You should've seen it. Israeli bombs were falling just down there, Ali pointed toward the port of Beirut, but we were still up here partying man, music blaring out. A sense of peace was found between those who saw through the lines of political divides, but the threat of stray bombs carried on.
Coming soon in Music.....
Monday, 22 February 2010
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Sunny situations
Appearing in print and online in:
(27 may 2009)
Summer begins to set in and already it is scorching. The concrete of Abu Dhabi retains the heat like a greenhouse. The sun beats down relentlessly, the air is almost suffocating, and we’re still two months from August. Sometimes when I’m walking I swear the city smells like a sauna, but that could be dehydration deceiving my senses. Is that an oasis up ahead, or merely tarmac melting?
It is times like these that make or break a deodorant and I have always remained relatively loyal to my brand. It guarantees 24-hour protection. It claims to be an antiperspirant. I am told a heat-activated formula will not let me down. For the last several years it has served me well – especially after I gave up sport in pursuit of less healthy habits.
But that was in England, where the temperature rarely breaches the 20s. When it does, it is considered a heatwave and a health hazard. The government, like a loving nanny, issues warnings with the public’s best interest in mind: drink plenty of water, avoid the midday sun, look after the elderly. Families flock to beaches, swarms surround ice cream vans. Children caked in sun cream run riot, driven temporarily insane in this strange season that comes after spring.
As soon as the sun starts to shine, nearly everybody dons their summer gear, making the most of the weather because it will no doubt rain tomorrow. But here, the heat is guaranteed. I have been warned to expect a long summer spent indoors, moving from air-conditioned office to air-conditioned taxi to air-conditioned home. I have been told that many people leave the country.
But the English are used to entertaining themselves indoors because it rains through much of the year. When it rains people generally complain, but come the heatwave (the mercury soaring beyond 20°C), bitter mutters are heard over fish and chips beside a shingle beach: it’s too damn hot.
For a while after I moved to Abu Dhabi, the heat was bearable. Then the sweat began to show. In this climate there is little we can do to prepare for the inevitable except, maybe, drink lots of water and make sure the air-conditioning – and your deodorant – is working. Mine, however, no longer seems resistant to perspiration. In fact, it makes little difference. Puddles form as I wait for a taxi to go to work. I was initially disheartened but have now decided to search for a new and better brand. I have heard of another one that promises not to let me down, tested at 58°C, so they say. I wonder if it is being sold in the UAE.
(27 may 2009)
Summer begins to set in and already it is scorching. The concrete of Abu Dhabi retains the heat like a greenhouse. The sun beats down relentlessly, the air is almost suffocating, and we’re still two months from August. Sometimes when I’m walking I swear the city smells like a sauna, but that could be dehydration deceiving my senses. Is that an oasis up ahead, or merely tarmac melting?
It is times like these that make or break a deodorant and I have always remained relatively loyal to my brand. It guarantees 24-hour protection. It claims to be an antiperspirant. I am told a heat-activated formula will not let me down. For the last several years it has served me well – especially after I gave up sport in pursuit of less healthy habits.
But that was in England, where the temperature rarely breaches the 20s. When it does, it is considered a heatwave and a health hazard. The government, like a loving nanny, issues warnings with the public’s best interest in mind: drink plenty of water, avoid the midday sun, look after the elderly. Families flock to beaches, swarms surround ice cream vans. Children caked in sun cream run riot, driven temporarily insane in this strange season that comes after spring.
As soon as the sun starts to shine, nearly everybody dons their summer gear, making the most of the weather because it will no doubt rain tomorrow. But here, the heat is guaranteed. I have been warned to expect a long summer spent indoors, moving from air-conditioned office to air-conditioned taxi to air-conditioned home. I have been told that many people leave the country.
But the English are used to entertaining themselves indoors because it rains through much of the year. When it rains people generally complain, but come the heatwave (the mercury soaring beyond 20°C), bitter mutters are heard over fish and chips beside a shingle beach: it’s too damn hot.
For a while after I moved to Abu Dhabi, the heat was bearable. Then the sweat began to show. In this climate there is little we can do to prepare for the inevitable except, maybe, drink lots of water and make sure the air-conditioning – and your deodorant – is working. Mine, however, no longer seems resistant to perspiration. In fact, it makes little difference. Puddles form as I wait for a taxi to go to work. I was initially disheartened but have now decided to search for a new and better brand. I have heard of another one that promises not to let me down, tested at 58°C, so they say. I wonder if it is being sold in the UAE.
Village living in Lebanon
Appearing in print and online in:
The bus exits the highway, passing a checkpoint manned by one lethargic soldier, before beginning the winding ascent into the lush mountains of Shouf. The air cools as the road snakes its way up and around a banana plantation, palms sway in the breeze and shimmer under the sun.
Every volunteer who comes to work at the EcoVillage in Lebanon is told to expect hard work. If they do not muck in enthusiastically they may be asked to move on or remain as paying guests. But in return for six hours’ labour per day, volunteers are provided with food and accommodation, usually in shared tents of two or three. Once work is complete we are free to do as we please.
Tarek el Tayaro, operations manager, tells me that “it is the spirit of the volunteers we need, because the EcoVillage is a vision”. The EcoVillage was set up in 2005 by a small group of friends who all share the same passion for nature. It is a rural community attempting to live with nature, causing as little impact as possible on the environment by using alternative energy, ecological building and design, organic farming and more.
The vision is to create a sustainable future, living in a way that preserves our planet, as well as educating and inspiring others to do so. “We want to get everybody involved,” Tarek says, as long as they are tough and ready.
Jobs vary from anything as menial as wiping the linoleum covered tables clean of dead moths and other debris, to helping out on the organic farm. The idea is that, no matter what you do, you are taking part in a sustainable project that could last for generations to come.
On my second day I help to fill empty coffee bean bags with silt deposited by the river. This is done to reinforce existing dams and create new ones by diverting a larger volume of water down the canal that leads to the hydro-turbine.
Temperatures are high in the day, and working under the baking Mediterranean sun can become a personal test of endurance. However, working in the cool waters of the river, doing my best to avoid slippery rocks covered with algae, is both refreshing and cleansing. The water is so pure, I am told, it is used for drinking.
“The river here is the vein of the village. Without the river there is no village,” Tarek says. “We benefit from it in so many ways. It generates electricity for the village, it irrigates our crops and you can swim in it.”
Because of the river and the hydro-turbine, the village is immune to the daily power cuts that are part of the everyday routine in much of Lebanon.
“Any chemicals we use here are organic chemicals that have come from flowers and extracts from other plants. Sunflowers, for example, contain a natural chemical that drives away flies. The fertiliser comes from our compost box and the manure comes from our goats and chickens,” Tarek says.
For lunch we eat rice and Sri Lankan vegetarian curry, with vegetables harvested from the farm. It couldn’t be any fresher, and it tastes delicious. Meals vary from day to day. I enjoyed vegetable stews, curries and pies, and each day my stomach and taste buds were satisfied. No volunteer to date has complained about the cooking, Tarek informs me with a confident grin, and many volunteers have passed through, he says, unsure of the exact number.
When Jean-Paul, a Frenchman, returns to work at the village for a second time, we drive the Toyota pickup truck up the only dirt road leading out of the village to collect large logs that will be used as timber for a forthcoming project. We nearly take out a fledgling tree on the way down but it survives and we unload the wood near the kitchen, testing our physical strength.
“The EcoVillage is a chance to live and work in a sustainable way, one that could help preserve the future of the earth,” says Jean-Paul. “I have volunteered at other villages before. This one still has a few things to learn, but I find I can teach them a few things, and they can teach me a few things.” Ecovillages adapt as they develop, he says.
Volunteers who pass through the village come from different countries and backgrounds; it is a place where unlikely friendships can be made. Paul and I joke that we are bridging the gap between France and England, thawing ancient icy relations. Generally, volunteers tend to be like-minded, but an element of luck is involved concerning who you may end up with.
Summer is usually a busy period for the village but I came when it was quiet. This did not leave me with much to do after work, however. Although it is easy to laze away an entire afternoon swinging on a hammock beside the river, the sound of the rushing water soothing the soul, the EcoVillage is in an area worth exploring while the days are light.
Guided hikes can be arranged around the valley, home to various medieval ruins and military barracks left behind after the Second World War amidst thriving vegetation.
In most cases, lifts can be arranged to Dmit, the nearest village 15 minutes away, where regular buses run to Beitedeine, a pleasant village and home to a magnificent 19th century palace that goes by the same name. In the village of Deir al Qamar, about five kilometres from Beitedeine, is the 17th-century Palace of Fakhreddine, rebuilt in an Italian renaissance style and now housing a wax museum.
Service taxis can be found in Beitedeine near the palace. Although unlikely to run after dark, there should be drivers willing to take you back to Dmit, or on to Deir al Qamar. An annual festival runs through July and August in Beitedeine, featuring various international and Arabic performers.It is possible to negotiate a taxi from Beitedeine to the Shouf Cedar reserve (www.shoufcedar.org), and marvel at the splendour of Lebanon’s famed and endangered native trees, displayed proudly on the national flag.
The EcoVillage can take up to five volunteers at a time all year round, and people can book as late as one week in advance although they cannot be guaranteed a space. In winter, the temperature drops significantly, adding a new element to any outdoor manual labour. The typical length of stay is one week but, if seriousness is shown, people are welcome “as much as possible”, Tarek says.
The EcoVillage in Shouf, alongside hundreds of others around the globe, is a part of the Global Ecovillage Network, which proclaims on its website (http://gen.ecovillage.org) that “ecovillages are one solution to the major problems of our time ... According to increasing numbers of scientists, we have to learn to live sustainably if we are to survive as a species.”
“In the EcoVillage you can really feel that giving is beautiful. You feel that you have achieved with the people something that is good for the future of Mother Earth,” Fatina Khatib, the owner of the village, says. “It is a dream but we ask all our volunteers if they are tough and prepared for hard work.”
If you go:
(20 August 2009)
The bus exits the highway, passing a checkpoint manned by one lethargic soldier, before beginning the winding ascent into the lush mountains of Shouf. The air cools as the road snakes its way up and around a banana plantation, palms sway in the breeze and shimmer under the sun.Every volunteer who comes to work at the EcoVillage in Lebanon is told to expect hard work. If they do not muck in enthusiastically they may be asked to move on or remain as paying guests. But in return for six hours’ labour per day, volunteers are provided with food and accommodation, usually in shared tents of two or three. Once work is complete we are free to do as we please.
Tarek el Tayaro, operations manager, tells me that “it is the spirit of the volunteers we need, because the EcoVillage is a vision”. The EcoVillage was set up in 2005 by a small group of friends who all share the same passion for nature. It is a rural community attempting to live with nature, causing as little impact as possible on the environment by using alternative energy, ecological building and design, organic farming and more.
The vision is to create a sustainable future, living in a way that preserves our planet, as well as educating and inspiring others to do so. “We want to get everybody involved,” Tarek says, as long as they are tough and ready.
Jobs vary from anything as menial as wiping the linoleum covered tables clean of dead moths and other debris, to helping out on the organic farm. The idea is that, no matter what you do, you are taking part in a sustainable project that could last for generations to come.
On my second day I help to fill empty coffee bean bags with silt deposited by the river. This is done to reinforce existing dams and create new ones by diverting a larger volume of water down the canal that leads to the hydro-turbine.
Temperatures are high in the day, and working under the baking Mediterranean sun can become a personal test of endurance. However, working in the cool waters of the river, doing my best to avoid slippery rocks covered with algae, is both refreshing and cleansing. The water is so pure, I am told, it is used for drinking.
“The river here is the vein of the village. Without the river there is no village,” Tarek says. “We benefit from it in so many ways. It generates electricity for the village, it irrigates our crops and you can swim in it.”
Because of the river and the hydro-turbine, the village is immune to the daily power cuts that are part of the everyday routine in much of Lebanon.
“Any chemicals we use here are organic chemicals that have come from flowers and extracts from other plants. Sunflowers, for example, contain a natural chemical that drives away flies. The fertiliser comes from our compost box and the manure comes from our goats and chickens,” Tarek says.
For lunch we eat rice and Sri Lankan vegetarian curry, with vegetables harvested from the farm. It couldn’t be any fresher, and it tastes delicious. Meals vary from day to day. I enjoyed vegetable stews, curries and pies, and each day my stomach and taste buds were satisfied. No volunteer to date has complained about the cooking, Tarek informs me with a confident grin, and many volunteers have passed through, he says, unsure of the exact number.
When Jean-Paul, a Frenchman, returns to work at the village for a second time, we drive the Toyota pickup truck up the only dirt road leading out of the village to collect large logs that will be used as timber for a forthcoming project. We nearly take out a fledgling tree on the way down but it survives and we unload the wood near the kitchen, testing our physical strength.
“The EcoVillage is a chance to live and work in a sustainable way, one that could help preserve the future of the earth,” says Jean-Paul. “I have volunteered at other villages before. This one still has a few things to learn, but I find I can teach them a few things, and they can teach me a few things.” Ecovillages adapt as they develop, he says.
Volunteers who pass through the village come from different countries and backgrounds; it is a place where unlikely friendships can be made. Paul and I joke that we are bridging the gap between France and England, thawing ancient icy relations. Generally, volunteers tend to be like-minded, but an element of luck is involved concerning who you may end up with.
Summer is usually a busy period for the village but I came when it was quiet. This did not leave me with much to do after work, however. Although it is easy to laze away an entire afternoon swinging on a hammock beside the river, the sound of the rushing water soothing the soul, the EcoVillage is in an area worth exploring while the days are light.
Guided hikes can be arranged around the valley, home to various medieval ruins and military barracks left behind after the Second World War amidst thriving vegetation.
In most cases, lifts can be arranged to Dmit, the nearest village 15 minutes away, where regular buses run to Beitedeine, a pleasant village and home to a magnificent 19th century palace that goes by the same name. In the village of Deir al Qamar, about five kilometres from Beitedeine, is the 17th-century Palace of Fakhreddine, rebuilt in an Italian renaissance style and now housing a wax museum.
Service taxis can be found in Beitedeine near the palace. Although unlikely to run after dark, there should be drivers willing to take you back to Dmit, or on to Deir al Qamar. An annual festival runs through July and August in Beitedeine, featuring various international and Arabic performers.It is possible to negotiate a taxi from Beitedeine to the Shouf Cedar reserve (www.shoufcedar.org), and marvel at the splendour of Lebanon’s famed and endangered native trees, displayed proudly on the national flag.
The EcoVillage can take up to five volunteers at a time all year round, and people can book as late as one week in advance although they cannot be guaranteed a space. In winter, the temperature drops significantly, adding a new element to any outdoor manual labour. The typical length of stay is one week but, if seriousness is shown, people are welcome “as much as possible”, Tarek says.
The EcoVillage in Shouf, alongside hundreds of others around the globe, is a part of the Global Ecovillage Network, which proclaims on its website (http://gen.ecovillage.org) that “ecovillages are one solution to the major problems of our time ... According to increasing numbers of scientists, we have to learn to live sustainably if we are to survive as a species.”
“In the EcoVillage you can really feel that giving is beautiful. You feel that you have achieved with the people something that is good for the future of Mother Earth,” Fatina Khatib, the owner of the village, says. “It is a dream but we ask all our volunteers if they are tough and prepared for hard work.”
If you go:
The place: The EcoVillage (www.ecoecovillage.com) is just outside Beirut, in Shouf where regular buses run from Cola.
To book, email ecovillage1@gmail.com, or telephone 00 961 3211 463 up to one week before arrival ]
The package: Volunteers stay and eat free of charge in return for six hours’ labour per day of their stay. Otherwise, guests are asked to pay for their food ($15; Dh55 per meal) and acommodation. A bed in a tent costs US$10 (Dh36) and a bed in a cottage costs from $20 (Dh73) per night
New in News: Links to articles published in The National, an English Language newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates.
Most these stories were researched and pitched by reporter Mr Rolandi, save the collaborative articles. The national desk editors received a complaint from international security firm G4S regarding Rolandi. A spokesperson for Group 4 Securicor phoned the national newsdesk citing that Rolandi had used disrespectful and offensive language toward the CEO of G4S Middle East and North African operations in an interview, RBL was informed. This allegation is not true. Rolandi was merely inquiring into the system in place for recruiting an overseas workforce from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. Never did he lose his cool, nor did his mouth spout offensive words. He asked simple questions regarding the firm's lower-end employees, he told me.
Some of the G4S employees Mr Rolandi met had been working in Abu Dhabi for over two years in shared accomodation and still had not paid back their debt to various recruitment agencies that facillitated their labour emigration. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Recruitment agencies refused to comment, but Rolandi was invited to the office of the CEO for a frank discussion.
Broke as he was, Rolandi walked through the sweltering desert heat to make his appointment in time, soaked in sweat.
Over coffee and cigarettes, the CEO claimed he did not know these practices were in place, that some of his employees hardly retained a penny they earned likening them to 21st century examples of economic slaves. He said an investigation would take place, but Rolandi left the UAE shortly after and was unable to follow-up this story.
The National editors advised him to discontinue research on this particular story, encouraging him to focus on smaller fish for the time being, congratulating his efforts thus far but acknowledging that there was no way little old Rolandi could hold to account a mighty corporation with its entangled branches of business... He must've ruffled some feathers, however, for the complaint came laden with panic. An editor passed on the news with a knowing smile. One can only assume he was barking up the right tree, but for the truth of this story to come to light the reporter would have to head to the source with guide and translator, and some sort of knowledge of local laws...
(For the record, G4S's benchmark model of accomodation based in the labour camp area just outside of Dubai is top-notch, with many facillities designed to keep the workforce content.)
Rubble out.
Most these stories were researched and pitched by reporter Mr Rolandi, save the collaborative articles. The national desk editors received a complaint from international security firm G4S regarding Rolandi. A spokesperson for Group 4 Securicor phoned the national newsdesk citing that Rolandi had used disrespectful and offensive language toward the CEO of G4S Middle East and North African operations in an interview, RBL was informed. This allegation is not true. Rolandi was merely inquiring into the system in place for recruiting an overseas workforce from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. Never did he lose his cool, nor did his mouth spout offensive words. He asked simple questions regarding the firm's lower-end employees, he told me.
Some of the G4S employees Mr Rolandi met had been working in Abu Dhabi for over two years in shared accomodation and still had not paid back their debt to various recruitment agencies that facillitated their labour emigration. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Recruitment agencies refused to comment, but Rolandi was invited to the office of the CEO for a frank discussion.
Broke as he was, Rolandi walked through the sweltering desert heat to make his appointment in time, soaked in sweat.
Over coffee and cigarettes, the CEO claimed he did not know these practices were in place, that some of his employees hardly retained a penny they earned likening them to 21st century examples of economic slaves. He said an investigation would take place, but Rolandi left the UAE shortly after and was unable to follow-up this story.
The National editors advised him to discontinue research on this particular story, encouraging him to focus on smaller fish for the time being, congratulating his efforts thus far but acknowledging that there was no way little old Rolandi could hold to account a mighty corporation with its entangled branches of business... He must've ruffled some feathers, however, for the complaint came laden with panic. An editor passed on the news with a knowing smile. One can only assume he was barking up the right tree, but for the truth of this story to come to light the reporter would have to head to the source with guide and translator, and some sort of knowledge of local laws...
(For the record, G4S's benchmark model of accomodation based in the labour camp area just outside of Dubai is top-notch, with many facillities designed to keep the workforce content.)
Rubble out.
A Life Juxtaposition: Crowstick music flips fiction
Appearing in RELEVANTBCN.com
Crowstick could be a schizophrenic, a madman fleeing down the street while the masses scream "somebody section the rascal, quick!" Trying to lynch the fucker and lobotomise him because perhaps he struck a deep chord with his multi-faceted lyrics. Lucky for some, his voice is not that far-reaching at present unless he's been secretly communicating to the world telepathically from the safety of his west London lair. Lucky for others he can be found on the internet...His beats, courtesy of himself and the likes of blood brother The Grimm Hermit, Burning Man, and electronic label blbx (www.myspace.com/blbx), are refreshing, reminiscent of UK Hip Hop's poetical glory days but taking things forward, evolving the sound then looping it back in time so that it defies linear time laws and never loses its roots, like a conscious mind moving into the future aware of some knowledge intangibly acquired from an ancient past.
“Crowstick has evolved over the years as my exaggerated alter ego. He’s become a sick-twisted fellow who likes to travel into further dimensions,” the madman says.
“I am inspired by life experiences. I have also become very influenced by DMT and other psychedelic experiences.” He has ingested molecular structures that are not to be taken lightly. DMT, released by the human brain at both birth and death, sold to Crowstick by strange chemists in English forests, is arguably the strongest hallucinogenic around supposedly revealing to the mind a timeless spiritual world.
“Other inspirations include books such as ‘the Holographic universe’ by Michael Talbot, and thinkers/writers/lecturers such as Terence McKenna, John Harris, Carlos Castaneda and old Ickey boy (to name only a few). I felt a real awakening in my second year at Leeds after reading ‘The Divine Matrix’ by Greg Braden.”
The stories that spawn from his head to be spat out in steady rhythms come from somewhere beyond, Crowstick tells me, but he is not sure where. Perhaps there are multiple sources. Like Terence Mckenna’s vision of the artist as a shaman, Crowstick’s mind occasionally slips away from this grounded concrete path into realms of the unknown. He returns and tells us all about life as a gigolo who fell in love with a client in “Here comes the train to smash my brain” (Killer Crow EP). Or he’ll wax lyrical more universal daring to insinuate that Space is bigger than we think. Bling will only feature to be mocked.
Like a romantic he has faith in the different perceptions of an open mind, an impression reflected in his recent November production; “Open Up the Brain Shutters”(In La’kech EP) with an opening note that zips the brain into a mirror of our universe where Crowstick tokes on broccoli before travelling space and time, haunted briefly by perverted pixies and demons. He addresses what is wrong with this world; discrepancies many of us already know living our lives beneath an institution trying to prop itself up on credit invisible and weightless, valuing our freedom.
“I do not decide what to write, the subject is never predetermined. I think that maybe my body is only a vessel through which the words and rhymes are transmitted. I just put on a beat and see what comes out,” he said. “Why I write? Just for the pure need of having to create. If it weren’t music, it would be something else, like art.”
Some of his music is not for the fainthearted, perhaps it should come with a mental health warning. “Tales From A Warped Mind EP” NOT SUITABLE FOR UNSTABLE KIDDIES. Some tunes may require a pinch of salt. His ideas can be far out, man, his little ditties twisted. But you don’t need to agree, these ideas could be of another world expressed in a language that tried to take over the planet (thankfully expression is still fairly free for now in England, otherwise there’d be a whole spectrum of artists persecuted or in prison for their thinking.)
www.reverbnation.com/crowstick
The stories that spawn from his head to be spat out in steady rhythms come from somewhere beyond, Crowstick tells me, but he is not sure where. Perhaps there are multiple sources. Like Terence Mckenna’s vision of the artist as a shaman, Crowstick’s mind occasionally slips away from this grounded concrete path into realms of the unknown. He returns and tells us all about life as a gigolo who fell in love with a client in “Here comes the train to smash my brain” (Killer Crow EP). Or he’ll wax lyrical more universal daring to insinuate that Space is bigger than we think. Bling will only feature to be mocked.Like a romantic he has faith in the different perceptions of an open mind, an impression reflected in his recent November production; “Open Up the Brain Shutters”(In La’kech EP) with an opening note that zips the brain into a mirror of our universe where Crowstick tokes on broccoli before travelling space and time, haunted briefly by perverted pixies and demons. He addresses what is wrong with this world; discrepancies many of us already know living our lives beneath an institution trying to prop itself up on credit invisible and weightless, valuing our freedom.
“I do not decide what to write, the subject is never predetermined. I think that maybe my body is only a vessel through which the words and rhymes are transmitted. I just put on a beat and see what comes out,” he said. “Why I write? Just for the pure need of having to create. If it weren’t music, it would be something else, like art.”
Some of his music is not for the fainthearted, perhaps it should come with a mental health warning. “Tales From A Warped Mind EP” NOT SUITABLE FOR UNSTABLE KIDDIES. Some tunes may require a pinch of salt. His ideas can be far out, man, his little ditties twisted. But you don’t need to agree, these ideas could be of another world expressed in a language that tried to take over the planet (thankfully expression is still fairly free for now in England, otherwise there’d be a whole spectrum of artists persecuted or in prison for their thinking.)
www.reverbnation.com/crowstick
Honour bound to defend freedom: Guantanamo Bay and other black holes of injustice
Once appearing online in: se7en magazine but now apparently no longer...
(some time early 2009)
Guantanamo Bay is the oldest overseas US naval base, described by the US Navy as a cornerstone of military activities in the Caribbean Theatre, “on the front lines of the battle for regional security and protection from drug trafficking and terrorism, and protection for those who attempt to make their way through regional seas in un-seaworthy craft.”
After George Bush Junior waged war against terrorism, Guantanamo Bay became host to the detainee mission of Operation Enduring Freedom. Makeshift camps used previously to house a surge of Haitian and Cuban migrants in the nineties soon became known internationally as the detention facilities holding some of the world’s most evil people, including a handful of those responsible for masterminding the largest terrorist attack in history.
Yemeni national Ramzi Binalshibh was one of five men held at the centre accused of plotting September 11. At the time of his arrest in 2002 he was believed to be the most senior al Qaeda member then in custody, a supposed missing link who could help make sense of a seemingly incomprehensible strategy used by the terrorist organisation.
Whilst on trial recently he reaffirmed his allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and stated his hopes that the Jihad will continue “and strike the heart of America with all kinds of weapons of mass destruction”.
As far as the Bush Administration was concerned, the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay was one of many crucial cogs in its anti-terrorist machine, necessary to detain men like Binalshibh who posed an all too real threat to the Western community.
But not long after the first detainees started arriving at Camp X-Ray, located on the northern side of the naval base near the sea, stories began to emerge that revealed a darker side to the world’s most powerful country and its self-proclaimed War on Terrorism.
In December 2002, 11 months since the first “enemy combatants” trickled in, it was revealed that at least 59 of the 300 or so detainees had no reason to be held, having been recommended for release by intelligence officers in Afghanistan long before their incarceration at Guantanamo.
One army official said at the time: "There are a lot of guilty [people] in there, but there's a lot of farmers in there too."United States Justice Department attorneys indicated at the end of 2001 that detainees held at Guantanamo Bay would be unable to appeal against their detention in US courts because the naval base is not on US soil.
Although this was later amended, the base continued to operate in contradiction to the Geneva Convention. It exists in a realm where the rules of the world do not apply, and humanity is just a word rarely uttered.
In some twisted way, however, the guards there are “honour bound to defend freedom”. They are told that the detainees are killers, and the type of people responsible for the World Trade Centre attacks.
Human Rights activist Moazzam Begg is currently travelling across Britain alongside a former guard and other former detainees as part of the Cage Prisoners tour, Two Sides One Story. He said: “They really believed that they were doing the job that was defending their nation.”
After September 11 2001, the US government gave itself the license to arrest and detain who it wished, in the name of its freedom.
British born Moazzam Begg is one of thousands of people once deemed to be “enemy combatants” by the US government. He was, therefore, a threat to society. He had his freedom taken away from him. He was held for three years without trial or charge, having been arrested by the CIA in Islamabad in 2002.
Moazzam moved to Kabul in 2001 with his wife and three children, fulfilling his dream of becoming a teacher and charity worker. Once there he set up a school which received official sponsorship from the UK. Then the war began.
He told a small crowd in Brighton of the 1500 pound Daisy Cutter bombs used by the US military that threatened his and countless other families. “Don’t let the name fool you,” he said, “the crater is so deep that if you were in it you would find it very difficult to get out.”
After his arrest he was held at the Bagram Theatre Internment Facility, another US overseas base. He has claimed to have seen two men beaten to death whilst in detention there. “After Bagram we were looking forward to going to Guantanamo Bay.”
Some detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been incarcerated for as long as 7 years with no hint of a trial on the horizon. Families fear the worst when their loved ones go missing, but have no clue where they are or what has happened to them.
The CIA has been reported to fly prisoners from one country to the other, always off the radar, all the time subjecting them to brutal interrogations. Quite often the first news heard after someone’s disappearance is their name read out on a list of international terrorist suspects years later.
Around 500 of Guantanamo’s prisoners are handed to the US by Pakistani forces, the Afghan Northern Alliance, and bounty hunters after a reward of thousands of dollars. Children as young as nine have been through the centre’s cages.
There is evidence that detainees are tortured. In January this year a US official admitted to the abuse and torture of a Saudi national accused of being the 20th hijacker behind the September 11 plot.
Former guard Chris Arendt told how guards were ordered to mace and beat up disobedient prisoners, it was in the Standard Operating Manual. Many of the prisoners do not speak English and do not understand the guards’ orders - they are at risk of being beaten more frequently than those who can speak English.
Chris is a changed man. He was only 17 when joined the army. It was not long before he was sent to Guantanamo. He said: “I don’t think it helps you to know the horrible things that happened. What I saw there was a complete violation of my personal ethics.”
In 2007, up to 80 per cent of prisoners were in solitary confinement, according to a report by Amnesty International. Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said at the time: “With many prisoners already in despair at being held in indefinite detention on a remote island prison, some are dangerously close to full-blown mental and physical breakdown after years of solitary confinement.”
UK national Omar Deghayes is blind in one eye. A soldier allegedly plunged his finger into it. Omar had human excrement smeared over his face and, like many others, he was injected against his will with strange and mysterious drugs. He was beaten up by “Extreme Reaction Forces” on his first day after his transfer from Bagram, where he also saw a man beaten to death, to Guantanamo. The beatings continued consistently thereafter.
But as far as Omar is concerned, there are “other places which are worse than Guantanamo. The closure of Guantanamo is not the end of the problem”. He spoke of the secret detention facilities hidden in places like Romania, Morrocco, and Jordan, and “many other black hole places where torture still takes place”.
One of Barack Obama’s pre-election promises was to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and restore habeas corpus. Both Moazzam and Omar fear that this closure would have dire consequences for the thousands of other detainees in other detention centres across the world.
Amnesty International has said that there are as many as 70,000 people held in secret prisons worldwide, including on UK and US soil, where unspeakable atrocities occur every day out of the sight of the media’s watchful eye. Guantanamo Bay is just the tip of this iceberg of injustice.
Belmarsh Prison in London has been referred to as Britain’s Guantanamo. Nine foreign nationals were arrested in December in 2001 and imprisoned at Belmarsh where they were held indefinitely without trial, and kept in their cells for as long as 22 hours a day. The House of Lords ruled that this detention was in breach of the Human Rights Act.
UK Anti-Terror legislation means that terror suspects can be put under house arrest making it illegal for them to go into their own gardens.
Suspects can be held without charge for as long as 28 days while police track down shreds of evidence against them. During the height of the IRA’s bombing campaign suspects could only be held for 3 days without charge. In places like Guantanamo and Belmarsh people are held for years with no real evidence amounting to a case against them.
500 or more people, including Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards, have been released from Guantanamo without going to court. Moazzam aks: “If they were so dangerous why were they released?”
Jaralla al-Marri was arrested because of apparent links to the Taliban and al Qaeda. He is now a free man but his brother is still in solitary confinement at the Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, America.
He flew seven hours from Afghanistan to speak to the people of Britain, not of his time in Guantanamo but of what can be done to bring an end to the unfair internment of thousands of people across the globe.
There is no such thing as a human rights campaign in Afghanistan. Jaralla said: “Seven years and no-one listened to our voice.”
Human rights group Cage Prisoners, of which Moazzam Begg is a spokesman, is campaigning for justice across the world and not just for those incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay. The Two Sides One Story Tour is “to mark seven years of unlawful detention, abuse and torture”.
Moazzam told people in Brighton how “this is a unique time in history where people from both sides of the war are talking during the conflict about experiences that effected both peoples’ lives”.
By spreading awareness they hope that a unified voice of thousands of people standing against illegal detention without trial will embarrass the powers-that-be to do something about it.
(some time early 2009)
Guantanamo Bay is the oldest overseas US naval base, described by the US Navy as a cornerstone of military activities in the Caribbean Theatre, “on the front lines of the battle for regional security and protection from drug trafficking and terrorism, and protection for those who attempt to make their way through regional seas in un-seaworthy craft.”
After George Bush Junior waged war against terrorism, Guantanamo Bay became host to the detainee mission of Operation Enduring Freedom. Makeshift camps used previously to house a surge of Haitian and Cuban migrants in the nineties soon became known internationally as the detention facilities holding some of the world’s most evil people, including a handful of those responsible for masterminding the largest terrorist attack in history.
Yemeni national Ramzi Binalshibh was one of five men held at the centre accused of plotting September 11. At the time of his arrest in 2002 he was believed to be the most senior al Qaeda member then in custody, a supposed missing link who could help make sense of a seemingly incomprehensible strategy used by the terrorist organisation.
Whilst on trial recently he reaffirmed his allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and stated his hopes that the Jihad will continue “and strike the heart of America with all kinds of weapons of mass destruction”.
As far as the Bush Administration was concerned, the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay was one of many crucial cogs in its anti-terrorist machine, necessary to detain men like Binalshibh who posed an all too real threat to the Western community.
But not long after the first detainees started arriving at Camp X-Ray, located on the northern side of the naval base near the sea, stories began to emerge that revealed a darker side to the world’s most powerful country and its self-proclaimed War on Terrorism.
In December 2002, 11 months since the first “enemy combatants” trickled in, it was revealed that at least 59 of the 300 or so detainees had no reason to be held, having been recommended for release by intelligence officers in Afghanistan long before their incarceration at Guantanamo.
One army official said at the time: "There are a lot of guilty [people] in there, but there's a lot of farmers in there too."United States Justice Department attorneys indicated at the end of 2001 that detainees held at Guantanamo Bay would be unable to appeal against their detention in US courts because the naval base is not on US soil.
Although this was later amended, the base continued to operate in contradiction to the Geneva Convention. It exists in a realm where the rules of the world do not apply, and humanity is just a word rarely uttered.
In some twisted way, however, the guards there are “honour bound to defend freedom”. They are told that the detainees are killers, and the type of people responsible for the World Trade Centre attacks.
Human Rights activist Moazzam Begg is currently travelling across Britain alongside a former guard and other former detainees as part of the Cage Prisoners tour, Two Sides One Story. He said: “They really believed that they were doing the job that was defending their nation.”
After September 11 2001, the US government gave itself the license to arrest and detain who it wished, in the name of its freedom.
British born Moazzam Begg is one of thousands of people once deemed to be “enemy combatants” by the US government. He was, therefore, a threat to society. He had his freedom taken away from him. He was held for three years without trial or charge, having been arrested by the CIA in Islamabad in 2002.
Moazzam moved to Kabul in 2001 with his wife and three children, fulfilling his dream of becoming a teacher and charity worker. Once there he set up a school which received official sponsorship from the UK. Then the war began.
He told a small crowd in Brighton of the 1500 pound Daisy Cutter bombs used by the US military that threatened his and countless other families. “Don’t let the name fool you,” he said, “the crater is so deep that if you were in it you would find it very difficult to get out.”
After his arrest he was held at the Bagram Theatre Internment Facility, another US overseas base. He has claimed to have seen two men beaten to death whilst in detention there. “After Bagram we were looking forward to going to Guantanamo Bay.”
Some detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been incarcerated for as long as 7 years with no hint of a trial on the horizon. Families fear the worst when their loved ones go missing, but have no clue where they are or what has happened to them.
The CIA has been reported to fly prisoners from one country to the other, always off the radar, all the time subjecting them to brutal interrogations. Quite often the first news heard after someone’s disappearance is their name read out on a list of international terrorist suspects years later.
Around 500 of Guantanamo’s prisoners are handed to the US by Pakistani forces, the Afghan Northern Alliance, and bounty hunters after a reward of thousands of dollars. Children as young as nine have been through the centre’s cages.
There is evidence that detainees are tortured. In January this year a US official admitted to the abuse and torture of a Saudi national accused of being the 20th hijacker behind the September 11 plot.
Former guard Chris Arendt told how guards were ordered to mace and beat up disobedient prisoners, it was in the Standard Operating Manual. Many of the prisoners do not speak English and do not understand the guards’ orders - they are at risk of being beaten more frequently than those who can speak English.
Chris is a changed man. He was only 17 when joined the army. It was not long before he was sent to Guantanamo. He said: “I don’t think it helps you to know the horrible things that happened. What I saw there was a complete violation of my personal ethics.”
In 2007, up to 80 per cent of prisoners were in solitary confinement, according to a report by Amnesty International. Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said at the time: “With many prisoners already in despair at being held in indefinite detention on a remote island prison, some are dangerously close to full-blown mental and physical breakdown after years of solitary confinement.”
UK national Omar Deghayes is blind in one eye. A soldier allegedly plunged his finger into it. Omar had human excrement smeared over his face and, like many others, he was injected against his will with strange and mysterious drugs. He was beaten up by “Extreme Reaction Forces” on his first day after his transfer from Bagram, where he also saw a man beaten to death, to Guantanamo. The beatings continued consistently thereafter.
But as far as Omar is concerned, there are “other places which are worse than Guantanamo. The closure of Guantanamo is not the end of the problem”. He spoke of the secret detention facilities hidden in places like Romania, Morrocco, and Jordan, and “many other black hole places where torture still takes place”.
One of Barack Obama’s pre-election promises was to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and restore habeas corpus. Both Moazzam and Omar fear that this closure would have dire consequences for the thousands of other detainees in other detention centres across the world.
Amnesty International has said that there are as many as 70,000 people held in secret prisons worldwide, including on UK and US soil, where unspeakable atrocities occur every day out of the sight of the media’s watchful eye. Guantanamo Bay is just the tip of this iceberg of injustice.
Belmarsh Prison in London has been referred to as Britain’s Guantanamo. Nine foreign nationals were arrested in December in 2001 and imprisoned at Belmarsh where they were held indefinitely without trial, and kept in their cells for as long as 22 hours a day. The House of Lords ruled that this detention was in breach of the Human Rights Act.
UK Anti-Terror legislation means that terror suspects can be put under house arrest making it illegal for them to go into their own gardens.
Suspects can be held without charge for as long as 28 days while police track down shreds of evidence against them. During the height of the IRA’s bombing campaign suspects could only be held for 3 days without charge. In places like Guantanamo and Belmarsh people are held for years with no real evidence amounting to a case against them.
500 or more people, including Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards, have been released from Guantanamo without going to court. Moazzam aks: “If they were so dangerous why were they released?”
Jaralla al-Marri was arrested because of apparent links to the Taliban and al Qaeda. He is now a free man but his brother is still in solitary confinement at the Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, America.
He flew seven hours from Afghanistan to speak to the people of Britain, not of his time in Guantanamo but of what can be done to bring an end to the unfair internment of thousands of people across the globe.
There is no such thing as a human rights campaign in Afghanistan. Jaralla said: “Seven years and no-one listened to our voice.”
Human rights group Cage Prisoners, of which Moazzam Begg is a spokesman, is campaigning for justice across the world and not just for those incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay. The Two Sides One Story Tour is “to mark seven years of unlawful detention, abuse and torture”.
Moazzam told people in Brighton how “this is a unique time in history where people from both sides of the war are talking during the conflict about experiences that effected both peoples’ lives”.
By spreading awareness they hope that a unified voice of thousands of people standing against illegal detention without trial will embarrass the powers-that-be to do something about it.
The green road to the future
Appearing online in: se7en magazine (1 February 2009)
http://www.sevenglobal.org/index.php/culture/57-global/334-the-green-road-to-the-future.html
With evidence piling up against the carbon skid mark left behind by ordinary vehicles, petrol heads may have to face up to the fumes and look to the sky for a vital source of energy that will keep people behind the wheel for generations to come.
Before speed freaks sneer at the idea of green machines rivalling good old fashioned petrol power, the world’s fastest solar car now peaks at 110 mph.
The development of solar technology has come a long way since Alan Freeman built the first road-worthy model in 1979. This early prototype looked more like a tricycle with a bizarre roof fitting, not something that could be driven safely, and legally, down a main road. But the prototype’s roof fitting, as well as providing decent shelter in the rain, was made up of hundreds of solar cells that converted the sun’s energy into electricity, thus powering the car along England’s countryside roads.
With a top speed of 12 mph, nobody driving it had to worry about causing serious damage, or breaking the speed limit. Although it would have been more practical to ride your bike to the local shop instead of hoping for a ray of sun to charge the battery, the bar had been set for solar cars.
Today’s solar cars, with their stream-lined designs, seem to have floated off the pages of science fiction books, but they share the same basic principle as Freeman’s revolutionary model.
Durham University is home to one of Britain’s few solar car racing teams, DUSC. The team recently took part in the North American Solar Challenge, completing the 2,500 mile course in 10 days.
Dr. David Sims-Williams, an engineering lecturer at Durham University, said: “We hear a lot of doom and gloom about the environment and about the impact of transport. I think that our students are setting a really positive example by showing how engineering and science can provide solutions.”
Although the solar cars used in international solar challenges are designed for race purposes, the technology used can be implemented in the mainstream motoring industry.
It is easy to doubt the potential of solar energy, especially if you live in dreary Britain. On its own, it does not seem reliable enough to meet the demands of everyday motoring; the technology is too dependent on good weather. But, Sims-Williams believes that the future “as far as cars are concerned, is electric.”
Solar panels only harness a portion of the sun’s energy. This energy can be stored so that the vehicle can drive regardless of rain or shine, but without sun on a regular basis, motorists could find themselves stuck. If solar panels were able to utilize all of the sun’s energy, and batteries were able to store it accordingly, then it would be a different story.
Solar car teams around the world are all pioneers in their field, chartering unknown territory and aiding the development of this technology so that it can be of more use in our everyday lives. “Hybrid, fuel cell, solar and battery-powered cars all use similar drive-trains and much of the technology being developed on the Durham University Solar Car will carry over to everyday vehicles of the future,” Sims-Williams said.
We may still be a long way from free driving courtesy of the sun, but solar technology has advanced so much over the years, it is unlikely to cease now. Sims-Williams foresees a lasting union between motoring and solar technology. He said: “Of all the renewable energy sources, solar has the greatest long term potential and could meet all of the world's energy needs. The main obstacle is that solar is much more expensive than other energy sources.”
For now, however, the future is hybrid. Electricity bills are high enough without having to plug your car into the mains. Oil supplies are depleting. Until solar energy, which is free after the initial cost of production, is 100% reliable, hybrid technology is paving the green way, but these cars of the future are costly.
Swiss company Mindset AG announced in 2008 that 10,000 of its petrol-electric hybrid model, the Six50, will be going on sale this year. The Six50 will be fitted with solar roof panels powering lithium-ion batteries. With a fully charged battery, you will be free to drive for about 62 miles, avoiding the cost of the petrol pump, but this hybrid coupe will initially set you back around £50,000.
When that battery starts to run low, just before you start cursing gathering clouds on the horizon and wondering why you did not buy something a little more reliable with that hard-earned cash, a two cylinder petrol engine theoretically kicks into action. Any notion you might have had of being environmentally friendly disperses, adding to all the other hot air in the atmosphere, but at least you can now drive for a further 496 miles.
Regardless of the carbon omitted by the Six50 as eco-energy is swapped for conventional fuel, its mass production is a testament to the development of solar technology.
Manufacturing giants Toyota and Honda are now going head to head in the latest development of hybrid technology and, with their respective Prius and Insight models, prices are already falling.
Using alternative energy to power the majority of our vehicles and stave off our addiction to fossil fuel no longer seems to be a distant, unaffordable dream of a clean, green motoring future.
http://www.sevenglobal.org/index.php/culture/57-global/334-the-green-road-to-the-future.html
With evidence piling up against the carbon skid mark left behind by ordinary vehicles, petrol heads may have to face up to the fumes and look to the sky for a vital source of energy that will keep people behind the wheel for generations to come.
Before speed freaks sneer at the idea of green machines rivalling good old fashioned petrol power, the world’s fastest solar car now peaks at 110 mph.
The development of solar technology has come a long way since Alan Freeman built the first road-worthy model in 1979. This early prototype looked more like a tricycle with a bizarre roof fitting, not something that could be driven safely, and legally, down a main road. But the prototype’s roof fitting, as well as providing decent shelter in the rain, was made up of hundreds of solar cells that converted the sun’s energy into electricity, thus powering the car along England’s countryside roads.
With a top speed of 12 mph, nobody driving it had to worry about causing serious damage, or breaking the speed limit. Although it would have been more practical to ride your bike to the local shop instead of hoping for a ray of sun to charge the battery, the bar had been set for solar cars.
Today’s solar cars, with their stream-lined designs, seem to have floated off the pages of science fiction books, but they share the same basic principle as Freeman’s revolutionary model.
Durham University is home to one of Britain’s few solar car racing teams, DUSC. The team recently took part in the North American Solar Challenge, completing the 2,500 mile course in 10 days.
Dr. David Sims-Williams, an engineering lecturer at Durham University, said: “We hear a lot of doom and gloom about the environment and about the impact of transport. I think that our students are setting a really positive example by showing how engineering and science can provide solutions.”
Although the solar cars used in international solar challenges are designed for race purposes, the technology used can be implemented in the mainstream motoring industry.
It is easy to doubt the potential of solar energy, especially if you live in dreary Britain. On its own, it does not seem reliable enough to meet the demands of everyday motoring; the technology is too dependent on good weather. But, Sims-Williams believes that the future “as far as cars are concerned, is electric.”
Solar panels only harness a portion of the sun’s energy. This energy can be stored so that the vehicle can drive regardless of rain or shine, but without sun on a regular basis, motorists could find themselves stuck. If solar panels were able to utilize all of the sun’s energy, and batteries were able to store it accordingly, then it would be a different story.
Solar car teams around the world are all pioneers in their field, chartering unknown territory and aiding the development of this technology so that it can be of more use in our everyday lives. “Hybrid, fuel cell, solar and battery-powered cars all use similar drive-trains and much of the technology being developed on the Durham University Solar Car will carry over to everyday vehicles of the future,” Sims-Williams said.
We may still be a long way from free driving courtesy of the sun, but solar technology has advanced so much over the years, it is unlikely to cease now. Sims-Williams foresees a lasting union between motoring and solar technology. He said: “Of all the renewable energy sources, solar has the greatest long term potential and could meet all of the world's energy needs. The main obstacle is that solar is much more expensive than other energy sources.”
For now, however, the future is hybrid. Electricity bills are high enough without having to plug your car into the mains. Oil supplies are depleting. Until solar energy, which is free after the initial cost of production, is 100% reliable, hybrid technology is paving the green way, but these cars of the future are costly.
Swiss company Mindset AG announced in 2008 that 10,000 of its petrol-electric hybrid model, the Six50, will be going on sale this year. The Six50 will be fitted with solar roof panels powering lithium-ion batteries. With a fully charged battery, you will be free to drive for about 62 miles, avoiding the cost of the petrol pump, but this hybrid coupe will initially set you back around £50,000.
When that battery starts to run low, just before you start cursing gathering clouds on the horizon and wondering why you did not buy something a little more reliable with that hard-earned cash, a two cylinder petrol engine theoretically kicks into action. Any notion you might have had of being environmentally friendly disperses, adding to all the other hot air in the atmosphere, but at least you can now drive for a further 496 miles.
Regardless of the carbon omitted by the Six50 as eco-energy is swapped for conventional fuel, its mass production is a testament to the development of solar technology.
Manufacturing giants Toyota and Honda are now going head to head in the latest development of hybrid technology and, with their respective Prius and Insight models, prices are already falling.
Using alternative energy to power the majority of our vehicles and stave off our addiction to fossil fuel no longer seems to be a distant, unaffordable dream of a clean, green motoring future.
Dicing with death on city roads
Appearing in print and online in:
(11 April 2009)
ABU DHABI // There is rarely a break in the traffic on Airport Road. Much like the rest of Abu Dhabi, it flows thick and fast. Putting their lives at risk, pedestrians dash across the highway where and when they can, sometimes with cars bearing down at high speed.Despite the close calls, near misses and fatal accidents and police campaigns, the gamble with life continues in a country where, for now at least, cars remain kings of the road.
People continue to make bold dashes across wide and busy roads, frustrating many drivers who believe there are too many close calls.
Jassim Mohammed, a 39-year-old legal consultant from Dubai visiting friends in Abu Dhabi, said pedestrians crossing at the wrong places were causing problems for drivers and increasing the chances of road accidents.
“It’s absolutely wrong,” he said. “They shouldn’t cross in the middle of the road. They should cross in the proper places.” He fears that, because of the law, he would be blamed if he hit someone, even if it was not his fault.
“I would be blamed because they would say that I didn’t drive carefully. How can I drive carefully if someone jumps out in front of my car like a cat?”
Fadwa Qourah, 30, from the Palestinian Territories, has lived in Abu Dhabi for more than two years. She said many pedestrians did not look before they crossed.
People continue to make bold dashes across wide and busy roads, frustrating many drivers who believe there are too many close calls.
Jassim Mohammed, a 39-year-old legal consultant from Dubai visiting friends in Abu Dhabi, said pedestrians crossing at the wrong places were causing problems for drivers and increasing the chances of road accidents.
“It’s absolutely wrong,” he said. “They shouldn’t cross in the middle of the road. They should cross in the proper places.” He fears that, because of the law, he would be blamed if he hit someone, even if it was not his fault.
“I would be blamed because they would say that I didn’t drive carefully. How can I drive carefully if someone jumps out in front of my car like a cat?”
Fadwa Qourah, 30, from the Palestinian Territories, has lived in Abu Dhabi for more than two years. She said many pedestrians did not look before they crossed.
“Even if you are going at high speed they won’t look,” she said.
There have been occasions when she has had her family in the car, and been forced to slam on the brakes to allow someone to cross who did not take the time to check if the road was clear.
But not all pedestrians are so foolhardy. Khaled Yahya Ahsami, 28, from Abu Dhabi who drives a Mustang when he is not walking, believes that “it is only one life you have”, and he does not intend on losing his on the road.
Although he finds that crossings are few and far between, he said he only crosses the road where there are traffic signals, because “drivers are driving carelessly”.
There have been occasions when she has had her family in the car, and been forced to slam on the brakes to allow someone to cross who did not take the time to check if the road was clear.
But not all pedestrians are so foolhardy. Khaled Yahya Ahsami, 28, from Abu Dhabi who drives a Mustang when he is not walking, believes that “it is only one life you have”, and he does not intend on losing his on the road.
Although he finds that crossings are few and far between, he said he only crosses the road where there are traffic signals, because “drivers are driving carelessly”.
He is not alone. Bonny Joseph, 31, an Etihad Airways worker from India who does not drive, also crosses roads at the safest of places, preferably an underpass.
“The cars are very fast in Abu Dhabi. This is a highway, it’s not good to cross the road,” he said. “Sometimes cars don’t slow down because it is not made for pedestrians. I feel safer crossing in the underpass.”
Even if there is an underpass nearby, pedestrians do not always use it. Next to the underpass that Mr Joseph emerged from, a man darted through traffic risking his life and also a fine of Dh200 (US$54), just to get to the other side in a hurry.
Even when pedestrians try to get across the road at properly designated crossings, they often risk their lives. Roxanna Gill, from Pakistan, appeared calm as she walked over a faded zebra crossing, pausing between lanes of fast moving traffic, cars flying by either side of her, as she made her way to a shop. Once she reached the safety of the pavement she acknowledged that her heart rate was faster than usual.
This time, she had made it safely to the other side but as another speeding car shot past, she said she always felt at risk on zebra crossings because cars rarely slowed down for her.
“The cars are very fast in Abu Dhabi. This is a highway, it’s not good to cross the road,” he said. “Sometimes cars don’t slow down because it is not made for pedestrians. I feel safer crossing in the underpass.”
Even if there is an underpass nearby, pedestrians do not always use it. Next to the underpass that Mr Joseph emerged from, a man darted through traffic risking his life and also a fine of Dh200 (US$54), just to get to the other side in a hurry.
Even when pedestrians try to get across the road at properly designated crossings, they often risk their lives. Roxanna Gill, from Pakistan, appeared calm as she walked over a faded zebra crossing, pausing between lanes of fast moving traffic, cars flying by either side of her, as she made her way to a shop. Once she reached the safety of the pavement she acknowledged that her heart rate was faster than usual.
This time, she had made it safely to the other side but as another speeding car shot past, she said she always felt at risk on zebra crossings because cars rarely slowed down for her.
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