Rolling out the red carpet

Besides shopping, folks in Dubai go crazy for films and celebrities, so the 8th Dubai International Film Festival is a big deal here. It opened with Tom Cruise and the Dubai premiere of Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. Dubai features prominently, including harrowing stunts around the Burj Khalifa, but we won't be seeing the film here anytime soon as the showing was by invitation only.

I just got around to watching what was billed at the festival two years ago as the first UAE/Emirati movie, called City of Life. It features an ensemble cast and intermeshed stories of a privileged young Emirati who lives it up too much, an Indian taxi driver who dreams of being a Bollywood star, a pair of Romanian flight attendants, and a wealthy western expat playboy. All very stereotypical, with lots of cliched dialogue, but even so I really enjoyed it because it features Dubai with all of its flaws, including a horrific car crash. It's not a flattering portrayal, which surprised me since you don't see that very often around here, the local media being always upbeat. (Not to mention the occasional story of someone getting arrested for disparaging the country.) But then again it's fiction, so I guess there's more leeway. Or maybe the movie is just dying a quiet death. I couldn't find it for sale anywhere--I had to rent my copy.

I hope with celebrities like Tom Cruise and Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Kahn as a draw for the festival, the region continues to support filmmaking with projects exploring the real issues. I'd love to see the next film by the director/writer of City of Life, Ali F. Mostafa. He is said to be working on a comedy featuring a road trip with four Arab friends in a sober version of "The Hangover."

Better Watch Who's Driving

My husband got eight electronic speeding tickets in one month before he realized what was happening. It starts with a sudden flash while you are driving. He either didn't notice it or couldn't tell where it came from. Then he got a notice by email, stating that he was speeding at such and such location and the amount of the fine. Each time it happened, he thought it couldn't be right. So I went online to check, and sure enough, there was a little picture of our license plate for each one.

The flash is from a camera at roadside taking a picture of your license plate while radar clocks you over the speed limit. The cameras are placed at strategic points along the major roads, and the tricky spots are where the speed limit suddenly decreases without much warning. Now that Neal has been flashed at various spots, he knows where to slow down. There is some margin, believed to be 10 km/hour.

The good news for Neal is that there are no ramifications to getting all these tickets--no points, no problems with insurance, no interest or late fees. He can clear them all by paying them when he goes to renew his license.

Given this system, it's no surprise that there are chronic abusers and plenty of unpaid fines. As of last month, unpaid fines added up to 369 million dirhams (over $100 million, with 3.67 dirhams per US$). One UAE woman accumulated 152,000 dirhams worth, while another woman collected 146,000. A teenager racked up 70,000 before getting stopped. One man seemed to be trying to set a record, scoring 42,000 dirhams in fines in 5 minutes of speeding at 180 km/hour past 12 checkpoints. Even an 88-year old Saudi with no car got hit with some hefty fines.

So what's a country to do? More good news for Neal: the UAE decided to celebrate National Day by granting a 40% discount if the fines are paid prior to January 10. Of course, many people believe that providing such a discount sends the wrong message to speeders. At the same time, authorities vow to crack down on the worst cases, such as the 3,600 drivers who exceeded 200 km/hour. If they can find these people, they will confiscate the car. Some people think they should try jailing the drivers, but how do they know for sure who was driving? In any event, if it's your car, you'll be paying.

More Like It

I'm back in Dubai again for a couple of weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The weather is very pleasant now, with temperatures in the 70's and 80's. There are lots of activities and events going on as the 40th UAE National Day comes up on December 2. Each year the celebrations get more elaborate; the "day" has now morphed into a five-day period from November 29-December 3. The events have reached the Palm this year with a temporary park full of fun things for kids to do: horse and camel rides; petting zoo with baby camels, goats, Saluki dogs, and falcons; henna painting for hands and feet; desert tents and campfires; and desert food.

The Palm also has more visitors from the air. I am seeing flocks of birds for the first time. Also, many men flying fast to the ground by parachute, alarming until you realize how accurate they are. The world parachute championships are underway.

A brave pedestrian can get extremely close to such events, as I did by walking over to the parachute landing site near Frond O. The apparent lack of concern for security and safety is troubling, so I don't venture very close.

Also in the news: several deaths of children falling out of windows from high-rise buildings, four just this week. With the mild weather, people must be opening their windows and neglecting to watch the small ones. One distraught mother jumped out of the same window her son fell through.