litter has appeared. Rubbish sacks, plastic cups, packaging, peelings. I wondered. But yesterday as I was leaving to fetch my car and walking across the parking lot I was nearly hit by a rubbish sack sailing over the wall from the house. Closely followed by a Styrofoam cup. Words were exchange but mostly all I got was the annoying passive shoulder shrug of someone who doesn’t understand and doesn’t give a toss. When I got home I found some garbage sacks and cleared the pile. Put the sacks in the dumpster on the other side of the house.
This morning there are more bags and cans and cups.
There’s a cafeteria opposite our building. This is a local phenomenon that you used to get all over UAE but is not allowed anymore in Dubai and Sharjah. Te cafeteria has no tables or eating space yet neither is it a takeaway. You pull up in your car and honk your horn (don’t get me started on that one!). Eventually a waiter staggers out and brings you a tea and takes any other order you may have. Water and cigarettes are common. Then you sit in your car and drink your tea and perhaps eat a shawarma sandwich and leave. But before you leave you drop your cup and sandwich wrappings and the cellophane from your cigarettes on the ground. Occasionally the waiter comes and picks up some of the litter. Never all of it and often none. The leavings pile up for a few weeks and sometimes the council will send a team in to do a sweep through. There’s a dumpster for the cafeteria. I often watch the staff throw things at it and miss. They never pick it up. The council empties the dumpster every couple of days. They are not responsible for the rotting pile on the ground. The cafeteria only clears it when it gets too smelly.
I watch kids and their parents eat a burger from one of the fast food joints around here. I watch them all throw the case and paper wraps on the ground and walk away. I watch people buy cigarettes and throw the wrappers on the ground before getting in their car. I watch people throw tea bags out of car window while they’re parked followed later by the cup. I watch kids throw empty cans away without a thought and I watch their parent do the same.
There is a total lack of pride in the environment. A ‘don’t care’ attitude that you might, just, forgive in an expat labourer who’s just passing through but seems bizarre in a well off Emirati family whose home this is.
I used to live in Sharjah near the Buhairah Corniche. This is an upmarket area on the creek full of smart tower blocks and shops and cafes. It also has a wide green running the length of the cornice where at weekends families come and picnic by the water.
If you visit just at dusk on a Friday you will be greeted by a sea of litter – paper, cans, plastic cups, bags, all sorts. People have their picnic and just leave the mess. Including uneaten foodstuffs. It is certainly not possible for others to follow where someone was before without a major clean up exercise, which never happens either. The council clears up overnight here. Very effectively in fact. But by mid morning the next day it’s all reappearing. More slowly than the weekend but just as inexorably.
There are plenty of litter bins by the way including recycling bins for glass, paper and cans. They are empty most of the time.
I am embarrassed for these people. This is not a third world hellhole with no money. These are well off people in nice surrounding. They have no dignity.
UAE is a rich country. That’s not to deny there are poor people but on the whole it’s a rich place. We have nice cities, nice spaces both publicly and privately, Our new buildings are positively smart with marble floors and fancy decoration, lots of glass and chrome and shiny bright jingly bits that add a glitzy opulence to even a pretty run of the mill apartment block.
In public areas we have lots of block pathways that are kept up by an army of low paid but willing municipal workers.
It’s nice.
So why do people throw litter everywhere? It’s not as if there are no bins. There are litter bins all over in public areas and the back streets and alleys teem with dumpsters. Even the motorways have dumpsters and bins by the illegal truck stops!
Yet I watch people throw litter all the time.
There’s a house next to the apartments where I live. I one story local place inhabited by young Sri Lankan men; eight or nine of them perhaps more. Until a week ago there was a huge sandpile next to their building from the construction site opposite. Then it was cleared by the builders. Where the pile was is now an unofficial parking lot.
In one week by the outside of the wall of the house a pile of litter has appeared. Rubbish sacks, plastic cups, packaging, peelings. I wondered. But yesterday as I was leaving to fetch my car and walking across the parking lot I was nearly hit by a rubbish sack sailing over the wall from the house. Closely followed by a Styrofoam cup. Words were exchange but mostly all I got was the annoying passive shoulder shrug of someone who doesn’t understand and doesn’t give a toss. When I got home I found some garbage sacks and cleared the pile. Put the sacks in the dumpster on the other side of the house.
This morning there are more bags and cans and cups.
There’s a cafeteria opposite our building. This is a local phenomenon that you used to get all over UAE but is not allowed anymore in Dubai and Sharjah. Te cafeteria has no tables or eating space yet neither is it a takeaway. You pull up in your car and honk your horn (don’t get me started on that one!). Eventually a waiter staggers out and brings you a tea and takes any other order you may have. Water and cigarettes are common. Then you sit in your car and drink your tea and perhaps eat a shawarma sandwich and leave. But before you leave you drop your cup and sandwich wrappings and the cellophane from your cigarettes on the ground. Occasionally the waiter comes and picks up some of the litter. Never all of it and often none. The leavings pile up for a few weeks and sometimes the council will send a team in to do a sweep through. There’s a dumpster for the cafeteria. I often watch the staff throw things at it and miss. They never pick it up. The council empties the dumpster every couple of days. They are not responsible for the rotting pile on the ground. The cafeteria only clears it when it gets too smelly.
I watch kids and their parents eat a burger from one of the fast food joints around here. I watch them all throw the case and paper wraps on the ground and walk away. I watch people buy cigarettes and throw the wrappers on the ground before getting in their car. I watch people throw tea bags out of car window while they’re parked followed later by the cup. I watch kids throw empty cans away without a thought and I watch their parent do the same.
There is a total lack of pride in the environment. A ‘don’t care’ attitude that you might, just, forgive in an expat labourer who’s just passing through but seems bizarre in a well off Emirati family whose home this is.
I used to live in Sharjah near the Buhairah Corniche. This is an upmarket area on the creek full of smart tower blocks and shops and cafes. It also has a wide green running the length of the cornice where at weekends families come and picnic by the water.
If you visit just at dusk on a Friday you will be greeted by a sea of litter – paper, cans, plastic cups, bags, all sorts. People have their picnic and just leave the mess. Including uneaten foodstuffs. It is certainly not possible for others to follow where someone was before without a major clean up exercise, which never happens either. The council clears up overnight here. Very effectively in fact. But by mid morning the next day it’s all reappearing. More slowly than the weekend but just as inexorably.
There are plenty of litter bins by the way including recycling bins for glass, paper and cans. They are empty most of the time.
I am embarrassed for these people. This is not a third world hellhole with no money. These are well off people in nice surrounding. They have no dignity.
Cheapest is bestest?
Quality
What follows might stand as an example of how the UAE looks at quality generally and how people treat their public amenities.
About a year ago the local authorities in Ajman refurbished the beach area along the corniche. They put in a new pedestrian path, created a lot of free parking, installed benches to sit out on and fenced off a couple of dangerous areas with attractive new railings.
For a few weeks it looked very smart and very nice.
The first thing that happened was a couple of the benches began to break up and the problem was threefold – cheap, low grade, no maintenance.
The major problem was these benches are of the normal domestic kind that in the UK or US you might buy in a Garden Centre or DIY store. They are made of aluminium and wood.
Critically for this story they are designed to be in a private garden space with occasional gentle use by a proud family. They are not designed for constant use by tourists, kids, chaps hanging around watching the football, jumping on, eating picnics on for a family of six, having coffee poured over them, having fast food dropped on and ground in and never being maintained.
So now the paint has worn off, many slats are broken, some decorative swirls are snapped off and many benches have come loose from their moorings.
In short they are decorative but relatively fragile. Most importantly though they are cheap compared to the industrial version. And never given even the most basic of cleaning or maintenance.
So within months the promenade had broken down benches.
Then the railings started to go. These too are of a quality more suited to a private garden rather than a robust urban seaside environment. They are aluminium and covered in a single coat of domestic grade paint. They have unsafe and fragile protuberances many of which are now breaking off. And they are attached to the concrete or brick with small shallow fixings and non-stainless steel bolts. Right next to the ocean.
Many sections have not stayed fixed. Nor have they been re-fixed. This means that neighbouring sections are also now coming loose and the whole process is speeding up.
Entropy increases.
Because there is no maintenance the debris of broken benches and railings are left on the beach or the walkways. They are used to build paths from the promenade to the beach so people can avoid a 20-metre walk to the steps…
They attract litter – people are sloppy about littering here – which also doesn’t get cleaned up. Lately I’ve seen rats in the debris.
The odd thing to me is the city has the beach cleaned daily. I’ve mentioned littering above.
But troops of men come daily and fill sacks with rubbish so the beach remains as clean as any public beach can though they will leave behind the bigger debris. If – as happens surprisingly often – someone dumps an old car part or piece of furniture then that may stay for a month or more as will a sack of rubbish not filled by the council’s own workers. Residents would not dream of clearing something themselves.
I kinda understand why the low paid expat workers can’t be bothered. I’m totally bemused as to why the local Emiratis won’t do anything for themselves. They seem content to wallow in mess if it isn’t cleared for them.
So there you have it. If it looks ok on day one that’s good enough. If it falls apart quickly that’s good enough. If it’s dangerous but looks ok that’s good enough. If it’s barely functional but cheap it’s a good deal. If everything has to be replaced after 18 months that’s ok. They were cheap. That’s good enough.
Very depressing.
What follows might stand as an example of how the UAE looks at quality generally and how people treat their public amenities.
About a year ago the local authorities in Ajman refurbished the beach area along the corniche. They put in a new pedestrian path, created a lot of free parking, installed benches to sit out on and fenced off a couple of dangerous areas with attractive new railings.
For a few weeks it looked very smart and very nice.
The first thing that happened was a couple of the benches began to break up and the problem was threefold – cheap, low grade, no maintenance.
The major problem was these benches are of the normal domestic kind that in the UK or US you might buy in a Garden Centre or DIY store. They are made of aluminium and wood.
Critically for this story they are designed to be in a private garden space with occasional gentle use by a proud family. They are not designed for constant use by tourists, kids, chaps hanging around watching the football, jumping on, eating picnics on for a family of six, having coffee poured over them, having fast food dropped on and ground in and never being maintained.
So now the paint has worn off, many slats are broken, some decorative swirls are snapped off and many benches have come loose from their moorings.
In short they are decorative but relatively fragile. Most importantly though they are cheap compared to the industrial version. And never given even the most basic of cleaning or maintenance.
So within months the promenade had broken down benches.
Then the railings started to go. These too are of a quality more suited to a private garden rather than a robust urban seaside environment. They are aluminium and covered in a single coat of domestic grade paint. They have unsafe and fragile protuberances many of which are now breaking off. And they are attached to the concrete or brick with small shallow fixings and non-stainless steel bolts. Right next to the ocean.
Many sections have not stayed fixed. Nor have they been re-fixed. This means that neighbouring sections are also now coming loose and the whole process is speeding up.
Entropy increases.
Because there is no maintenance the debris of broken benches and railings are left on the beach or the walkways. They are used to build paths from the promenade to the beach so people can avoid a 20-metre walk to the steps…
They attract litter – people are sloppy about littering here – which also doesn’t get cleaned up. Lately I’ve seen rats in the debris.
The odd thing to me is the city has the beach cleaned daily. I’ve mentioned littering above.
But troops of men come daily and fill sacks with rubbish so the beach remains as clean as any public beach can though they will leave behind the bigger debris. If – as happens surprisingly often – someone dumps an old car part or piece of furniture then that may stay for a month or more as will a sack of rubbish not filled by the council’s own workers. Residents would not dream of clearing something themselves.
I kinda understand why the low paid expat workers can’t be bothered. I’m totally bemused as to why the local Emiratis won’t do anything for themselves. They seem content to wallow in mess if it isn’t cleared for them.
So there you have it. If it looks ok on day one that’s good enough. If it falls apart quickly that’s good enough. If it’s dangerous but looks ok that’s good enough. If it’s barely functional but cheap it’s a good deal. If everything has to be replaced after 18 months that’s ok. They were cheap. That’s good enough.
Very depressing.
21 April 2010
Ajman
Today I live in Ajman. This is a small Emirate, North & East of Dubai and Sharjah and one of seven that makes up the UAE.
It’s a liberal place. Of course it’s a Muslim country and that’s more visibly true here than in Dubai but nonetheless alcohol is available legally to non-Muslims and there’s no conservative dress code. You see expats and tourists sunbathing on the beach in mixed sex groups without either embarrassment or harassment.
Mosques are visible, abundant and well used. The only problem is an escalation war with PA systems used when calling the faithful to prayer. Not every muezzin has the voice he thinks he has.
But how refreshing to see them full to overflowing on a Friday – despite the inconvenience caused by the rather selfish parking of those arriving by car.
Ajman doesn’t drip conspicuous wealth like Dubai but neither is it visibly poor. It has more than it’s share of flashy new high-rise developments and its own set of vanity development projects that have failed or gone on indefinite hold since the meltdown in 2009.
We have a pleasant corniche where development is still most certainly under way and this looks onto a nice if slightly run own public beach. White sands, clean and clean waters and no crowds make it a pleasant place to while away a few hours.
If I have a day of phoning or thinking I will spend it at the beach where I can catch a few rays and be productive without the need for an office.
I am still hoping that one the major developments along the corniche and beachside are finished there will be an improvement scheme for the beach itself, which is what the tourists will want. It’s short on facilities – changing rooms, showers, loos, concessions for refreshments, entertainment – and the physical environs do not match the quality of the new buildings nearby.
Away from the corniche and the main drag through the city the high-rises peter out very quickly. But you still find many homes in the city areas proper.
These are single storey flat roofed buildings built around a courtyard and with few windows. Dark and cool but often surprisingly spacious and much more comfortable on the inside than the drear and dilapidated outsides generally suggest, these are not typical traditional houses but a more modern reworking of the style. Most noticeable is the absence of the traditional wind tower and the presence of air conditioning units cheaply added and myriad satellite dishes targeted on programmes from home.
Many, perhaps most these days, are inhabited by groups of expat workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and in Ajman, more so than I’ve seen elsewhere, young Africans. Of course, it’s mostly single men though you do find occasional groups of Filipinas banding together to share expenses and find some company. Few are paid enough to bring their families over and much of their income is sent home every month. It’s a hard life though given the numbers here it is obviously worth the sacrifice.
These cheap low rise buildings have gone from most of Dubai now. Replaced by more lucrative tower blocks or high rent villas, Dubai looks and feels totally different. In Ajman you know you are firmly in the Middle East but in Dubai you could be anywhere.
It is Dubai’s loss. I hope fervently that Ajman makes some different choices going forward. Now the economic bubble in Dubai has burst that may be an easier decision.
I would not want Ajman to become some kind of quaint theme park of the past. It deserves a full share of the benefits of the present and future the same as anyone else. But it could do that and hold on to its culture and charm in the process.
The Emirates are not democracies. Nor do they masquerade as such. Neither, though, are they authoritarian dictatorships as we have seen in Iraq or theocracies as we see in KSA or Iran. What we have in general are enlightened benevolent despots. As was Singapore under Lee Kwan Yu.
Dubai used that approach to make a different kind of city-state. In the process it made mistakes. But there’s no denying the fact that for a country that is mostly sand dune with little natural resource it has become a civilised and comfortable modern state with an incredibly high standard of living for some and a decent one for the rest. It has earned its place in the modern world in a stunningly short time.
Ajman can learn from Dubai. It can learn that it is ok to dream and create from nothing. It can learn that you don’t actually need vast oil reserves to become rich. It can learn that it doesn’t actually take very long to develop a small country with few people.
But it can also learn that you can go too far. It can learn that debts need to be serviced and that bubbles always burst. It can learn that to be totally dependent on cheap imported labour disenfranchises your own people and holds back full participation in the future. It can learn that holding on to your own culture has not just social but also economic value. It can learn that oftentimes it is better to pay more and have quality than just to buy the cheapest. It can learn that some resources are better used and developed than simply consumed. It can learn that people work harder and give more commitment if they have some emotional investment in the future.
Ajman in 10 years could be as comfortable as Dubai without the soullessness and culture loss and without the dependence on cheap foreign labour and without the unsupportable debt. It takes vision will and salesmanship. Sheikh Rashid had it in spades for Dubai and passed it on to his successors. I hope the younger generation of al Nuaimis in Ajman have it too. This could be special. I hope I can stay long enough to see it happen.
It’s a liberal place. Of course it’s a Muslim country and that’s more visibly true here than in Dubai but nonetheless alcohol is available legally to non-Muslims and there’s no conservative dress code. You see expats and tourists sunbathing on the beach in mixed sex groups without either embarrassment or harassment.
Mosques are visible, abundant and well used. The only problem is an escalation war with PA systems used when calling the faithful to prayer. Not every muezzin has the voice he thinks he has.
But how refreshing to see them full to overflowing on a Friday – despite the inconvenience caused by the rather selfish parking of those arriving by car.
Ajman doesn’t drip conspicuous wealth like Dubai but neither is it visibly poor. It has more than it’s share of flashy new high-rise developments and its own set of vanity development projects that have failed or gone on indefinite hold since the meltdown in 2009.
We have a pleasant corniche where development is still most certainly under way and this looks onto a nice if slightly run own public beach. White sands, clean and clean waters and no crowds make it a pleasant place to while away a few hours.
If I have a day of phoning or thinking I will spend it at the beach where I can catch a few rays and be productive without the need for an office.
I am still hoping that one the major developments along the corniche and beachside are finished there will be an improvement scheme for the beach itself, which is what the tourists will want. It’s short on facilities – changing rooms, showers, loos, concessions for refreshments, entertainment – and the physical environs do not match the quality of the new buildings nearby.
Away from the corniche and the main drag through the city the high-rises peter out very quickly. But you still find many homes in the city areas proper.
These are single storey flat roofed buildings built around a courtyard and with few windows. Dark and cool but often surprisingly spacious and much more comfortable on the inside than the drear and dilapidated outsides generally suggest, these are not typical traditional houses but a more modern reworking of the style. Most noticeable is the absence of the traditional wind tower and the presence of air conditioning units cheaply added and myriad satellite dishes targeted on programmes from home.
Many, perhaps most these days, are inhabited by groups of expat workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and in Ajman, more so than I’ve seen elsewhere, young Africans. Of course, it’s mostly single men though you do find occasional groups of Filipinas banding together to share expenses and find some company. Few are paid enough to bring their families over and much of their income is sent home every month. It’s a hard life though given the numbers here it is obviously worth the sacrifice.
These cheap low rise buildings have gone from most of Dubai now. Replaced by more lucrative tower blocks or high rent villas, Dubai looks and feels totally different. In Ajman you know you are firmly in the Middle East but in Dubai you could be anywhere.
It is Dubai’s loss. I hope fervently that Ajman makes some different choices going forward. Now the economic bubble in Dubai has burst that may be an easier decision.
I would not want Ajman to become some kind of quaint theme park of the past. It deserves a full share of the benefits of the present and future the same as anyone else. But it could do that and hold on to its culture and charm in the process.
The Emirates are not democracies. Nor do they masquerade as such. Neither, though, are they authoritarian dictatorships as we have seen in Iraq or theocracies as we see in KSA or Iran. What we have in general are enlightened benevolent despots. As was Singapore under Lee Kwan Yu.
Dubai used that approach to make a different kind of city-state. In the process it made mistakes. But there’s no denying the fact that for a country that is mostly sand dune with little natural resource it has become a civilised and comfortable modern state with an incredibly high standard of living for some and a decent one for the rest. It has earned its place in the modern world in a stunningly short time.
Ajman can learn from Dubai. It can learn that it is ok to dream and create from nothing. It can learn that you don’t actually need vast oil reserves to become rich. It can learn that it doesn’t actually take very long to develop a small country with few people.
But it can also learn that you can go too far. It can learn that debts need to be serviced and that bubbles always burst. It can learn that to be totally dependent on cheap imported labour disenfranchises your own people and holds back full participation in the future. It can learn that holding on to your own culture has not just social but also economic value. It can learn that oftentimes it is better to pay more and have quality than just to buy the cheapest. It can learn that some resources are better used and developed than simply consumed. It can learn that people work harder and give more commitment if they have some emotional investment in the future.
Ajman in 10 years could be as comfortable as Dubai without the soullessness and culture loss and without the dependence on cheap foreign labour and without the unsupportable debt. It takes vision will and salesmanship. Sheikh Rashid had it in spades for Dubai and passed it on to his successors. I hope the younger generation of al Nuaimis in Ajman have it too. This could be special. I hope I can stay long enough to see it happen.
Ramblings on Dubai life
It is easy to stay only among your own kind – especially in Dubai. You don’t have to worry about language or funny food or strange music or exotic customs. Living in Dubai can be like living in London or LA if you want it to. Almost as expensive too. But if you do that you miss so much.
I’ve never lived in such a diverse society. For example in short order last year we celebrated Dewali, Eid and Xmas, 2 New Years and an Orthodox Xmas. You can be a beach bum one day and a desert explorer the next or ride a camel or trek the mountains. You can wallow in Islamic culture and live like an Indian Prince. You can talk to Iraqi and Palestinian refugees or chat to a LA Jewish film executive here to raise money.
You can work in a Western style International company like Cisco or Microsoft or a local like al Habtoor or al Futtaim or you can work for the semi government organisations like Nakheel or Dubai World. And they are all different experiences.
This is a harsh climate. Many of the wealthy locals and lots of Expats disappear for July & August. Business pretty much operates on minimum input.
Ditto during the holy month of Ramadan where because of the fasting people work 6 hour days and much more slowly.
In western terms you need to build for a nine month business plan.
Also our weekends do no co-incide. Across the region we are tending towards Friday and Saturday but it’s not universal. Thursday & Friday is still common. Remember this if you work in an international business. It can be frustrating.
People wonder about personal safety. Well…I rarely lock my car, often leave my computer on the back seat. I’ve never been mugged or burgled or accosted by faux beggars. Sometimes I don’t bother to lock my apartment before going out if it’s only for a short while. I daily entrust my car to valet parking whose drivers often hadn’t seen the inside of a car before they got here. We walk city central streets at night feeling unthreatened.
Iran is 100km away. Iraq is just up the coast. We border KSA. India and Pakistan are no distance. It’s a political hotbed. Since I’ve been here we’ve had no bombs or terrorist scares – well a couple of well publicized assassinations. When George Bush came to visit a while back we had an extra public holiday – because his security people wanted roads closed so the motorcade could go through easily.
So…changes. When I first came here 30 years ago the main road from Dubai to Abu Dhabi was 2 lanes and not paved all the way. Now it’s 14 lanes in many places and 10 in the rest!
Dubai ended pretty much at the Trade Centre and then it was desert all the way to Abu Dhabi. Now we have two and a bit Palms, the World, Dubai Waterfront, Jebel Ali FreeZone & Port and all the desert developments. We now have an outer and inner ring road/bypass as well as SZR.
Our metro is well on its way to completion and last year we bought 2000 busses – the biggest ever single order for busses anywhere.
Our population is currently around 1.3m and heading for 4m. Lord knows what they are all going to do though there’s be no shortage of places to live.
My early visits were to a charming but remote undeveloped country with huge potential. New Dubai is a World City – in the same league on the surface as NYC, London or Tokyo. But not far under the surface is still the third world desert country that I still love but is fading into memory rapidly.
My four years here have been like 10 in Europe – some good some bad but all un-missable.
I’ve never lived in such a diverse society. For example in short order last year we celebrated Dewali, Eid and Xmas, 2 New Years and an Orthodox Xmas. You can be a beach bum one day and a desert explorer the next or ride a camel or trek the mountains. You can wallow in Islamic culture and live like an Indian Prince. You can talk to Iraqi and Palestinian refugees or chat to a LA Jewish film executive here to raise money.
You can work in a Western style International company like Cisco or Microsoft or a local like al Habtoor or al Futtaim or you can work for the semi government organisations like Nakheel or Dubai World. And they are all different experiences.
This is a harsh climate. Many of the wealthy locals and lots of Expats disappear for July & August. Business pretty much operates on minimum input.
Ditto during the holy month of Ramadan where because of the fasting people work 6 hour days and much more slowly.
In western terms you need to build for a nine month business plan.
Also our weekends do no co-incide. Across the region we are tending towards Friday and Saturday but it’s not universal. Thursday & Friday is still common. Remember this if you work in an international business. It can be frustrating.
People wonder about personal safety. Well…I rarely lock my car, often leave my computer on the back seat. I’ve never been mugged or burgled or accosted by faux beggars. Sometimes I don’t bother to lock my apartment before going out if it’s only for a short while. I daily entrust my car to valet parking whose drivers often hadn’t seen the inside of a car before they got here. We walk city central streets at night feeling unthreatened.
Iran is 100km away. Iraq is just up the coast. We border KSA. India and Pakistan are no distance. It’s a political hotbed. Since I’ve been here we’ve had no bombs or terrorist scares – well a couple of well publicized assassinations. When George Bush came to visit a while back we had an extra public holiday – because his security people wanted roads closed so the motorcade could go through easily.
So…changes. When I first came here 30 years ago the main road from Dubai to Abu Dhabi was 2 lanes and not paved all the way. Now it’s 14 lanes in many places and 10 in the rest!
Dubai ended pretty much at the Trade Centre and then it was desert all the way to Abu Dhabi. Now we have two and a bit Palms, the World, Dubai Waterfront, Jebel Ali FreeZone & Port and all the desert developments. We now have an outer and inner ring road/bypass as well as SZR.
Our metro is well on its way to completion and last year we bought 2000 busses – the biggest ever single order for busses anywhere.
Our population is currently around 1.3m and heading for 4m. Lord knows what they are all going to do though there’s be no shortage of places to live.
My early visits were to a charming but remote undeveloped country with huge potential. New Dubai is a World City – in the same league on the surface as NYC, London or Tokyo. But not far under the surface is still the third world desert country that I still love but is fading into memory rapidly.
My four years here have been like 10 in Europe – some good some bad but all un-missable.
20 April 2010
Dealing with change
Been looking at a discussion group of change and project managers and the bit that has taken my interest has been on the management of a Turnaround compared to a Planned Change scenario.
There was some unpleasantness for a while especially as the Turnaround specialists got heavy and the Change Management professionals got protective of the people but it settled down in the end.
What got through to me though was how when it comes down to it the 'people' really are the core whatever the situation. A company is just an agglomeration of people working a bunch of processes as best they can. Ideally it will be a self-organising agglomeration but often it isn't. And in a turnaround less so than ever.
Let's face it - it will often be the self-organising that got us in the mess in the first place. Eye off the ball, no shared view of the outcome, too much focus on the current processes etc.
The thing is, with a company is there's entropy to deal with. And entropy increases. Without the addition of energy often from the change management experts or turnaround manager if more fierceness is needed the system's entropy continues to increase. Till it grinds to a halt.
People are in many ways just intelligent machines. And they will continued doing what they do till the 'control' makes them do something else. Now we're dealing with inertia.
And while people may hate the idea of being like a machine - well... examine your soul and tell me about the last time you changed the way you do something without some kind of stimulus from outside...
There was some unpleasantness for a while especially as the Turnaround specialists got heavy and the Change Management professionals got protective of the people but it settled down in the end.
What got through to me though was how when it comes down to it the 'people' really are the core whatever the situation. A company is just an agglomeration of people working a bunch of processes as best they can. Ideally it will be a self-organising agglomeration but often it isn't. And in a turnaround less so than ever.
Let's face it - it will often be the self-organising that got us in the mess in the first place. Eye off the ball, no shared view of the outcome, too much focus on the current processes etc.
The thing is, with a company is there's entropy to deal with. And entropy increases. Without the addition of energy often from the change management experts or turnaround manager if more fierceness is needed the system's entropy continues to increase. Till it grinds to a halt.
People are in many ways just intelligent machines. And they will continued doing what they do till the 'control' makes them do something else. Now we're dealing with inertia.
And while people may hate the idea of being like a machine - well... examine your soul and tell me about the last time you changed the way you do something without some kind of stimulus from outside...
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