They won, environment lost

As everyone urges me to post pictures, here we go.

Last weekend locals went almost crazy. Apparently the UAE team won the Gulf Football Cup, first time in the event's 18 years of history. I cannot see why, but this made them feeling a strong urge to paint their cars in national colors and create massive traffic jams. Sitting in traffic, it is obvious that one has to honk, sit on top of their cars, shout, play load music and throw finely chopped colored paper pieces everywhere. That is exactly what happened. I took some pictures entering towards Trade Center Roundabout. In an hour we were only 600 meters away and it got dark so I could not take pictures on the outraged crazy people any more.




























Btw, the Sheikh was so happy about them that he decided to present each player a villa. They also got half a million dirhams each. (In case you are considering a quick career change, for any of you to become a world class football player is more likely than to get UAE citizenship, which is totally impossible. So forget about it.)

You know, I just could not be happy. Not because I am totally not interested in football, or because a bunch of people beating an other bunch of people in any sport does not change my life the slightest. But because I cannot feel good while tacking multiple stickers onto a car that someone needs to remove in a few days, or popping out colored paper pieces to the grass, that again someone needs to pick up the following day.

For New Years Eve we went to camp in a wadi (dry rocky riverbed) in Oman, in the middle of nowhere, dancing all night under the sky. We had everything with us, barbecue, speakers and music, drinks. I actually had a good time and even got drunk quite early that obviously helped enjoying myself even further. Until at midnight a friend of mine pulled out some popper tubes and covered the whole wadi with pink, red, green, purple, blue and yellow paper confettis. I could not be drunk enough to feel peaced about it. In the morning I spent 2 hours picking up them. Some fall to the small stream and colored the water. Sure fish were happy about it, they must love paint chemicals. It was a hopeless fight though, you cannot believe how many small paper pieces can fit into one of those popper tubes. Almost half of them are still in the wadi... I have to add my friend did feel bad about them as well and picked some up. Basically, I think all of us felt bad about it.

Littering is actually an increasing problem in the UAE. In the middle of the desert, in beautiful wadis, - trash everywhere. Not too many folk seem to pick up the remainders of their barbecue, plastic bags, toilet papers, soft drink cans, etc after themselves. The most disappointing are the rain water filled pools: you swim into, pass in between the rocks, one pool to the other, water is soft and clear, it is quiet, you hear your echo, you are happy and satisfied with life placing you to Planet Earth, and then... you enter deeper towards the last pool... hmmm... it smells pee... and hmmm... it is trash everywhere... even more trash... and yukkk... it is disgusting, am I swimming in a sawage pit?

Having no National Parks or any authority seriously enforcing environmental awareness has both advantages and disadvantages. From my personal point of view, it is really comfortable that I can enter and fun drive in the desert and in wadis everywhere. Also, I can camp everywhere without asking permission from anyone or paying any fees, how nice. On the other hand it is just not good in a long term. Beauties of nature should be kept clean and untouched... After I saw them...

Oh, this weekend I should go to the used car market place. I am sure there are good deals for brand new Landcruisers for peanuts. Except they are painted weird and have millions of heavy duty stickers on...