The Makiav3llian Enchantment…

According to news, the requirement of having companies to have all of their secretaries as LokaLs has been lifted. However, it doesn’t come cheap. For 60000AED per year for training, its a better alternative and a way for the LokaLs to earn the place they deserve in their own country. From the beginning I knew they would not be able to implement this whole thing, Dubai wasn’t built with the LokaLs in the beginning, so now as they try to make themselves mainstream, it isn’t that easy even if they force themselves in the picture. However, this is their country and they will have their ways. I am just glad that they’ve lifted it. Besides, an equal opportunity employer is what we look in all jobs aside from the pay, may this be a wake up call from both the companies here and the LokaLs, that we can all co-exist and earn our place as long as we work hard for it.

Here’s an article from Khaleej Times. 

Private firms can retain expats in secretarial jobs paying Dh 60,000 per year

23 July 2006

DUBAI — Private companies reluctant to emiratise their secretarial jobs as per a recent government order, can opt for paying Dh 60,000 per year if a proposal submitted by the Ministry of Labour to the Cabinet is approved.

This was announced yesterday by Minister of Labour, Dr. Ali Bin Abdullah Al Kaabi, who said that the ministry’s proposal include recommendations for correcting the UAE demographic structure and for organising the labour market.

Dr. Al Kaabi told a Press conference that the memo includes many suggestions in this regard, including the proposal to compel companies reluctant to appoint UAE nationals in secretarial jobs to pay Dh 60,000 every year. The amounts thus collected will be invested in training UAE national job seekers.

The emiratisation of the PRO and secretarial jobs is part of a comprehensive emiratisation plan the ministry has embarked on to achieve short and long term objectives. ‘The ministry had started implementing this plan through emiratising  the jobs  of PROs and secretaries, to be followed by those employed as human resources staff.’

At the press briefing hosted by the Dubai Press Club yesterday, Dr. Al Kaabi added that this annual fees will be paid to Tanmia, which will invest it in training the UAE national job seekers and prepare them to work in administrative positions.

‘There are 20,000 secretarial jobs available in the private sector, of which Emiratis should occuppy at least 9 to 10 per cent,’he said.

The ministry has stopped issuing labour cards for secretaries  and will not renew the card of the existing ones.

Dr. Al Kaabi clarified that the ministry’s objective was not to force companies to get rid of their expatriate  secretaries,  but only to provide job opportunities for UAE nationals in this select field. Companies that believe they can’t replace their expatriate  secretaries with Emiratis are allowed to change the position of the secretary to any other job within the establishment and at the same time keep the Emirati secretary.

Answering a question about the stereotype image of UAE nationals being lazy and unable to handle work pressure, Dr. Al Kaabi said the private sector has created this image to make excuses for not hiring locals because private companies prefer to pay less money for expatriates for the same job that can be done by Emiratis.

About the emiratisation programme Dr. Al Kabbi said,  the priority of jobs should be given to UAE nationals ‘this is their home country and they have a right to have better job opportunities. The foreign labourforce in the country is not permanent.’

‘The ministry will organise a programme in coordination with Tanmia and the Abu Dhabi Council for Rehabilitating the UAE nationals to fill the positions of secretaries and HR managers,’ he said.

Dr. Al Kaabi also said that the decision regarding the workers’ noon-break in July and August will not affect businesses because the decision was taken after thorough studies in coordination with the UAE Contractors Association.

To a question asked by Khaleej Times regarding the afternoon noon-break rules including only a part of some government organizations, he said ‘The rules include all government and private departments. All should abide by the timings for the labourers,’ he explained.

Replying to questions on companies taking deposits from employees for labour cards, Dr. Al Kaabi stressed that this was absolutely against the law. ‘Employees should report such issues to the ministry so that action can be taken against the errant companies.’

Referring to criticism by international agencies regarding the UAE’s exploitation of it’s labour force, Minister of Labour said that the agencies build their criticism  on media reports which are not accurate and differ from the actual statistics.

He stressed that all the rules issued by MoL protect the workers’ rights and the ministry’s file with the International Labour Organisation is clear.

He also said that the ministry will sign an agreement with the governments concerned to combat the illegal activities of labour supply agencies.
With regard to labour strikes, Dr. Al Kaabi said that they were 0.4 per cent compared to international statistics. ‘The ministry can solve workers’ problems and control such strikes,’ he added.

Much to my dismay, I had to let go of my Genius TwinTouch Luxemate Pro due to un-RMA-able reasons. The computer shop really had no choice, they never did anything with my unit at all, I left visible scratch marks on the charger so  I would know if they replaced it. When it was returned, just as expected, it was still the same unit I was using. Nevertheless, I still tested and hoped but the charger was a goner.
After this, the swap took place. I turned my back on Genius and looked to linking up again with Logitech. I got the very simplistic Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110 which retails around 175Dhs. Of course I did manage to find one costing only 140Dhs, not much I can do about it I have to follow the store’s pricing. I was actually scheming for an upgrade getting a Logitech unit remote with a remote but opted not to. I’ll be planning on putting up some investments on a Cordless Logitech Rumblepad 2, am A4Tech X718 / X750BF gaming Mouse and a surprise input device. So instead of getting a flashy wireless keyboard/mouse combo, I will settle for this cheap plastic looking model, besides it an entry level unit that gets the job done and with better software support… some what…

This is a title of a song by the former band Rage Against the Machine, where their fusion or rock, grunge and a political message hit strong and fast. I find no better way than to put political ideas in music since it catches on faster. Back to the scene, I would just like to lambast GWBush for his statement regarding Israel’s attack on Hezabollah. I found his comments completely out of place and how biased he is with his allies. "Israel has the right to defend itself…" Defend from what? Yes, Hezabollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed seven in a morning raid on July 12 and since they wanted to use these soldiers for a trade in, Israel has launched an all out major offensive… WAR. They got balls because they are a US ally and they’ve got nukes. Its a very sensitive topic here and the Middle East is a powder keg waiting to explode. I really can’t tell you how sad the Lebanese community is here, with Israel’s complete disregard to people and pleas from other nations, you just can’t help be affected. My colleagues can’t concentrate with work and it gets difficult to start a fun conversation because nothing fun is going to happen regardless Israel calls for a ceasefire, lives will forever change. To my colleagues, I pray for your family’s safety. To GW… You’ve spread US too thinly now… your policies, your war will be your undoing!

The 21st of last month was the official opening of Dubai’s annual summer activities called Dubai Summer Surprise, which is synonymous to DSF during winter. During this time of year when temperatures are at an all time high and people wanting to leave, activities in shopping malls or outrageous sale promotions may be the only thing that will keep tourists coming or residents to have their kids stay for a while.
Our friendly alien host Modesh has already gotten out of his space craft and the streets litter with his statues. Of course promotions and activities litter the mall as well and hopefully everyone would enjoy it. Though jobs are hard to come by at least there are  things that may make your evenings a bit brighter. This is the time for children and children at heart.

No, this is not the final sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean but more of a title my best friend introduced to hardware coming from Genius. Genius has a knack of making very competitive IT products, pitting itself with Logitech, Touchmate and Microsoft, at very competitive prices. Although not of the same quality, the product itself is attractive enough. The Genius product that I carry with me is my TwinTouch Luxemate Pro and I have mentioned several times that though it may not be the flashiest wireless keyboard around, I took it simply because of its practicality. With a built in charger, you really can’t go wrong but unfortunately, something did and the charger was not working at all. Despite the red light indicating that it was charging, no ounce of power was coming in. I did not even have 5 minutes of constant use of the mouse, it would die out. Of course it would suck as I have been using this thing for only 3 months. I was basically torn since I was thinking of not returning it for repairs since I do have an Energizer recharger but after convincing myself that I don’t shit money, I decided to make that trip to where I purchased it. After an hour standing just like regular computer shops in Gilmore, I was attended to only to have my item RMA-ed, which is still better than having it repaired. Just my luck, they are out of stock for immediate replacement. And as I type away, it has been 5 days since I left it there and I am still waiting. =(

Silos are big storage tanks that house large quantity material like grain or big things like missiles. To me it just means one thing, a big dump of gigabytes. Its been my regular naming format for my HDD and for Project-P© it was more of a luxury than a necessity, after all I do have a 40GB ATA133 Seagate, a 40GB Hitachi lappie HDD and a Pretec 256 Flash Disk.
After so much debating of getting two Hitachi 7K80 models, I decided that it would not be worth it since I will be paying more than around 400Dhs if I went through with it. Finding the WD2500KS is also like a needle in a haystack, they are really hard to find stuff here. In the Dubai market, things are also not what they seem or as advertised. Majority of the technicians here are more of sales people than actual techies who can answer your every question. Basically, to all of them a Maxline III HDD is the same as a DiamondMax 10 HDD as long as it has the same specs, 300GB, SATA II and 16MB cache. To the untrained eye this is actually no biggie but to techies like me, I know the difference. Too bad I let my guard down early and basically I just made an immediate impulse buy. Then at times, when you suddenly get back home, the feeling sinks in, I paid around $108 for this thing, and looking at online prices as of this date, the cheapest is around $99, even if it was free shipping, I would still need to pay $8 for NYC to DXB. Do I feel it was expensive? Yes! Do I feel I was cheated? Yes. Do I feel satisfied about it? A bit. Basically, I got the price I have been looking into, although I never did get the drive that I wanted, this is better than nothing. Getting 300 geebs of space is more than enough for me, my wife and my entire household. Plus the other storage devices lying around, this drive is a pretty good investment. I will be RAID-ing this baby in the future but right now, let me just look sit back and relax as we are nearing the end of this incredible journey.

One of the good things I see about myself is how conscious I can be. From admitting that I am drunk, telling myself what I am doing is wrong to admitting an addiction. Since we are closing in on the completion of Project-P© with Conroe coming into the game, it basically becomes a battle for me to hold onto my Credit Card. The P5W DH Deluxe motherboard is not even available yet and as of this writing I am desperate in buying a hard drive in which will have no use to me at the present. Its an urge which I wish to satisfy and I have talked about it in the past, I don’t know what is wrong with me but I hate feeling it. So far I’ve handled myself well by teasing myself in going to computer shops only to have my face slapped by outrageous prices. It does bring me back to earth with a thud but the urge lingers on. The prices make me think twice but when I get online, prices soon become irrelevant. Whether it be dollars or shipping rates, things become affordable all of a sudden. The addiction wouldn’t stop and jumping from one link to another, searching each category, the hunger is insatiable. And as I reach for my CC looking at those lovely 16 digits, a device with digits embossed on it gives me a great big whack on the head. To my surprise, digits which is the root of this addiction ironically would be my savior. My calculator and its currency conversion saves me time and time again.