It is extremely humid in Dubai (today and yesterday) - its condensationsville. The air is so thick it is like walking into a wall of hot seawater. Actual temperatures this week are deceptively Durban-like at around 35 to 39 degrees, but the humidity is a joke.
On Tuesday this week there was a lot of expat eyeball rolling when construction workers from Dubai Marina attempted a strike. They tried to block Sheikh Zayed road (one of the main highways). They did pick possibly the worst week of the year to make a statement, just as Salik (the money-grabbing whore of a road toll system) kicked off. But I guess you don’t give a flying squirrel’s ass when you are being exploited to within an inch of your sanity. It didn’t take long before the main instigators were in the slammer.
What is frightening is that although a compulsory break during the hottest part of the day (12:30 to 15:00) has been enforced as of this week, their working and living conditions are still appalling. As are their salaries – 400 to 500 Dirhams / R800 to R1000 a month. It reminds me of the Laugh it Off Black Label T Shirt “Black Labour, White Guilt”. These are the guys who are behind the insane growth and success of Dubai after all. Yet it still pisses on our cornflakes when they cause a traffic jam. It is blatantly wrong.
And now for something completely different: the Ellen Degeneres show. Shit. That bird is possibly THE funniest woman on the planet.
Christina Applegate was going on about her mortifying moment when she showed up at some A-List function and Rachel Griffiths was wearing the same dress as her.
Christina: It was a beautiful dress and it looked just as good on Rachel as it did on me. Rachel came over, and we're laughing about it. We're laughing and inside we're sobbing. Oh my GAAD, it is like, your worst nightmare! You are dying!
Ellen: [wearing chinos, and a collared golf shirt] Yeah … That is. My worst. Nightmare.
Woza weekend. It has been a 6-day week from the pits of Mordor. I am going to milk it for all the kip its worth, shop like I’m on Bonny’s Best Buys and avoid springboks and suitcases in all forms. TGIT.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Gotta love it. They can build a ski slope in the desert & fake islands the shapes of palm trees. And yet seem to have a problem using their oil TRILLIONS to pay a few decent salaries.
Out of interest...or more fascination...are you really sticking around there for the whole of that summer? Don't most ex-pats get thehellouttatown during July & August?
Champs, I know. Dubai is the only emirate that doesn't rely on it's oil cos their reserves are pretty much gone - but still more millionaires here than grains of sand.
I am I'm afraid. Started my job here in Feb so can't really hot foot it out of here for my first 6 months. But yes, it's like Grahamstown in December here. A few tumbleweeds and nothing else!
Post a Comment