Category Archives: UAE

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Saudi Arabia, UAE

UAE: Al-Nahayan Cracking Down………..

     
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“Human Rights Watch said on Friday that the United Arab Emirates has dissolved a civil society group after it arrested three prominent activists. The rights group urged the UAE to reverse its decision, which it said was a crackdown on peaceful dissent. The Jurist Association was one of three non-governmental organizations that joined hundreds of citizens in signing a petition this month calling for a greater voice in government and legislative powers for the quasi-parliament, the Federal National Council (FNC). Three prominent activists who made similar calls for political reform have been arrested in the last few weeks. UAE officials were not available for comment……….”

The al-Nahayan, owners of Abu Dhabi, also ruling family of the UAE, are applying the Saudi and Bahraini method of dealing with any scent of dissent or independent thinking. These ruling families have many people in their vast media, including hired Arab propagandists, called “palace intellectuals” whose job is to pretend ‘liberalism’ while praising the absolute tribal oligarchs. These brownnosers write as if the rulers of these states are managing a utopia.
The despots try to appeal to world opinion through opening funny branches of elite Western universities, but then throw their professors (and possibly students) in prison or deport them at the first sign of independent thinking. Once in awhile someone decides to show a streak of independence and some honesty and decency: that is when the truth of these despots comes out. The rulers of the UAE have shown that they can be as ruthless as the al-Saud. They both can be as ruthless as Qaddafi or Saleh or Assad: in fact they can be even worse if they face an uprising. The Saudis have shown that cruel ruthlessness in their own country and in Occupied Bahrain.
Cheers
mhg

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Culture, Religion, Saudi Arabia, UAE, WTF

Emirates Try Baby for Adultery, Shaikh Warns Girls about Fathers…….

     
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“A 14-YEAR-OLD Arab schoolgirl who has been detained in the United Arab Emirates on a charge of adultery will appear in court later this month. “The trial will start in spite of the age ceiling set for trials on sexual related crimes by the UAE law,” said the daily newspaper Gulf News today. “The law states that the minimum age of suspects in crimes related to sex must be 15 years. Such cases should be conducted in special juvenile courts. Otherwise, suspects are considered victims rather than suspects,” the daily quoted a “law expert” as saying. On April 5, Gulf News said police in the emirate of Ajman had arrested the teenager after she met up with her boyfriend on the roof of her family home. She has since been forced to undergo a gynaecological examination which “confirmed she was still a virgin”, the unnamed girl’s father was quoted as saying………”

It is a sure sign of a somewhat fuckedup society when a 14 year old girl is tried for “adultery”, even though she is a virgin according to medical examination. It is also a bigger sign when a top Saudi cleric and televangelist (M. Alarefe) blames some young girls because their fathers sexually abused them. Then he suggests that girls and fathers should never be left alone. He issued something like a television fatwa that says fathers should be suspect with their own daughters. Now what kind of a fucked up pious society is this? The same al-Arefe had earlier described why and how a husband should beat up his wife.
And I had thought these things only happened in ‘certain’ parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Some of these judges and clerics in my Gulf are worse than those in parts of Texas and Oklahoma! I forgot to mention Belgium, which used to be, may still be, notorious for pedophilia rings.
Cheers
mhg

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Espionage, UAE

UAE: Smart Phones and Dumb Leaders………

     
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“BlackBerry users in the United Arab Emirates will soon be unable to send emails and messages without fear of government snooping, under tighter restrictions on internet communication in the Gulf state. The UAE is to ban individuals and small businesses from using the most secure BlackBerry settings – for email, web browsing and BlackBerry Messenger – as part of security fears sweeping the Middle East. Only companies with more than 20 BlackBerry accounts will be able to access the encrypted BlackBerry service, which is favoured by corporate users and government agencies.………”

“TORONTO—The United Arab Emirates has said it will stop individuals and small businesses from using Research In Motion Ltd.’s highly secured BlackBerry corporate-email services. The restriction, effective May 1, applies only to individuals and businesses with fewer than 20 subscriptions to BlackBerry Enterprise Services accounts, said a spokeswoman for the U.A.E.’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. The regulator didn’t give a reason for its decision.…………..”

This is a case of dumb rulers facing down smart phones and winning: too much money at stake for RIMM. Besides, the UAE is the second biggest importer of weapons in the whole wide world, aspiring to become the first biggest importer of weapons in the whole wide wonderful world. Even though it probably has the 3rd or 4th smallest native population in the world. Would RIMM want to face that? A Canuck corporation against four million imported third world foreign laborers and housemaids with access to acres of weapons rusting in the desert? In Bahrain it is the other way around: it is the case of a smart people facing down dumb rulers (well, maybe dumb but greedy enough and with powerful friends). Where I am now, I use my Blackberry without fear of the al-Nahayan boys and their snoops reading my private email. Of course, someone else might, but I don’t know that.
Cheers
mhg

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UAE

United Arab Emirates: the Price of Silence…………

     
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“In June 2008, Ms Gali had her drink spiked and was raped by three to four co-workers, while working as a beauty salon manager at the international resort. When she reported the assault to authorities she was jailed on an adultery charge and spent eight months in prison because it is illegal in the UAE to have sex outside marriage. Australian embassy staff advised her and her family not to go to the media, during her time in custody, where she was locked in a cell with 30 other women. She was pardoned and released in March 2009……. “The UAE is being promoted hugely here as a tourism destination – they sponsor things here. “They are not complying with human rights, women’s rights and migrant workers’ rights.”……..”

It is a simple case. She was gang raped, she went to the police, she was jailed for ‘sex outside marriage’, she remained silent, she was pardoned a year later. I also suspect that Ms. Gali is not of “European” descent: UAE authorities have had other cases where they punished female victims of assault, victims who were of Asian or Arab descent. As for the Australian embassy….oy vey.
What I don’t understand” about this “sex outside marriage” charge: what about all them hookers (prostitutes) that the UAE is teeming with?
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, UAE

UAE: a Salary Hike, More Window-Dressing……….

        
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that the United Arab Emirates announced Wednesday that all salaries of the military, including retirement salaries, will be raised by a whopping 70%. The reports say the motive is to avoid the wave of uprisings that are sweeping the region, uprisings that have reached wealthy Gulf petroleum producers who had thought they were immune from political disturbances. Authorities also said they will hold an election for the “Advisory Council” in September (it is just that, a toothless advisory council, a window dressing). In the last election 0m 2006 only 6,600 votes were cast, less than 1% of the population of the country. The main reason is that up to about 85% of the population of the UAE are estimated to be temporary foreigners: laborers, housemaids, and others that make the place work. Unemployment among citizens was officially put at 13% early this year.
Cheers
mhg



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