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[PattyFlipper]

London surgeon held in Dubai after raising hands at motorist:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/london-surgeon-held-in-dubai-after-raising-hands-at-motorist-2279128.html

"The man was following us flashing his lights. I was trying to abide by the speed limit and couldn't move out of his way. I pulled over when I could but instead of overtaking us, he pulled up alongside, switched the inside light on, rolled down the window and drove in parallel with us for up to a minute. He was looking at me in an intimidating way � I was quite terrified.

I raised both my hands to say, 'What do you want?' but he pulled back [to read the number plate] and then took off and turned right. He alleges I stuck a finger at him but I raised both hands. I am sure he must have seen them at an angle, and that was offensive to him."

[helenl]

For Pete's sake, how many people have to learn this lesson the hard way? Never, ever, make any gesture of any kind in traffic. I've been here 10+ years and there's always at least one stupid story like this in the newspaper of some Westerner being hauled in for stupidity - and I don't care that he did just raise both hands - he who gets to file the police report first gets credibility.

The only person I know who managed to circumvent this issue - got to the police first and filed a report of the other guy driving dangerously - when other guy arrived to complain about the first, the police treated other guy as guilty as charged (and other guy was an Emirati) and ignored his claims of having been flipped the bird.

[D. Merit]

[helenl]

Sorry, was unaware that road rage was non existent in the UK. In my home country, I don't make gestures either because I'm aware there are lunatics who will beat the poop out of people they perceive to have wronged them.

The only difference in UAE is that they may be arrested for perceived inappropriate gesturing.

Which to choose, which to choose?

[Dedicated]

If the UAE authorities have any sense, they will let this man go immediately. The maniacal ,dangerous ,Emirati (?)driver presumably thought the driver was maybe a toilet cleaner, because he was non-white.

Dr Nunoo-Mensah (of Ghanaian origin but a British National) is a consultant colorectal and laparoscopic surgeon at the world ranked King's College, London University, and had been invited out to the UAE by the US Cleveland Clinic. He was therefore probably totally unaware of the driving habits of the locals.

Not only that, but his father is a senior minister and national security advisor to the President of Ghana. This will do the UAE no favours at all if they persist in detaining him. All the UK news is talking about this. Do they really want tourists in Dubai?

[Sheikh N Bake]

The master plan for making Dubai look like a Star Wars city seems to have been imagined by 14-year-old boys in order to impress the rest of the world with its cool buildings (designed by people from outside the Middle East, of course) and eight-lane tollways.

Trouble is, a bunch of old women in black cloaks still seem to hold sway over public morals.

Late last month I rented a car in Dubai for three days, trying to find places I used to know when I lived there for five years. Every single block and every single corner in Dubai has construction on hold, with barriers everywhere, so you can never turn where you want to. No wonder there's a little road rage. Not only that, but a bare three days of driving around the city netted me $20 in toll costs. And I wasn't driving every waking moment. One day I barely used the car at all and the other days I was just running a few errands.

That's not all. What happened to the two main Corniches? The main shore along the Corniche Hyatt as well as the Mamzar Corniche are gone! What do I mean by "gone"? They've reclaimed the land from the Corniche out at least half a mile, so that you can't see the Arabian Gulf anymore. I suppose they want to build amusement parks there. What a disaster.

Dubai--land of barricades and a couple of cool buildings.

I'll say one thing, it's still the best and most convenient place in the Middle East for shopping. If driving is too much, take a taxi, and there's always a mall across the street or down the block. Not all malls are megasized either. I liked having the modest Reef Mall to myself on a weekday. To buy stuff in peace, I mean.

And the best international food in the Middle East--any good hotel.

[volgaman]

I always keep my lewd gestures for the nutters below window level

Has anyone here found a decent GPS app for the iPhone for Dubai? I have tomtom, but that's woefully out of date. I had to get a visa for Iran last week and it took me to the old embassy in Bur Dubai which had apparently closed its doors years ago. And it throws a fit when I drive across the new Khalifa Bridge in Abu Dhabi

[Sheikh N Bake]

[Cleopatra]

[Middle East Beast]

[JohnRambo]

This does not surprise me. Some people from the Arabian Gulf feel superior to other Arabs and Westerners. They feel they have money, so it makes them a super race. A friend of mine in Kuwait was in an accident, and it was the woman's fault, and her husband tried every which way not to pay and told my friend to go back to Syria. He wasn't Syrian, he was Palestinian-Canadian. His Kuwaiti boss who had connections intervened and made the man pay some of the money. In Kuwait, when I lived there, it was not about who was right. You had to be careful and know your place. It would be the same in the UAE, and that's relatively true in many countries including places like Turkey and South Korea, unfortunately. Unless you are in Western Europe or America, be careful.

Yes, a country trying to promote tourism like the UAE should have this nonsense stop.

[Sheikh N Bake]

[D. Merit]

A week ago I was about 10 yards from turning onto a main road - I hadn't even got to the intersection- and a woman behind me in a bin liner and an suv tank was beeping at me and gesticulating wildly.

But, oh, of course, it's OK because I live here and 'know how things are'.

Man - the two buckets.

[volgaman]

I had some scabby sod flashing and beeping behind me this morning on the Abu Dhabi- Dubai road in a bloody MITSUBISHI LANCER

Needless to say he wasn't a local, so he got the full gesture package as he passed. The look of horror on his face was so much fun that I overtook him back and gave him an encore