In no particular order,Getting back the blogging spirit

Thanks to my friend Ali he remind me of my blog that I started it in February 2006
And for no specific reason I just stopped in February 2008, except for this post about gaza, but I noticed that this is normal cycle you start the blog some time just to have an idea or to know what blogging is, than you like it and you get all excited about and you start to post daily even think about what to post tomorrow than suddenly your posting start to decline to once a week once a month or you leave the whole thing or in some cases you even delete the whole blog.
Or you get back your blogging spirit and start again in my case deleting the blog never cross my mind I always wanted to get back and kept reading and browsing others blogs daily.

Now lets look back at what the major events in abu dhabi and globally that I missed blogging about.

In my personal view or my personal awareness I wanted to blog about number of things that happened in Abu Dhabi which are in no particular order

1- The national English-language daily newspaper, launched in Abu Dhabi, first, was published on April 17, 2008; it is different local newspaper different in very professional way I really enjoy reading it. Read it online here

2- New public beach on Abu Dhabi Corniche opened in July 2008 , it is beautiful beach and must visit tourist destination

3- new transportation in Abu Dhabi the silver taxi and the new bus network ,while it is good effort , but I still see queues of people waiting in the sun, often for up to an hour to get a taxi and I still think that the old gold color taxi should be in service along with the new one it will reduce the queues of people plus it is part of Abu Dhabi history.

4- Abu Dhabi Media Park " TwoFour54" established and started operation in october 2008.
To k now what this media park all about it is enough to look at some of their partner which include the BBC, Thomson Reuters Foundation, CNN, Financial Times, Random House and HarperCollins.
twofour54 is about placing companies and organisations at the heart of the Arab world and giving them the tools, the support and infrastructure to create the highest quality content to the highest possible standards. Official web site
.
5- The Global financial crisis
The most talked about subject now days but I am going to point you to very good article about the Meeting Industry in a Time of Economic Crisis read it here

"We solve problems best when we’re doing it together. That’s what meetings achieve, and why they therefore need to remain a priority even when it appears that the economic lights are going out! "

The worst man made Disaster

Medical staff in Gaza's al-Shifa hospital are working to cope with dwindling supplies and a steady stream of wounded patients as Israel presses on with its offensive against Palestinian militant groups.
BBC producer, Rushdi Abu Alouf, visited the hospital and spoke to Norwegian doctor, Mads Gilbert. more http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7812547.stm

ADNEC increases exhibition market in UAE capital by 185% in its first year

Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company (ADNEC) has revealed that, during the first operational year of the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, there was a massive 185% increase in the number of major exhibitions staged in Abu Dhabi। ADNEC has also announced that to celebrate the first anniversary of its opening, it will participate in three major international events in February 2008: London's CONFEX 2008, Melbourne's AIME and China's UFI Congress. more

Cultures of queuing and Abu Dhabi taxi

I did not post anything here for long time now but I thought to share this thought with you all
My old car broke down again as usual and I had to use the Abu Dhabi taxi
In Abu Dhabi now days you can see a new silver color taxies rooming around the city although there still a shortage of taxis in the city.
And what worsen the situation is the queuing behavior for the passengers, waiting for more than 60 minutes to get a taxi and when you see one from far and feel lucky now that your waiting came to an end suddenly from no where some one jump in front of you and open the taxi door before the taxi even make a full stop,it makes you wonder is it a rude behavior or it is just the different culture, I guess in many cultures people do not queue for things they just jump right to the front of the line .
I would love to see kind of queue handrails in the taxis stop to solve this problem so no one can jump in front of the other or claim he was first in the line.

بطاقات التلفون المدفوعة مقدما ومطار ابوظبى

موخرا مررت بتجربتين تتعلق ببطاقات واصل المدفوعة مقدما دفعتنى الى التساول حول
لماذا قامت اتصالات بتغيير البطاقات القديمة التى كان يمكن استعمالها فى جميع انواع التفلونات الثابتة منها والمتحركة الخاصة والعامة الى البطاقات الحديثة التى لايكمن استعمالها الا عن طريق خط واصل فقط حيث فى السابق كنت دائما احتفظ ببطاقة مدفوعة مقدما فى جيبى للطوارى فقط حيث كثير مايحدث ان يتعطل جهازك المتحرك لاى سبب كان
وبالتالى بكل سهولة اقوم باستعمال البطاقة عن طريق اقرب تلفون سواء كان تلفون عام او خاص او حتى تلفون متحرك عن طريق الاتصال بالرقم المجانى ثم ادخال رقم البطاقة ومن ثم اجراء المكالمة المرغوبة
اما الان للتحدث من تلفون عام يجب شراء بطاقة مخصصة لذلك فقط علما بان التلفونات العامة غير متوفرة فى كل المواقع فقد احتجت من فترة بسيطة وانا فى مطار ابوظبى لاجراء اتصال مهم وللاسف فوجئت بنفاد بطارية الهاتف المتحرك وكان الحل الوحيد ان استخدم تلفون عام فقصدت المتجر الصغير الموجود فى صالة القادمين للحصول على البطاقة الهاتفية المخصصة فقط للاستعمال فى الهواتف العامة ولكن للاسف لم تتوفر لديهم ووجهنى بان اشتريها من الكوفى شوب وفعلت ذلك لتبدا معاناتى بعد ذلك فى العثور على تلفون عام حيث فوجئت بانه لايوجد اى تلفون عام فى الطابق الارضى فى صالة القادمين فى مطار ابوظبى وبعد بحث وسوال اكتشفت انه لابد لى من التوجه الى نهاية صالة المسافرين وحيث لا يسمح لك بالدخول الا اذا كنت مسافرا وبعد ان شرحت للشرطى باننى اريد الوصول للهاتف العام فقط سمح لى مشكورا بالدخول

مطار ابوظبى مطار دولى بكل المقاييس ولكن تجربة بسيطة مثل هذه لابد ان تترك انطباع غير جيد لدى السائح او الزائر لابوظبى

October 14 is the launch date of the International Middle East Film Festival in Abu Dhabi

Another international event to post Abu Dhabi as a destination for tourist of art and culture, it is obvious that Abu Dhabi is doing a good job positioning it self as culture and art destination.
But I really wonder why I didn’t hear of this Festival earlier and if they just started marketing for this Festival isn’t the date 14 October is very close, my Sixth Sense telling me this festival will postponed.

Unfortunately this sixth sense was not working when I wrote my last post about my business startup so if any one wonder yes it did not work out because lack of commitment and awareness from my partner but I did not give up hope will look in to another way and another partner
However if you want to read more about the International Middle East Film in Abu Dhabi click here or here

Art Paris in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), has launched artparis-abudhabi.
Created in 1999, artparis is an international fair dedicated to modern and contemporary art which takes place in March of each year, in the heart of Paris, under the elegant glass roof of the Grand Palais, a prestigious location of French culture, now in Abu Dhabi.

A unique approach to become the destination point of the region art market.

artparis-abudhabi , Emirates placeHotel , November 26-29-2007