Saturday, 07 February 2009
From ArabianBusiness.com
Dubai police said just 11 cars have been left at the airport in the past year not 3,000. (This is surprising because only two days ago, the following quote was in the paper in Dubai: "Every day we find more and more cars," said one senior airport security official, who did not want to be named. "Christmas was the worst - we found more than two dozen on a single day." Apparently the poor man was seeing things.)
Only 11 cars have been abandoned at Dubai airport in over a year, according to the emirate’s chief of police in a stinging attack on the country’s media for misreporting the facts. Clarification on the number of cars left at Dubai International Airport came following repeated media reports that the figure had hit 3,000, as increasing numbers of expatriates fled the emirate as a result of the economic crisis.
Reports of thousands of cars being left at the airport as the global downturn hit Dubai have been circulating in the UAE media for weeks. However, it was an article in The Times of London last week, repeating the 3,000 figure, that prompted lieutenant general Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, chief of the Dubai police department, to speak out.
At an urgent press meeting on Friday, Tamim said the figure was inaccurate and accused journalists of spreading rumours, according to Gulf News who cited Arabic electronic newspaper Elaph.com. "Be assured that if we had at least 50 or 25 or 15 cars abandoned at the airport, I would have told you about it. There have only been 11 cars left at the airport since January 1, 2008, which is before the global economic crisis," Tamim said. Journalists had acted unprofessionally and without objectivity in reporting that Dubai’s economy was collapsing, he added." A reporter should always verify the facts of a report. Did the reporter come back to us or request a comment and we said 'No' to him? Credibility, objectivity and accountability are essential in journalism and this report lacked credibility."
False statements on the market collapsing……are nothing but incorrect rumours. If there is any disruption we will inform the media about it," said Tamim.
Dubai was still witnessing a smooth economy and the problems attributed to the emirate both in the local and international media were “completely false”, Tamim added.“We have to put a limit to this, we are aware of the reports published on this, but now it has gotten out of proportion."
ha ha..funny guy
ReplyDeleteAnother misunderstanding? Add it to the list with the one family one villa misunderstanding and the ID cards deadline misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget the 30-days-visa-that-used-to-be-valid-for-60 days-but-is-now-only-valid-for-40-days *misunderstanding* (though a friend came in to Dubai airport last week and was told the visa is for 30 days no exceptions.)
ReplyDeleteWhat will probably happen is that they'll clarify that there are only 11 of the total 900+ (or whatever the recent 1-2 month figure is) which cannot be traced to the: original owner and auto loan providing bank.
ReplyDeleteThey'll say it is the efficiency of the system in tracking cars (aka Salik RFID tags) that enabled them to trace most of the cars back to the bank or dealership.
The remaining 11 were stripped of tags, plates and unique manufacturer number (chassis number).
Then a report will come out banning auto loans outright to bachelors, as they have a higher flight risk, and only provide them to family members (people in families of 4 or more). To bolster the lost car sales they'll limit the number of people to a car to 3 so that families may have to split the drivers between 2 cars giving them license plates ending indifferent numbers ie odd and even. (note this can bolster Salik Revenues)
Then in the "Green Push" they'll tax both cars, or better yet restrict cars ending in even numbers to driving every second day and odd numbers on odd numbered days.
I'll let you Choose your own next installment to the saga..
Hi,
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