Dubai has always been a destination I believed I would one day visit. I am an Arsenal fan and club member and regularly receive offers from Fly Emirates. A trip to Australia could also have included a stop-over in Dubai in the future, but not any more.
I have once again read a report of tourists and foreigners being sentenced for having broken Dubai's strict so called decency laws. This, and rumours you can also be charged with drug smuggling if they find any trace of aspirin, paracetamol or any number of common medicines on you or you clothing, makes such a trip or a stop-over now a non-starter for me.
Indeed I am beginning to wonder if a future planned trip to Australia should be pursued with Fly Emirates or it would be better to consider another airline. I mean you spend about 24 hours travelling to Oz and concerns that I may say, do or eat the wrong thing on the flight or in transit could ruin the journey.
I am in no way racist, I myself am a foreigner in my chosen homeland, but cannot understand how these countries with massive tourist income can be so backward as far as human rights and freedom of expression are concerned.
For what it is worth they will not be getting any income from me in the future, but then again do they really care?
As I always say who cares? wem juckt es?
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Legal music downloads make me il
I have recently bought legal downloads for the very first time. I was/am an online buyer of DVDs and CDs but had never taken the plunge into downloaded material because, well, what do you get for your money?
What you get is a lot of aggravation due to the restrictions of DRM and the fear the industry has in providing us, the consumer, with our purchased goods.
Years ago I would have bought an LP and a blank tape and the music industry was fine with this. I had the LP for home listening and could create a tape for my car. Indeed I believe there was money going from the sale of blank tapes to the music industry. Of course "home taping is killing the music industry" was part of a campaign to stop you taping from friends or of the radio, but I don't think anyone was being prosecuted for making mix-tapes or personal use recordings.
Now I have an Audio-book that is delivered as an "aac" file which can only be played on certain devices or must be "written" onto 6 CDs before I am able to rip it into a mp3 file that will work on all of my mp3 devices. This ripping of CDs is of course considered "illegal" by the music industry. So I, as a fee paying customer, am being pushed down an illegal path to have full use of that which I have legally purchased.
I may have saved about €3 in downloading rather than buying a CD but have much more aggravation. The music industry has saved on production, printing, packaging, delivery and storage costs and then makes the whole process so restrictive that an illegal download, that is already in an all encompassing mp3 format, looks the better option. The music CD I bought was only easier to use because I could quickly burn it onto one CD and rip it to hear it on all my devices.
The Audio-book has still not been completely heard because although I have a smart-phone that plays mp3s, an mp4 player, a no-name mp3 player and a "Creative Zen-Stone" mp3 player, it only works on one of them ("Creative Zen-Stone") and that is my daughters. She is always using it herself and it is PINK! I think I'd risk being done for illegal ripping of CDs before I sit on the bus or am seen in public with a PINK mp3 player!
But then again, really, who cares?
What you get is a lot of aggravation due to the restrictions of DRM and the fear the industry has in providing us, the consumer, with our purchased goods.
Years ago I would have bought an LP and a blank tape and the music industry was fine with this. I had the LP for home listening and could create a tape for my car. Indeed I believe there was money going from the sale of blank tapes to the music industry. Of course "home taping is killing the music industry" was part of a campaign to stop you taping from friends or of the radio, but I don't think anyone was being prosecuted for making mix-tapes or personal use recordings.
Now I have an Audio-book that is delivered as an "aac" file which can only be played on certain devices or must be "written" onto 6 CDs before I am able to rip it into a mp3 file that will work on all of my mp3 devices. This ripping of CDs is of course considered "illegal" by the music industry. So I, as a fee paying customer, am being pushed down an illegal path to have full use of that which I have legally purchased.
I may have saved about €3 in downloading rather than buying a CD but have much more aggravation. The music industry has saved on production, printing, packaging, delivery and storage costs and then makes the whole process so restrictive that an illegal download, that is already in an all encompassing mp3 format, looks the better option. The music CD I bought was only easier to use because I could quickly burn it onto one CD and rip it to hear it on all my devices.
The Audio-book has still not been completely heard because although I have a smart-phone that plays mp3s, an mp4 player, a no-name mp3 player and a "Creative Zen-Stone" mp3 player, it only works on one of them ("Creative Zen-Stone") and that is my daughters. She is always using it herself and it is PINK! I think I'd risk being done for illegal ripping of CDs before I sit on the bus or am seen in public with a PINK mp3 player!
But then again, really, who cares?
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Where to start? Alle Anfang sind schwer
So I thought I would put my thoughts, gripes, musings and such into a blog. As my title suggests but "who cares?"
I will probably occasionally write in German, because that is my adopted home and the theme maybe German living related. I my also translate posts into both which will lead to people who speak/understand both languages seeing double and thinking "he is just repeating himself" (with bad punctuation and grammer) but hey ...who cares? wem juckt es?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
So Fang ich an meine Gedanken, Anregungen, Träumereien und solches in einen Blog zu schreiben. Wie der Titel aber sagt "wem juckt es?"
Ich werde auch mal in Deutsch schreiben aber wahrscheinlich hauptsächlich zuerst in Englisch (meine Muttersprache). Leute die beides sprechen/verstehen werden dann doppelt sehen und wohl sagen "er wiederholt nur alles"( mit schlechten Grammatik und Satzaufbau) aber hey ...who cares? wem juckt es?
I will probably occasionally write in German, because that is my adopted home and the theme maybe German living related. I my also translate posts into both which will lead to people who speak/understand both languages seeing double and thinking "he is just repeating himself" (with bad punctuation and grammer) but hey ...who cares? wem juckt es?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
So Fang ich an meine Gedanken, Anregungen, Träumereien und solches in einen Blog zu schreiben. Wie der Titel aber sagt "wem juckt es?"
Ich werde auch mal in Deutsch schreiben aber wahrscheinlich hauptsächlich zuerst in Englisch (meine Muttersprache). Leute die beides sprechen/verstehen werden dann doppelt sehen und wohl sagen "er wiederholt nur alles"( mit schlechten Grammatik und Satzaufbau) aber hey ...who cares? wem juckt es?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
