NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE ; THE NATIONAL

Cricket players lobby to sack panel over squad selection

DUBAI - MARCH 03: Senior administrators in the Dubai Cricket Council (DCC) yesterday lobbied for the removal of the current Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) selection panel over the make-up of the national squad.

A delegation of 18 players and officials went to see government officials in Abu Dhabi to formally lodge their complaints.

The make-up of the UAE squad to play in the crucial ICC World Cup Qualifier in South Africa in April has been met with anger from many sections of the country’s cricket fraternity, including a number of players.

Some claim a number of better players have been overlooked.

Of greater concern for Abdul Razzak Kazim, the long-serving vice chairman of the DCC, is the paucity of Emirati representation.

Only last week, the ECB detailed their master plan for developing the game among the indigenous population in a business model they sent to the Asian Cricket Council.

The board passed a motion last year to include four UAE nationals in every squad, yet the policy has since been dispensed with.

Now only Fahad al Hashmi, the Emirati seam bowler, remains in a squad otherwise peopled by Indian and Pakistani expatriates.

Kazim, who formerly held the role of chief selector of the ECB, said: “Changes need to be made now. If you look at the UAE cricket team, they have been in decline for the past 11 years. The people responsible need to be kicked out.”

Alawi Shukri, one of the players who was overlooked and a member of the executive committee of DCC, echoed Kazim’s views.

He said: “We want to move on. Injustice has been done and the best thing for UAE cricket would be if these selectors are out.”

Reliable performers such as Mohammed Iqbal, Shadeep Silva and Shoaib Sarwar were aggrieved by their exclusion, but some of the changes in the new-look squad were forced upon the selectors.

Mohammed Tauqir, the most experienced Emirati cricketer, opted out because of work commitments. Elsewhere, Rameez Shahzad, a promising youngster who established himself in the side for the first time last season, moved to England to study earlier this year.

However, his move was hastened by an overwhelming disillusionment with the way the game is run in this country, according to his father, Shahzad Altaf, who opened the bowling for the UAE in their sole World Cup appearance in 1996.

“He was disheartened with cricket over here and jumped at the chance to combine his studies with playing cricket in England.”

Dilawar Mani, who is an ECB board member and a selector, rejected the criticisms: “If you look at that list of players, 12 to 13 of them essentially selected themselves with their performances.

We look at who attends nets and the individual performances and statistics, we take advice from the coaches and the physios.”

Colin Wells, the head coach of the national team, refused to comment. The UAE will fly to Sri Lanka on Thursday for a series of warm-up matches, before departing for South Africa on March 27.

They will begin the search for one of four qualifying places at the 2011 World Cup when they play Bermuda on April 1 at Potchefstroom University.

Indians sit exams together

UAE - MARCH 03: When Vishal Chandran sat down yesterday at exactly 9am to begin his exam in chemistry, the Grade 12 student was not alone. Not by a long shot. He was just one of almost 1.5 million pupils taking part in a series of closely co-ordinated exam sessions that are unique to those studying the Indian curriculum around the world.

The pupils who yesterday took the first exam – Grade 12 chemistry – had to start at precisely the time decreed by India’s Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE): 10.30am in India.

Students taking the same exam in 22 countries had to start at exactly the same moment, which meant, for example, that those in Ghana starting writing their tests at 5am, while those in the UAE had the relatively comfortable start time of 9am. In the coming days, about 5,225 students from Grade 10 and 3,612 in Grade 12 in the Emirates will complete their exams in a variety of other subjects at 14 centres across the country in similarly co-ordinated fashion.

Around 17,000 students take the exams in the GCC, which has 110 registered Indian-curriculum schools. Worldwide, more than 1.46m students will take the exams this year, compared with 1.31m last year.

The Indian High School, Dubai, one of the key examination centres in the UAE, greeted around 600 anxious Grade 12 students early in the morning as they walked in for their chemistry paper. Most walked out with a smile on their faces, however, and many agreed the first paper was an easy one.

“We were nervous because it was a crucial science subject. However, it all went well. The questions were direct and easy and I hope I did well,” said Vishal.

The smiling faces brought some relief to worried parents waiting outside. “Parents are more worried about exams than children these days,” said Narendra Kumar, who was waiting for his daughter Nikita to finish her exam.

Another of the students, Jyothin Babu, said: “This one was surprisingly easy but there are many more coming. We have to get back home soon and start studying for the next paper.”

Ashok Kumar, principal of the Indian High School, Dubai, and a member of the governing council of the CBSE, said things had gone according to plan so far.

Under new rules, the students were given 15 minutes to read the question paper before starting. The three-hour examinations are conducted with one supervisor for every 20 students. To keep things fair, students are not allowed to appear for the exams in their own school and have to travel to another one.

“We cannot have our own students here so the exams can be conducted in a neutral way, including their supervision,” said Vijay Mathu, principal of the Abu Dhabi Indian School.

In the capital, two centres accommodated students from more than half a dozen schools, including Our Own English High School, Sherwood Academy and the Indian Islahi Islamic School.

After they are completed, the papers are collected, resealed and sent back to the Indian Embassy in the capital, which had earlier distributed them to the test centres.
All the papers will be sent in diplomatic bags to India, where they will be graded by teachers in schools across the country. The entire process takes two months and the eagerly awaited results are announced in May.

M Vishnumoorthi, centre superintendent for the exams at the Abu Dhabi Indian School, also thought the first day went well: “When the students feel at ease, then we feel at ease.”

Transport plans for rail and road get green light

ABU DHABI - MARCH 03: Trams will start operating in the capital by 2014, with the metro opening two years later, the Department of Transport’s chairman said yesterday.

Abdulla al Otaiba stressed that the city’s major transport projects were going ahead in spite of the global financial downturn.

“The tram will be starting operation in 2014,” he said. “Metro, 2016.”

Mr al Otaiba was speaking at a conference on sustainable urban transport at the Shangri-La Hotel. Hosted by his department and the International Association of Public Transport, the event brought together transportation planners and firms from around the world.

Much of the focus was on the capital, as Mr al Otaiba opened the conference sessions then signed the association’s Charter on Sustainable Development, a voluntary agreement by the department to track, measure and report its performance in this sphere.

“Our goal is to implement transport solutions that produce less emissions, and that will eventually move towards cleaner and greener sources of energy,” he said.

The opening dates come a week after the department invited consultancies to bid for the right to prepare a feasibility study for the 131 kilometre metro project.

The contract is to be awarded in the third quarter of this year and the study completed over 18 months.

The department has also announced it will have 1,360 buses operating on an integrated network around the emirate by the end of next year.

Last month it shortlisted five consortia to bid for a Dh10 billion (US$2.7bn) contract to upgrade the 327km highway between Abu Dhabi and the Saudi border, a move officials said signalled that transport projects were being given the green light.

The masterplan is expected to be revealed to the public next month, including details of the network’s routes. It is also expected to include a regional railway to Dubai and water taxis.

A preliminary map released by the Government last year shows an integrated transit network featuring the metro with stations on Abu Dhabi island, connecting to the Musaffah industrial zone, the planned Capital City and Masdar, Abu Dhabi International Airport and Saadiyat and Yas Islands.

A street-level tram system is shown making frequent stops in busy downtown sectors, with lines also running in Al Raha Beach, Musaffah, to the airport and to Reem, Saadiyat and Yas islands.

Without an improved mass transit infrastructure, the department predicts the road network will reach capacity before 2020.

The flow of vehicles to Abu Dhabi island may increase to 100,000 an hour by then, it forecasts, from about 15,000 an hour today.

Mr al Otaiba said he did not expect there to be difficulty finding investors for the projects and added that the Government would seek to form more private-public partnerships.

“It is one of the top priorities of the Government to go ahead and implement transportation,” he said. “We expect that the investors will be keen to invest in these projects.”

Hans Rat, secretary-general of the International Association of Public Transport, congratulated the department for its comprehensive plan but said the challenge for it, and other Middle East nations looking to promote mass transit, would be to “create a society far less dependent on the use of the private car. Countries far less dependent on private cars are more wealthy than those who are,” he said.

Abu Dhabi’s plans come as Dubai is preparing to open the first line of its metro system in September.

During today’s conference session, department officials are to lead sessions on the surface transportation masterplan.

A speaker from the taxi regulator, TransAD, will discuss the emirate’s plans for upgrading the existing taxi service.

Victims describe kidnappers’ attacks

SHARJAH - MARCH 03: Fifteen-year-old AM still bears the scars on his face from the beatings. Like many similar victims, he knew his assailants, and their notoriety was growing. He chose not to remain silent.

When Sharjah Police finally arrested the five men who dubbed themselves “Death Row”, they uncovered a brutal underground of bullying, extortion and abuse. Yet the arrests might not have happened if AM, a pupil at Emirates National School in Dubai, had not been willing to speak out.

Recounting his ordeal from his home in Sharjah, the boy said he had been targeted as he was returning from private tuition classes.

“One guy behind the Joy Alukkas building in Rolla called me on my mobile in the evening and said he wanted to show me something. Then two more joined him and started demanding money from me as they slapped and kicked me,” he said. “They said they would not accept anything less than Dh300 and I had only Dh100. They took the money and my phone. We had often met this guy at one of the buildings of my close friend and classmate; I knew he stayed there and my friend really knew him well.”

The men in custody, aged between 20 and 25, are two Pakistanis and three stateless residents who grabbed children as young as 12 from wealthy Indian families in Sharjah for brief periods and abused them before demanding money under threat of further violence, the police said.

They pounced on pupils on Sharjah’s streets, kicking and slapping them before taking their money and plundering their mobile phones for the contact details of other rich classmates.

In the most violent incidents, the gang kidnapped at least five schoolchildren and filmed them being abused, in one instance burning a victim with cigarettes, before letting them go. The videos were then posted on the internet.

Unlike many of the gang’s other victims, who were cowed into silence, AM told his parents, who cancelled his private classes and reported the matter to Sharjah Police.

AM’s mother said she wanted the two foreigners deported if they were found guilty at trial.

“We can’t compromise anything to do with the safety of our children,” she said. “This country has a reputation of safety and such gangs have no place here.”

The publicity surrounding the arrests has prompted more victims and their families to come forward with information that could help put the men behind bars, the police said.

Police have now set up a special hotline to collect further evidence on the gang and similar crimes. Police believe the gang’s campaign of extortion may have lasted for several months. After first admitting to kidnapping pupils and extorting money from them, the men denied the charges when they were transferred to the Sharjah Public Prosecution, a senior police official said.

It was the culture of all criminals first to confess and later to play on the law of “innocent until proven guilty” when they go to Public Prosecution by asserting that the confession was forced, he said.

“But the good thing is that more families are now coming out with concrete evidence of children testifying that the pictures of the accused, published in papers from Sharjah Police, were the same people that beat them up and that would help the Public Prosecution.”

Another victim, SH, 14, who said he was beaten up twice but had not gone to police, said he was now considering coming forward with his experiences. He had not gone to the police, he said, because he was not confident of being able to describe the incident in Arabic.

“At first I kept it to myself,” the boy said, “but when they beat me the second time I told my parents who advised that I should change the direction I am using for the tuition.

“I couldn’t easily identify them and feared going through the usual police bureaucracy. I just wanted it to end easily by dodging the beaters.”

Schools in Sharjah said they were aware of the threat to pupils but insisted that the primary responsibility for children’s safety lay with the parents.

“We can help by offering counselling, but they are the responsibility of their parents first, and of schools second,” said Abraham Matthew, vice principal at Emirates National School.

Many of the victims said they remained fearful of gang members on Sharjah streets.

“I feel more relaxed now that they have been arrested but we know they have more friends who have not been arrested, or brothers and cousins,” said a pupil who said he was attacked near Rolla Square.

Put off by his cheap mobile phone, the gang members demanded that he reveal the identities of the rich boys in his school. Several of those who attacked him were not among the five people who had been arrested, he said.

“They really scared me,” the boy added. “They said they had so many contacts with the police that if I reported them they would get out very quickly and come for me. People are still scared of them here.”

Sharjah Police have asked anyone with information on the gang to call their hotline at 06 548 7000.

Soaring inflation begins to fall

ABU DHABI - MARCH 03: Consumers have expressed relief that the UAE’s once surging inflation rate seems to be on the way down, bringing the cost of living to more manageable levels.

“I’ve noticed housing prices falling and also a lot of stores and supermarkets providing discounts and special offers,” said Ahmad al Suweie, a 27-year-old Emirati businessman who has three children. “This could be the start of a trend of falling prices. I hope so.”

Sultan bin Saeed al Mansouri, the Minister of the Economy, told reporters on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Economic Forum yesterday that the Government was hoping that inflation would drop to five per cent this year. The true rate of inflation is difficult to ascertain. The ministry reported a 12.2 per cent rate in March last year, excluding Abu Dhabi, but there have been no official figures since then. In October, the IMF predicted in its regional economic outlook that UAE inflation would probably be 12.9 per cent for 2008, then ease to 10.8 per cent in 2009.

The Government, marking Gulf Consumer Protection Day on Sunday, announced a programme to provide discounts on about 1,000 items, including chicken and rice. Prices of other goods have started to fall naturally.

“In the past few months, the price of a lot of products has come down,” said V Nandakumar, the corporate communications manager at Emke Group, which runs LuLu Hypermarkets. He said a reduction in the price of items such as powdered milk was due to the strengthening value of the dirham, a decline in raw material costs and a reduction in the cost of importing goods.

Shoppers at Marina Mall yesterday welcomed the lower prices, which they regard as one of the few positive trends to emerge from the economic slowdown.

Mohammed Abdullah, an Indian engineer who has lived in the UAE for three years and shares a home with two friends, said: “In the past two years all I see is prices going up and up – especially housing. How can we afford to live and buy our necessities when most of our salary is going on making sure we have somewhere to sleep? Once the price of rent falls, I will be able to save as much as I had hoped to so I can send more money to my family.”

Mr Abdullah said he had not noticed any decrease in prices but that he would be “thankful when it happens”.

Monica Kujawski, a South African mother of two, said she and her husband had struggled to save money since they arrived in the UAE two years ago.

“I’m really relieved now that the market has calmed down, and prices are starting to settle,” she said.

“I hope what they say about the prices falling even more will happen soon. That would make life so much easier, and would make our move here worth it.”

Julie Crosby, a consultant at the Abu Dhabi-based brokerage LLJ Properties, said rental inflation in the capital had been negligible so far this year.

“Prices have been static since before Christmas,” she said.

Residents can also look forward to less dramatic increases in their grocery bills.

Commodities on world markets have fallen by 25 per cent per cent over the past 12 months and more than 30 per cent since June, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s food price index. The UAE imports about 80 per cent of its food.

Cooler weather and low visibility expected

ABU DHABI - MARCH 03: After sandstorms hit the country yesterday, blowing fine sand and creating dust clouds, the weather is expected to turn mild and cool today.

Winds have reduced by at least 10 knots over the past 24 hours, said a spokesman for the Dubai Meteorological Office. However, the dust in the air will remain, limiting visibility. Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Al Ain should all expect up to three kilometres of visibility. Sandstorms will continue in Al Gharbia, due to a combination of its vast, open areas, and strong winds. Some of the dust particles may continue to travel with the winds inland into the coastal cities such as Abu Dhabi.

Terrible weather has been predicted in offshore areas, with warnings going out to sailors and shipping companies. As a result of the change in the direction of winds, the temperature dropped to 25°C in Dubai yesterday and an average of 23°C is expected in most cities tomorrow, including Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

School offers parents good news

DUBAI - MARCH 03: An Indian private school that has enraged parents with plans to raise fees by 90 per cent over two years last night offered them some good news.

Parents of pupils at Dubai Modern High School, which is owned by Global Education Management Systems (Gems), have fought a public battle against the proposed fee rises, which the school maintained had been forced on it by a move to a new campus after the threat of eviction.

But last night an e-mail from the school told them there was a possibility the eviction could be revoked after “reconsideration by the landlord”.

Gems said a fee rise of 25 per cent for the coming academic year, which starts next month, and 16 per cent the next year would be necessary to cover rent increases – which it claims could be up to three times what it paid two years ago – and teachers’ salaries.

Last night Gems called on parents to indicate whether they would agree to its latest proposal by clicking a “yes” or “no” option on the circular before 8am tomorrow.

It said it hoped it could show the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), which regulates school fees in Dubai, that most parents are in favour of paying the increase to stay at the current campus, and the authority would make a special case and approve the increase.

The e-mail said: “I would like to remind you that staying at the existing site is a possibility and a possibility only. It is contingent both on suitable KHDA approval and obtaining reasonable terms from the landlord.

“The alternative is to continue our move to the Nad al Sheba site.”

A 14-strong parent committee, formed after the initial fee proposals, met last night to discuss the e-mail and how they should proceed.

One parent with two children at the school, who did not wish to be named, said while he considered the news a “moral victory” for parents, it might still not be good enough for some parents.

“I personally would be happy, but is it good enough?” he asked. “Why 25 per cent if we are staying at the same premises and rents across the city are decreasing? They should be able to negotiate the rent down, not upwards.

“We have only been given two choices by the school – yes or no. Yes, we would like to continue and stay at the school, or no we would like to continue to move to Nad al Sheba and pay the 90 per cent.

“There is no third option to stay at the school and not pay an increase.”

Another father with two children at the school questioned the need for a 25 per cent fee increase if it was remaining where it was.

“I appreciate there is an awareness and that Gems has started to move in the right direction, however this deal is not workable because they are asking 1,300 parents to make a decision by Wednesday,” he said.

“Parents need to consult their families, their companies, and it is a working week with many people travelling with their jobs.”

Gems was unavailable for comment last night.