Contrary to the outside worlds belief, every individual living in Dubai do not drive Range Rovers or Ferrari’s or Lamborghini’s. There are middle-class and lower middle class people living in Dubai who drive economic cars, and some who cannot even afford to maintain cars at all. Hence, they have turn to car-pooling. Let me explain what car-pooling is to people who might not know about it. For instance, I own a car, and if I work in Media City but live in Bur Dubai, the cost of going alone or with 4 people is going to amount to the same in terms of resources that is petrol. In addition, the work timings of all offices in specific areas are the same so as not creating any problems. Therefore, it is better if I take a certain amount of fees, for example AED 300 from 4 people each, and they could go along with me. In this way, I earn AED 1200, which can help me to maintain my car, as well as support my fuel costs. However, it is considered illegal in the U.A.E, the place I know of. A lot of people were caught doing car-pooling business, and their vehicles were confiscated. Only, recently, the law has been changed. Now, car-pooling has been made legal. The system introduced by Road and Transport Authority is called Sharekni. In accordance, with Sharekni, a website is setup where a person owning a car must register his car on the website for the car-pooling services, write the names and number of people accompanying him to work, and wait for an approval from the RTA. Once approved by the RTA, then only 4 people can accompany the person. And no one else is allowed to sit in the car. So now imagine if your friend has a flat tyre, you are to turn your back on him/her because if you don’t then you get stopped by the police in the morning and get a fine as you did not register your friends name in the website. But the sad thing is that these rules are only applicable to the expats and especially people from the subcontinent or the Far East. As far my knowledge goes I have never seen any policemen, stop any local people or people from western countries to check their cars. The level of discrimination is so high whereas Dubai wants to be a tourist destination and be culturally diversified. Then why not provide equality to all? ? Today’s article in Gulf News states that out of 8000 people who registered their car for Sharekni, only 200 got approval in 2008. That amounts up to only 2.5% got an approval and the others are still waiting. After so many strict ‘Big Brother’ rules, only 2.5% people get approval. That is quite hard to digest. The article states that out of 4,286 only 108 got permits in 2007, which is again 2.5%. Therefore, either of two things is happening – one the RTA is only letting 2.5% of the total get permit or second their are just being plain slow about it. After reading all this, everyone must be wondering why every time I read something in the paper and then whine about it over here.
Right?
But I’ll tell you why I feel this is an important issue. Maybe according to the ’smart’ RTA, car-pooling is illegal. But does the RTA understand that indirectly it helps them? If people car pool, it reduces traffic problems. As people would prefer to car pool rather than drive which in turn reduces traffic problems in Dubai. Moreover, it reduces pollution as the number of cars will reduce. Also, it will help people save a little or earn a little money in Dubai, in this crisis. Maybe my blog or I alone cannot make a difference, but the other 2.5 million people living in Dubai affected by the problems around here can join this force and help improve the place.

The Dubai Rental Index is out and there is an interactive map which provides the value of appartments around different areas. The map can be accessed by clicking the Link.
Now the main question being, how effective is this Dubai Rental Index going to be? For example, if my rent is lower than the 25% of the value stated in DRI, my rent will increase by 5%. That is well understood, because ofcourse the rents have to increase as it is a rule in Dubai. But what if my rent is way higher than the DRI? What should I do then? Nothing is explained in such situation, who should we approach and how safe is it to approach the authority? Why did I mention ‘how safe’? I’ll tell you why! It is the latest trend of the landlords and their so called ‘Managers’! If you complain against them, they will first spit at you, and then drag you to the court saying that they need the flat for their own personal use, and therefore since it is their own building, they can throw you out in the middle of the streets and spit on your face again. And every expat is scared of that! And maybe this is why they dont want to go to the authority! So will there be a way where we can get the rent reduced according to the DRI and if yes, which authority should we approach? Also, other rules must be explained well so it can ease the state people are in!
As I get any update on this situation, I will keep updating the blog! Please feel free to leave your comments too or share your knowledge about the rules with others.

By now, everyone in Dubai knows about the crisis and there is a panic around the city of paradise. Every person when going to his office is scared that his job will be terminated and a firing letter will be waiting for him on his desk. There are many rumors of Emirates airlines being sold to Abu Dhabi, and even worst, all the new development in Dubai till Sheikh Zayed Road is sold to Abu Dhabi. But no solid proof is provided to back these false rumors. Also, the number of kids leaving school due to several reasons are above 3000. All this is scary as Dubai is a small city which is well known for the peaceful living and recently the luxuries. But with so many people losing jobs, and no incoming investments, will it be easy for Dubai to survive this crisis?
The answer is pretty simple. If the government and the local population reacts to the situation, they will be able to swim faster whereas some are drowning currently. But is this actually taking effect. For now, the answer is NO! Today I went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get my degree attested, and the queue was huge. Also, now it is in the consulate area, and the scene over there was bad. It took me 2 hours to find parking because the area was crowded. The number of people standing outside their respective consulates with the hopeless look, and with a need to go back home was not a pleasant sight. Why are the people feeling hopeless? Because even though the crisis has struck the country, the rents are not being reduced. A three bedroom flat in my building went for Dhs 175,000 per annum and pigeon holes in my area are going for Dhs 160,000. Well, these rents are really crazy in times like this when people dont have jobs. But the people owning the buildings dont want to understand that. And the government is also not intervening by reducing the rents of everyone. Instead they have introduced the 5% rent cap for the year 2009 as well. It is completely day light robbery, and basically taking advantage over someone elses misery. Even in London, where the market was attractive and fell recently, recovered quick as the landlords understood the situation and reacted accordingly. And this way, the landlords are not losing on their tenants as well as the tenants are happy as the rents have reduced. Dubai can recover quicker than London as rarely people can afford to own their own homes and prefer renting the house than purchasing it. But if the rents are not reduced by the landlords, will they be digging their and Dubai’s grave?
Please leave your comments.

The news was announced on Tuesday 30th December, 2008. The parties all over Dubai were supposed to be cancelled to potray an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza who are killed by the Israeli military. The news was announced quite late at 7:00 p.m. and those who have purchased tickets were in panic because they were all enthusiastic to party. Later in the night, no clubs, or party venues were ready to confirm the news and were unable to answer any queries. This is a good way to show solidarity and a good step taken by Shaikh Mohammad, but in a way it is unfair to the people in general. The people killed there are palestinians and therefore, mostly the palestinian population in Dubai must be moaning and not everyone. The Britishers, Americans, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, etc living in Dubai, should not be forced to sit at home and moan for people who do not even belong to their respective nation. Moreover, when there was an attack on World Trade Centre in America, the bombings in London, the terrorist attack in India, the invasion of Iraq, and many other times, no steps were taken to show solidarity with the World. Everything was normal in Dubai, and nothing in people’s life changed here. Even innocent people were killed then, and it was worst, it was terrorists who attacked. But only people who have their beloved ones were bothered then, and no one else was forced to moan. But this time, everyone in Dubai has to forget their New Years Eve and sit and think about the war in Gaza. In a multi-cultural society like Dubai, this is a very amateurish decision and moreover, it is a selfish decision. Why is Palestine given more importance and because of that, people cannot celebrate? Even though, none of the parties are cancelled, leaving a few, but those few parties which are cancelled will face a heavy loss and who will pay for that? The tourist who have come to Dubai to meet their beloved ones and to party with them, would also be disappointed. If it was a regular night, I can still understand if a Dry Day or Week is announced, but on New Years Eve, that is not good. Also, the decision was announced 2 days before the events. This will bring complete disappointment in everyone and cause a chaos. Through this article, I just want to point out a fact that everyone has a right to live! If the attack was in U.A.E., I can still understand, but Palestine is way far away, and cancelling celebrations in Dubai will not effect in any way.


Articles for the cancellation of the parties – Article 1, Article 2
Link to the current situation related to every party venue – Link

The article in Gulf News states that the price of general commodities will decrease by 15% in 2009! Well, that is a good news for alot of people living in Dubai, but will that really reflect the stores? I am not sure of that. The restaurants will be using the same prices of the meals which they have kept during the price hike! Reason being they want more profit and dont care about humans. Out of maybe 100,000+ hotels and restaurants, there is only one hotel which understands that humans are living around them, and is offering free dinner meals to those who have lost their jobs during the financial crisis (Article). And when the people were earning money like there was no tomorrow, that time no one cared to check the Labor Ministry, but now since there is Financial Crisis, the Labor Ministry is on fire with the number of changes in Labor in Dubai (Article). I can understand many actions cannot be taken instantaneously, but why is the higher authority waking up now? They should have realised and anticipated these problems long back, because they have the resources to analyse the situation in advance. On one hand, a party is thrown in Atlantis where many big Celebrities are called to show the glamorous side of Dubai, but on the other hand, several people are losing on their jobs and dont have food to eat or money to go back to their home country. The stars will anyways strip in movies and earn enough money, or go to some club, get drunk, do some wild stuff, become famous and earn money on that because they have no dignity. But people doing regular jobs will not be able to do all of this and therefore, starve and die. Ofcourse, it is not my money which is being spent, and I have no right to point fingers at anybody, but I have all the rights to comment on something I see. Also, the landlords in Dubai are not ready to reduce the rents whereas they know that things have worsten out here. They are still living in the dream world which their low-brains managers have shown them, where everything is still rosy and people are still ready to pay high rents. Anyways, everytime I am always talking about the negativity in Dubai, but this is the situation in Dubai. Everyone is tensed and scared as they have lived here all their important time in life, and maybe because of the situation, they might have to go back to their home country. I know Dubai doesnot force anyone to stay here and work, and it is at a person’s free will to stay, but according to any religion which includes Islam, people should not forget humanity and be nice and kind to people around them. This way it will make it easier to get rid of the negativity in Dubai, and make it a paradise the way it is building up!
Now the main point of discussion is – when the price of Crude Oil increased from $60 to $140, the prices of commodities rose by minimum 60%. But as of today when the price of Crude Oil is approximately $41 per barrel, shouldnt the prices of commodities go back to the initial price minimum, if not any lower? But no, the decrease is only 15%! So it does not reflect the way Crude Oil is moving. Then why claim something false. Or is it just another article in the papers which will be read by all the people but not acted upon?

Yes it is true, Russell Peters is performing live in Dubai just the way he did it before. But this time a bigger platform. Earlier it was in Crowne Plaza on Sheikh Zayed Road and now it is in the Madinat Arena. This is an excellent opportunity for people to buy tickets in advance and sell it for a premium price before the show. But is it really worth it? Lets see what happened during the last show. The tickets worth Dhs 295 approx. were being sold for Dhs 1000. Wow, that like 200% profit approx. No business provides that. But is it going to be the same case now? Lets see. The show is on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The most important factor being 2nd is a holiday, and maybe even 3rd for some, it could hike up the prices as everyone wants to laugh during holidays! Moreover, there are other shows coming up as well. Please leave your comments if you think buying the tickets and making it SOLD OUT and then selling it for higher prices is okay or not?

Dubai has alot of parking problems. Some areas it is a nightmare to try and find parking. Even though there is paid parking in mostly all the areas in Dubai, and the rate ranges from 1-2 Dhs per hour. Again, the RTA is earning millions a month, but why arent they bothering about the parking problems people are facing. I used to live in Meena Bazar, and I used to hate taking out my car. At an average I have waited for 2 hours to get a parking. The extremes have been 5 hours. And I am not exaggerating or lying. Sometimes your so frustated that you feel like sleeping in the car, but you cant do that, because then the police will catch you and put you inside jail. So either find parking which is hard, or put your car on the footpath and get a fine. What I dont understand is, why isnt the RTA doing anything related to this issue? Why cant they make multi-level car parkings in residential areas for people staying there. There are two types of parking cards, one worth Dhs 1,500 and the other one worth Dhs 2,500. The cheaper one is only valid in parking lots, and not street side parking. The other one can be used anywhere in the emirate. That means, if I have bought it from Dubai, and I goto Sharjah, it wont work. I need to buy a parking ticket there. How funny and insane could that be? Moreover, if they are earning so much from parking, they should use that money to make more parking lots and not to buy range rovers for the staff. On an average, people spend 2 hours in traffic in Dubai, and 1 hour for parking. That means 3 hours of a human are just wasted in being frustated, and then they expect people to be productive. The stress and the tension caused by parking itself can cause a heart attack. Once, a lady stood at a parking spot I was going to park. And she was not ready to move because according to her she is standing there and her husband can only park there. Her words were, ” If you want the parking you have to kill me by running over me”. WOW, a parking spot as precious as life. Moreover, there are private parking lots charging Dhs 10 per hour, which is insane as it is 5 times what the government charges. But people cant help it, because the RTA is sleeping and they dont care because they have parking outside their office and their villas. And if they need anything in such crowded areas, they park on the footpath because they cannot be fined. Why cant they be humans and look at the whole situation and do something about it. Making big promises in press conferences and in newspapers and then being ignorant about the situation is not the right way to go about it. Just because they dont have any higher authority to blame them or make them jobless, they are going to take an advantage of it? If they want to be ignorant then they shouldnt make big promises. I will provide avergae time to find parking in different areas:
Bur Dubai : 2-3 hours.
Satwa : 20-30 mins.
Karama : 40 mins – 1 hour depending on internal areas.
Deira : 2-3 hours.
Ghusais : 20-30 minutes depending on internal areas.

I just read an article a couple of days back. It was based on one more NEW rule in Dubai. In order to get the visit visa deposit back, we need to pay Dhs 110 (Link to the article). I will explain the whole thing and provide my view point on it.
If you are living in Dubai and want your family members or relatives or friends to visit you and see your PITY state in Dubai, you can issue a visit visa for them. To issue the visa you need to pay a certain amount of money depending on the number of days and you have to give a deposit of Dhs 2000 for those many number of days. So if someone visits you for 30 days, the Government of Dubai will keep the deposit money for 30 days. After 30 days the deposit money is refunded. Now according to the new rule, after the visitor is gone, if we need our deposit money back, we need to give the government Dhs 110. Why do I call this day light robbery? There are many reasons for that.
1) Just because Dubai knows we need to issue visit visas for people to visit us, they are taking advantage of it.
2) Normally if I give any institution or organisation deposit money, they must return it to me for no charge. This would be the first institution according to me, who is charging us to take our money back.
3) If we put money in a bank or give deposit anywhere, they are supposed to be responsible and liable for it, and also we get interest on it or even the institution provides us with alot more benefits. Here, forget the interest or the benefits, we will still be treated like Shit!
4) Even if a person doesnot want to pay, he has to pay because on the other side it is a matter of Dhs 2000. This is like a robber entering your house and giving you a choice between either he rapes your wife or steals everything from the house. You have to choose one. Oh and ofcourse dont even bother calling the police, because the police is with the robber.

All this while I thought the only people who can trusted in Dubai is the police, but yesterday I was proved wrong. How? I will explain it below with the experience I had.
My brother’s vehicle was impounded and I had given the vehicle on 22-09-2008. Since the impound was of one week, I was told to coll

I am going to provide my report on the booming property market in Dubai. It was really cheap in the starting and it all started with three developments. The Marina, Emirates Hills, and the Springs and Meadows. It was really cheap as a villa in Meadows and Springs costed around Dhs 400,000 and Emirates Hills around Dhs 2,000,000. An appartment in Marina costed around Dhs 400 sq.ft. These are just estimates. Today the same thing has become 10 times more expensive. And more and more developments are yet to come. The range of the present rate is Dhs 4,000-12,000 sq.ft. Such a big difference in a span of 6 years maximum is a big achievement for any country. But is it really worth it?
The corruption has increased 100 times. For example, the rent of an appartment in Bur Dubai for 1 Bedroom, 2 Bedroom, 3 Bedroom, and 4 Bedroom appartment was Dhs 25,0000, Dhs 40,000, Dhs 60,000, and Dhs 90,000 respectively. But the present rates are Dhs 90,000, Dhs 120,000, Dhs 160,000, and Dhs 180,000 respectively. This is due to high amount of corruption. Here the landlords have assigned ‘Managers’ for their respective buildings. The landlords own many buildings and therefore there are many managers. Mostly all the managers are from the Asian subcontinent specifically from South India. Since they are authoritative they demand the so-called “key money” if you want the rent to be discounted by some amount or if a building is in demand then to get a flat in it. This ‘key money’ is not only for private buildings but also for public buildings. There are many people from South India, who have no work, and completely rely on this. They will not allow your application in the government buildings to be processed until and unless you pay them Dhs 50,000 as ‘key money’. They will give it for free to their ‘own people’ who belong to their State. And all this I am not claiming, it is reality as I have faced it, and trust me, when you cant find an appartment, you have nothing but to either pay the opportunists or go home and cry. There is no humanity remaining in Dubai if you want an appartment. There is a so called body known as Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA). I believe they dont have a website, and even if they do, it is unknown. Even the police is doing nothing about all this. Then why do all the high authority people make claims that they are fighting corruption? How will they know what is happening internally? Do they even step out of their Range Rovers or Mercedes to see what is happening in reality? No, they dont care. Because all they want is Dubai being in the news for its accomplishment in development. They dont care about humans dying while constructing it or commiting suicide because of the behaviour of the greedy landlords and their Managers. To conclude, money has taken over humanity, and all those people claiming they care about people, they should first try and do something about corruption which is a menace in the country. CEO’s of a few companies are put behind bars, and they believe everything is sorted and Dubai is a corruption free country, then they are wrong. There is alot more remaining to clean up and it cannot be done by the general public as everyone is scared they will be kicked out of their house.
If anyone is facing problems in Dubai or anywhere else, do leave a comment about your experience.