My parents' visit

My parents flew back this morning. They have thoroughly enjoyed themselves while they have been here. We took a couple of days off work at the end of last week so we had 4 days with them and then they spent the last 3 days fending for themselves and generally harassing all they came into contact with!

They are very old school and asked us lots of questions about Muslims and Emiratees as if they are from another species altogether! Still, I think they have learnt a lot this week and hopefully realised that Muslims and Muslim culture is not quite as portrayed in the UK's Daily Mail!

Some pics from their visit......

Parents' visit to Abu Dhabi

More information than we got.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1249848/Terrifying-Burj-Khalifa-lift-ordeal-Dubai-tourists-stuck-1-600ft-worlds-tallest-building.html

Raining!

Not so much of a blog today as a tweet.. maybe on Blogger that is a Bleat?

I have my parents over this week. Yesterday we did the Dubai trip to see the sights. However, we couldn'y see much of the sights because of a sand storm. Now today I wake up and it's raining.....

Filipino MILF

Well some of the search engine traffic is going to be very disappointed with this page!

I saw this article in the paper and it made me smile.......

Philippines hopes proposal will persuade MILF to sign accord

Manila The Philippines has offered southern Muslim separatists “enhanced autonomy” in the hope of sealing a peace accord to end 40 years of rebellion, the government’s chief negotiator said yesterday.

Annabelle Abaya said the government hoped the fresh offer would convince the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to sign a peace accord before a new Philippine president is sworn in on June 30. “ In enhanced autonomy, the president is offering to share powers,” Ms Abaya told reporters.

Power-sharing with the large Muslim minority would cover such areas as tax collection and the control of natural resources in areas of the south that Filipino Muslims claim as their ancestral domain.

The offer was made in Malaysia last week when MILF and government panels met in Kuala Lumpur in the first formal peace talks since fighting broke out in 2008 over a failed draft peace accord.

The earlier draft was struck down by the Supreme Court, which ruled it unconstitutional.

Ms Abaya stressed that the fresh government offer did not seek to “ fractionalise” the country and would not require amendments to the constitution.

The MILF, in a statement issued last weekend, said the government “had nothing new to offer”, and as a result, they had decided last week to discontinue the latest round of negotiations.

However, Ms Abaya said after the exchange of draft agreements that both sides had agreed to consult with their constituencies before continuing talks. The MILF confirmed that peace talks were to resume in Kuala Lumpur on February 18.

The president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo opened peace talks with the 12,000-strong MILF in 2001 in an effort to end the war on the restive but mineral-rich island of Mindanao.

But talks collapsed after the Supreme Court ruling in August 2008. The outlawed proposed deal would have given the MILF control over large areas of the south that it claimed.

More than 700,000 people were displaced at the height of the fighting and nearly 400 were killed.

A new ceasefire was signed in September, paving the way for the resumption of peace talks.

Camel Beauty Contest

There is an annual festival in the western region of Abu Dhabi (Al Gharbia), which hosts excitements such as a date packaging contest (?!), Arab traditional arts and crafts, camel auctions and beauty contests! Going back to their Bedouin routes, camels are a most revered creature in these parts. So such beauty contest are taken very seriously. Unfortunately I struggle to take them quiet so seriously, especially when camels are described in terms such as having....

"A long, slender neck, full lips, a well-shaped nose and long legs....long, curly lashes, a full hump and even spacing between her toes"

....as one is in the newspaper article below!

I think some of those camels better keep a close eye out behind themselves! Some of these people need to get out more.

During the auctions, however, the best camels can sell for over a million Dirhams (GBP160k+). So for that kind of money I think I could pamper a camel.......

Beauty queen dazzles the judges

Essam al Ghalib

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• Last Updated: January 31. 2010 2:09AM UAE / January 30. 2010 10:09PM GMT

Hassan bin Edghan al Nuaimi proudly holds Ruwayda, the winner of a beauty pageant at the Al Dhafra Camel Festival yesterday. Jaime Puebla / The National

AL GHARBIA // A long, slender neck, full lips, a well-shaped nose and long legs – Ruwayda had all that, and then some.

Sporting long, curly lashes, a full hump and even spacing between her toes, the one-year-old purebred Omani Asayel finished first in the beauty pageant at the Al Dhafra Camel Festival which began yesterday.

“She was born on my farm,” said Hassan bin Edghan al Nuaimi, 55. “From the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew she was the one. I love her like a father loves his daughter.”

He entered two camels in the pageants. The other, Abraj, won fourth place in the pageant for Majahim camels. The winner was Thamina, a one-year-old owned by Masoud Saeed al Hajri.

Each day of the festival, two pageants are held for camels of different ages and colours.