Customer service excellence

As our company uses Google AdWords service, I have had to deal with Google's customer support people. For some reason their system rejected our credit card (now the problem has been fixed). Although the communication was via e-mail, it has been impressive. They have been trained to address client's frustrations and make them feel better. When a customer complains, then most of all he/she wants to be understood first. Here are some examples of how their e-mails begin:

"Thank you for your email. I understand your credit card was recently declined and you would like us to investigate this matter."

"Thank you for your reply.
I understand that you have re-tried your credit card and it is still not being accepted by our system."

"Hi Peep,
I understand that you are concerned about the current issue relating to your credit card and you wish to know if I have received any updates from our technical team."

...and so on. Although I understand that they follow their protocol and training, it still works! I feel like I'm being understood! And as a result I am happy and have positive feelings towards them.

What else can a customer support unit wish for!

Of Books and Men

I like to read, a lot. I mostly read non-fiction because I feel it helps me to learn and expand my world. I feel I get more out of a book that broadens my horizons, that gives me tools I can use in my life. I probably read more than your average reader does, about 4 books a month - I guess I can thank my Input and Learner talents (more about talents in upcoming posts).

Quite often after I've finished a book, I find myself thinking that what was said could have been said using less pages. It's like the authors feel (0r the publishers demand?) that the book has to have a minimum number of pages. It seems to me that this minimum is around 200 pages. Even though the whole point with explanations and examples and what not could be presented on about 100 pages or a bit more. Almost every book has these parts/chapters/blocks that are not necessary. Its like out of a 250 page book 120 give 90% of the value. The rest are not necessary.

Why is that? Is is because thicker books sell better? That the buyer feels the money was invested better if the book has more pages? Maybe then there should be a "price per page" indicator next to every book in the bookshop so customers could see the value? If anyone truly thinks this way, it is ridiculous. Or is it that if the book has less pages it might seem that the author doesn't have much to say? Some books are based on an extensive research and if I would like to know all the hard data I might as well go after the thousands of research documents. But I don't, I want to know the outcomes and conclusions of the research. And in most of the cases what truly matters can be said using less pages.

We live in a fast paced world and cutting down on pages might attract more people to read, cause then they don't have to feel 'Oh my good when am I going to find all this time to read this book!?'. Publishers might even start making more money because people will have more time on their hands to read more books.

(You can follow the books I'm reading at any point of time on the right. Feel free to ask for recommendations)

Numbers from the book industry

Ever considered making money by writing books? Here are some "encouraging" numbers for you to consider.

In 2004, 950,000 books out of 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen BookScan sold fewer than 99 copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. Only 1200 books sold more than 50,000 copies. True, 10 books sold over a million copies (17 million in total).

The average book in America sells about 500 copies. Whats the number is other parts of the world I don't know, but probably the difference with Europe is not huge (even if it would be 3x more, its still a pathetic number).

This means that 98% of the books are noncommercial, whether they were intented that way or not.

// Source: The Long Tail, Chris Anderson

Every problem is a business opportunity

As I mentioned in the last post, people are spending a lot of money on diet programs and stuff because they want to lose weight. They have a problem. If you look around you, every problem is a business opportunity.

In Dubai traffic is a serious problem. Before there used to be 2 rush hours, in the morning and when people leave work. Now its traffic jam almost all day long. People spend a lot of time in the car. So what is happening? Spending on outdoor advertising and radio advertising is increasing a lot. People have nothing else to do in the car but listen to different messages. Come up with a creative idea to make them see/listen to you and its a sellable asset.

I am very sure not all problems have been turned into a business yet. What are the problems you and your friends have faced during the last week? Is there a way to solve the problem in a way that people would pay for it?

The sad thing is that people are paying money on both occasions, when they create the problem and when they solve it. They pay to create the problems (buy junk food) and then they pay to get their health back. If you wouldn't pay the first half, you wouldn't have to pay the second half as well. This doesn't apply to all the cases of course, but still something to think about.

Being fat is bad for business

We all know that being overweight is not good for your health. Obese people are far more at risk to all kinds of heart and what not diseases. Being overweight is comparable to having diabetes or having high blood pressure

Now what you maybe didn't think about is that for companies that provide medical insurance having overweight employees is costing money because the insurance is more expensive. Companies all over the (developed.. or should I say fat?) world are starting to address this problem. Not for the sake of having fitter, happier and more productive employees, but because its costing them money.

According to workplace surveys in the US, the vast majority of organizations with 200 or more employees say they offer programs designed to help improve the health of employees, while about a third of smaller companies offer programs as well. All because obesity and overweight conditions contribute as much as $93 billion to the nation's yearly medical bill.

Why what I am saying concerns mostly US, is clear: among developed countries, the United States has the most obese and overweight people. Other countries are catching up fast - so maybe its time companies and governments (ministries of health) all over the world should start taking steps to avoid dealing with this issue on a much grander scale.

Then again for some being fat can be good for business. For instance Americans spend over 4o$ million annually on books, products and programs to help them lose weight.

Hong Kong of Eastern Europe..

..is Estonia, according to an article in today's 7Days, a local newspaper. In today's real estate section you can find an article about Estonia and its property market.

Among other things it mentions that the real estate prices are low over there. During the last year I've been hearing my friends telling me how expensive it has become and how the market is booming. Well, I guess its what you compare it to.

Direct link: http://www.7days.ae/2006/10/31/the-est-is-the-best.html

Developments in the property market

Prices in the propety market of Dubai never stop rising, being more than 30% a year. Almost every day you can read in the papers new forecasts, summaries of pasts quarters and so on telling the same story - property prices soar.

It is not unusual to read how government is demolishing older building and how its current inhabitants have nowhere to go as they can't afford anything in the market. People live on rooftops, abandoned buildings and where not. Even if they have a job!

For property owners Dubai is a great business. More money pouring in than ever before. Even though the law prohibits to raise the rent prices more than 15% a year, landlords just evict the current tenants for whatever reason ("I wanna lived there myself" etc) and then raise the rent however much they want. Since the market has far more demand than supply, they can do that.

A couple of days ago there was an article saying how landlords have new tricks - they are offering cheap rooms in return for sexual favours. Different websites that have adverts for flat shares - including several for one bedroom and studio apartments - are attempting to lure young, single European women with the promise of discount rents in exchange for sex.

I'm not sure whether they really do get "lucky" as Europeans are (usually) in quite well-paid positions and can afford housing. If the same offer would be made to girls with Asian origin who don't get paid much at all, some desparate women might even consider this. But I hope not. Its like become a sex slave on your free will. And your home security will be forever in the hands (or some other body part) of your landlord. Quite sick huh?

CV wisdom

I am currently hiring a new salesperson. We advertised in 2 different places and I got literally hundreds of CVs. Going through each of them and paying attention to each of them is a tough job. You get tired. You feel tempted to pay attention only to some of the most important criteria. I understood why some companies don't reply to received applications (I did, to each one of them) - there's just so many of them and it could seem to be a hassle. I also understood what "your CV has to stand out" really means. They all look the same, they have more or less the same structure, the same business jargon sentences. There was 1 CV that did stand out and I really stopped to read it through in detail. It was different in appearance. The content was the same as in any other CV, but it made me curious, made me pay more attention. I think anyone would have more chance of being invited for a job interview when they could make their CV stand out more.

Now there's some advice I want to give. Often there is a question: whether to put the picture on the CV or not? Several standards recommend "yes", its more personal etc. Here's what I think: when it comes to a job where you have to interact with (potential) clients, looks are important. People do business with people they like. Every time I saw a photo I was thinking what kind of an impression might this person leave to our potential clients? What kind of prejudices might they invoke in others? Can it lessen the chances of business deals?

I am sure there are so many (recruitment) people out there who make their first impression of you based on your picture. My advice is this: if you are after a sales job (or any other client focused job) then add the picture to your CV only if you have above average looks. Be self-critical. Yes, you might have a charming personality and charisma, but you won't get to show it if people are put off by your looks. It takes 3 seconds to form first impression. If you don't look that good, don't add the picture - just hope you'll get invited for an interview and then use your charm, wit and other nice qualities that you have to convince them you're the one. If you are a data analyst, biologist or server maintainance guy, looks are not important. But in some jobs it matters.

Aah, one more thing. Most of the CVs I got had a picture. A large number of the pictures were horrible. Just horrible. Even if some of you look good otherwise, make sure the photo is of high quality.

Government PR

One thing about this country is that the media is not free. How much is censored and controlled, I don't exactly know. I have heard different rumours. From time to time you can see quite brave stories, but you can't write anything against the government policies usually.

The funny thing is the government PR. Some (very) highly paid people who have to show that they are doing something. And government is building its image as caring, loving and always there for the citizens. Like good 'ole Soviet times.

So more often than not (almost every day) you will find pictures of the leaders of the country on the *front* page of main newspapers and some important headline. "Khalifa receives Islamic scholars", "Mohammed meets journalists", "Mohammed meets the citizens", "Sheikh meets more citizens". Very, very important news that everyone should know.

Yesterday there was a big article titled "Government employees will receive salary tomorrow". Who cares! Maybe internal memo could have been enough?

Sometimes I wonder whether anyone truly follows this and feels it is all so important? I personally mostly just chuckle to myself.

We're just a couple animals

A song I've been listening to a lot recently - "Animals" by Nickelback. Very energetic and catchy. And the lyrics make me smile every time.

Smells like dead pigeon

No I'm not trying to paraphrase Nirvana. I really have a dead pigeon smelling somewhere in my house. For months I heard pigeons making sounds in the ventilation shaft, so I knew I have birds as my neighbours. Now one of them decided to die and smell really bad.

The only positive thing is that the smell is localized in my bathroom. So if I'll close the door I can pretend everything is fine.

But don't use bathroom at my place unless you really have to.

Yunus wins Nobel Peace Prize

Bangladeshi microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their work. A person who truely deserves it.

Being the father of microcredit (very small loans for poor people), his work has contributed to lifting millions out of poverty. Through Yunus's efforts and those of the bank he founded, poor people around the world, especially women, have been able to buy livestock, chickens, tools or other equipment they desperately needed to get ahead. They are able to break free from the poverty trap, educate their children and provide additional value to the community they live in.

I'm not gonna go into what is microcredit and so on, internet is full of information.

I was appalled to read comments on one portal regarding Yunus getting the award. Some said it was a "politically correct decision", some thought "overpopulation must be stopped instead of poverty". I am sad that there is so much ignorance. Somebody said "the last thing that the poor need is a loan!" whereas it might be the first thing they need.

"Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty," the Nobel Committee said. "Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights."

How right they are.

Overpopulation, infant mortality, health, life expectancy, education, terrorism are largely derived from poverty. In many cases top-down approach has failed and Yunus has demonstrated how microcredit can work. Since Yunus gave out his first loans in 1974, microcredit schemes have spread throughout the developing world and are now considered a key to alleviating poverty and spurring development.

Yunus is an outstanding social entrepreneur who has my utmost respect.

Ramadan

It's Ramadan, my second one.

My previous one was a cultural experience. I was eager to learn the ways of the muslim people and trying to understand the greater meaning of it. You can read what I wrote about it last year here (in estonian).

This year things have changed. Dubai has corrupted me. I am not so culturally sensitive anymore. At times I can be a careless westerner complaining about the fact that I can't eat and drink in public before sunset. But hey - Ramadan is a holy season for muslims and they should be fasting because of the meaning they believe in and seeing other people eat and drink should not disturb them. If the faith is strong enough. A week ago there was an article on the front page of a newspaper, criticizing women who wear skirts and show shoulders during Ramadan. The next day you could read letters from the readers (muslims) where some said that if you are a true muslim, your faith is strong and you will look away, that Ramadan is about you, not other people. I couldn't agree more.

Dubai has sold out too. Last year the cinemas were closed and there was no music in bars. This year there is no difference between Ramadan and other months. Only food outlets are closed in most of the places (but not all, if you paid enough, you could get a special license allowing you to keep the restaurant open). Home delivery still works everywhere which is how our staff has lunch. I overheard one of my egyptian friends saying how in Dubai its hard to notice that it is Ramadan compared to Egypt.

The fast is an exacting act of deep personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised level of closeness to God. The act of fasting is said to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm. Another meaning is compassion for the poor people - you feel the hardship of the poor who don't have anything to eat.

This last thing is a bit funny for me. Sure, during Ramadan people don't eat when the sun is up, but when its eating time they mean business. Eating almost never stops and they eat HUGE quantities. Most of you probably know that you feel like could eat an elephant when you haven't eaten for a long time. So usually people dig in as much as they can. And feel bloated afterwards. I've done the same - yes, it can be great to eat that much. I also tried to fast one day, but I have to be honest - it was damn difficult. I cheated and had 3 cups of tea during the day. So definitely it is a test of willpower and requires inner strength to accomplish it. The thing that makes me scratch my head is that poor people can't start feasting after the sunset. So this part seems a bit hypocrite to me.

When asked if I like Ramadan, then I have to be honest. Since there is no spiritual meaning for me personally, I only endure the hardship of being restricted from doing certain things I would like to do. So I have to say "no", I would prefer that it wouldn't be Ramadan. The main good thing for me is that we have Ramadan working hours and I can leave at 3pm. And there is less traffic.

This weekend I will have the chance to have iftar (breaking the fast) with 2 local (emirati) families, which I am looking forward to. This kind of chances to get to see the local culture are hard to come by. More about that later.

Friedman on Islam and Pope

I came upon this article in Surya's blog by Thomas Friedman about islam and the pope and related. I find it brilliant. I thought it will be worth "re-printing" it here too.

"We need to stop insulting Islam. It's enough already.

No, that doesn't mean the pope should apologize. The pope was actually treating Islam with dignity. He was treating the faith and its community as adults who could be challenged and engaged. That is a sign of respect.

What is insulting is the politically correct, kid-gloves view of how to deal with Muslims that is taking root in the West today. It goes like this: ''Hushhh! Don't say anything about Islam! Don't you understand? If you say anything critical or questioning about Muslims, they'll burn down your house. Hushhh! Just let them be. Don't rile them. They are not capable of a civil, rational dialogue about problems in their faith community.''

Now that is insulting. It's an attitude full of contempt and self-censorship, but that is the attitude of Western elites today, and it's helping to foster the slow-motion clash of civilizations that Sam Huntington predicted. Because Western masses don't buy it. They see violence exploding from Muslim communities and they find it frightening, and they don't think their leaders are talking honestly about it. So many now just want to build a wall against Islam. It will be terrible if Turkey is blocked from entering the European Union, but that's where we're heading, and the only thing that will halt it is honest dialogue.

But it is not the dialogue the pope mentioned -- one between Islam and Christianity. That's necessary, but it's not sufficient. What is needed first is an honest dialogue between Muslims and Muslims.

As someone who has lived in the Muslim world, enjoyed the friendship of many Muslims there and seen the compassionate side of Islam in action, I have to admit I am confused as to what Islam stands for today.

Why? On the first day of Ramadan last year a Sunni Muslim suicide bomber blew up a Shiite mosque in Hilla, Iraq, in the middle of a memorial service, killing 25 worshipers. This year on the first day of Ramadan, a Sunni suicide bomber in Baghdad killed 35 people who were lining up in a Shiite neighborhood to buy fuel. The same day, the severed heads of nine murdered Iraqi police officers and soldiers were found north of Baghdad.

I don't get it. How can Muslims blow up other Muslims on their most holy day of the year -- in mosques! -- and there is barely a peep of protest in the Muslim world, let alone a million Muslim march? Yet Danish cartoons or a papal speech lead to violent protests. If Muslims butchering Muslims -- in Sudan, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan -- produces little communal reaction, while cartoons and papal remarks produce mass protests, what does Islam stand for today? It is not an insult to ask that question.

Muslims might say: ''Well, what about Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo or Palestine? Let's talk about all your violent behavior.'' To which I would say: ''Let's talk about it! But you'll have to get in line behind us, because we're constantly talking about where we've gone wrong.'' We can't have a meaningful dialogue if we, too, are not self-critical, but neither can Muslims.

Part of the problem in getting answers is that Islam has no hierarchy. There is no Muslim pope defining the faith. There are centers of Muslim learning, in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but their credibility with the masses is uneven because they're often seen as tools of regimes. So those Muslim preachers with authenticity tend to be the street preachers -- firebrands, who gain legitimacy by spewing hatred at both their own regimes and the Western powers that support them.

As a result, there is a huge body of disenfranchised Sunni Muslims, who are neither violent fundamentalists nor wannabe secularists. They are people who'd like to see a marriage between Islam and modernity. But right now there is little free space in the Sunni Muslim world -- between the firebrand preachers and the ''official'' ones -- for that synthesis to be discussed and defined.

I had hoped Iraq would be that space. Whenever people asked me how I'd know if we'd won in Iraq, I said: when Salman Rushdie could give a lecture in Baghdad. I'm all for a respectful dialogue between Islam and the West, but first there needs to be a respectful, free dialogue between Muslims and Muslims. What matters is not what Muslims tell us they stand for. What matters is what they tell themselves, in their own languages, and how they treat their own.

Without a real war of ideas within Islam to sort that out -- a war that progressives win -- I fear we are drifting at best toward a wall between civilizations and at worst toward a real clash."

Existing in the desert

I live in the desert. You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

Yesterday I went to see this movie, "The New World". It moved me deeply. It was like viewing a piece of continuous art that goes on and on.

I was mesmerized by the beauty of life. Of nature. I live in a place where there is nothing. Smelly flowers and trees watered by recycled water. Its not a tree you want to hug or sit by. Yes, its never cold. So what? For most of the year the combination of temperature and humidity makes it quite unbearable to enjoy being outdoors. Even if you can do that, what do you do? Where do you go? Sure, you can spend time with arid mountains in Hatta or Fujeirah. But thats not even close to what I'm missing. I can't feel life.

And this place is a desert in many other ways too. In the ways of lifestyle, connections, relations, values.

I feel I have to move on. I'm standing still. It took me about 6 months to get to know this place, then the learning stopped. After living and travelling in this region for more than a year, I know quite well what its about.

When new experiences and excitement is not pouring in, I don't feel that alive. Its more like existing rather than living. Once your life is inside certain frames - you do the same stuff most of the time and you know most of the stuff around you - you have to go further. I think you need to expand your life constantly. I feel I need to. Otherwise whats the point?

I think when you reach the point when it seems you are standing still, you need to find people who will expand your universe, have to go places that will make your life larger.

Sometimes it might be hard to notice that you are standing still, because people are too busy being busy. They don't take a look around them to notice that although they think they are running, the surroundings are the same.

I'm gonna go on a new adventure pretty soon.

Be grateful that you live in Dubai

I attended a real estate seminar yesterday. It was a typical seminar with food, fancy hotel and nothing-to-say conversations ("How are you? Good! How's business? Great!" etc). Seminar had a panel of hotshots and the topic was "Opportunities and Challenges in the Property Market".

What struck me was a comment made by a lady in the panel. She was asked about different problems people are facing with their newly bought properties (shortage of running water, leaking roofs etc) and her reply was just amazing. She said we shouldn't talk about problems, we should be grateful that we get to live in such an amazing city. No other city in the world has seen such growth in the last 4 years and its a miracle. So just be thankful that you get to be here.

I'm speechless. My roof is leaking, but thats all right 'cause I get to live in Dubai. The rent is sky high, but its okay because I am grateful. There is racism everywhere, but we shouldn't talk about it since the city is just so great.

What the lady said reflects the point of view of many people in Dubai. Just in today's 7Days (local newspaper) I read a letter from a reader which states that high rents is a good way of keeping out riff raff. "Dubai is for the classy people".

Let's all be grateful now.

UAE vs Jordan 0:0

Last week I had the chance to experience local football culture. UAE was playing Jordan in the Asian Cup. The game itself was a bore draw. Only player worth looking at was the star striker of Jordan - Sa'ed. Too bad he was lazy.

We sat next to the Jordainans fans - although they were a minority in the stadium, the were the loudest ones and had some real football spirit. Enjoyable drum rhytms.

Most of the UAE fans were rather passive. The cool thing about them was that they were wearing colorful vests on top of their white kandooras and so they formed the UAE flag. What was really annoying was an anonymous cheerleader (some local dude), who throughout the game yelled and sang and this horrible sound came from all the speakers. It seemed that the fans themselves don't have what it takes to support their team. We prayed for it to stop, but alas to no avail.

Me and my colleague Eero were pretty much the only white people in the game besides Bruno Metsu, the coach of the UAE national team.

Live Closer To The Things That Matter Most

This is the slogan used in newspaper advertising by a local real estate developer. Next to this slogan are pictures of golf courses, swimming pools, expensive villas and other high-end real estate development projects.

Boy I'm glad I found this out. Now I know what really matters in life.

Disgusting.

What is expected?

The world we live in today has expectations on everybody and everything. And by world I mean society as the collective being. People as the members of this society carry these expectations. Expectations set what is "normal". If you act accordingly to these expectations, you are a good members of the society. If you dare to rebel, you are perceived as weird, someone who doesn't belong to the group or doesn't understand how things work, or even stupid.

These expectations are ingrained in us. We have been receiving messages about how to behave and what is the right thing to do since we were born. At home, from friends and relatives, at school and other institutions where there are people. During growing up we've received thousands and thousands of this kind of messages, that we perceive this as truth. We often don't question it. We know that sky is blue, we can see it. We also know how you're supposed to dress when going to the wedding or work. We know that you should study hard and get a safe job. We know you have to strive towards a great career and a fancy title. We know we should aim to live a comfortable life by financial terms; it might even be the goal. Its what is expected from us.

Very often the value system we carry and expectations we follow were not chosen by us. Most likely it was determined already before you were born. It was decided before my birth that I will not be a muslim. It was decided that the first language Im gonna speak is estonian.
When we grow up, we accept the information and value system that is being communicated to us by the society (family, friends, school, tv and other forms of mass media etc). The acceptance to this information becomes so strong, we don't even question it. We might not even be aware that we follow a certain code of expectations.

People live their lives according to these expectations benchmark with each other. Be it the amount of money you're making, the size of your house, clothes you wear, your position in your company and so on. How well are you measuring up to the expectations the society sets upon you? If you are doing poorly, people can regards you as lazy, not smart enough, weird. You get punished. If you measure up well, you get rewarded. People like to get rewarded and don't like to be punished.

I'm not saying that everybody in the society follows the same expectations. Not at all. Society has different sub-gruops. Yes, there is the money-oriented subgroup that measures you by how much wealth you have - I think that is the most common, the biggest sub-group.

There is also the green sub-group, which sets different kind of expectations. Do you eat organic food? How many times a week? Are your curtains hand-woven in some non-sweatshop and made out of organic materials? How often do you do yoga or open up your chakras?

The number of possible small sub-groups is endless. Gang of thugs have another set of expectations. Members of very religious groups compete with each other who is more pious and a better christian (or whatever).

I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Its just the way things are and following some particular set can be noble and good.

If you don't belong to any sub-group, don't match with any of the expectations, you are a rebel and don't belong to the group. On the other hand if the number of rebels with similar value system and behaviour grows big enough, a new sub-group is formed and expectations follow its members.

I think it is important to understand which expectations do you follow. If you go after the rewards by blindly following a set of expectations, it might not be very healthy. Is it really that important to live according to these expectations? Does it matter in the end?

I know people that want to be like everybody else. I also know people who want to be different, rebels. Both kind of people can be very nice. I think what matters the most is that you are at peace with the decision you made.

You might wanna evaluate the set of expectations you follow - perhaps you want to make some changes. We don't want to feel empty and discover on the way that we have wasted a part of our life pursuing something that is not worth much.

The race is long and in the end its only with yourself, as somebody once said.

TED Talks

There's a conference that takes place every year - TED (Technology Entertainment Design) - which brings supposedly together bunch of brilliant people to share the most powerful thing people can share - their ideas. It's an invitation-only event, so what has been shared there has never before reached a wider audience. Until now.

Now you can have the presentations in audio and video, to download or watch online. Just go here:
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/index.cfm?flashEnabled=1

There's one in particular I'd like to recommend to everybody. It's about creativity (by Sir Ken Robinson). It's full of great ideas and the presentation is going to make you laugh so many times. Great stuff.

You can download that video here: http://ted.streamguys.net/ted_robinson_k_2006.zip

If anyone..

...knows organizations that facilitate volunteering/take volunteers in Latin America that give accomodation/food in exchange for work, please drop me an e-mail or write it in the comments.

Hop Fest 2006

This was the name of the beer festival. It was a great party! Live music, beer everywhere, lots and lots of people. Felt like Europe.



















































Thats the festival t-shirt. That way you indicate how many beers have you drunk. Guys identified girls who had had 6 beers or more as easy prey.










































Aah, Skype is working again! The voice of the people got heard I guess, democracy (http://www.petitiononline.com/uaevoip/) can win even in the Middle East. Although most likely it was a business decision as Dubai is keen to maintain its image as a safe and great place for business and investments. Blocking Skype and other VoiP thingies was a way more unpopular move than the government expected.

Local telecom monopoly Etisalat is being laughed at. Check out Etisalat logos which represent how people feel about it: http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l162/etisalad/

Sick and stuff

I've been sick for almost a week now. Some people have reacted like "how can you get sick there, its like 45 degrees!?" Well, viruses are incredible creatures (?), they live (well) in every damn climate I guess. Anyways, I'm almost recovered now. Although people catch cold here too and quite often even. Its because the AC is set to +18 usually and it blows constantly.

Talking about ACs - my AC at home broke down. So I had to sleep (only one night) in a room where the temperature was above 40. Luckily I had at the fan which was working. Next day I called my landlord and told him to do something. He sent an "electrician" over to check the situation. He asked a couple of questions and looked out the window where the compressor part of the AC is. Suddenly he took off his shoe, slammed it on top of the compressor and a huge puff of dust came out. "It should work now". And it did. That dude was an expert. There are plenty of that other kind of experts here also. I had problems with plumbing is my house - called my landlord, he sent an expert. That expert had never seen water pipes in his life and didn't know the word "plumbing". The problem is still there.

Many people who don't know anything about Dubai ask me "so it's a dry country, right?". Well, no. In fact, today after work I'm going to a beer festival. Titled as the best party of the year.

Skype blocked

And so they killed our Ferdinand. Skype is now blocked in the UAE. Before you couldn't transfer money to your SkypeOut account, but now you can't even connect to the software. Both in and out of the freezones. Bastards. Local telecom Monopoly Etisalat fears VoiP (voice over internet protocol). Calling through MSN is also not possible. So calling home now becomes expensive. Bastards.

This is summer

This summer is better than the previous one. Why? Mainly because of the weather. Its not so hot! Last year it was close to and more than 50 all the time. Humidity was in soaring heights, every day more than 90%. This year the temperature is still 40-45 on the average, but humidity is much lower, around 50..70%. This year I've been also smarter and have stayed indoors more. Good move.

If you live in a (new) place for a year, you get so used to it. It is easy to discover yourself living in a routine. Home, work, reading books, shisha, bbq, everyday small things. Haven't been writing to the blog too much recently. I feel I have to change that. Its like one of those things that keep me focused and make me be a better person in a weird way. Its kinda like one of those small things that helps me to climb my mount everest. More about that later.

I've been reading a damn interesting, compelling, educational and thought-provoking book. Anyone who wants to understand the black continent, its politics, history, why is it in the state its in right now and more, should read "The State of Africa : A History of Fifty Years of Independence" by Martin Meredith. I can guarantee you won't be disappointed, hey - you won't be even able to put it down once you start reading it.

Aah, I was on the radio this morning. In a local radio station (Dubai Eye) in the Business Breakfast show - talking about our portal. It was alright.

The invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dreams
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes."

It doesn't interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after a night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied. I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Maybe its a myth..

..that there are only ~1 million estonians on this planeet. You get to meet them in Dubai all the time! Every now and then there is an e-mail in my inbox saying "Hi, I'm an estonian in Dubai, I would like to meet other estonians".

I've met 2 new people in the last 2-3 weeks. Yesterday again somebody wrote me. Sure, I don't mind at all. Usually when you meet a fellow estonian in a faraway place its like meeting a friend, since there's so few of us. When I was in Bahrain staying with that estonian family (hey how are you doing?), one of the family members told that meeting an estonian in the Middle East is like meeting a relative.

Hey - I seeked estonians as well when I first came here. Found one too. And then they started to find me. Piece of advice: if you want to find estonians in the country you live in (where there are not so many of them), start to blog.

Happiness is not a destination. Or is it?

The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu is the happiest place on earth, according to a new "happy planet index".

Renowned psychologist Haim Ginott once said: "Happiness is not a destination." Well, it is now, so get down the travel agents and book a one-way ticket to Vanuatu.

An englishman residing in Vanuatu one day came across a young local man who had just returned to the island after studying at Nottingham University.

"I asked him what he was going to do with his life now and he just pointed at his fishing rod and said 'this'. He could have been one of the top earners in Vanuatu if he wanted, but he was contented with his simple life and didn't want anything else."

"It was a real eye-opener for me and made me look at what life is really all about. It just sums up what the place is about."

Who says that we have to live fast-paced, stressful life in order to earn more money to buy more things? Maybe we should all go live in Vanuatu and fish.

Source article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5172254.stm

Dubai traffic

I have mentioned before as well that traffic in Dubai is pretty awful. Ultrafast speed, arrogant and incompetent drivers are the norm here. There's a highway inside the city where the distance between the cars is the same as in everywhere in the world in cities (meaning one after another), but instead of 50-60km/h they drive 120-150km/h.

Sometimes people try to cross these roads and they have to run through the cars as there are no other means of crossing often. This results in death almost daily.

The last seven days saw an average of 2683 speeding offences a day which makes 111 speedings per hour and 1.8 per minute. Caught drivers will have to pay over 3 million dirhams in fines.

The per capita statistics show that the UAE has one of the highest number of road fatalities in the world. In 2004 it was 17 per months, 2005 it increased t0 20 per month. This year it seems that every day somebody dies in the traffic.

Welcome to Dubai.

Estonia

After being away from home for a year, I got to visit Estonia again. The whole trip was just wonderful, beautiful and emotional.

It is very hard to sum up everything that happened. Some highlights (not in any particular order):

• Nature. On our way we (me and Sarah) had a stopover in Amsterdam and saw rabbits running around on the grass next to the airport. Thats when we fully realized we're not in Dubai anymore. After one year in the Middle East you really start to miss all aspects of nature - (real) trees, grass, flowers that smell nice, wild animals and forest mushrooms.
  
  Estonia is mostly covered with forest and all the cities are green also. I couldn't stop admiring the beauty of the nature. We spent 3 days in my family summer home in the forest and just listened to the wind in the treeleaves, bird sing and .. silence. We swam in cold river (pure spring water), picked wild strawberries, talked to the trees and stared at the sky that is never so blue in Dubai.
  
  I didn't get nearly enough.
  
  
• Freedom. Another nice aspect of being away from Dubai was that we didn't have to worry about showing affection in public. We could hold hands, hug and kiss whenever we felt like it. At all times I felt I could do whatever I want (within reason) and shouldn't be worried about judging looks or police.
  
  
• Cheap and good beer. This is a combination that is impossible to find in the Middle East. Enjoying a pint of beer in an outdoor cafe (yes, its wonderful to sit outside) can be a (very) rewarding experience.
  
  
• Family and friends.
  It was so so nice to see again people dear to me. The time was not enough to have quality meetings with everybody, but it was touching anyway. At one point one of my friends told me "it feels like you've never been away". True - when we were having fun with my friends it was like the "good old times" again.
  
  Its interesting since I feel that I have grown a lot, experienced a lot and my world has changed in many ways, but I guess these are the things that will mostly remain in me and won't be directly visible to the others. It will mostly be that part of my personal iceberg that is under water.
  
  
• Nice weather. We had beautiful weather every day, 25..29 degrees C. You can enjoy walking around (without sweating) and truly take the most out of being outdoors. No humidity. Summer in Estonia is just wonderful.
  
  
• Women wear what they want. Estonia is full of beautiful women and short skirts. Refreshing. Girls don't have to worry about which clothes to wear and wether all men will stare at them and think they're prostitutes.
  
  
• Estonian food. Pork, sour cabbage, baked potatoes, black rye bread, sprouts, herring, kohupiim to name a few... I must certainly have gained a couple of kilos. Its just so good!!
  
  
• Old buildings. In Dubai something that is older than 20 years is almost prehistorical. Walking in a city full of medieval buildings and atmosphere is just something else. You can feel the soul of the city.
  

There would be much more to point out, but I don't wanna make this blog post too long. Some people asked me "so what has changed in Estonia?". Not that much had changed in 1 year in apperance, but my persperctive on some things did. Estonia seems even smaller than before. Tartu streets seemed so small, empty... it actually didn't look like a city. Although I did enjoy that it was so calm, peaceful and quiet. It was a very nice change to Dubai. Same thing applied to Tallinn - it seemed small. In Dubai I sometimes have to drive more than 50 km to reach a client or just go to some club. It can take much more than an hour inside the city to get from point A to point B.

One thing that was quite shocking was the level of customer service. In quite many times we encountered cold and even aggressive treatment (with few very positive exceptions). Having been away from home for a year I had another perspective to customer service compared to fellow countrymen who live inside this all the time and might even be used to it. I'm planning to write about it in some estonian newspapers.

Now back in Dubai. In my thoughts still at home.

Going home

Its been almost a year now when I landed in Dubai airpot the first time. One year contains a lot - new experiences, new people, new discoveries, new places, enhanced understandings. Things I've discovered about myself and things that have changed in me. "Life changing experience" is what AIESEC is saying about living and working abroad experience. Do I agree? I think I do. My horizons have broadened and I see the world differently in many ways. My self-reflection increased tremendously. I think when one is trying to figure out their place under the sun, to find out who they really are and what are they looking for in life then going away from your everyday surroundings - out of your comfort zone - helps a lot in this sense. I know myself, my personal mission and aspirations way better know. I think this is also largely because it was my main goal for going abroad and I never stoped pursuing this goal. If anyone wants to figure out what to do with their lives, I suggest going abroad for at least 6 months. Only those who seek will find.

A lot has changed, but at the same time - so many things are still the same. Most probably I will understand better what has changed and what not when I go home in 3 days, when I can observe the everyday life, my home, my friends... I think I will understand better then.

Back in Dubai on the 9th.
Picture: my first day in Dubai

Happy birthday to me!

Yay me! I'm a year older now. Last year on my birthday I was convinced and told everybody I'd back be in Estonia by Midsummer's Day (Jaanipäev). Well, I was wrong and ended up having my first birthday indoors, not on my real day and without bonfire in the last 10 years. But it was a really cool party and was great to see most of the people follow the theme: white! We also set a new Guiness record by having the most estonians (12!) in the same room in Dubai!:)

Some random pics from the party:

You should cut your hair

Because it just feels so good! What I like about cutting hair in Dubai is that every time you also get a head massage (according to my experience). Doesn't matter if its a very cheap or a fancier place, I've got my massage every time. So I suggest you all to cut your hair. Feels so good!

Real24.ae in the news

Yesterday on my way to another business meeting I got a phonecall, just when I got into a taxi. Call from Estonia's main business newspaper. I was told they found me (us) from my blog.

The result you can see here (those who can read estonian):
http://www.aripaev.ee/3252/uud_uudidx_325202.html?leht_id=3252

Fun with Dick and Jane...

..was fun, but I'm having way more fun with Peep. My name, that is. People just can't figure out what my name is. Even people close to me can't pronounce it the way it really is (I'm told I cannot say their names perfectly as well though). Mostly its sounds like Phep or smth.

When I do my business calls and introduce myself, the fun with secretaries never ends. Sorry what was your name again? Could you repeat that? Pete? Beth? Pet? And I'm stubborn usually, I repeat it as my name really is. Then I help them out and spell it Portugal-Europe-Europe-Portugal. Just today when I did that the secretary's reaction was nice.

"OH, its Peep (Piip)!?"
"...Yes" (Having given up on educating her about the real pronouncation)
"Hahahahahahahah! Hahah! What a cool name!"

Since my colleagues are Janek and Meelis, they have fun with their names as well. At least I'm not alone in this!

Nothing is for free

World cup! Football mania is also in Dubai. Everything else is like I'm used to when the world cup is on, but this time one thing is different. Here you have to pay to see it! ART bought the exclusive TV rights for the whole Middle East and are making everyone pay.

I checked with a cable TV to get the package that has the relevant sports channel - and I was told I have to pay 500 dirhams extra (1750 eek) to get that channel. A friend of mine also heard about fees higher than 1000 dirhams at some company. Ridicoulous!

All the pubs, shisha cafes and restaurants that want to show the matches live had to acquire a special license which costs like 10,000 USD. Therefore places have entrance fees or a minimum charge. The only free places are those which took the illegal way and show UK or I don't know which channels - illegally. I read from a newspaper that those companies will get heavily fined.

Okay I understand that ART wants to earn money - but couldn't they just sell air time for commercials? There's a huge crowd watching the games live all over Middle East, for sure companies would invest. Why make the fans suffer? This sucks.

Real24.ae

Want to buy or rent properties in Dubai? Check out this site. Yes, this is the company I work for. If anyone asks you about real estate in the UAE, tell them real24.ae is the address to remember:)

The website was just launched a few days ago and we are testing initial reactions. We will have new improved design in about 2,5 weeks time.

My request to you: please add your comments on site's design and features to this post (or send me an e-mail), so we can improve it. All new cool ideas are much appreciated!

Oman, again

Oman was nice as always, I like it a lot. We had a group of 4 - me, Sarah, Shady, Holly.

This was my first time in Oman in the summertime - and I have to say its not pleasant at all! Oman has always been hotter than Dubai and the sun more aggressive (can get a sunburn in 20 min), but this time it was way more. Didn't measure the temperature, but for sure it was around 50 degrees - just killer hot. When the wind was blowing it felt the same when you open the oven door and hot air strikes you in the face. It was just way too hot. I made a 3-4 minute phonecall from a payphone and got all sweaty within this time. Being outside during the daytime is next to unbearable. Humans were not meant to live in this area, at least not during the summer. Stay outside too long and you die. Without water you're a deadman in no time.

We stopped at an outdoor shisha cafe around 8 when it was already dark and sun had set, but it was still so hot. One of us got sick because of the heat. You just gotta stay indoors all the time. AC is everybody's best friend.

When we were about to leave on Sunday afternoon, I got to know that my new employment visa is not ready yet (although I was promised it will be ready by Saturday) and I can't go back to Dubai. So I stayed alone for 1 more day in Oman. As I couldn't really go around because of the heat (still took a small walk in the evening) I stayed in the hotel most of the time. Next day I killed time until it was 4pm and I could start by journey back to Dubai by bus. Meanwhile my phone battery died.

When I reached the border of UAE my boss was there to greet me and tell me the news - "you have to head back, visa won't be ready before tomorrow". Nice. No car, no bus, no taxi. So I started to hitchhike - and luckily already second car stopped and I was on my way.

The driver was an omani guy, a vegetable trader who couldn't speak much english. So we conversed just a little bit. He had toothache, I had aspirin. Next town (Sohar) was 100km away and he dropped me there to a hotel. There I discovered that its ridicoulosly expensive, so I decided to find a taxi and try my luck with the other hotel (the town only had 2). This was luckily cheaper and even more luckily for me I got the last vacant room.

Next day I started to hitchhike back to the UAE border, but nobody stopped for like 20 minutes. So I took the decision to take a taxi before the sun would suck the life out of me and so it was. Paid the biggest taxi bill of my life, but at least I'm still alive! On the border I met my boss who was there with my visa and so yesterday afternoon I made it back to Dubai.

Life's an adventure!

Taking a break

Going to Oman for the weekend to recharge my batteries. See you next week.

Stuff that matters

What really matters? How much is too much? Am I making a difference? Are you?

We go to work, have meetings, create documents, do stuff. Is this stuff really important? What did you do today that really matters?

Over 40 Gallup studies show that 75% of us are disengaged from our jobs. About the same number of people are thinking of changing jobs (which doesn't mean they will, most of the people are too scared to go out of their comfort zone). Generally I see the trend that people want to do stuff that matters (more). Or maybe its just me.

We work hard, compete with other people, have huge to-do lists, get stressed, worry about stuff.. that is not important. Our lives are often unnecessarily complicated. We're getting tired. We want to smell the roses. What to do? Many of us are asked to sacrifice our own needs for the good of the company. Does it really matter if I work harder? Where's the finish line?

The endless pressure won't go away. The change has to come from inside, from the choice we make. About stuff that really matters.

You give a portion of your life to the organization you work for. We've got to make sure this time is used wisely. Time spent is gone forever. Time wasted means you have less time for the real thing.

One might say I work to pay the bills and I do the meaningful stuff outside my work. But work is one important sphere in a rich, full existance. We often spend there most of our time (when we're not sleeping). If you only find joy and meaning from stuff that happens outside, I don't think its enough.

I don't want to do anymore stuff that doesn't matter. Its like selling my soul. I don't want to do that. Do you?

Life, universe and Dubai

The first time I read about the UAE was in the early ninties, when I was reading a magazine on global issues ("Aja pulss") and it had an article about the UAE. How they're building cool stuff in the desert and watering plants to create greenery. I remember being wowed. When I came to know of the possibility of moving to Dubai, I became excited. I had heard magical things about the place. I read more stuff on the internet and it seemed exciting and miraculous.

Now more and more often I come across conversations about how life in Dubai is not the same anymore, and maybe its time to leave. The cost of living is going up in the speed of sound. Rent prices are rising fast (last year on the average 35%), landlords pumping more and more money out of tenants. Even a dump costs a fortune. Companies are hesitant to pay fully for the increased rent prices for their employees. The overall cost of living is going up and up, while there isn't an increase in the quality of life. I guess Dubai is not the attractive place to move to and make money anymore, especially if people consider the cost of living and the salaries. VAT tax will probably be introduced in a year or two, which makes the whole thing even more expensive.

Traffic. Most people killed in the traffic accidents in the world. Traffic jams that make you go hmmm. Getting from point A to point B takes ridicoulous amount of time. Traffic culture is often beyond understanding and has become one of the most talked about topics between the residents and in the media.

When new real estate developments were announced, everybody used to be in awe. The Palm, Burj Dubai and so on. Now when you hear of "rotating cities" and god knows what new things, you just shrug. Great, another useless overhyped development which the world doesn't need. Thank god for real estate developers! Reaction of the people is more sarcastic than welcoming. Nobody cares anymore.

Overall superficiality of Dubai can drain you. Everybody in Dubai has had a conversation about it. The city without a soul. A friend of mine recently said she just needs to get out for some time.

I don't feel the charm of Dubai anymore. Don't even remember if I ever did feel it. Sure I've had fun here. You can have good times everywhere with the right company. But I'm beginning to feel I'd like to go on having that fun elsewhere.

For sure there are nice things about Dubai, life's been good to me overall. Just getting a bit tired. Maybe I need a break.

Mark your calendars

I've done my travel schedule and I will back in Estonia on the 30th of June. I will be around for about 10 days.

I'm eager to see my family and friends again. Thoughts of enjoying a beer at Pirogov, walking around without sweating and seeing real nature make me impatient. Can't wait to smell (real!) flowers and breath fresh air again.

There are so many things I miss about Estonia. Home, sweet home.

Anyway, you better mark your calendars. Better yet, drop me an e-mail and lets set something up in advance.

Want to buy Aladdin's lamp?

Some people seem to believe its somewhere around. Or at least that one can have the power to summon up a genie.

Two men went on trial yesterday for conning a policeman(!) out of 8,200 dirhams in exchange for the ability to control a magical genie. The prosecution said that the two accused told the victim that they could summon up a genie for him, who would follow all of his orders, if he paid them the money.

Having read too many fairy tales, cop paid the money. As the estonian proverb says, "a fool gets beaten up even in the church".

Slavery

Slavery in Dubai is as normal as blue sky and wet sea. And you can't complain about it. Just yesterday a five-day strike involving thousands of construction workers came to an end. Without results.

So what does the government do about it? "Workers protesting over minimum wage issues in Abu Dhabi should understand their demands are illegal according to current UAE labour law", said the labour officials.

There is no minimum wage. So even if you pay a little over nothing, thats perfectly okay. They demanded minimum wage of 1,000 dirhams (~272$) and their request was flatly rejected. Even 1,000 dirhams is a salary which is very hard to get by with, not to mention living a normal life. So its perfectly legal not pay salaries, illegal to complain about it.

These people don't have money to go back home. Before coming to Dubai they are promised a lot of money and god knows what else, and they are charged thousands of dirhams for the "service" to get them to Dubai. In order to get this money they sell much of what they own, spend their savings and borrow money where they can. When they come here they realize they have been tricked into slavery and they can't afford to pay back the loans they took or go back home.

Right now the government has the power to do something about it, but they choose not to (problem has been there for years, if they really wanted to do something about it, it would have been done). Because that would "ruin" the economy. If you start paying human wages to the labourers, the cost of all real estate developments (worth billions) will go way up and the bubble of Dubai is broken.

Yesterday in many parts of the world, including Dubai, there was a march against hunger. An initiative I support. According to a local newspaper nearly 10,000 people attended the event. If only so many people would voice their opinions against the slavery in the country they live in.
Of course, saying something against the government in this country is a risky thing to do...

Things can be different

The government of UAE finally decided that they will change the weekend. Currently the official weekend is thursday-friday, and from first of september onward it will be friday-saturday. Great number of companies already work from sunday to thursday, as do I, but not everybody.

And apart from being in synch with the developed world (different weekends created a 4-day blackout), finally, families and friends will all be off at the same time. Its very normal that kids go to school on saturday while parents have a day off. Okay, some parents might like it, but Im sure most would like to spend time with their kids.

Planning an outing with more than five attendees will no longer need a customized software solution.

Not everybody is happy of course. If this has been the weekend for you all life long, it can be hard to adjust to the changes.

6-day or 5,5 -day working week is also quite common for some companies, whether this changes too, remains to be seen.

Sad but true

Guess whats on the picture? No, its not my shoe collection. Nope, I don't have guests over. They belong to my neighbours.

On the same floor with me there are 2 more studio apartments. Both a little bit smaller than mine (I saw them before I moved in to mine). So now in one of them there are at least 20 guys living. Maybe more. I think I've seen more shoes behind their door. This picture was taken this morning.

The third flat - there are about 6-7 guys living. I've met like 4 of them. They seem nice.

So thats the sad reality of Dubai. Or the whole UAE. Rent prices are so high that low earning people from the subcontinent can not afford it. Companies exploit them as they want, there are almost no laws to protect them, no minimum salary. Such a large number of people sharing one flat is extremely common here. Its everywhere. It might be around 1 million people or more (2?) that are living like this here. Companies that require a lot of manpower (construction companies, factories etc) have even separate labour camps where their employees live. I've never been to one myself (just driven by), but the conditions seem to be rather sad.

UN said recently that there are about 12 million slaves in the world. I bet the number is way higher. A good number of people in Dubai live like ones and are being treated like this. Makes me rather sick.

On the second picture you can see my house. The beige/orange one on the right.

The way we were

I am probably the only thing in my life that will be with me forever... Together with the jazz in my head and memories of the times gone by. But I guess this is also part of my self.

Everybody in this world is going different places, becoming different people. World that is my reality does not exist for so many people. What I see and do now, today, will be reduced to nothing more than a memory, it becomes a recording. And that recording of now plays differently in your memory than it does in mine.

If there aren’t people around who share the same memories as me, idea of who I used to be is only in my head. When I see an old friend of mine whom I met when I was 15, I know where he comes from. I remember the time we smoked those cigarettes, went to school parties and had that hiking trip. I know the good times we shared together and we will to some extent always remain those boys who had some fun at the age of 17.

Someone’s identity is not just who you are today. If I’ve known you for 15 years, this is who you are. This is why when 50 year old guys get together are still those same old boys they were 30 years ago. They know who they were. If I'd meet them now, for me they’d be just 50 year old guys. When a couple that has been together for 25 years looks at each other, I bet they also see each other the way they saw each other when they were young. They remember.

So when you lose the people you knew when you were young, you will always be the person you are now. You will only be who you were in your head.

Sometimes gaps in geography or lifestyle will keep you apart from your friends. And people change in time. Your friends will think of you as you were the last time they saw you.

I haven’t been home for almost a year now. I have changed. When I’ll meet my friends again, there might be a silent voice whispering in their head „you are less than the person that I think you are”. Probably my friends have changed too. Sometimes we don’t want our friends to change. Or we don’t want to admit they have changed and refuse to change our paradigm. Because we might not like the changes, we like the memories of what the person used to be like. So we stick to that.

I am a bit afraid that when I come back and meet my people, there is that voice. And although we won’t say it out loud, we feel something has changed. And we might not like the changes we have gone through. And I will miss you as you were and you will miss the old me.

Or maybe its all the same. I'll see you in July.

Work in progress

This post is about my office. I'm gonna show you some pictures so you can get a glimpse of what it looks like.

This is the entrance to the building. Al Murooj Plaza!
On the rooftop there's a pool and a gym, where I go work out.
















This is my desk. The chair is really comfortable. Some dude cleans the desk every day, so I can create all the mess I want and its all nice and tidy the next morning. Yeah.











Me pretending to work. I'm already quite good at it.











Team mates Janek and Meelis, sharing the room with me.













Conference room. This is the place where all the good ideas come to existance.

The table gets dusty very quickly.









Biggest room in the office. This is were all the flirting takes place. There's a really comfortable couch as well (even 2).

Music provided by Dubai 92.









There's also a kitchen (fridge full of cold beverages and apples) and my manager has a room for himself as well, but I won't show you what they look like.

Customer service and stuff

I think its fair to say that in Dubai service companies pay attention to customer service. Especially hotel staff is usually nice and friendly. Just last week when I went to Fairmont hotel one of the staff members said something like "Hey I remember you, how are you sir?" which felt pretty good. BUT often the quality or the way they offer this service has (a lot of) room for improvement.

One of the things that bothers me is the fakeness (of course its Dubai - everything here is fake!). "How are you, sir?" is a question (which is not really a question) you will hear everywhere. Sometimes it can be really annoying. You wanna do your thing or whatever, and somebody steps up to you with how-can-I-help-you bs. I know its their job, but if you encounter that in every step it can be frustrating. I happened to read one dudes comment on the same:

For instance, when at the breakfast buffet, my hand will be an inch from the cornflakes dispenser when some dickhead will fun up and say:

"Cornflakes, sir?"

And I will reply:

"I know they're cornflakes you stupid fuckwit!!! I was trying to get some to eat before you intervened with your inane commentary on everything I am doing!! Now, fuck off!!!"

This is too much, but I can see how one loses its nerves finally. Plus I think Dubai spoils people. I've seen expats acting the way they wouldn't in their home country.

Fake greetings on the phone make me wanna puke sometimes. "Hey, how are you? Good! Thanks I'm fine!". They don't even listen what you reply, they just go on and on with their program. Mostly I don't ask in return how are they doing cause I'll hear "thanks I'm fine" anyway and they feel I did ask. Even if I won't ask and they do notice I'm sure they don't mind 'cause everybody knows its stupid anyway. I might as well tell them that "I'm about to die and I wish you were dead too!" and they'd say "Good! Thanks I'm fine!".

At restaurants its the same thing quite often. "How is/was your meal, sir?". You could easily reply "tasted like wet dog with some vomit" and they will just smile "Very good, sir".

Sometimes restaurant staff has been trained to respond in a certain way, to give you some speech, repeat your order and god knows what - which could be nice if delivered in an authentic, sincere way. But no! Never seen that in Dubai. All the "thank you"s and "very good"s are as real as the three Taj Mahals, two Eiffel towers, and a Pisa tower in Dubai (why travel anywhere else!). I don't know whether this fake customer service speech works on anyone, but not on me. I think the money spent on their training (although probably they won't invest in "low" class people, so nothing lost?) is a waste of money. If you seek customer service excellence, then do it right.

Another thing you notice in Dubai is the huge number of service personell in places like supermarkets, restaurants and so on. In Carrefour (supermarket near my home) there are so many of them, especially the electionics section is totally overstaffed. You almost have to fight to make your way through the customer service people to see the products. Often they gather into some corner and joke between each other. In Carrefour their favourite hangout place seemes to be between the fridges (probably they have some inside joke like "let's go to the "cool" place. haha!"). When you ask them something specific, a technical question, often they don't know more than "its made in Japan, very good!".

When I lived in my previous place the supermarket I visited the most was Lulu (rumor has it it's the center of the universe). They had huge number of people working there as well. Most of the time doing nothing... When the labour costs are so cheap, nobody bothers about efficiency. Maybe the one place which cares about it in Dubai is Ikea, although I can't swear on it. The only reason how Dubai is building so many skyscrapers so fast is the huge number of indians/pakistanis/etc on one construction site. Coca-Cola invests gazillion dollars in TV advertising, Dubai puts gazillion indians on one construction site.

Don't be surprised when you find a restaurant with 10:1 waiter/customer ratio, it happens. And it doesn't mean the service is fast! There's a shisha place I go to with my friends where each waiter seems to have a different job role: one guy takes the order, second brings glasses, third one water, fourth dude shisha, fifth guy changes the charcoals, sixth brings the food, seventh the bill and eigth (higher rank) takes the money. And there are about 5 more dudes who walk around and do nothing (at least I haven't figured out their role). I'm sure they don't get paid anything and motivation level is below zero, but hey - this is not normal.

Sometimes I feel Dubai puts so much effort on facade (and telling the miracle of Dubai story) that it forgets about the real thing. Once you dig deeper, you can find a great deal of crap. Just the other day I read from a paper how the quality of construction (which nearly always sucks) in a new part of town - Jumeirah Islands - was total crap (residents complaining). And the real estate developer responded something like that oh c'mon, what else do you expect for 2.1 mln dirhams? Nice.

Hell is about to begin

There are two seasons in Dubai - summer and hell. Summer is over, hell is getting closer and closer. No more enjoying outdoors. Now its already about 38 C (in the shade) and 50% humidity (which goes higher in the night). Thats too much. It makes be kind of uncomfortable to know it gets worse. Way worse.

Hearing news about Estonian weather makes me wanna be there.

Lets tango, baby!

Me and Sarah started to dance tango some time back and we love it! Excitment, fun, passion, love, forbidden fruits... its all in tango. Tango is like as much a language, a way to communicate as speech. In the same way as many of us love the poetry and adore its beauty, you can feel and breath life and all its beauty through tango. Its an art that happens in front of your eyes and you can be the art itself.

Yesterday we went to see a tango show (and to dance ourselves), and Sarah noticed that the people on the dancefloor were from so many nationalities - arabs, malaysians, britons, indians etc (ca 10 different), and they were all dancing this latin american dance, having the time of their lives. It was beautiful - like a symbol for cultural understanding, peace and diversity.

Then we watched a lady (about 45 years old), a successful lawyer as we were told, dancing tango, showing off her legs, body and she seemed to forget who she is and what kind of an image she is usually carrying with herself. At that moment, she was just living in the moment, fully dived into the sea of tango, enjoying her self.

I remembered what the CEO of Harley Davidson said, that what they sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him. Same thing with tango. When dancing tango, you can be the irresistable vamp, femme fatale or casanova. Sexy and mysterious. Desirable and charming.

One of my tango teachers told me she is going to deliver a speech on "Tango: sport or art?" and then asked everybody (fellow dancers) what do they think about it. Most of them said its an addiction, a passion.

I think I'm close to being addicted. Feels good.

Women rule!

I am pro-women. I think women rock. I've had the pleasure of being surrounded by a lot of women throughout my life. In my high school class there were 8 boys and over 25 girls. In the university most of the people on my course were girls. In AIESEC usually there were 80-90% girls. I've had female team mates, subordinates and bosses. Friends and lovers. Based on this I know (yes, know) that women rule.

There are many people on this planet who agree with me. Some data to support this argument:

Economist, 15 April. Leader, page 14. "Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic Growth Is Driven by Women.":

"Girls get better grades in school than boys, and in most developed countries more women than men go to university. Women will thus be better equipped for the new jobs of the 21st century, in which brains count a lot more than brawn. ... And women are more likely to provide sound advice on investing their parents' nest egg: surveys show that women consistently achieve higher financial returns than men do. Furthermore, the increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth in the last couple of decades. Those women have contributed more to global GDP growth than have either new technology or the new giants, India and China."

Goldman Sachs in Tokyo has developed an index of 115 companies poised to benefit from women's increased purchasing power; over the past decade the value of shares in "Goldman's basket has risen by 96%, against the Tokyo stockmarket's rise of 13%."

A fact: women buy everything:
94 percent of home furnishings.
92 percent of vacations.
91 percent of houses.
80 percent of do-it-yourself projects.
51 percent of consumer electronics.
68 percent of new cars.
83 PERCENT OF ... ALL CONSUMER PURCHASES.
Household investment decisions ... 67 percent. Small business loans ... 70 percent. Health care decisions ... 80 percent. Yet 91 percent of women say that "advertisers don't understand us"; 58 percent of women say that they're outright "annoyed" by advertising.

That's kinda stupid, isn't it?

Judy Rosener, author of, among other things: America's Competitive Secret: Utilizing Women As a Management Strategy, argues that women's strengths match the new economy's imperatives . For example: Women tend to link rather than rank workers. Women tend to favor interactive/collaborative leadership style, believing that empowerment beats top-down decision making. Women tend to sustain fruitful collaborations. Women are comfortable with sharing information. Women see redistribution of power as victory, not surrender. Women favor multidimensional feedback. Women value technical & interpersonal skills, individual & group contributions equally. Women readily accept ambiguity. Women honor intuition as well as pure rationality. Women are inherently flexible. Women appreciate cultural diversity.

BusinessWeek Special Report: "As leaders women rule: New Studies find that Female Managers Outshine their Male Counterparts in Almost Every Measure."

How about sales? Men, we lose again. Selling is a Woman's Game (look for a book by Nicki Joy
and Susan Kane-Benson). Take this quiz:

Who manages more things at once? Who puts more effort into their appearance? Who usually takes care of the details? Who finds it easier to meet new people? Who asks more questions in a conversation? Who is a better listener? Who has more interest in communication skills? Who is more inclined to get involved? Who encourages harmony and agreement? Who has better intuition? Who works with longer 'to do' lists? Who enjoys a recap to the day's events? Who is better at keeping in touch with others?"

A couple of final assertions: (1) It is now agreed that "the single best investment that can be made in the developing world" is educating girls. (2) Also, surprisingly, nations with the highest female laborforce participation rates, such as Sweden and the U.S., have the highest fertility rates; and those with the lowest participation rates, such as Italy and Germany, have the lowest fertility rates.

Hmm. As I said, women rule.

Want to know your natural talents?

Did you know that years of research have found that only 17% of people within the workplace play to their strengths most of the time? This means most of the companies (and people!) are operating much below their potential. For everyone’s sake this number needs to be higher.

I've been reading "Now, discover your strenghts" and this is a book I recommend to everyone. To begin, the authors posit that businesses (and personalities) are built on two faulty assumptions:

• Each person can learn to be competent in almost anything.
• Each person's greatest room for growth is in his or her areas of greatest weakness

This faulty paradigm means that people get promoted for wrong reasons, trained in wrong things (which they lack talent for and which makes it useless, a waste of time and money in the end), companies expect wrong things from people (which stop them from exceling) and people commit their life to improving their weaknesses and don't get very far.

Working with data gathered by Gallup, who conducted interviews with over 2 million people, the authors present the reader with thirty-four basic "themes", or strengths. There are hundreds of combinations of these individual strengths, and in order to find out what your 'combination of strengths' is requires you to take a test on their website. When you buy the book, you are given a password and a URL.

The test is serious, extensive, and comprehensive. It isn't short, it takes a commitment from you, but I also think the rewards are significant. I took the test and I think the results reflect accurately who I am. Think about it. Self-knowledge is often hard to come by.

You will get to know your top 5 talents (recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied), how to work with your strenghts and perhaps you can revise your life.