Category: Opinion
New visa law, same old story
New visa law, same old story
Why is it that whenever the government seeks to add some sort of regulation to any sector does it end up severly damaging it ? I am talking about the new visa laws, which seem to have been the product of a nice evening throwing darts around a board filled with suggestions on what laws to put in place. Here are just a few brilliant examples of what these laws set to achieve:
* Restricting the amount of tourists from the 34 highest GDP per capita countries in the world coming into the UAE by imposing a 100 Dirham entrance fee into the UAE. If you are a part of a 5 member family living in Oman in search of a budget vacation in the UAE, you can forget about the budget since 1/4th of your expenses will be visa fees.
* Restricting the amount of time these high value tourists have to spend their money in the UAE, from 60 days to 30 days. So we can forget about the high spenders who want to spend several weeks on the beach in Dubai. And also forget about the people who rent apartments or villas, they will take their money to spain or to turkey.
* Equally insane, the beauraucratic system of visa runs (exiting and re-entering the UAE to change types of visa or to renew a tourist visa) is still in place and is on steroids. Now the visa run is restricted to your country of origin. So if you are a person from Indonesia here on a tourist visa and you find a job, what youre supposed to do is to hop on a flight from Dubai to Jakarta (8 hours) lounge around in jakarta airport for an hour then fly back for another 8 hours. You pay about 3,000 dirhams for your ticket.
The UAE tourism sector ladies and gentlemen, that is the most recent sacrifice on the altar of restricting the amount of foreigners and 'preserving the national identity'.
Source : An Emirati's Thought
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In Opinion |
on Aug 10, 2008
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by rough soul
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332 words, 989 views.
My Crazy Ideas Of reducing Traffic !
How much time on average does traffic eat up of your day on average ? . Authorities are trying their best to curb this termite who feeds on our time . Building bridges , Expanding roads their efforts are just not paying off .
I am gonna share few of my ideas , what actually needs to be done . It may sound crazy but I m sure it'll work .
PreRequirements
First of all we need to setup a very good network of local transport !Get Buses from any where and every where and setup bus stops all over U.A.E with special emphasis on Sharjah , Dubai And Abu Dhabhi !
The bus system could be divided into two divisions Inter-Emirate and Local for easy and smooth functioning !
Secondly ,One Lane should be Reserved on all major roads and highways . No matter what highway it is reserve one lane just for the buses . So buses move swiftly and Uninterrupted .
Whats gonna happen ?
If Buses move swiftly , every one is gonna prefer buses ! It may lead to crowd but we need to setup the bus frequency right so there is a bus every 5 minutes in the peak hours and bus every 15-20 minutes on off peak hours .
What are the Plus Points ?
- Its surely going to reduce Traffic
- If it does not reduce traffic its surely gonna save your transport time
- You don't need to drive in the bumper to bumper traffic .
- Fuel saving !
What Else needs to be done ?
- Metro should not be limited only to dubai but should be expanded to all the 7 emirates .
- Remove Salik , That shit ain't working ! In fact its worsening the situation
- Encourage the uses of local transport , especially among Emiratis.
- Be accessible to the public and consider its opinion and suggestions
Whats your say Dubai ?
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In Welcome, Opinion, Ideas |
on Aug 9, 2008
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by rough soul
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302 words, 1128 views.




