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It’s not a square, it’s a roundabout.

2 Mar By RiyadhRoad Filed under random thoughts. No comments.

Twitter, Facebook, Google Earth, …. more intelligent people will say smart things on what they mean for arab revolutions…

They’re definitely changing the relationship I have with information and journalism. On one hand, they bring  home the importance of mediation and analysis vs. raw facts. On the other hand, first hand accounts on the ground, by ordinary tweeps or well known editorialists, are a lifeline to follow and make sense of the events unfolding, to give context.

The basic lessons I was taught in high school about context and critical view are still valid. I just need to apply them to smaller, more frequent pieces of information.

All this being said, two things:

  • Guys, Lulu is a  f****g roundabout, not a square, however much you want Bahrain to feel like Egypt
  • And Thomas Friedman, seriously, WTF ? Nick Kristoff, adore or hate him, was on the ground. He can say what he wants. You … well, here’s a good answer to your “I-need-to-say-something-about-the-Middle-East-or-I-loose-my-cred” column.

Now I’m going back to updating my twitter feed.

Gated communities?

7 Jan By RiyadhRoad Filed under random thoughts. No comments.

I live in Officer’s City. Correction. I used to live in Officer’s city. Now I live in Abu Dhabi Gate City.
I liked Officer’s city. It was a quirky name, I could imagine history buffs in 50 years looking it up and trying to understand where it came from; just like I’m a little stumped today why 11th Street is called Defence street.
But Abu Dhabi has decided that the name didn’t convey the true sense of what this area means to the city. Of course, Abu Dhabi Gate City does a much better job. Especially when you realize that in 10 year’s time, It will be smack in the middle of the new Abu Dhabi. So I guess future historians will be stumped after all.
Next up: I’d guess the renaming of our neighboring district. It’s still called “Between the Bridges“. But they’ve just opened a third bridge, so I guess it’s not long before a bright mind decides they better call it Abu Dhabi Bridge City.

Oh, and of course, the replacement of road signs is taking place at it’s own pace. Which means motorists successively find signs for Officer’s city and Abu Dhabi Gate City. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re bound to get lost…

Traffic Madness

2 Jan By RiyadhRoad Filed under random thoughts. No comments.
Roadworks on Salam street in 2009

Roadworks on Salam street in 2009

In the rush to finish up their very late and very over budget remodeling of the eastern ring road, the traffic authorities are doing some very uncoordinated stuff.
So of course, when one guy decides to shut off two lanes of a four lane road to resurface it (after only being open to traffic for 1 month!), the guy in the office next door decides to shut off the little detour road that bled off a quarter of the traffic downstream of the resurfacing.
I can’t really describe in words the tangle of stupidity represented by these roadworks. You have to be there and go “what were they thinking” every 10 meters. All I can say is that, as work visibly progresses and more roads are open, there are actually more traffic jams on my way to work.
I dread the day when the project is actually over!