The Dubai summer is now receding. It is now down to 40 deg C. Believe me, it does make a difference when you have a job that requires you to be out and about. The mood of the city is different at this time - a bit cautious yet but the worst of the summer is now past, and the Dubai winter is approaching: that is cause for cheer. 

There is some bustle as schools begin again this week; stores are crowded with parents, children and sales on everything school-related. 

The big news of course is that Dubai is now the 12th most expensive city in the world. It used to be 55th or so some 5 years back. One can feel the change in cost of living now - especially post-COVID I notice the difference in the prices of everyday essentials at the favorite supermarket (though in all fairness q-comm and e-comm are always significantly cheaper for a large number of products). That said, on the supplier side, there is of course a need to remain competitive in all situations, and that is what we try and do all the while. 

Dubai Experiences

 Living in Dubai is a great experience: that is after all why we have been here since 2016 barring some 20 months in-between. The summers tend to be long and noticeably hot; the winters, or shall we say the non-summer period, is extremely pleasant and cool. It's a time to socialise, eat out, run a lot, and enjoy life in general. 

I have been visiting Dubai since 1992. In that year, I did a consulting project with a client in Saudi Arabia. The consulting firm I worked with had a regional office in Dubai and I was mandated to visit them on the way out. I spent three days in October. It was a much smaller city then, of course, with the outer limit of the city defined by Trade Centre (and the next built up area being Jebel Ali and the next built up area being Abu Dhabi, as it seemed to me then). 

Fell in love with the city and the culture. There is a warmth and consideration for people here that I have just not seen anywhere else. 

Having now lived for about 15 months in Switzerland I feel considerably more at ease than I used to. Now that is a relative term, lest any of you think I am an expert in the field (I am not). But enough of comfort to be able to get round and about without difficulty. Went to Triberg yesterday, that's a village in Germany with a population of 5000 people or so. Triberg's claim to fame is that it has Germany's highest waterfall inside the village centre, a beautiful, pretty scene- was lovely and exciting and in the deep winter too, when you have spray descending on your face in a fine mist. It also claims to be the place where the Black Forest pastry was invented. We went to the Restaurant Schafer, which claims to be founded by the inventor of the pastry Schafer and ordered one each. Absolutely divine hunk of cream, chocolate shaving, sponge cake, the whole lot liberally dipped in cherry brandy and with real cherries in it. To be honest, transported briefly to heaven for the brief while I was eating it!

Two tragically different posts

Derek O'Brien has written a brilliant article about what it is like to be a minority in India. He comes straight to the point, and admittedly this is the first time I have heard someone saying it is for the country to integrate the minority, but it is also for the minority to integrate into the country, or words to that effect. He talk sof his childhood in Kolkata, when his parents encouraged all their kids to speak Bengali (not their mothertongue), celebrate Diwali and Id (at least from the sweets and visiting friend pov!) etc. And how, at the time of Partition, part of the extended family was in Pakistan.
He went back to meet them a few years back. And that is when the grittiness of the comparison come through and you feel proud of being an Indian. Parts of his extended family converted to Islam because it is simply too difficult to be a minority in Pakistan.
I am not a religious bigot, and not thumping my chest about how good India is (or worse, how bad Pakistan is). But my heart stopped for a minute, my eyes misted and I wondered about the heterogenous miracle that our country is.

Read http://quizderek.blogspot.ch/2012/08/the-obriens-of-india-and-pakistan_13.html

And separately, another article appeared in 'The Dawn' in Karachi: a fictionalised account of the plight of a Hindu girl in Pakistan (discriminated against twice over: first a Hindu, then a girl) and the horror of her forcible conversion and marriage. It is fiction, but it seems pretty close to the truth, if you read the internet about Rinkle Kumari and similar cases. It touched me.

AIG Update

So here's an update, which I should provide in all fairness, since I panned AIG considerably in my last post. The Government of the US of A has decided to tax the bonuses received by AIG executives @ 90%, effectively ensuring that they keep only 10% of what they receive and the balance returns to the public, whence it came. That's justice and I'm considerably more at peace now.
Ironically, it also came to light since the scandal broke that it's not the CEO of AIG who's getting the lion's share of this "bonus" but his direct reports and their direct reports .. that only made me feel a bit worse as it were.

I'd like to be working for AIG

Life doesn't get better than this if you are an AIG executive, frankly. Think. You work for the one of the biggest corporations in the world. You mismanage the company to the point where you drive it to bankruptcy. You are able to ransom the Government of the US, on the basis that if AIG sinks, a substantial portion of the international banking industry will collapse since it is so heavily linked to AIG. Effectively, you blackmail the government into giving you a US $ 180 billion bailout (yes, that's BILLIONS, not millions!!).
And then, as reported in rediff.com today, you give yourself a BONUS. Yes Sir. A Bonus!! Because talent like yours is hard to find and needs to be retained!! Of course!! So none of the leaders at AIG stop to think, without this bunch of losers we might have actually had a business going.
And now Obama has stepped into the act, fortunately. As the CEO of AIG's biggest shareholder (The US Government, in other words, the US Taxpayer) he has vowed to block the bonus payout through every means possible. Let's hope he succeeds.

ISABS Labs

Plenty of stuff coming up. First is the National Event from May 11 - 23 in Goa. Second, a possible 3 day event on Appreciative Inquiry in Mumbai or Lonavla. Third, a lab on Sensuality and Body Image that's in the pipeline for the first week of April 09. Anyone interested, give me a buzz or write in for further details.
All ISABS events are moderately priced : it's a voluntary organisation that functions on a no-profit-no-loss basis.