Here in this case, the UAE authority cowardly committed cruelty and discrimination against a victim of police brutality. On the other hand, both the courts in Abu Dhabi, including Supreme Court, the legal court of appeal, were fully satisfied and praised the conduct of the victim throughout the judicial proceedings.
The Ortelo Business Corporation (OBC) is one of the major Hunting companies operating in Tanzania. The Company is owned by the royal family of the UAE (United Arab Emirates), possessing hunting blocks in the area covering over 4,000 sq km. The hunters fly directly from the UAE to the area using huge cargo and passenger planes which land on an all-weather airstrip inside the OBC camp. The planes are loaded with sophisticated Hunting equipment, including four-wheel drive vehicles, weapons and communication gadgets. On their way back, the planes carry a variety of live animals, game trophies and meat.
The Guardian UK reports “The Sheikhs and their friends drive Japanese off-road vehicles at high speed through the bush and they shoot at the animals. No living thing, it appears, is safe, even in Tanzania, a country that sells itself to the ever-growing safari market as an eco-tourism destination, where “harassment of animals is avoided”. A district councillor in Ololosokwan, the nearest village to Arabiya, told me that OBC’s licence permits only five lions to be killed per season. But then, who’s counting? He cannot. The area is closed to journalists and NGOs, and the locals have been warned by the police that even to speak about OBC will get them into trouble. A request to OBC’s local agent for an interview was not answered. Discreetly, people in the villages tell us about “the Arabs” and their bizarre colonisation of Loliondo district.
INTRODUCTION
The UAE has more than two million camels and camel races are among the most popular sports events in the country. The camel races take place every winter, from October to April on various tracks throughout the UAE. His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, along with other rulers of the emirates, attends most of the races.
Camel owners are continuously encouraged by Sheikh Zayed, which includes financial incentives, prizes that include luxury cars, four-wheel-drives, mansions, yachts, cash and gold sword. One of the major events, the Zayed Grand Prize camel races, is being held at Al Wathba race track, a large 10km track, about 45km from Abu Dhabi city. Major races are also held at the Nad Al Sheba Camel Race Course in Dubai.
The jockeys are usually young boys, two to seven year olds chosen for their light weight. The beginning of the races marks a festive season for the UAE’s people who are usually accompanied by traditional music and singing to the Arabian drum beats. The green, red, black and white national flag of the Emirates flutters atop high poles that line the [...]
During the centuries of Greek and Roman domination, the gulf region was of limited interest to the major powers, but the area’s importance as a strategic and trading center rose with the emergence of Islam in the seventh century A.D.
The caliphate’s military strength was concentrated at Hormuz (The Strait of Hormuz). Strategically sited at the mouth of the gulf, its authority extended over ports and islands of the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.
The strategic importance of Hormuz, however, did not survive the appearance of Western powers, initially the Portuguese who came to the gulf in the late fifteenth century after Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the route to India via the Cape of Good Hope. The Ottomans and the Iranians also tried to dominate the gulf but faced opposition from local tribes in Bahrain and Muscat, reluctant to cede authority over their territories, which by then were the most important areas on the coast.
Increasing British involvement in India beginning in the late eighteenth century quickened British interest in the gulf region as a means of protecting the sea routes to India. Before British intervention, [...]
