| 07 Feb 2009 |
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Only 11 cars abandoned at airport in past year
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Saturday, Feb 07, 2009
Gulf News
Dubai: Lieutenant-General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, has strongly denied a rumour that many people are abandoning their cars at Dubai International Airport amid thee global economic crisis.
The report was published in the Arabic electronic newspaper Elaph.com.
During an urgent press conference in Dubai, Lieutant-General Dhahi denied the report published on Thursday, which based its information on The Times of London which claimed there were 3,000 abandoned cars at Dubai International Airport.
"I swear by the Lord that Benyamin [writer of the article] lied even as he based his report on The Times article," Lieutant-General Dhahi said at the beginning of the press conference.
The reporter contributed to spreading a rumour that many people are greedy, envious and resentful about the economic growth of Dubai, he said.
"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.
"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," he said.
"False statements on the market collapsing, as stated in the article, are nothing but incorrect rumours. If there is any disruption we will inform the media about it," said Lieutant-General Dhahi.
"We are not denying the presence of the global financial crisis, but what's been attributed to Dubai is completely false whether it is locally or internationally published. There is a fierce campaign against the reputation of the blooming city of Dubai.
I have clear and direct instructions from His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to be completely honest with the media."
"The country is still witnessing a smooth flow in its economy. The title of the article creates an atmosphere of fear, mistrust, and contributes to spreading a rumour of a rumour. 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," he said.
© Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.
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Community Comments (9)
Yeah..the one I normally call on the weekend is A LOT more available these days!
I was in Dubai a few weeks ago for a major trade exhibition and made many journeys to the exhibition, hotel and other places by taxi. The majority of taxi drivers are of Pakistani dessent and I happen to speak their common language. The best people to gage on the situation of what the current situation is asking a taxi driver and guess what they all said (in translation) "It's bad man"
What 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.
They'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..
No Jack, I was in splits when I read this. Dubaiites can perfectly understand what you have said, but for a newcomer or an outsider, his head must be spinning!
This was the same person who had told in a press conference during the wafi heist and told that the dubai police had smashed the network behind it. After 2 years, the culprits are yet to brought to book barring two people...
The situation in Dubai is indeed harsh nowadays and no one can deny this fact but this is the case in England, USA and Tokyo where i have seen many beggers on the streets for the 1st time.
Whoever does not like Dubai may leave today rather than tomorrow. At the end, UAE is a place for its own people and all the expats will remain foreigners forever. Disgusting how Media are envious- First they started reporting Dubai positively and now negatively. They have free space to fill!UAE has its culture like any other country. In UK, it's professionalism and fun for media to report sexual scandals in front pages. It's not the case in UAE or USA!In Germamy, media are so technical that you need to be an engineer to understand!Some international media people come to Dubai just for fun and to pamper themeselves and end up writing stories out of their minds and no one is there to get them accountable. This is a very bad practice in western media. No one can deny that many people have left Dubai - Just drive on Sheikh Zayed Road to notice how the traffic has become less by 50% compared to last year but Dubai will remain a global hub. Only highly qualified people (creme de la creme) will remain in Dubai and this is not a bad idea. The real estate rapid boom was not a great idea but many other industries in Dubai are indeed great and unique!
this is one of those articles that, in weeks to come, we - the public - are going to be accused of misinterpreting. the same way we misinterpreted the 'one villa, one family' law ... silly us in advance.
Journalists are seldom able to let facts get in the way of a good story, but this has been an item of hot gossip around Dubai for some weeks. Even CNN picked up on the issue in this recent report, see:
http://arabianmoney.net/2009/02/05/al-jazeera-tv-clip-on-dubai-property-crash/
When media was pumping the economy in Dubai then there were no such clarifications from govt. officials. Now everyone in govt. is blaming media for publishing negative news. Strange!!!!
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