Member: Vic33

And on a completely different note - you mention your kids are in High School and Uni - could you please explain the system to me, I keep comiong across it in American books and I have no idea what terms like sophomore mean.

Ok, back to your questions about Dubai. (So many of them that I havge cut and pasted your msg!!)

Dubai Natural History Group and Emirates Environmental Group:
DNHG is run by expats and has a membership of about 150.
We have speakers monthly, usually on a ME based topic, though not always.
We also organise w/e trips to archaelogical sites, plant or fossil hunting, nature walks etc.
EEG is run by a concerned female local lady. She encourages recycling and for companies to join and commit to these principles. Membership I have no idea about.
They also hold monthly meetings, usually more commercial based, eg recycling of cooled air in buildings. More commercial based. Being local she holds some clout amongst Arabs but apparently also offends quite a few people!!

What are attitudes towards the natural world in Dubai? Do most/few people recycle?
Hmmm, I'm glad to say things are improving but we have a huge way to go.
I think we are the most wasteful country per capita in the world - and when you think that a large proportion of the population are v poor workers, that leaves an unbelievable wastage between those who have.
There are a lot of recycling facilities that have sprung up in recent years, glass, plastic, paper, carboard, alumiminium. I have visited a paper recycling plant and the plastic recycling factory - where they make EcoWood. EcoWood is used by the Sheikh for the fences round his horse stables and you don't get higher recommendation than that!
Most ppl, especially locals, just bin stuff though.
Now it is Ramadan and there are loads of collection points for clothes and household stuff in the season of giving. They are well supported.
As to the natural world, we do now have some nature reserves. Some mangrove swamps, desert areas, creek environments with flamingoes etc. A great friend of mine - in fact the only local I really know, is Major Ali. He went to school with the powerful sheiks here but he decided to fight for conservation and has managed to conserve 1 Km of shore line - wrenched from the hands of Al Nakeel for another million hotels. There he has several mico environments.
I recently went to watch baby turtles being born from nests that they had transplanted. He's moved the foxes who prey on them to another area.
He also collected thousands of dhubs, snakes and lizards from the new airport site - managed to obtain an area which he fenced and released them into. I'm hoping to arrange a trip there when the weather is cooler. We have to access it by camel!!
Also he transplanted corals from another development site and has had 90% success rate with this.
He is a bit of a voice on his own but at least he knows the powers that be on a personal basis, otherwise he never would have succeeded.

AbuDhabi is building a completely self sufficient 'town' where all buildings will be insulated (I cringe when I see the breeze block buildings going up here) and power will be provided by solar power (duh!!) etc etc. I believe they also have a solar power project planned where the sun's rays are hugely concentrated. About time! At present the only place I see solar power in use is in parking meters!!

I hope that gives you some idea.
I Googled Thomas Friedman, I'd never heard of him. I guess he makes his name by raising points of concern. We are trying here, but our greatest successes are going to be in areas where we are the 'biggest recycling plant in the world' or similar - that's what motivates this area!!

posted by DubaiReader at 2:38 am (EST) on Aug 30, 2009

Hi there. I just wanted to say thank you for mentioning the Blockbuster queue. I work for them and am happy to see somebody acknowledge that we have an online service. Hope you enjoy the movie!

posted by LittleTaiko at 8:49 pm (EST) on Jun 1, 2009

Nice to hear from you. Do you have an internet library system? In Massachusetts, where I live, you can reserve material from dozens of libraries, many of which have many more audio books than on our local shelves. I spend a lot of time perusing these sites in order to find the audios I want to reserve. By the way, it almost sounds as if your son and his friend had way more adventures than Bill Bryson did. But Bryson made me laugh, where instead, I felt really bad for your son.

Happy New Year!

posted by vivienbrenda at 7:23 am (EST) on Dec 30, 2008

Vic,
Welcome to the Presidents Challenge!

If you have any questions or want to make any suggestions to improve our Challenge, please let us know on the General thread.

We're hsppy you joined us!
Happy reading!
CHELI

posted by cyderry at 4:03 pm (EST) on Dec 29, 2008

Hi Vic,

I looked at your library because I too love Bill Bryson. All his audios are great, although he doesn't always narrate his own. He doesn't do A Walk in the Woods, but the audio is still terrific.

I noticed you enjoyed the story of Milton Hershey. I want to recommend a book called: Emporors of Chocolate. This book is a history of chocolate that focuses on both Milton Hershey and the Mars Chocolate company. Hershey went the route of public ownership while Mars is still a family run business. A very interesting book.

I too have eclectic taste that runs in spurts. For three or four years I read nothing but classics. Now I seem to be into books about food and/or chefs. I'm reading the biography of Julia Child at the moment.

You don't need to write back. I just thought I'd share.

Vivien

posted by vivienbrenda at 10:43 am (EST) on Dec 10, 2008