My first thought on picking up this book is that it must be an elaborate scam, put together perhaps by those entertaining people at The Onion.
For the premise seems totally absurd: first the author describes a place you'd like to go, such as Australia. She talks about the landscape in some detail, the beaches, the food and the warm welcome from the locals. Then the killer blow.
"The way asylum seekers are treated and Australia's refugee policies have been widely condemned by international human rights groups, and most liberal-minded Australians are ashamed of the brutality of the system," she writes.
There is hardly a country she likes. In South Africa everyone has Aids, Iran hangs its homosexuals, while Mexico may have pyramids and Diego Rivera murals but threatens its journalists with death if they report anything the government doesn't like.
The US boasts the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon and Elvis, but that doesn't hide the fact that there was slavery, sex-trafficking and death row.
Thankfully the author does not visit the UAE, but she does manage a swipe in the introduction that a consequence of Dubai's growth is "appalling working conditions for the largely immigrant population".
Where then should the good tourist go? Not Morocco, Turkey or Syria, nor China, Burma, or Cuba. Lead Ms Popescu to a beach with palm trees and she will show you centuries of repression. She does not tell us where we can go if we have a conscience, but I think I can guess.
As Orson Welles said in The Third Man: "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
travel@thenational.ae
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
The biog
Age: 32
Qualifications: Diploma in engineering from TSI Technical Institute, bachelor’s degree in accounting from Dubai’s Al Ghurair University, master’s degree in human resources from Abu Dhabi University, currently third years PHD in strategy of human resources.
Favourite mountain range: The Himalayas
Favourite experience: Two months trekking in Alaska
Company info
Company name: Entrupy
Co-founders: Vidyuth Srinivasan, co-founder/chief executive, Ashlesh Sharma, co-founder/chief technology officer, Lakshmi Subramanian, co-founder/chief scientist
Based: New York, New York
Sector/About: Entrupy is a hardware-enabled SaaS company whose mission is to protect businesses, borders and consumers from transactions involving counterfeit goods.
Initial investment/Investors: Entrupy secured a $2.6m Series A funding round in 2017. The round was led by Tokyo-based Digital Garage and Daiwa Securities Group's jointly established venture arm, DG Lab Fund I Investment Limited Partnership, along with Zach Coelius.
Total customers: Entrupy’s customers include hundreds of secondary resellers, marketplaces and other retail organisations around the world. They are also testing with shipping companies as well as customs agencies to stop fake items from reaching the market in the first place.
Honeymoonish
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
