NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

Indian diaspora tunes in to Oscar

Azharuddin Ismail and Ayush Khedekar star in Slumdog Millionaire. Fox Searchlight / Everett Collection

If Slumdog Millionaire receives top acclaim at the 81st Academy Awards and the crowd at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre does not hear the cheer from the UAE, it won’t be through a lack of effort from the country’s 1.5 million Indian residents.

Indians throughout the Emirates said they would hold their own celebrations, glued to the television for the live coverage from 5am on Monday.

And a black-tie Oscars party, complete with red carpet, has been organised for the capital.

According to local Indian fans, the British movie has been adopted by the Indian diaspora because of its Bollywood-style love story mixed with the reality of poverty in India’s second city, Mumbai.

“There is absolutely no way I am going to miss the Oscars,” said Deeksha Bhatia, 26, a marketing executive who lives in Dubai and whose family is from New Delhi.

“It may not be an Indian film, but it has really captured the imagination of Indian people everywhere. It is a wonderful story and it has really touched people. That is part of the reason why it is so popular. It deserves to win some Oscars.

“Part of the reason Indians are so excited is that it is a traditional Indian story.”

Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a Mumbai slum dweller who competes in the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? to win the heart of a girl. It has combined huge global ticket sales with industry praise.

Despite being made on a budget considerably lower than its Hollywood rivals, it has been nominated for Oscars in 10 categories, including best motion picture, director (Danny Boyle, who also directed The Full Monty), cinematography, film editing, score, song, adapted screenplay and sound mixing.

If the film wins the best picture category, it would be the first movie to take home the golden statuette with a Muslim character at its centre. The winner of the 2005 best picture Oscar, Crash, featured an Iranian Muslim family in a subplot, but their story was not central to the film.

Meanwhile, a group of viewers in Sharjah will be cheering for the Slumdog Millionaire sound mixer Resul Pookutty, who hails from their region of India.

Four days after the awards, Pookutty will arrive in Sharjah, where the 500 members of the Punalur Friends Forum will gather to congratulate him, with or without a gold statuette.

Punalur is a municipality in the district of Kollum where Pookuty’s village, Anjal, is located.

“We were friends in college. Films are also my passion,” said Mammam K Rajan, a senior accountant with Ali&Sons in Abu Dhabi, who also directs short films here.

“We met because his father and brother ran a shop in front of my college and I heard that he was also interested in drama and theatre.”

For those wanting a little more Hollywood at home, Abu Dhabi’s first black-tie Oscars party, featuring a replay of the awards on big screens, is to be held at the InterContinental Hotel on Monday evening.

About 350 guests have already confirmed they would attend the Dh250 (US$68) event, which will be broadcast internationally on Fox Television.

Win or lose tonight, Slumdog Millionaire has already amassed an impressive trophy collection: seven British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, including best film; four Golden Globes; and similar acclaim from the Screen Actors Guild, Writers Guild and Directors Guild.

For the Oscars, it is running against a daunting line-up of some of Hollywood’s biggest hitters.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt, has also been nominated for the best picture award, as has Milk, with Sean Penn.

The best director category pits Boyle against, among others, the Oscars veteran Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon, and David Fincher for Benjamin Button.

But it is Slumdog Millionaire’s underdog credentials that have added an extra edge to this Oscar race and boosted its popularity, in an echo of the film’s storyline.

Dhruv Dhawan, a 29-year-old Indian filmmaker who is based in Dubai, said the Oscar nominations were well-deserved.

“It is also a feel-good film about an underdog winning. Everyone loves such films,” Mr Dhawan said. “More importantly, I was glad to see that the film reflects the social realities of India. This was a welcome change after all that junk-food cinema we often see in Bollywood.

“We have a fascination of rich people in the West and make a lot of films about it. Indians should probably go abroad and make films about the real life and poverty in other countries, but they choose to show glamour and glitz.”

Sunil Bhatia, 54, who now lives in Dubai, said the film’s popularity was grounded in its reworking of a traditional love story and the reality of Mumbai’s unforgiving streets.

“At its heart it is a love story and love stories are always popular but what makes this film exceptional is the way it mixes this fiction with reality,” Mr Bhatia said.

“There is a real feeling of excitement here among the Indian community. Everybody hopes it is going to win lots of awards.”

K Kumar, a Dubai-based businessman, originally from Chennai, India, and who has lived in the UAE for 37 years, is planning a house party to watch the ceremony with his friends.

“Slumdog is a great movie. The musical score, the script and the story, they are all excellent and it deserves to be recognised. I am delighted that the film has been nominated for so many Oscars.

“I wasn’t surprised. It has captured the imagination of so many people. It is a story that many people can relate to mixed with a bit of fantasy. That is the key to its success.”

But not everyone loved the film.

Poonam Jayaprakash, 26, a banking executive born in Dubai, said that while she enjoyed the film, it was not up to Oscar standards.

“I am torn,” Ms Jayaprakash said. “On the one hand, I am a proud Indian and I like the fact that a film dealing with this subject has achieved such success, but frankly, I don’t think it is an Oscar-level film.”

Nassim Khoury, a marketing manager for the independent film distributor Front Row, also had reservations.

“I just don’t agree with all the hype around the film,” Mr Khoury said. “The only thing that makes it stand out to me is the editing. The Oscars are about a lot more than simply commending good filmmaking. There is a political aspect too.

“Part of any awards ceremony is about popularity and hype and Slumdog is popular. Because of that, I can see Slumdog walking away with quite a few awards, but whether it truly deserves them is a different question.”

Action promised on clearing doctor backlogs

ABU DHABI - FEB. 22: Patients seeking treatment at private hospitals and clinics in Abu Dhabi are being forced to wait for hours because of long delays in licensing new doctors, according to healthcare administrators.

Doctors say the problem has led to staff shortages and efforts to bring in doctors from abroad are being delayed because of the health authority’s lengthy licensing process.

The hospitals, which have to pay to license doctors, were waiting months for their applicants be interviewed by the licensing department at the Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD), and many of the candidates were finding other employment in the meantime, they said. One hospital said it had not been able to license any doctors in the last eight months.

HAAD says it has set up a committee of representatives from hospitals and other private-sector concerns to investigate the situation and respond to any complaints raised.

But one senior doctor at a speciality clinic in the capital said the rules were not clear. “They seem to change every time you speak to a different person at the authority.”

His clinic had lost a number of specialist staff because of the delays in licensing.

“People who are desperate will wait,but people who are highly qualified do not care. You really lose the good people here.”

He added: “People are in desperate need for services and we cannot accommodate them.”

Hospitals said the delay in licensing had become a major concern as patient numbers continued to rise.

Dr Anil Kumar, medical director of the Ahalia hospital and medical centres, said the group would like to add another 120 doctors, doubling its current staff.

“The licensing process takes a very long time,” he said. “Doctors have had to wait more than six months for an interview with the health authority. Skilled and experienced doctors will not wait this much time.”

Dr Kumar said he supported the efforts of HAAD to improve standards, but that licensing delays were having the opposite effect.

“Patients are waiting two or three hours when they come to the hospital to see a doctor. This is not acceptable for anyone.”

Authorities at the New Medical Centre (NMC) group, which treats more than a million patients a year, said they had experienced similar problems.

Dr Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, managing director and chief executive, said applicants might wait up to nine months just for an interview appointment.

Patients to a number of NMC facilities were waiting for up to three hours to see a doctor because the supply of doctors and other specialists did not meet demand.

“We have not been able to license any doctors for eight or nine months now,” he said. “No doctor will wait eight months.”

Current law requires private hospitals and clinics to follow a set procedure when licensing foreign doctors. An application must be sent to HAAD, which then issues a licensing interview date for the doctor. HAAD has established specific minimum requirements for doctors intending to practise in Abu Dhabi.

NMC’s facilities in Abu Dhabi receive more than 3,000 patients a day. The group also has clinics and hospitals in Dubai, Al Ain and the northern Emirates. The group needs at least 25 more doctors and 100 nurses for the Al Ain hospital.

Dr Antoine al Achkar, the general manager of the Lifeline Hospital Group, said a number of private hospitals in Abu Dhabi had lost good doctors because of the delay and that some projects were in jeopardy because they were not confident they would be able to secure the staff. Dr Achkar said the Lifeline centres needed another 125 to 150 staff.

“When we planned to open a hospital in Musaffah, we thought we could get good doctors,” he said, “but the licensing process is taking too long. It is taking a minimum of six months.”

Last year the national insurance company, Daman, estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 people in Abu Dhabi were insured in 2006. Now, over 1.3 million have health insurance.

“The increase in staff has not kept up with the increase in patients,” Dr Achkar said. “Existing staff now see up to 60 patients a day.

Dr Achkar said the group needed more staff in all areas. HAAD said in a statement to The National that it was working closely with the private health centres and had discussed the issue of licensing doctors.

“HAAD has held several meetings with the private sector and an investigative committee set up to examine these issues,” its statement said. “To date, no evidence has been found to support these claims.

“There is also a licensing committee with members from HAAD, the private sector and five hospitals which meets regularly and is responsible for the licensing of all health facilities and health professionals in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

“HAAD continues to monitor the situation and encourages facilities and individuals with licensing issues to submit these cases to HAAD so they can be investigated further.”

Card frauds target jewellers

ABU DHABI - FEB. 22: Dubai Police have warned businesses to be wary of customers paying with credit cards after the arrest of three men who tried to buy a large quantity of jewellery with counterfeit cards.

On Feb 10, the shopkeeper of a Dubai jewellery store called the police when he became suspicious of the men, the police said in a statement yesterday. Members of the CID arrived and arrested the men, apparently Europeans, and an investigation followed. The police then found numerous credit-card receipts and 48 forged credit cards, supposedly issued by banks outside the country.

In searches of the men’s homes, the police found more receipts and large quantities of jewellery. When contacted, the victimised shopkeepers all confirmed that the foreign banks refused to honour the transactions because the cards had been forged. They were urged to alert the police if they became suspicious of future customers.

Warehouses destroyed as fire strikes district again

DUBAI - FEB. 22: A fire destroyed three warehouses in Al Quoz industrial area yesterday, sending billows of smoke over the city.

Neighbouring warehouses were evacuated by the police, who also cleared gas canisters from nearby buildings in case the fire spread.

Fifty firemen, working with four fire engines and six water tankers, put out the fire by early afternoon. A Civil Defence spokesman said: “We closed down the road to bring in the fire trucks and tankers and for the safety of people. We arrived at the scene and controlled the fire immediately.”

Civil Defence units were sent to the scene from the Bur Dubai, Al Quoz and Jebel Ali fire stations. They said one of the warehouses in the fire stocked office furniture and stationery supplies, but would not say who owned it.

A spokesman for Civil Defence said an investigation into the fire had begun. Al Quoz industrial area has been the scene of many fires in the past year. One, in a cluster of warehouses, went unattended for almost three hours as firemen waited for water tankers to arrive from neighbouring emirates.

The fire safety record has been an issue for Dubai residents. In March 2008 two people died and more than 10 were injured when an explosion destroyed a warehouse and set alight about 70 other warehouses. Three firemen were treated in hospital for burns sustained fighting the fire which destroyed Dh600 million (US$163 million) worth of goods.

Three major fires were reported in 2007. One destroyed a warehouse and heavily damaged three others.

Civil Defence said the number of fires in the last six months of 2008 was down 22 per cent.

Aid for Keralites who lose jobs

DUBAI - FEB. 22: Thousands of Indians expected to return home from the Middle East after losing their jobs will receive loans from a regional government to help them re-establish themselves.

The southern Indian state of Kerala announced that a 1 billion rupee (Dh74 million) loan package had been devised to help repatriated people from the region set up small businesses at home.

TM Thomas Isaac, the state finance minister, told the state assembly over the weekend that by the end of June, 200,000 people were expected to return from the Middle East, and most to Kerala, as a result of the global economic downturn.

He also budgeted an additional 100m rupees (Dh7.4m) for people forced to return after less than two years abroad. Officials said a registry would be set up for the returning workers and that money would be allocated according to need.

Mr Isaac announced the package as he presented his annual budget to the state assembly on Friday.

Some Indian residents of the UAE said yesterday that the announcement was a first step in recognising the problem, but the amount of money in the programme was not enough.

“It is the first time that the state has taken this step and I welcome it,” said KV Shamsudeen, the chairman of Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust, which helps and advises Indians who live in Gulf countries.

“However, I think this is only a token amount.”

Kerala’s economy is struggling with reduced trade and decreasing amounts of money sent home from citizens working abroad.

“It is not just remittances that are affecting the state. Popular exports such as cashew nuts, pepper, ginger, rubber and marine products have also come down considerably,” Mr Shamsudeen said.

“With the general elections coming up, this is just an effort to appease the voter community,” said NP Ramachandran, the general secretary of the Indian Overseas Congress in Dubai. “Expatriate Indians send millions to India as remittances each year and the package offered is dismal.”

Mr Ramachandran said the government needed to clarify how the loans would be made available.

“We need a more realistic plan than to just offer loans,” he said. “A lot of qualified professionals are returning home and a package is needed to accommodate them in jobs as well as businesses.”

Mr Ramachandran said expatriate Malayalis in the UAE were preparing a complaint that would be sent to the state government next week.

Mr Shamsudeen proposed that a database of redundant professionals returning to India be set up.

“Such a database would help India re-employ these people back home,” he said.

About 25 per cent of the remittances to India go to Kerala, according to a study by the Centre for Development Studies in Trivandrum, Kerala.

The study said that 1.9 million Malayalis lived outside India, with about 90 per cent of them in the Middle East, especially in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

This month, Vayalar Ravi, the minister for overseas Indian affairs, said he would approach Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, with a plan to offer financial support to repatriates.

Captain's hope for missing brother

JEBEL DHANNA  - FEB. 22: It has been a week since Anwar Musa disappeared when the ferry boat Dhanna III capsized off the waters near here, but his brother Gaffar is still searching for him, doggedly refusing to give up hope that his brother is alive.

Mr Musa, 47, has tried to launch several search missions for Anwar, who was a seaman on the ferry. But persistent bad weather has repeatedly thwarted his plans to scour the many tiny islands close to where the ship was found, near Butiyna Island, in the hopes that maybe his brother is stranded and alive.

The accident has especially rocked the Musas, a family of seafarers who have all worked on boats operated by the Delma Co-operative, and have faced all the power and dangers of the sea.

Mr Musa is the captain of Emsameh, a ferry that carries vehicles and food to Delma Island. His brother’s ship, a slightly bigger version, was carrying four lorries filled with 110-tonnes of rock bound for the island of Jurnain intended to build a new dock.

Their father worked for one of the cooperatives’ fishing boats for 16 years before he died of cancer in 2002. Even Anwar’s eldest son was at sea as a crew member of a cargo ship carrying onions from India the night that the Dhanna III sank.

He had docked in Dubai en route to the free port in Abu Dhabi due to the high winds. “The last thing my brother and I talked about was going to see his son,” Mr Musa said. “He said when he returned from this trip, we would go to Abu Dhabi together.”

Mr Musa has told his family, who live in the Indian state of Gujarat, that Anwar was missing but has yet to tell Anwar’s son.

“I told our family that he is missing. That’s all,” he said. “That is the tradition of the sea and my family. I will not accept he is dead until I find a clue. And I am going to keep on searching. I cannot face his son without an answer.

“We are waiting for a result; any result, any word. We are waiting for evidence. Whether he is alive or dead. Once I know one way or another, only then can I travel and show my face back home.” Both brothers, like most sailors in the area, lived on their boats. Until last month, Mr Musa had held on to family photos in his cabin but gave them to his brother for no apparent reason.

Now all he has are mobile photos of Anwar, the captain, and a couple of crew members.

Mr Musa spoke of phone calls he received from Mohammed Noor, the captain of Dhanna III, and how he tried to guide it to safety the night of Feb 11.

The two captains made several calls to each other that afternoon to keep abreast of the weather when a scheduled 1pm update was delayed.

Within half an hour of the first call, at 4.26pm, Mr Noor told Mr Musa that “winds were strong” and they were 16 nautical miles from their destination.

“‘If it’s rough, get to safety’, I told him, but he said that although the winds had picked up the sea wasn’t rough yet,” Mr Musa said.

By 5pm, Mr Noor called to confirm the seas had turned rough.

In the next phone call, an hour later, he told Mr Musa the lorries “were slightly shifting and moving around”.

At 7.12pm, Mr Musa received the last phone call from Mr Noor, who said he had seen a steamer and was heading in its direction for help after he had abandoned plans to try to dock at the nearest island.

Over the next 14 seconds all communication ceased.

“Their telephones stopped ringing. My crew was receiving calls just as I was, but in those few seconds everything went silent. We couldn’t call them back and they didn’t call again.”

Anwar was one of eight crew members when the Dhanna III capsized 28km from Zirco Island, an oil-producing facility owned by the Zakum Development Company. The body of the Indonesian chief engineer was found on Mubarad Island, while a Pakistani sailor was found alive on Butiyna.

Three Indians, including Anwar, three Pakistanis and one Bangladeshi are still missing.

“We are all friends. We help tie up each other’s ships,” Mr Musa said.

He answered a phone call from a relative of one of the missing crew members: “We haven’t found anything … no, no. It’s only 11.30, give me more time … Inshallah, yes, yes.”

Local police officers streamed on to Mr Musa’s boat, seeking updates and offering companionship. His crew brought him endless cups of tea.

The air is fresh, the sea is a beautiful aquamarine but there is little to do for those who await news, except record weather updates.

“I will go home. It is important to be there now but first I must find him. We have to find his body, dead or alive, because without that there is no death certificate, and without that his children have no future.”