NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

Doctors warn of blood shortages

ABU DHABI - MAR 04: Doctors warned yesterday that the country’s hospitals are headed towards a serious shortage of blood supplies because of the rising population and the prevalence in the UAE of blood disorders.

Healthcare professionals said a significant increase in the number of donors was needed to keep up with demand. Last year, one per cent of the population donated blood, giving 86,000 units.

“The healthcare sector is growing in an unpredictable way; it is much faster than expected,” said Dr Laila al Shaer, head of the Blood Donation Centre-Dubai Health Authority. “We are monitoring all the levels and looking at the increased demand. We know we always need to be ready. What we have is fine for today, but definitely not enough for tomorrow.”

The opening of a new trauma centre at Rashid Hospital increased demand on the centre by 30 per cent, Dr al Shaer said. The number of private hospitals registered as recipients also rose, from 17 to 25.

“There are a number of other big hospitals planned for Dubai which will need blood,” she said. “There is another trauma centre coming and a paediatric hospital which will need our services.

“We want to have proactive donors, not reactive. I want to remind people that they might be a victim who needs blood one day.”

There are no global statistics on blood donation. According to the UK’s National Blood Service, four per cent of those eligible to donate do so. Dr Essam Atta, general manager of the GMC Hospital in Ajman, said the blood donations had to rise if hospitals were to continue saving lives. “Blood is used for any emergency delivery of babies, accidents, especially road accidents and blood diseases such as thalassaemia, which is very common in this country. There is also a high rate of trauma.”

The 150-bed hospital relies on the Sharjah Blood Transfusion and Research Centre. He said it had not had any problems with supply but was very aware of the increasing demands on the bank.

Dr Mahra al Mazrouqi, the centre director, said it received a phone call “every minute” from hospitals in need of blood.

“There are some times when we have cases in hospitals who need blood, especially negative blood groups, and we go through the blood bank system and we need to call the donors for emergency blood.”

Last year it collected between 120 and 230 units a day.

The Abu Dhabi Blood Bank, which operates under Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, collected about 23,000 units last year; every unit of healthy blood it received was used.

Dr Naima Oumeziane, head of the bank, said it hoped to increase donations by 10 to 15 per cent over last year. “At the moment supply is meeting demand but if we are to continue meeting demand, we need more donors,” she said.

“The health sector and population are growing so quickly we need to make sure we have enough.”

Dr Oumeziane said the bank constantly monitored the blood supplies and if it looks low it tries to get more donors. It has used SMS messages to appeal for them. “Each time we feel we could be in trouble we actually go out and seek more,” she said.
The blood bank holds two sessions a day at mobile units that travel across Abu Dhabi and plans soon to add mobile units.

The Thalassaemia Centre in Dubai has about 450 regular patients with the genetic blood disorder who require transfusions 17 times a year, said Dr Essa Doheir, outreach coordinator.

Depending on their health, they need between one and three units each time; that means, on average, the centre uses more than 15,000 each year.

City motorists drive towards access fee

ABU DHABI - MAR 04: Motorists face paying a congestion charge for driving into the centre of the capital – but not before the city has adequate alternatives to using the car, transport officials said yesterday.

Khalid Hashim, executive director of land transport for the Department of Transport, did not specify what the charge would be but added: “You cannot introduce cordon pricing or congestion charging when you do not even have your bus network ready.”

Trams and light rail will start operating on a 350km-long network in 2014 with a 131km metro system running two years later, the department’s chairman, Abdulla al Otaiba, said on Sunday. There will be 1,360 buses operating around the emirate by the end of next year.

The policy of discouraging car use in congested areas of Abu Dhabi forms part of the department’s Surface Transport Master Plan. Full details of the plan to overhaul transport in the capital over the next 20 years are expected to be released early next month.

In a working paper published last year on the department’s website, one of the scenarios under consideration included emirate-wide congestion charging and cordon pricing for entering the Abu Dhabi metropolitan area.

In London, a congestion charge of £8 (Dh40) a day applies to drivers of vehicles entering central districts between 7am and 6pm on weekdays. Residents who live in the zone receive a discount.

Mr Hashim revealed that in addition to congestion charges, the department aims to encourage car pooling and create dedicated bus lanes and a network of cycle paths.

“It’s not always the stick,” he said on the sidelines of a conference on sustainable development at the Shangri-La Hotel. “Some carrots will be there also. The policies will be there.

“We will make sure not to introduce such policies until we have sufficient infrastructure.”

A parking management programme would introduce paid meters to some of the city’s most congested roads.

Saeed al Hameli, general manager of the department’s buses, said incentives to use public transport were needed. “What we talked about is to bring people into relying on transport, looking to the public transport in general as a preference,” he said. “That is the major challenge.”

Motorists yesterday said they supported the move towards a congestion charge once alternative modes of transport became available.

“It is good, there is much traffic here,” said Abdulrahman Karmastaji, 37, adding that it should not be too high a charge.

Fadi Shanaah, a 34-year-old Jordanian, said he was at first opposed to the idea because he thought the charges would be introduced without improvements to transport. “This is not London,” he said.

However, once he was told that the Government planned the measure after alternative transport was available, he said he would rather use public transport than drive.

Meanwhile, a study for cycle paths and bus lanes was expected to be completed soon, Mr Hashim said,

“We will have a study soon about bikeways. We can make a network,” he said.

“We have eight months of good weather.

“We also have to encourage the employers to have facilities for their staff who are coming on bikeways to have a shower.”

As for the dedicated bus lanes, Mr Hashim said that depending on the study, they could also be for taxis and emergency vehicles, or be made high-occupancy vehicle lanes for use by carpoolers.

Earlier, Abdelgader Elshabani, senior transportation planning specialist, presented the masterplan process to the conference, which was hosted by the International Association of Public Transport and the department.

Mr Elshabani said that 350km of tram and light rail lines would be built in phases by 2030. He hoped that consulting firms would be bidding for the right to conduct a study on implementing the lines.

The department was also preparing a request for proposals on a study into possible ferry services. The masterplan would propose initial routes, he said.

“Looking to the future we want water transport connecting the capital’s 200 islands,” he said.

Mr Elshabani also said the department had talked to officials in Dubai about building a railway between the two emirates.

Also yesterday, Jameela al Shaiba Hameli, director of the customer service division of TransAD, the emirate’s taxi regulator, said that all of the silver taxis would be converted to run on compressed natural gas by 2010. By that time, she expected 7,147 silver cabs to be operating in the emirate.

Workers take a pop at stardom

DUBAI - MAR 04: Construction workers are usually at home handling concrete, steel and pipes. But amid the cacophony of building sites, hundreds of them are now busy secretly limbering up their vocal cords.

Starting in July, the third season of a singing contest exclusively for labourers will see the would-be stars take their first steps towards being crowned in a hugely anticipated knock-out event that has been dubbed ‘Dubai Idol’.

Last year, two 24-year-olds from Pakistan, Muhammed Farooq Mazhar and Asim Khan, became instant celebrities when they beat 600 other labourers to be voted the winners of the Western Union Camp Ka Champ, gleaning not just glory but stereos and cash prizes. Both are expected to defend their titles.

The contest, organised by Right Track Advertising and sponsored by Western Union, holds more than 200 auditions at labour camps in Al Quoz, Sonapur and Jebel Ali to whittle down the number of contestants.

“The idea was just to bring some joy and happiness into the lives of these workers and help them exhibit their singing skills,” said Rupa Vinod, the managing director of Right Track.

The contest, whose title means “Champ from the Camp”, runs until September. Ms Vinod says she and her team travel to the camps to conduct the auditions.

Shortlisted singers go on to the quarter-finals, representing their companies in teams of two. While there is a jury, voting is also done by a live audience of workers, who send text messages naming their favourite singers.

“The idea was to get the workers involved in the contest and cheer their colleagues,” said Ms Vinod.

Last year, Mr Mazhar and Mr Khan were the jury’s as well as the people’s choice. The programme roughly follows the same format as the hit US television programme American Idol, but with some differences.

A singing round is followed by a buzzer round where the contestants must identify the song being played then sing it. There is also a round in which a Bollywood film is shown; the contestants must identify the film and sing a song from it

Mr Mazhar said he and his singing partner, Mr Khan, both from Lahore, had a dream run to the top and were inspired by Asian stars.

“I have been a great fan of Sonu Nigam and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,” he added. He has his own band back home. “I was fond of singing from childhood and used to sing in college,” he said.

With five sisters and a brother to support in Pakistan, Mr Mazhar has been toiling in Dubai for a year, but the contest helped him forget everything and do what he always wanted to: sing. Speaking about the moment their victory was announced, Mr Mazhar said: “I felt on the top of the world. It was the greatest day in my life and I will never forget it.”

He said he was overwhelmed by the appreciation he got from colleagues and from his company, Dulsco.

Mr Khan described himself as a “spontaneous” singer: “When we first took part in the auditions we were not aware that we would be competing against other companies. However, when we qualified in the quarter-finals and were aware that we would be competing against three other companies, we were more enthusiastic as it was a matter of the company’s prestige to win.”

Prasad Kotta, a marketing director for Western Union, said it supported the competition out of corporate social responsibility: “The contest gave workers an opportunity to get on stage and share their talent in front of their colleagues.

“However, it has not been easy and the first time we did it, it was quite an experiment.”

The first season of the contest was held in 2007 and it got off to a slow start. It grew significantly last year. “When we got to the camps, everyone asked us when the contest would start and we got many volunteers,” recalls Ms Vinod.

Mr Prasad said the huge responses from workers as well as companies inspired them to keep the event going. “The popularity is significant and we will surely support the event this year, too.”

Police chief blames city’s problems on rampant greed

DUBAI - MAR 04: The city will not become a better place to live until all sections of society address its unhealthy market atmosphere, the emirate’s police chief told a discussion group yesterday.

Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim said at the meeting, which included representatives of property, hotel and hospitality companies, that the community needed to work together to improve the quality of life for all.

“We are in the midst of an economic crisis and everyone knows its impacts,” he told the group at police headquarters, called together to discuss problems and solutions for the city.

“We have started to sense it with, for example, increasing rent prices which have created a serious source of worry for many people.

“For this, we felt the need to launch a campaign, an initiative, which will aim to have the benefit of the individual and the country at its core. When people spend all their salary to eat, drink, pay rent and educate their kids without having any savings, that is not right.

“The aim is to make Dubai a good place to live in, visit and work in and to give security to as many jobs as possible that have been affected.

“There should also be less pressure put on businesses so that they are not forced to let people go.”

Gen Tamim suggested that some business owners, driven by greed, had contributed to the economic downturn.

“What is a reasonable percentage of profit which should be gained by a trader? There has been a big case of exploitation from people and the phenomenon has become totally unnatural.

“The leap in rent prices involves not just new developments, but also old ones. This situation existed before the crisis but I have noticed that it continued even after the crisis.

“Why is it that a one-bedroom flat bought for Dh450,000 (US$122,514) needs to be sold for Dh1 million? This is a big thing. Why is Dh1m not a good enough profit for some?”

Gen Tamim said that, to create a healthier market atmosphere in the city, prices should be affordable to the masses, which would also lead to improved tourism.

“To secure a lasting trade industry, prices should be affordable and reasonable,” he said. “Dubai has many advantages that many other GCC or Arab countries do not have.

“However, under these circumstances we should work in a different manner and lowering hotel prices is key, as the entire market is linked to tourism.

“The tourist who arrives and who needs accommodation is also the one who would be renting a car and buying from shops. It’s a cycle and they are all linked.”

Sheikh Khalid bin Zayed bin Saqr Al Nahyan, chairman of the executive committee of the Dubai Economic Council, said there should be a balance between prices and services so that most members of society could benefit, not just the rich.

“We are currently facing inflation and when this happens, the first group which are affected are those with limited income,” Sheikh Khalid said.

“Those who are wealthy could protect themselves in such difficult times. There should be a balance and adjustment made with the services and how much they cost.”

Mohammed bin Hareb, the executive director of operations and marketing at the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said the department could not interfere with the prices of hotel rooms.

“When the demand is higher than the supply, the prices go up,” he said. But Mr bin Hareb said that since the economic downturn, the sector had begun to re-evaluate and has started seeking new ways of attracting more international tourism including lower prices and trying for new markets.

Cricket -  ‘Landscape of the game has changed’

UAE - MAR 04:  The attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore yesterday has rocked the cricketing world, cast doubts over Pakistan’s future as a cricketing nation and brought into question the security and safety of the sport on the subcontinent. With full details of the shooting still emerging, the sport’s fraternity is wrestling with the repercussions.

The incident provoked impassioned responses, with the International Cricket Council and national boards acting quickly to condemn the attack and offer sympathy and support to the Sri Lankan team.

David Morgan, president of the ICC, speaking yesterday in London, would not confirm whether Pakistan would be banned from hosting future games but suggested neutral venues should be used until the security situation in the country improved.

“The landscape of the game has changed, not just on the Indian subcontinent but across the world,” Mr Morgan said. “We were told that cricketers in Pakistan would not be targeted. That was proved incorrect.

“The world is a dangerous place but cricket must go on as it brings a great solace to many people. We need to revisit and re-evaluate safety procedures and we will be reviewing this in relation to the World Cup. Teams should not be expected to go to Pakistan in the immediate future, but circumstances can change in a short period of time.”

Dilawar Mani, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council, which will co-host the Pakistan-Australia series next month, was outraged by the attacks, which could nonetheless result in Abu Dhabi being increasingly used as a neutral venue and potentially serving as a joint host of the 2011 World Cup.

A Pakistan national, Mr Mani said: “This is a terrible day for both Pakistan itself, and Pakistan cricket.

“I have kept my Pakistan passport, but the events in Lahore make me feel saddened and ashamed. The country needs to apologise.”

The attacks mean the UAE will now probably become “home” for the Pakistan team as it looks to play its games on neutral ground. “We do not want to be seen as beneficiaries of such an outrage,” said Mr Mani. “Our thoughts go out to both the cricketing nations of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.”

He added that the UAE’s proposed tour of Sri Lanka in preparation for next month’s World Cup qualifying tournament in South Africa was also in doubt as many of the players are Pakistanis.

Dr Mtutuzeli Nyoka, president of Cricket South Africa, said the sport “is an instrument of peace and justice, and a catalyst for harmony among nations. The players who were shot were ambassadors of these noble causes”.

The Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose team had been due to play in Pakistan before withdrawing over security concerns, reflected the views of his players.

“We are happy not to be there. I’m pleased the government didn’t allow us to tour Pakistan. People say sport is not targeted but we are not immune,” he told the cricket website, Cricinfo.

Dominic Cork, the television commentator and former England international, was at the Qadafi Stadium in Lahore and described the terrifying moments of the attack.

“It’s been a harrowing day. I was in the stadium with the rest of the crew setting up when I heard the explosions go off. There was a lot of shouting and it felt like it was in the stadium itself, it was so loud.

“I was among those who thought it was safe to play cricket here in Pakistan. That obviously isn’t the case now. The future for Pakistan looks pretty bleak and the security situation is very, very bad. It is devastating and I can’t imagine any major international cricket happening for a long, long time.”

Three match officials, including a British hero who reportedly dived on top of a wounded Pakistani umpire to protect him, flew into Abu Dhabi last night on their way home to rejoin their families.

Visibly shocked by the experience, Chris Broad, the British match referee for Sri Lanka’s tour of Pakistan, and the Australian umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis were silent as they arrived in Abu Dhabi. They were met at the airport by the Australian ambassador, Jeremy Bruer, and officials from the ICC and quickly driven away.

“These guys have been through a terrible experience,” said Mr Bruer. “They need some time to themselves and to get back to their families as quickly as possible.”

The three were among several match officials travelling in a minibus directly behind the Sri Lankan team’s vehicle when it was attacked by gunmen.

According to an account given to Reuters by Nadeem Ghouri, a Pakistani Test umpire in the same minibus, Broad dived on top of Ehsan Raza, the fourth umpire, to protect him after he was shot in the back and critically wounded. Broad was later seen walking around in a bloodstained shirt.

Anger at the shootings has been compounded by a feeling that it might have been avoided if security warnings had been heeded. Reg Dickason, the security expert hired by the England and Australia teams, said player safety had been a paramount concern in the decision by Australia not to fulfil its commitments to tour Pakistan.

He was quoted by Cricinfo as saying: “A lot of concerns have been raised about tournaments in Pakistan and unfortunately these have come home to roost. The notion of sporting teams being a protected species was held by many, but it was not a view that we shared.”

Sri Lanka were the only team to agree to play a series in Pakistan in what the president, Mahinda Rajapakse, described as a “gesture of goodwill”, after teams such as India and Australia refused because of security concerns. Sri Lanka were lauded for their bravery and given presidential levels of security.

The ICC now faces the challenge of restoring the integrity of the sport, the confidence of coaches, players and officials and limiting the impact on lost sponsorship and media rights revenue.

It may find the answers on its own doorstep. Based in Dubai since Aug 2005, it has already considered making the UAE host for a global event, and with the completion of the new 25,000-capacity Sports City stadium and the opening of the Global Academy, the country is increasingly becoming a focal point for the sport.