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Pipe burst floods mall area
Pipe burst floods mall area Nivriti Butalia / 20 July 2013 Weekend plans to visit Ibn Batuta Mall were severely disrupted for some by a water pipe that burst on Thursday and was still causing problems on Friday evening — leaving hundreds of motorists trapped in traffic. The burst pipe released a torrent of water that submerged cars, stranded visitors and rendered the main road unusable, when it was unleashed about 9.30pm on Thursday. At 3.30pm on Friday, there was a line of at least 100 cars on the way to Ibn Batuta. Exit 25 of Shaikh Zayed Road was a congested mess, with cars along the right-most lanes turning towards the Gardens and Jebel Ali village coming to an almost standstill, while traffic on the other three lanes on the left were zipping along as usual. Discovery Gardens resident Ruel Pableo, who was stuck in the congestion for almost half-an-hour, said the main road exiting Discovery Gardens, next to the mall, was still flooded. Police had cordoned off the main road with police tape, rerouting traffic through to the second exit — a much narrower and indirect thoroughfare. “Most people didn’t know what was going on, because it happened so late at night.” He said it was just like a “morning rush” on a Friday afternoon. He could still see some of the remaining water on the main road from the incident that happened a day before. A trip that would usually take 10 minutes took him more than three times the duration because the route was much more indirect. Although the mall had issued no formal statement, there were fewer cars in the parking lot on Friday. Two of the mall security guards told Khaleej Times that while there was definitely no rush at all, this may or may not have been due to the floods. One of the guards, who left work at 1am, said when he got on to the road on his way back home to Ghusais, he felt he was “on an island — there was that much water everywhere. It’s an unusual sight in these parts”. On his way to work on Friday morning, the company bus had to take a different route to reach the mall. Taxi drivers were heard refusing to ferry customers along the stretch of Shaikh Zayed Road that involved exits 25 and 27, advising people instead to use the trains and save time otherwise doomed to be spent on the road in traffic. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority VP — Marketing and Corporate Communications Khawla Al Mehairi said the flooding was due to a “breakage” in one of the lines. “However, we responded fast and the matter was under control. The main cause is still unknown and the matter is under investigation. However, the water services supply is not impacted because our system is very reliable and the area won’t suffer from any water shortage.” When contacted for further detail, an authority spokesman refused but said more information would be forthcoming once the investigation had been conducted. nivriti@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Remembering Gangu
Remembering Gangu Patrick Michael / 19 July 2013 The death of Gangu Batra in Long Island, New York, on Tuesday has shocked those who knew and worked with him during his long years in the UAE as the CEO of Jashanmals. “He was an amazing human being, a legend in his own right and he had a tremendous impact on us. We as a family owe so much to him,” said Suhail Jashanmal. Batra, 83, leaves behind three children — Meena, Kavita and Shashi — and five grandchildren. He will be cremated early next week in Long Island. Gangu, as he was affectionately known, was a disciplined leader who rose from the ranks to head Jashanmals as its Group CEO. He retreated from corporate life in Dubai about 18 months ago and left for his family home in Long Island to be with his children and grandchildren. Time — and those who worked with him and knew him in the UAE and around the world — will judge him as talented businessman, a gifted leader and a visionary CEO who served Jashanmals for 57 long years. Batra knew his market, knew his business and he knew his cash register. And he always got the job done. “He was a great leader, a great friend and mentor not only to us but to all those who worked with him and the companies he dealt with around the globe,” said Tony Jashanmal over the phone as he waited to catch his flight to New York to attend Batra’s funeral. “I have received tributes from friends and business houses that Batra worked with praising his business acumen and mentoring. He was the ideal businessman and a thorough professional. He was a father figure to all of us and the staff enjoyed working with him because they knew he would walk that extra mile for them,” he added. Even in his late seventies Batra loved what he did. Despite all that he accomplished he still felt he was only just starting. It was so characteristic of the man who turned around a troubled company into one of the most recognised and successful ones in the Gulf. “Once in every while you meet an individual who not only leaves a lasting impression on you, but also changes your outlook on life, work and values. Gangu had that unexplainable charismatic quality. I have lost my elder brother,” said Tanvir Kanji of Inca Advertising. This writer had the privilege of meeting Gangu on several occasions. It was the force of his intellect and his dedication to Jashanmals that always struck me. His piercing eyes and gravelly voice had a certain authority about it. When he walked into a room you could hear a pin drop. Such was the presence he commanded. He was not feared or trifled with. He was known for his repartee and he could crack a joke at the drop of a hat and have everyone in splits. “I knew Gangu Batra when I was a student, studying in India. It goes back to the early 50s in Kuwait, when I came on holidays. It was always extraordinary to watch how delicately he managed the family members of our company, in those days known as Jashanmal & Sons. It was because of his professionalism that today the same Company is a limited liability one. We doff our hats to this young man who started as salesman and became the CEO of Jashanmal Group of companies,” said Mohan Jashanmal. There will be many who will miss Batra’s smiling face around the dinner table at the Sebastian Restaurant at Intercontinental (now Raddisson). where he would often break into fluent Arabic leaving many of us who had been around long enough to have learned the language, embarrassed. “I will miss his quarterly roundtable dinners with Hisham Al Shirawi, Ahmed Ramdan, Ahmed Al Banna and others,” said Ram Buxani, President, International Traders (ME) Ltd, Dubai. “The vacuum created by his passing away will be difficult to fill. Batra was a human par excellence who had carved a niche for himself in Dubai. His smiling face will always be remembered as a symbol of inspiration.” Batra had very eventful tenures as Acting Chairman of IBPC as well as Chairman of the Electronics Forum, now known as TEG. Although he did not belong to electronics industry, he played his role well. “I carry nostalgic memories of my association with Gangu which goes back at least 45 years. He used to live in Kuwait and manage the Jashanmals there under Naraindas Jashanmal, Tony’s father. I used to sell Gangu Nylex brand nylon embroidered sarees of Japanese origin that Jashanmals used to market. I always found him to be very understanding and fair and it is these qualities that brought us even more closer when Jashanmals shifted him to Dubai,” he added. Gangu Batra will be missed. He will also be remembered. — patrick@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Losing but not out
Losing but not out Sarah Young / 19 July 2013 According to the International Labour Organisation, the plight of unemployed youth around the globe is getting worse — and the social and economic impacts could be felt for decades to come. But while the UAE sits in a region with the worst youth unemployment rate of all and experts say it has not escaped the situation entirely, youth in the country are more optimistic about the situation. As of May this year, an estimated one in four young people worldwide were not in employment, education or training. Increasingly known as the ‘lost generation’, or ‘generation jobless’, particularly in Europe where many are unemployed despite completing higher education, the youth unemployment question is becoming more and more of a worry for decision-makers the world over. The ILO Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013 report found persistent unemployment, a proliferation of temporary jobs and growing youth discouragement in advanced economies; and poor quality, informal jobs in developing countries. The long-term impact of this youth employment crisis could be felt for decades, it said. And the Middle East, which includes Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and Yemen, has the highest youth unemployment rate of all, projected to increase from 28.3 per cent to 30.0 per cent in 2018. ILO regional employment specialist Mary Kawar said GCC countries had not escaped the youth unemployment situation, despite their oil-based prosperity and high rates of economic growth. “Their increased efforts to improve their education systems and increase youth enrollment in education did not translate into higher youth employment rates, but on the contrary, youth unemployment was still high, oscillating around 20 per cent over the last few years.” Youth had much lower chances of finding employment than adults because of their lack of work experience and occupational skills required by employers. ILO figures place overall UAE youth unemployment at more than 10 per cent. Both Kawar, and labour market expert Karim Abdallah, a senior associate at consultancy Booz & Company, point to the abundance of cheap migrant workers, and locals’ preference for the public sector, the dominant employer for nationals particularly in the UAE, as contributors to the problem. Public and private sectors Kawar said segmentation between the public and private sectors could eventually lead to the saturation of the public sector and its inability to employ all those seeking work, and governments needed to address wage disparities between the public and private sectors, improve nationalisation policies and reduce reliance on migrant workers, especially unskilled ones. Abdallah agreed many nationals did not want to work in low-skilled jobs, and had high expectations for salaries, hours, and working environments. “(For instance), they don’t want to work in construction — there’s long hours, it’s outside, it’s dirty. “You don’t see this in other countries.” Labour-intensive industries such as construction needed to be upgraded in terms of technology and working practices, to make them more attractive to work in, he said. High dependency on oil revenues, an industry which did not supply a lot of jobs, also needed to lessen and the region needed to “start thinking about how to invest these dollars in tomorrow’s labour and industries”. “(And) from a basic economic policy standpoint, you don’t want your private sector to be dominated by non-nationals because this is the majority of your economy, this is where the growth happens.” It was more important that the “value proposition” of the private sector was seen to be as good as the public in order to attract nationals, and this included factors like work environment and career growth — not just salaries. Education and skills Other contributors to high rates in the Middle East included large youth population’s, skill mismatches, and education systems which had not evolved as quickly as the industries around them, Abdallah said. Many in the GCC were graduating with degrees that did not align to market requirements, such as humanities, when engineering, science and management were needed. Kawar added more needed to be encouraged into technical and vocational education. Part-time work during school vacations and internships should also be mandatory for students to help fix the lack of work experience, she said. Future better in UAE However, despite the global doom and gloom, Abdallah says the future picture for GCC countries is slightly better. While the global unemployment crisis and the events of the Arab Spring would send even more non-national job-seekers this way — who were willing to work for less salary, benefits and less flexible hours — and potentially exacerbate local unemployment, it was also an opportunity for the GCC, and in particular the UAE, to benefit, he said. “The GCC countries this year and last year, and for the foreseeable future, are going to have strong growth and will be able to pick the best employees (from the world) because they are becoming a magnet, especially the UAE. “It’s not just a nice salary … nowadays living in the UAE has become very attractive, for (things like) lifestyle, healthcare, and education.” As long as growth remained high in the UAE the country needed “to keep the (immigration) gate a bit open”, he said. “The more capable people we bring, the faster our economy will grow.” In fact, while the future was to some degree unclear, Abdallah said he was not particularly worried about the UAE, given high growth, government investment in improving education, and a decreasing dependency on oil in Dubai which was being replaced with a focus on more job-rich industries such as service, retail and construction. “In the next few years, unemployment will not change and will remain high. In the long term, things will get better. There’s very high growth in the UAE and this will continue, in areas like education too — you can see how many international schools and universities are opening here… which really starts to close the education and skill mismatch in the country.” Reforms needed However, there were still measures government could take in the short term to ease youth unemployment, he said. These included programmes focusing on training and retraining. “For example, you take a person who has graduated as a history major and create a programme for six months so they can get skills to work in a bank.” Other measures included job creation programmes, subsidies, a review of laws and regulations around flexible employment and part-time work to allow youth to get experience, and more support for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). “This is also a cultural thing we need to work on. “In the ME, people are afraid of trying something in case they fail. In the US, they see it as experience which takes you to the next venture.” Co-founder of Nabbeesh.com, an online skills marketplace focusing on freelance, part-time and contract-based jobs, Loulou Khazen Baz said youth unemployment was a significant issue. “In the UAE, many can’t get motivated enough to get a job, compared with other areas which might be war zones, or where economic growth is not so good. “The biggest problem employers complain of is that universities (here)are not producing graduates with the right degrees or skills.” Many ME youth also did not view freelance work as a mainstream option, despite this becoming increasingly so globally, she said. Khazen Baz spoke with young job-seekers at UAE university career fairs this year. “You have the expat students who are very concerned about visas and finding a job to be able to stay in Dubai. The Emiratis have different challenges. Although I don’t want to generalise, many were still leaning towards government jobs. “(Overall) I think there’s a bit of a lack of confidence. You could see how worried they were and rightly so — it’s pretty tough out there and there’s a lot of competition.” sarah@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
