TheShed

At last - Queue jumper cameras

New cameras to catch queue jumpers in Dubai | GulfNews.com

scrubbedexpat141

jam25mack

Interesting. However, as it seems the locals are the most likely to do this I wonder how many of the images (and number plates) will be reviewed and then dismissed....

mission

not sure if this will make one iota of a difference....majority of drivers out here are a law onto themselves

Miss Ann Thrope

Not sure I agree with this observation at all, especially as there just aren't that many locals. And anyway, there are locals and Locals and LOCALS; not many really have any serious wasta. Beyond that it's low level wasta based on who you are related to and so forth. I often hear (more privileged) locals complain that the police are predominantly Yemeni and Balushi anyway and they like to hassle the "higher class" locals!

mission

interesting....I've always had the impression that most locals are well connected.

Miss Ann Thrope

It's a sea of tensions and cross-currents under those loose flowing robes. One of the myths around Shaikh Zayed was that it was only his intervention that prevented the original proposal at the time of independence for five classes of citizenship being adopted. Apparently Baba Zayed said "we are all one people" and so there is just one class of Emarati citizenship (probably necessary to forge this synthetic artifice into a country). Ancestry and heritage are obsessions on the Arabian peninsula and there are so many different origins of locals here which most other locals could point out easily from the name or appearance or accent of their compatriots. Hence all the "Bidoons" and this farce with Comoros Islands nationality. And that's before you even get into the tribal stuff...

jam25mack

That said, aren't the M'toums of Iranian decent?

I was lead to believe that the RAK locals (darker and more African looking) are more representative of the 'true' Emiratis?

Miss Ann Thrope

Be careful.... Dubai royal family is actually a breakaway branch of the Bani Yas clan who came from the desert to AD in 18th century (and also gave rise to AD ruling family). It's all very well described in the sticky thread at the top of the ME forum here.

The other big merchant families of Dubai (for whose benefit the city is run let's be honest) are mainly of Iranian descent and that's what creates the interesting dynamic. The original (or maybe more accurately, longer established) inhabitants of the area were either fishermen/pearlers on the coast (usually darker skinned), date farmers in oases or Bedu in the desert. And of course the slaves (or latterly indentured servants) who worked for them and are now part of the general population.

jam25mack

I was trying to be careful!

Interesting tho. I had a look around the Union building a few years ago and sat at the desk where they signed the agreement. This was before they started the redevelopment of the site. You should have seen the size (and number) of ash trays in that room. They must have been some serious smokers!

Meow

If you go to the recently opened Etihad Museum there are loads of photographs of all the meetings that took place around the time of the union. On the tables are not just lots of ashtrays but piles of cigarette packets. Serious smokers indeed!

Meow

That is exactly what many would like you to believe. Only a few have serious wasta.

Boomhauer

When you say "Iranian descent" , do you mean Khaleeji Arabs who settled in what is today Iran centuries ago and then returned to the Arabian Peninsula or do you mean Persian / other Iranic language speakers ? Iran does have a minority of native Arabic speakers .

Re. Bani Yas (used to live in Bani Yas tower in AD long time ago.
When you said "came from the desert", do you mean from Hijaz or Najd?

IKnowNothing

You never mentioned the pirates..... As this used to be known as "The pirate Coast" - or am i not allowed to say that either?

Miss Ann Thrope

I'm no authority and much of what I get is hearsay invariably tinged with the prejudices embedded in the source, given the increasingly sectarian tone of things in this region. While the merchant princes of Dubai are ostensibly Bandari (Iranian Arabs), there are whispers about "secret Shia" societies. I have no idea whether there is any truth in that whatsoever. That many of Iranian background appear paler and less "Arab looking" than the indigenous Khaleejis also adds some fuel to this notion I think.

I'm not sure where the Bani Yas came from but I guess it would be more Nejd (though perhaps a bit further south than that) rather than Hejaz which is thousands of km away. Again, I suggest you check out the thread at the top of the ME forum about UE history.