dubai_phil

Think the Football world will look back on our game at Man Ure as being THE definitive Season Defining Game....... After we win 4-0 and plunge Moyes into a nightmare

SURELY we can't come up against a keeper playing a blinder THREE weeks in a row? More worryingly, Al Jism are showing this game listed as being on .TV whatever the feck that is, (along with 3 other games inc Hull v Citeh) and yet are listing Millwall v Leeds and Barca's Handball team as being on actual Broadcast TV. This means I'm gonna have to ring their Call Centre to find out before making the 20 mile round trip by taxi down the pub this afternoon. Oh deep joy.

I like NC's thinking here. Not only has he brought in a quality International Striker but also has an eye on the long term opportunities his DNA will bring to the local area & hence the Academy in future years.

Strange that it happened at the IV. They are normally very good. They had some construction going on so some of the outdoor area was unavailable, but they really needed a couple more service areas. Same happens at gigs here, only Sandance seem to understand that the more overpriced booze they sell the more money they can make, most gigs bring in caterers who bring in the cheapest lowest cost they can find and the fewest. Absolutely stupid. Main problem is inflexible labour laws unfortunately (See Qatar Slave Labour thread in lounge for long explanation but it's against the law here to "moonlight" so even if people wanted to do a temp bar job for a few quid they cannot without a visa & labour card blah blah blah)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24282713 Something is clearly starting to be done, to be fair the comment that is true and fair. The issue will be with related peripheral projects such as Property Development, Hotels & Malls etc. They do have laws, they now appear to have been mobilised into action. Like everything in every Nation somebody does the leg work, finds an issue, raises it. Again, Tim - 1) It is a legal obligation to provide Water for workers. It is a legal obligation to pay the workers. Managers as well as companies will face Fines and probable Jail Sentences for NOT paying. Unfortunately, as in the UK IF a company has no money or goes pop then employees don't get paid. (And as I pointed out, there ARE systems Gratuity Deposits that ensure they get SOMETHING in this event) 2) I am willing to bet a Tesco's Keg of OSH that the complaints about Water occurred during Ramadan. Cannot have it both ways, either understand the issue of Ramadan - it is ILLEGAL to drink/eat/smoke in public period. The GOVERNMENT will not and cannot provide drink stations. culturally it would be like UK Gov ENFORCING a Burka on every woman in UK - Culturally it just cannot happen. The employer has to find a work around - normally it is a $10 piece of plastic sheeting to screen the workers. MANY of the labourers will be illiterate or of "low IQ & EQ" and may not even know it is there DESPITE being told. 3) There will be heavy fines and inspections will increase visibly 4) The Media will find a zillion other Offences against Humanity The one issue will always be - Cash Flow and timing of payments. On that issue any inexperienced Western Company will get burned and there are planes full of idiots landing here everyday who think they know better.

Oh stop it Alpine. Everyone knows the BBC has to stop making any form of programmes and just buy in left over rubbish from around the world. It's the only way they can keep enough of the Licence fee to pay their 327,000 Senior Managers salaries of 500k a year...........

What the hell is it with Sunderland? Keep looking at nut-case Managers? Sure Poyet has a better reputation than Di Canio but he never came across as the most balanced intellectual in football while down the road.

Ugh. Half Price Guinness. Bad idea. OK so TINY set up in front of the stage in the Garden of the legend that is Dubai's Irish Village. Luckily Will I Am and Timba-lake were doing a DJ set on the other side of town so think it is safe to say there were only a few WAGS in the crowd under the age of 35. Place was absolutely rammed. We were standing just by the main entrance into the pub and were still only about 60m from the stage which is rare in these days of VIP or Golden Circles. Toploader came on first - OMG they last played here 12 years ago, how time flies, I recalled that their gig then was only memorable for the fact they were on a flight back to UK with me the next afternoon all rammed into economy class and I chatted to one of them while the band queued to get their instruments off the baggage reclaim carousel (wow they must have been huge taking their own kit in their luggage allowance!) So have to say they are a Top band... . Kind of like watching a clone of Simply Red who only play SR's obscure album tracks. All in all their set proved a gentle soothing backdrop to the 40 minutes of aggressive elbowing and knees in groin that was required to queue up for a beer. FFS I only got to see one song! Summary? Girlies wobbled gently from side to side in time to the music and some people clapped when they played their TV Advert. Honestly well worth seeing in a local pub for a tenner..... (which co-incidentally was what we were doing) Lightning Seeds Unplugged. Well, I reckon it was a really clever set. Broudie probably played 5 or 6 tracks on his own with just his (Electric) guitar and had another Guitarist and a Drummer (with cut down Drum Kit) join in on the rest. What a great range of songs they have, and a great nay influential sound. The TROUBLE was that it was the kind of gig that would be Legendary if played in the afternoon at the Park at Glasto or in an intimate venue where you can sit and listen to the quality of the musicianship on display. It REALLY did not work so well in front of a crowd of 5,000 wanting to get rat-arsed ex-pats who were having to stand 10 deep at the bars to try and get a beer. The format made their music something to really listen to not PARTY to, so it meant that for many the band were simply elevator music while they bumped into old friends they had not seen for 10 years; or as a backdrop while some of the (let's be honest) more elderly single ladies in the crowd tried with increasing desperation to get laid. (Christ there was one there dressed like JLo who was actually a spitting image of Stephen Tyler FFS) WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WOMAN! The encore summed up the evening really. 3 Lions, just Ian & his guitar and a slow dawning by the rest of the crowd that they could sing along. Ruined by a 40 year old "look at me moron Paddy" who thought it would be a good time to curl his face into a rancid spitting fury, raise his hand in the air and sing some obscene IRA anthem at the top of his voice - which his 5 mates seemed to think was funny. It is VERY rare that I get into a position where my right arm is pulling itself back into position for a Windmilling Right Hook. Luckily I was beaten to it by - of all things - an African Security Guard/Bouncer. Kind of made the night! He went down faster than Pompey complete with Red & White stripes around his nose as he lifted his face from the floor. I thought the band were bloody marvellous and again, that set, in the right venue, with an audience of fans would be Pure Gold. I'm sure they will have that format on some tour this year, it would work in the Mayflower or a Stadium but in an intimate Music Pub/Club? Wow. And yes, hangover from hell this morning - caused by the fact that anyone who ACTUALLY got to the bar bought about 4 beers for each of the gang every time. Oh and one more thing, after 4 months of obscene heat and humidity, last night the weather here FINALLY changed and it was down to about 34C with a wonderful dry breeze. Winter has arrived and our gig season is finally back! Next up Of Monsters & Men & The Killers on the beach. Sandance have a brand new bigger stage for this season and have tweaked the layout so that now they can get 15,000 people into a 30 metre wide stretch of beach. Can't wait to see if Eric gets Twerked on again!

Won't end there though. WC, Major Golf Events, Olympics F1 Races all happen thanks to VOLUNTEERS. People will not get time off and anyway the types who would Volunteer - Ex Pats won't bother unless they are getting free tickets. (No sense of Community unlike London 2012) The Country is going to have to import huge numbers of Temporary Staff - all will need Visas and Accomodation. All the projects will have been awarded to The Lowest Bidder (Never going to change that mentality) and the staff won't get paid and probably won't get flown home again afterwards

Again good point. FWIW a number of friends actually enjoy living in Qatar, as with Muscat in Oman it still retains the sense of a proper community unlike the soul-lessness & bling merchants infesting much of this place. I WILL pull you up on the point QATAR hasn't done that per se, in fact EVERY GCC Nation has done this BUT it is also right to say it is INDUSTRY that is importing them, NOT the Government. As an example of how things are improving, over here they passed a law a few years ago restricting the number of hours that Labourers could work outdoors on Construction Projects in the height of summer. (They HAVE to have an enforced break when around midday when it is at it's hottest) In true "UK EU Regulations Inspector style" everyone here was quite surprised to see that Dubai & Abu Dhabi recruited a sensible number of Arab Local Inspectors and SHOCK HORROR! - Enforced the law. Couple of big companies got hammered here this summer. The templates and laws are in place, unfortunately Easy Money attracts Evil people in every Nation. Dubai learnt it's lessons with that bad PR. Qatar is going to learn (as in fact Brazil has been) that once you get a WC the spotlight falls in all kinds of areas. Stories will keep coming. Next up will be the Daily Fail telling every one of it's readers that they are an idiot for not buying 25 Buy to Let Properties in Qatar (obviously after the Journo's have been on an Expenses Paid Trip to see how wonderful the property Market is) that never happened before no siree....

It's Arthurs Day! Woo hoo! What's that you all cry? Well it's a 2 day festival in honour of the Genius (apparently) or Guinness. REALLY looking forward to seeing Ian Broudie doing a Lightning Seeds Unplugged set tonight as we kick off our concert season Was surfing You Tube to give Mrs D_P a ribbing about not knowing the words to 3 Lions and just hit their play list. Which brought all their songs flooding back. Hell of a lot of great tunes back in the day. May be a bit slurry on the review though - Half Price Back stuff this evening

Here's a really bad taste Music Video which includes Golf & a Chick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1iE0ZLr2rFc

Not going to defend the system, in the same way I will never defend the UK system where the mates of Politicos & Bankers also get rich at the expense of the masses. There is an argument that the Nation of Qatar is trading it's Natural Reserves today when it should retain them for future generations, although they would argue that trickle down economics work there as much as in the West and that at least Future Generations of Qataris will have a "State of the Art City" to live in My gripe (as many on here often comment on other topics) is about lazy Journalism or Spin.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/432242/Fifty-shades-of-red-over-village-hall-accidental-bondage-classes-booking Seems like this is becoming BIG news ROFL

Or, by CAREFULLY reading the article and having a BASIC understanding of how Construction Projects are managed you can discover that... The Company that won the Master Management Project, who selected the Sub-Contractors, who placed the Construction Contracts and who are responsible for overseeing Quality Control and Compliance is... Yes you guessed it.... British. And THEY pass the whole thing off with a typical Spin Statement. Again, READ the article and the Qatari Government IS investigating. Now, where is the thread decrying the UK's record on Human Trafficking for the Sex Industry, What happened to those Travellers exploiting Disabled workers?. How long did it take the UK Authorities to react to those? Ramadan (where the issues with Drinking Water are most likely to have arisen) was just over 30 days ago. The issues are not about work arounds they are about Evil Nasty people who prey on the unsuspecting. Perhaps UK Journos would like to do a story on the real source of the problems in the ME Labour Markets - The Mafias who rip off workers across SE Asia truck them in to disreputable Labour Supply Companies (run by Asians). India, Philippines, Malaysia all had crack downs, the Mafias moved to Nepal. These stories should not "Shame" Qatar. They should shame the idiots who sat on the Gravy Train and voted for them in FIFA. The deaths were their fault. They just chose to ignore reality

It's actually what happened to Eric at the recent Florence & the Machine concert but that will prob be in the 50 Shades sequel. Meanwhile for those just starting the journey on Homeland. Carrie getting ruined while on Web Cams so all her workmates could watch....... Mentally, much better than the Car scene but you have to plough through most of S2 first

Oooh I see Channel 4 just announced that you guys are gonna be seeing Season 3 starting from Sunday 6th October. That gives me a full 5 days to annoy the feck out of everyone (more than usual) by dropping Spoilers all over the place.... (We get up and running on Wednesday about 10 hours after the US) You'll be there all innocent in the Match Day thread reading an Alpine Rant as we go 2-0 down at home to Hull or somethings & I'll be twerking in with some details on how Brody got shot while dry humping his camp bed. Ah bless

Perhaps you should head off for some Tea & Biscuits down the Village Hall pap. Something more traditionally British and all that http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/tea-biscuits-bondage-and-spanking

Does that post actually have ANYTHING to do with avoiding a Self-inflicted Gangrenous C()ck? Meanwhile did The Bear train Mickey the Baboon? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b15FO54z70Q&feature=player_detailpage

You did ask BtF I cannot quote on Qatar as I know nothing about the specific details. I can give some input (based on the reality of the situation that existed here during the "Boom" which the UK media covered (IMHO without actually reporting ALL the details of course) The investigation also reveals: In English, this means that the Projects are being awarded with huge Penalty clauses for Cost or Time over-runs. ALL Companies operating in the ME must have a Local Sponsor so to a UK Journo that will say Qatari owned. The REALITY is that the "owner" signs a contract and holds a NOMINAL 51% and takes a fee with the share value being in the form of fees rather than the UK version of a saleable on the stock exchange deal. Researchers should look into the ACTUAL minority shareholder, In Qatar many actual companies will be foreign owned, many Chinese. Workers WILL be pressured hours WILL be extended, it is a negotiation issue not a culture/slavery issue Very common in this region. Owner gets a project cannot afford to do the work people do not get paid. Common trait amongst small/medium sized Arabic owned business. In MITIGATION from experience the Qatari's were VERY slow paying for the Asian Games Infrastructure. As in by about 5 years. ME based comanies know that and would only bid IF they had the cash flow to cope, Overseas firms will have come in all Mr Know it All, ignored us locals and been screwed. Workers have to file a complaint with the Labour Ministry. Workers are OWNED by their Employer (ie Visas & Staff Accomodation). No cash flow the MoL will have to cancel their visas and arrange to repatriate the workers. UNFORTUNATELY a Recruitment Mafia exists, so many of the poor sods will have given their meagre life savings to an agent to get them the job in the first place.Some will still have to pay that debt back. Hence they are trapped - go to Ministry - never get anything. Hang around and starve and pray. Situation on this HAS changed in recent years in UAE a number of Charities have sprung up and MoL here take a security deposit of 1.5 x month salary and cost of Airticket home so the workers can get something if they are screwed. UK abuses it's Labour as well don't forget (Cocklepickers) Note: EVERY employee receives a Salary that is agreed and contracted. EVERY employee then EARNS a Gratuity 25 days per year. So this article is factually correct for EVERY worker in the ME. However the Gratuity is the ONLY form of "Pension" that we have. We resign up to 5 years (of sorry run away) we get less - BECAUSE IT COSTS ON AVERAGE $3000 in fees and paperwork & flights to recruit ONE single employee. Normal practice even here in Dubai, It is done to stop workers running away for another job. An employer will be fined for NOT cancelling a visa and will be blacklisted for new Visas IF employees abscond (and they do). This CANNOT change as it is the entire backbone of the Immigration System here (it IS actually an idea the UK should have used but hey ho) Keeping Passports IS illegal here in UAE (no idea about Qatar) But SMB Arab owners do it all the time No doubts about this whatsoever. It was Ramadan a couple of months ago it is ILLEGAL to let ANYTHING pass your lips in public in daylight ANYWHERE in the Middle East. Qatar is more strict than Dubai, Labour force will be mixed Religions. Enlightened Employers find ways around. MANY SMB Arab owned employers will not care. This impacted even ME last year. I and many of the guys in our factory smoke. Normally we take a break outdoors (even when it is 46C). In Ramadan I had to break Global Company rules by permitting Smoking in the Gents Toilet. HR had a huge rules & ethics issue about it I won - told THEM to rent me a Portacabin & get all the permissions. Is that all? It IS a common occurrence, when you are in a society with zero Social Security for foreigners you have no choice. Here is what you will see next Stories of Workers being forced to live in cramped 40ft containers with no sanitation (NATO Military & Contractors have been doing that in Afghanistan for the past 5 years) OF COURSE THEY ARE! Duh. You need to bring in 200,000 workers to BUILD AN INFRASTRUCTURE, Well, guess what, that means Electricity Supplies, Sewerage & Water Distribution Systems. There IS no accomodation for the Workers UNTIL it gets built. It was exactly the same story here in the boom (Sonapur Labour Camp BBC). What the Journos DON'T mention is that of the 200,000 a large number of them are actually working on putting in that infrastructure, more of them are actually building the labour camps (which can be used as hostels during the WC for the staff that they will need to import) - Chicken Egg What they DO mention will be the pitiful wages - around $150 a month. Unfortunately because Brits love to buy stuff for 1.99 in Primark or Discounted in Sports Direct, that is actually a BIG wage for an unskilled labourer from a Village in Nepal. There are MANY issues in the Labour Laws in GCC countries. Here in the UAE it has improved dramatically over the 20 years I have been here and certainly in the past 5 years. The SAD part is that people are exploited by people. That I'm afraid is not the fault of a Nation State but of the people who are in business within that State. GREED causes that, you have still not found a penalty OR a solution to those problems in the UK where the same illness caused so much pain and misery See through the bling, work to do what you can in your work environment and try and see humanity where it exists then you CAN make a difference. I know of many employers who do. I also know of many who are NOT bidding for the WC work

I have met OldNick on many occassions and I can certainly validate the fact that being so old he certainly would have been around when the trees were planted from which the wood came. He knows his Chairs that's f'sure. Only seen him fall off one

Can I book a slot to come back on and say Told you so? There'll always be ways around but not for those without at least a few Geek genes in their systems.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2430693/Southampton-2-Bristol-City-0--match-report-Gaston-Ramirez-Jos-Hooiveld-score.html He scores goals from open play. We need that in the first team (or has nobody else noticed?) He clearly needs to get Saints fit. He'll be fine.

Should let Registered users have extra posts on Cup Games, it is our 2nd string after all. Or at least drop the booking fee & Car Parking charges