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.