The UAE dress code debate has resurfaced again – how short is short?

It’s liberating enough that even the UAE is a Muslim country, it’s not like Saudi Arabia or Iran – women are NOT required to wear a black robe to cover up yet so many people push the boundaries here. There are too many women wearing skimpy shorts and tiny tank tops in public as if walking advertisers of the cliche: “if you got it, flaunt it!”

One lady inside the mall was quoted saying,

I guess it is just too hot for me here, and these clothes are very comfortable for this weather.

I get how hot it must be to walk outside but it’s COLD inside the malls! How hard is it to just wear decent clothes? And as if these ladies are walking for miles to get to the malls. They travel by air-conditioned cars. Sorry but the weather is only a great excuse used by many. When it is winter time and it’s not hot at all outside, they still wear the same type of clothes.

Would it hurt to wear a normal shirt and jeans? or capris? or whatever more decent type of clothing that don’t expose too much skin?

The UAE and Dubai in particular is very liberal as compared to other Muslim countries in the region. As an expat, I think it should not be taken advantage of!

And let’s not get started on the things we see at the beach here…it’s good enough that bikinis are allowed and then some women go as far as wearing a thong bikini.

Well, I’ve not been out of the house for long distance trips since the pregnancy last year and now with a small baby. Not counting the sponsored trip to Thailand last February 2011 (it was a pleasure trip but not 100% since it was ‘work’), I have not had a proper vacation to Japan for 3 years now and to the Philippines for 4 years.

So until that big trip soon I hope, these are just a few things I found around town…

I wonder what is ‘instant’ about this – the haircut speed? “Haircut in 5 minutes!” or the fact that you might be an instant boy band looks if you choose to have your hair cut here. Who knows?

Next…

Moo…! Oh no…meeeehhh!

You thought human babies only consume milk from cows. Now, apparently, from goats too. For real? Goat milk baby formula?

Speaking of weird food…

Ketchup popcorn for the adventurous. I don’t know about you but I’ll stick to caramel, thanks.

To cosmetics…

You’d think an international brand like L’oreal would know better, you know, slang language. Why the hell this hair cream is named Urban Shag? Curious minds want to know!

And the weird award goes to…it’s a tie (same category) actually. First, a soap claiming to be ‘herbal’, skin whitening and anti-aging.

Given that I have just given birth a few months ago, the placenta I know is of the gross category so I do not dare see the ingredient list of this soap!

Last but not the least (shocking):

(image reduced in size to be more ‘discreet’ heh)

The soap promises results like tightening the walls down there. Enough said!

*****

Have you seen anything weird in your neighborhood lately?

Sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve been swamped with work lately (not new) that when I raise my head above from the bunch of paperwork, it’s already time to go home then I sigh: another day without writing something. Sucks.

I’m still a bit busy right now but something happened yesterday that I simply could not pass up. It was another day, another story about Dubai’s infamous customer service which I had experience in the past, many times.

I am a magnet for bad customer service, I tell you!

I went to McDonald’s (yes, ladies and gentlemen, I had a McD relapse – 10 months!). I know I shouldn’t but anyway I did. End of story, start of remorse, haha.

So this petite lady at the counter greeted me with the usual perky smile as if she is the happiest person on Earth (typical McDonald’s good customer service, check!).

McD lady: “Good evening, madam, may I take your order?”

Me: “Hmmm, I’d like a cheese burger, please.”

McD lady: “Sandwich only or would you like it with fries and a drink?”

I’m actually wrestling with inner demons here to stop myself and just go away. The demons won. Boo hoo.

Me: “…yes make that fries & drink”

Pristine will have the fries, the husband drinks coke and oh, even if they won’t, a friend of mine will be flying back to Dubai tonight and she will be hungry, maybe she will eat those…excuses, excuses, excuses galore.

McD lady: “Which drink, madam? Coke, Fanta, Sprite?”

Me: “Coke”

Then BAM! She gave me a second look – straight to my mid-section nonetheless and asked…

“Light?”

*****

Without waiting for my reply, she turned her back and poured Coke Light and gave it to me like it was the drink for me, nothing else. And I don’t even drink Coke Light or any ‘diet’ soda as they are more evil with artificial, chemical sugars + they taste like cough syrup!

Yesterday was Earth Hour – a worldwide event organized by World Wide Fund for Nature held annually encouraging households to turn off non-essential lights for one whole hour to raise awareness about the need to take action regarding climate change.

Did you take part?

Last night from 8:30-9:30 pm was Earth Hour here in Dubai and I almost forgot about Earth Hour last night but it really didn’t matter – by 8:30 pm, we are always in bed anyway, our lights already turned off. Last night was no exception.

I checked Twitter/Facebook at 8:45 to see lots and lots of tweets/status updates about Earth Hour. With the lack of electronic things to entertain, people are turning on to their smart phones to tweet or update Facebook. Some might have even used their computers, which really takes the meaning out of  “energy conservation”. The flood of tweets, Facebook statuses and emails about Earth Hour shows the irony of this all because -

With every email, every tweet, every appeal watched on YouTube or “liked” on Facebook, environmentalists are stoking the very problem they want to resolve.

Each time we network, we emit carbon dioxide (CO2) through the fossil fuels which are burned to power our computers and the servers and databanks that store or relay our message.

But how did Dubai spend last night’s Earth Hour? The city’s prominent landmarks  Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab went dark as some buildings and probably a few household. Not so impressive because our dark room is still bright from our neighbor’s lights. I see it has not reached a lot of people, or they just thought it was just a hype.

The social media scene have been active and alive with tweets about it days before. There had been a call for action to do something very Dubai, always an excess of something: to turn off the lights not for one, but for two hours. I wonder how many can bear to ‘over-indulge’ the darkness.

Sadly, after an hour of energy conservation, energy binging is back, especially in this side of the world. If you have been here or lived here and visited the malls or the offices or got on a public transport you will know what I mean: the unnecessary lights, the ridiculous aircon settings everywhere (even when it’s cold in the winter outside).

I wish Dubai would do better about this whole climate change awareness issue by  starting to take action at least with aircondition settings*…EVERYDAY. Make every hour Earth Hour, everyday.

Image credit: Gulf News

*****

In Japan, they have a Cool Biz campaign to help reduce electric consumption by limiting use of air conditioning. Aircon settings there during the summer months until September is 28C.

Sure it’s not cool at all, we feel hot inside our offices but Dubai’s aircon setting of 20C or lower is senseless.

Dubai isn’t a clean city ‘by nature’. In fact, there are days when the roads are so dirty, especially after a sand storm. Then there are people who litter, bunches of them! Cigarette butts fly off from cars, plastic cups, pet bottles…however, Dubai dispatches these orange guys on the road, sweeping sand, dirt and trash all throughout the day – RISKING life with the fast cars on the side.

Even in summer. (And we all know how summer can be here in the Middle East.)

Once I caught a guy casually throwing a plastic cup after he finished his morning tea (people walk on the streets with piping hot spiced milk tea) so I walked up to him and told him why he’s doing that. I was new here and came from Japan. The scene was the most unnatural for me. He shrugged his shoulders, said “There are street cleaners, madam!” and walked away.

I went to work  and told my colleagues – someone said “If there are no trash throwers (litterers), those orange guys (the sweepers) won’t have anything to sweep, lose their jobs and make their family hungry madame!”

Horribly implying that we need to make the streets dirty to feed some hungry family in someone’s home country! How utterly wrong.

A friend of mine is here in Dubai right now looking for a job. She is my best pal I haven’t seen in more than ten years. Now, we are enjoying time together (she’s staying at my house) and I really hope she’ll find a job so she can stay.

I’m helping her search for jobs online and what do you know? The job ads out there range from ridiculous to discriminating to hilarious and suspicious. Here are a few:

First, there’s that very common ‘ethnic exclusivity rule’. Job ads specify which nationalities they prefer – mostly related to salary. An Indian and a Filipino having the same qualifications and performing the same jobs can differ in salaries.

And as if the ‘Only Indian” thing isn’t enough, employers mention preference to people from particular Indian states. This ad wants an Indian from the state of Kerala. I don.t know the reason for this – maybe the manager is from Kerala and don’t want to hire someone where he needs to speak a language different from his native tongue?

Then there’s the ‘exclusion rule’. HR people post ads like ordering to buy only a certain breed of dogs.

Of course there are those suspicious ones. Lewd.

Except for the word “honest” and maybe, “smart” in the ad, one would assume the employer is looking for a prostitute.

Another one:

The ‘female receptionist’ must have been a typo. I swear they must have wanted a model.

And presenting the ad meant to ward off Ugly Betty’s…

I am almost tempted to reply to the ad saying: I can assure you I am the best looking lady among all the applicants but you can’t have me because I hate employers who can’t spell properly!

There you go. Finding a job in Dubai, the hilarious/weird/ridiculous version. Serious version -> Finding work in Dubai, Part 2.

The bike looked familiar. The delivery boy used to park it outside our office door to deliver things and leave his bike under the sun for an hour or so. When he comes back, he finds sorts of trash thrown into it: cigarette butts, plastic, crumpled paper, etc. He scratches his head and cycles away.

Then I saw this today. He must had enough!

There you go… the first sand storm of 2012. Last Friday, strong winds picked up dust and sand and blanketed Dubai, reducing the visibility to 800 meters. In this part of the road, tall buildings including the world’s tallest Burj Khalifa should appear on the right but nah, they are in invisible mode.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a good day to be outside. My cousins had a reservation for desert safari but had to cancel it – who would want to spend time outside in the vast desert closing their eyes? Or having sand in their food?

The car swayed as strong winds battered from its side, made me recall how strong these winds are during sandstorm of 2011.

Sand storms during the ‘winter’ months of Dubai not only bring sand (a lot of it), it also signals the coming of warmer days and usually tells us, it is time to crank up the air condition at home!

How’s the weather from where you are? Here in Dubai, as far as the midday sun is concerned, ‘winter’ is already over. But on early mornings and evenings, it is still cool – or cold, depending on the years you have lived here.

~ Dubai winter sky in my side view mirror ~

So when I mentioned on Twitter that I was feeling really cold, our room temperature being at 20C (68F), I got some reactions:

“You’re kidding! Dubai is NEVER cold.”

“At 20C, I will sleep naked!”

“Maybe cool but not cold, that would be the perfect room temp!”

Ah, yeah, these all came from cold bloodied people from the north of Northern Hemisphere.

Truth is, it DOES get cold in Dubai, those days when we wear fleece jackets and don’t want to come out of our duvets in the morning. DUVETS. In the desert. What an abomination, right? But really, no one has the right definition of what is cold and hot. It all goes down to acclimatization and all in perspective. Saying it doesn’t get cold in Dubai is like saying it doesn’t get hot in Canada but I know Toronto can reach as far as 35C in the summer!

It does get cold in Dubai in the months of December to February. It’s the time we shy away from the glorious beaches because the water is cold. It’s the time we take out our ‘winter’ jackets despite the mocking looks of red neck tourists coming from snowy places!.

We tell our friends coming to bring warm clothes and light jackets and of course they don’t…then regret it later and spend their travel pocket money buying one here. True story!

My family and I, as family tradition, spend every new year’s eve at home. We don’t go out to party, to a concert or spend it in another house. We believe that we all have to stick together in our own home as the new year rolls in as it signifies unity.

Also? we wear something with polka dots. The reason behind this? The dots are circle in shape same with coins so it is believed to bring in prosperity (wealth). Yeah right…as I grew older, I started to think, it would be better to wear something with rectangles, the shape of money bills, not coins! Anyway, I still follow the tradition up to now and my daughter happily obliges.

>> The polka dots thing is just one of the many funny, superstition laden New Year traditions from all over the world.

While we were in the comfort of our home with home made dishes waiting in the dinner table and eyes watching TV for the new year countdown, so many of the people were outside in the cold, some waiting silly for hours just to watch a 5 minute firework show at the world’s tallest building:

There were two other big fireworks show going on at the same time – one at Burj Al Arab and another at Atlantis The Palm.

I wish they would just join forces and make ONE firework display like in Sydney or New York.

The firework shows all look so beautiful but the agonizing traffic afterwards? Never mind. I don’t want to spend the first day of the year stuck in the road tired, sleepy and hungry.

How was your new year’s celebration?