What attracted me to buy the Fourtine magazine this month was their cover page little title "Khartoum Boom" .. This reminded me of Hashim .. and all our conversations about the virgin land of Sudan that we have ever studied it as the "food basket of the Arab countries" .. it also reminded me of my older brother's weird projects that included a farm in Sudan .. he just loves this idea and thinks of Sudan as the best place to do it .. eh .. why not .. Fourtune magazine agrees ..

Google Earth surprised me with the highlight it has on the area of Darfur as a crisis area .. though I couldn't find Palestine, Iraq, Chechnya, Kossovo, Oganda, or any related legacy crisis areas on the map .. well .. this markets the common public image the American's have about old tribal fightings that was bloated through Robert Murdouch's owned big media across US and UK .. if you are naive enough to ask why would they do that .. I would answer by telling you that in 10 years .. the production of oil in Sudan might move from 0.5 million barrels to 3 millions a day - as per the report .. good answer ?


well .. "Sudan ranked the 1st on this year's "failed states" list compiled by the Carninigie Endowment for International Peace in Washington" .. interesting enough .. this ridiculously failing state is scoring 9% economical growth last year .. Foreign investment rose to around $5 billion .. it is the oil that drives the trend .. but not Chevron nor Royal Dutch Shell .. It's Chinese Nile Petroleum Company ..

here is a good lesson .. Sanctions enforced on Sudan are hurting west more than Khartoum .. hurting companies' chances to make use of the great chance .. China is getting the most of these sanctions and flooding Khartoum with investments .. workers .. Why not .. if it was the biggest customer of their oil .. When Hu Jintao - the Chinese President - visited Sudan .. he was treated in Sudanese traditional generosity because of the respected role played in Sudan ..

The question is about Arab Entrepreneurs that should not miss such a chance in Sudan .. They would be welcomed for sure to play a part of building and constructing Sudan's real image as the "treasure basket" of the Arab world .. I think my Sudanese friends would have a say in that ..

Today I was at the airport police section following up with a case that involves me against my boss as a part of a labor dispute we hadn't settled yet ..

this is not the point ..

I was reading at the walls ..
criminal cases in 2004 : 348 ..
criminal cases in 2005 : 345 ..
criminal cases in 2006 : 606 ..

by the way .. my case number was 500+ (no need to tell the exact number) .. and we are still in mid 2007 .. we should expect more or less around 1000 cases for 2007.. which is showing a doubling trend across the time of the buildings boom ( eh .. not babies boom like US's 1945 ) ..

what was more interesting than these numbers was my file waiting almost 25 days in the hands of incompetent and weakly educated police personnel .. there is a brain and 20 members in the records section .. this is an example that you'd find in all the departments of the police around Dubai ..

sad .. right ?

This is only one part of the story .. everything else seems to be connected to threads of dangers .. after we all heard about the high risk mortgages problem in US and the black Thursday stock markets lived the past days ( Arab stock markets were off for a weekend except Egypt .. luckily ) .. The market keeps bloating the balloon created by people riding the bull ..

UAE market lost most of its value .. Emaar's share reached lowest since 2 years .. 10 Dhs a share .. this is the leading stock ..

so .. is the crisis covering only this part ?

inflation exceeded 10% ..
property prices doubled and even tripled in some places ..
education expenses are a nightmare ..
salaries are not moving up ..
people are less well off by 5% a year (inflation - raises) ..

but dude .. Burj Dubai is almost done ..
eh .. I think who are interested in this building getting done are the workers that are getting paid in the range of 150-200$ a month .. these people don't have any type of education that would guarantee them a basic understanding of their rights .. while some white skinned Brits are paid a 100 times more salary for signing the project.

what was more interesting .. is the move of the headquarter of Haliberton to Dubai .. they are contracting with some training companies to train them to exploit people as being a daily practice by companies .. almost 250,000 companies are assigned only 80 labor officers and investigators to check on labor status ..

so .. the turn is going to hit the properties market for sure .. no matter how much was learned from past countries experiences .. what we feel is being done does not exceed giving a daily dose of Panadole to silence the pain instead of visiting the doctor to deal with it .. this worsens it .. and creates a foggy reality that will not continue ..


There is nothing wrong with sitting down and drafting ways to live away from the tall buildings shades to adapt UAE's place and give it its specific context .. dealing with specifics is not going to happen through hiring overseas committees to do so .. creating job knowledge and adequate personnel development will take time and effort .. but it pays off in terms of vision and future of a country's well being ..


so .. my lady .. sneakers aren't too bad .. though they might not give you the shape you are looking for ..