Dubai economy going tits up - the new ghost town

Everyone here who has just been overseas is talking about one thing: Dubai - and how it is totally gone dead.

As a dodo dead.

Crossing Maktoum bridge in the middle of the afternoon in 2 mins dead.

The airport is EMPTY. I was there last week and no-one was around except a lot of bored staff. It was spooky. Normally Dubai airport is like the space port in Star Wars. Full of every nationality under the sun and a few from nearby planets. (Think Men in Black for my younger readers).

But now....



Retail sales were already waaay down in November, and tourism and business travel globally have collapsed...

Dubai is in the shit. Construction and a booming global future was the whole reason d'etre of the economy. Even Abu Dhabi must be starting to balk at the liability on the downside.

This will undoubtedly have some knock on effect here, both in reduced buying of construction materials like aggregate, to less fish and transit goods, even overflight fees must be down. And less side-stepping tourists to nip across the border.

But all things considered, HE Mackie can rightly feel pretty good right now. Moodys have just given us a good sovereign rating and said some very nice things. The banks were not heavily into CDOs. And our currency link to the dollar has assisted greatly. The fiscal maintenance plus credit loosening is working. All local investor construction projects in and around Muscat are going ahead, and taking advantage of the cheap prices for cement and steel.

[Aside: although I'm reliably informed that work on the Minister of Tourism's new house extension in Qurm has been in suspension for some time. Strange. ]

Oman is definitely a great place to weather the storm. But hold on tight. A cold wind is howling, and the savings and low borrowing will only last so long. HE still needs an oil price uptick to >$60 by end 2010.

Its Official: Dubai is a shit-hole

While we expats here in Oman may find it strange that, more than a century after the Victorians showed the way on modern sewage treatment, Muscat is only now retro-fitting a centralised sewage treatment cleection and treatment system, at least we aren't swimming in shit.

Unlike Dubai.

Here's a nice pic from the Gulf News that shows what happens when you pour raw sewage into a city's storm drain system. Yum.

Dubai Offshore Sailing Club on Friday, showing the ongoing pollution caused by raw sewage dumped into storm drains. Source: Gulf News

The reason for the illegal dumping is that Dubai is still using the septic tank poop-truck system (as is Oman) in their cities. The resultant tidal wave of human excrement is trucked to the 1 main Dubai treatment plant, but the queue of poop-trucks waiting to get in and empty is miles and miles and miles long. It can take the poor drivers days to crawl their trucks along the queue. Because the queue is always slowly moving, they can't stop for a piss or to sleep, and of course the truck spends a long time for just 1 load cycle.

The temptation then to either just spray it into the desert, or dump it down a storm water drain is proving overwhelming. With the result that parts of Dubais coastline are literally full of shit. A few months ago Dubai International City was also trapped in a lake of sewage for weeks.

I guess that's one way to discourage those pesky British tourists from bonking on the beach! See also Raw Sewage Threat to Booming Dubai.

What I found shocking was that in just one month they caught 27 tankers dumping. Thats just those they caught. And the planned solution is to build a bigger car park for the trucks to wait in at the sewage plant. Like that'll work.

So, while Oman's method of hiring low-bid Chinese contractors and digging up all the streets is painful to watch, its certainly a lot better than the alternative...

Gulf News: Clean Up Act

People who tip off inspectors about sewage tankers dumping waste illegally will earn a cash reward of Dh2,000, Dubai Municipality announced yesterday.

The Municipality also revealed that the owners of 55 tankers caught this week were each fined Dh100,000. Salem Bin Mesmar, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Health, Safety and Environment Control Sector, said severe punitive actions would be taken against those who violate environment safety rules and regulations in Dubai.

Apart from fines, tankers could be confiscated for one to three months and trade licences of transporting companies may be suspended until further notice, he said, adding that any changes or addition to a tanker’s structure will result in severe legal actions.

Last month, Dubai Municipality’s Drainage Network Department caught around 27 tankers dumping sewage illegally into storm water lines. They were fined Dh50,000 each, which included cleaning costs.

Instead of dumping sewage at the Al Aweer Sewage Treatment Plant, many drivers prefer to empty their tankers in open areas or into storm water networks at Al Quoz, Al Barsha and Nad Al Sheba that are designed to carry pure rain water into the sea. This has resulted in polluting parts of Dubai’s coastline.

Municipality inspectors are now keeping a close watch for dumping between midnight and 5am.

Dubai Municipality is currently undertaking a project to reduce the waiting time for tankers at the Al Aweer Sewage Treatment Plant. The project involves construction of a 50,000 square metre parking lot that may make the dumping process smoother.

Quick swim anyone?

Double Standards in Saudi

Hey guys and gals, sorry for the lapse, but even Dragon's got to party...

So many things I want to blog about in todays riveting Oman Times its hard to know where to begin... I'll just have to pick two.

First, the strange ad actually apologising for not making enough water lately by the Public Authority for Electricity and Water. Emergency halts - whatever that means - meant they weren't making water at the Barka AND Ghubra desalinisation plants at the same time. My question is: Why? [don't know yet, give me a few days and I'll chase the real story]. But like, isn't that their job? To make water? Preferably all the time? Best bit was how they added the statement 'The Public Authority for Electricity and Water advises all customers to install additional water tanks to store sufficient quantities of water that can meet their water need [sic] for two days at least, in case of emergencies.' And, a mini lecture that YOU should save water all the time, not just when they can't get their shit together enough to make water.
So that it's like YOUR fault there isn;t enough water. Muppets.

And many other stories. But the best?

The Saudis apparently [pg 16, Oman Tribune] don't want Mr Sarkozy, President of France, to visit with his girlfriend because they're not married. And totally hot. LOL. So, naturally, they're also encouraging Bahrain Hotels to deny rooms to Saudi men who want to just fuck prostitutes. While drinking a bottle of whiskey. Luckily they are also making sure Saudi men don't go on sex holidays to Thailand. And of course, the Royal Family of Saudi would not visit France with more than 1 wife, given polygamy is illegal in Europe. It is really hard to put on type how much shit I think the Saudi rulers are full of...

And the Egyptians now also(apparently) are now noticing that they didn't like it that Sarkozy was visiting them and 'sharing a room' with a woman who wasn't his wife.

What total hypocritical arseholes.

Anyhow. I hope Sarkozy gives them a big French Finger. Or says she's just a cousin staying in the next room. heh heh heh.

Thank God I'm in Oman. A country surrounded by shit holes.