HOUSING IN THE UAE

Housing in the United Arab Emirates

Description

On the 5^th of December our teacher organized a small event at the college’s main building. For she chose this project because it was the UAE 40^th anniversary, where I and my group members had a small stand. We invited people and gave them some historic information about the UAE housing system, where we showed them 3D images and a virtual video of the houses in the UAE “ Past and present,” at the end of the small presentation we gave our visitors handouts briefing them about the housing systems.

During the event, I was the luckiest of them all where I just had to invite people to our stand briefing them about the building process of housing, “Past and Present” showing them images of modern and historic houses.  When reaching to the end of the short presentation, I asked them whether or not they are interested in asking any questions about the housing process in depth.

Interpretation

After the event I have learned how to communicate with my colleagues, especially when it comes to explaining to others about the project. In which I felt more confident and self-reliable, I also learned that with good communication and organization structure within a group we could do well and reach our goals. Regarding leadership, we had Saleh Farah as our team leader where he is the eldest and has the most experience among us all. Last but not least the entire event is relevant to my studies where it improved my knowledge.

The past few weeks in  the management and leadership class our teacher explained to us the importance of team work and organization where she told us about organization culture and  the six key elements of organizing which includes work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization and decentralization, formalization.

Outcome

In my opinion, we might have done much better but thanks to you by giving us another group’s project to display on our stand. As we have done really well in creating our handouts where the visitors took some to read later, after all I think our group did good since we had loads of visitors passing by, where there were interested in our display but there was a slight problem, we couldn’t play the video on the TV because they were used at a meeting so we had to play it on the laptop. This might have caused a slight disturbance to us but thank god we managed to control it.

This project made me aware of many things; the most important was organization. Without an organized group we could not have achieved what we achieved at the stand. Several things that I have learned are that with good leadership and motivation any group whether in university or work, creates a great outcome in finalizing our work together as a group assignment on time.

We faced some obstacles where we started our project late, didn’t have enough objects on display, this is because we never experienced such project before  and hopefully for the next projects our group could do much better by fixing the mistakes we experienced in the previous one. Overall the team work we have performed was great, in which we finished the project on time and had great feedback towards our display; thanks to Saleh he has great leadership skills.

Many things could be done differently but at that time you can’t think of something different, any idea that pops your mind you write it down, so I guess we did a fair job and at the end of the day our team was happy with the end results.

Specifically I contributed by getting more visitors to our stand, hosting them coffee and handing them our printed handouts which was interesting.

In my opinion, I can’t evaluate or assess myself; it is when you ask my colleagues about my performance they could answer the question because they saw my work and my mistakes.

AGILITY

CSR in Agility Logistics

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a matter that is becoming common among organizations by the day. Bueble (4) defines corporate Social Responsibility as the achieving of success of a corporate body through ways that honor ethical values and offers respect to people, the environment, and the community at large. Agility Logistics is one of the organizations that believe in having a social responsibility to the communities and societies around them. The company believes that their presence in the global market demands of them to have a social responsibility. The company therefore, in light of this commitment has deployed its logistic experience and the multicultural workforce that comprises of its employees to provide humanitarian support to communities around the world. According to the company’s 2011 CSR report, the organization provides humanitarian disaster relief, improvement of customer sustainability, and support of employee-led community programs (Agility CSR report).

I must say that Agility Logistics has had a great impact in the provision of corporate social responsibility in the entire global community. The organization’s approach to CSR, with the policy of improving the world in which we live in is quite remarkable. The organization’s approach has not only got an impact globally but has surely proven to achieve results and improve the living standards and the life of the communities in which they work with. The fact that the organization has communicated its CSR activities, and has reports on the CSR activities that they undertake, shows that the investors to the company are well informed of the activities of the organization. It is not wrong in any way to spend the investors’ money on humanitarian aid especially when the investors are fully informed of where their money is being spent. Agility Logistics is not spending investors’ money wrongfully on humanitarian aid and no investor has complained so far, meaning the investors support the social responsibility of Agility.

A look at the Agility website reveals how dedicated and accountable the organization is to CSR. The company clearly does a good job in ensuring that the social responsibilities they undertake are well reflected. Reports are prepared for each activity that the organization undertakes. For example from the websites we find that a report is prepared on a yearly basis to show the kind of activities that were undertaken and the amount that was spent on the different projects. The company also ensures that the CSR activities that they undertake are beneficial to the communities and offer sustainability (Agility CSR report). The most compelling and eye catching factor in this website is the fact that the organizations supports their employees in their community programs. It shows that Agility encourages the employees to not only work for the company but also to give back to the community.

I was quite impressed with the websites details of the kind of activities that the organization undertakes and how they ensure sustainability of the community and resources. However, the most interesting thing about this website and the company at large is that it has made social responsibility part of their daily running of business. The organization has made a long-term commitment to addressing the matters that concern humanitarian aid and community sustainability. Agility has a commitment to work with the customers, employees, and even the competitors to achieve the improvement of the world. The employees are taught and shown that it is their personal responsibility to support and uplift the communities in which they live.

Agility has a code of ethics which serves as the guiding line of their activities and conduct towards their customers, employees, communities, and the world at large. Among the issues in the code of ethics is the code concerning exchange of gifts among employees and clients. Employees are prohibited from accepting monetary gifts and any kind of unsolicited gifts (Agility code of ethics 14). However, the same code allows personnel’s to accept unsolicited gifts of non-monetary value. Such items have to be of nominal value and they should be within the accepted business practices of the company and be within the common courtesy (14). It is said that gifts could be used as a way of compromising the employee’s decision on service to clients or encourage favoritism to some clients. From the code of ethics, it is quite clear that employees are only allowed to accept gifts of nominal value and any gifts offered to them that are of extravagant values or monetary values should be reported.

I agree with the stipulations of the code of ethics of Agility concerning gifts acceptance because such a policy encourages fair treatment of all clients, investors, and suppliers. It is quite obvious that most of the time, gifts are given as a way of coercing someone into committing favors to the person they come from. It is therefore logical for Agility to put in place such serious measurers to ensure normalcy and fairness in their organization. As the saying goes “there are no free lunches” it is surely true that extravagant gifts will always have a hidden agenda. It is therefore understandable for Agility to prohibit their employees from acceptance of some of the gifts especially those of monetary value. Such policies are therefore valid to a large extent, especially for an organization that wants to ensure fairness to all its suppliers, customers, and investors.

What do you think of Agility’s approach? Is it right to spend investors money on humanitarian efforts?

 Agility Logistics is one of the organizations that believe in having a social responsibility to the communities and societies around them. The company believes that their presence in the global market demands of them to have a social responsibility. The company therefore, in light of this commitment has deployed its logistic experience and the multicultural workforce that comprises of its employees to provide humanitarian support to communities around the world. According to the company’s 2011 CSR report, the organization provides humanitarian disaster relief, improvement of customer sustainability, and support of employee-led community programs (Agility CSR report). Bueble (4) defines corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as the achieving of success of a corporate body through ways that honor ethical values and offers respect to people, the environment, and the community at large; exactly the approach that Agility has towards CSR.

I must say that Agility Logistics approach to CSR is that of bringing up improvement to the world’s standards of living. The organization has had a great impact in the provision of corporate social responsibility in the entire global community. The organization’s approach to CSR, with the policy of improving the world in which we live in is quite remarkable. The organization’s approach has not only got an impact globally but has surely proven to achieve results and improve the living standards and the life of the communities in which they work with. The fact that the organization has communicated its CSR activities, and has reports on the CSR activities that they undertake, shows that the investors to the company are well informed of the activities of the organization. It is not wrong in any way to spend the investors’ money on humanitarian Aid especially when the investors are fully informed of where their money is being spent. Agility Logistics is not spending investors’ money wrongfully on humanitarian aid and no investor has complained so far, meaning the investors support the social responsibility of Agility.

Does the company do a good job on reflecting its activities? What most catches your attention on this website?

A look at the Agility website reveals how dedicated and accountable the organization is on reflecting its CSR activities. The company clearly does a good job in ensuring that the social responsibilities they undertake are well reflected. Reports are prepared for each activity that the organization undertakes. For example from the websites we find that a report is prepared on a yearly basis to show the kind of activities that were undertaken and the amount that was spent on the different projects. The company also ensures that the CSR activities that they undertake are beneficial to the communities and offer sustainability (Agility CSR report). The most compelling and eye catching factor in this website is the fact that the organizations supports their employees in their community programs. It shows that Agility encourages the employees to not only work for the company but also to give back to the community.

I was quite impressed with the websites details of the kind of activities that the organization undertakes and how they ensure sustainability of the community and resources. However, the most interesting thing about this website and the company at large is that it has made social responsibility part of their daily running of business. The organization has made a long-term commitment to addressing the matters that concern humanitarian aid and community sustainability. Agility has a commitment to work with the customers, employees, and even the competitors to achieve the improvement of the world. The employees are taught and shown that it is their personal responsibility to support and uplift the communities in which they live.

What is the company’s policy regarding gifts? Can employees accept small monetary or non-monetary gifts from outsiders?

Agility has a code of ethics which serves as the guiding line of their activities and conduct towards their customers, employees, communities, and the world at large. Among the issues in the code of ethics is the code concerning exchange of gifts among employees and clients. Employees are prohibited from accepting monetary gifts and any kind of unsolicited gifts (Agility code of ethics 14). However, the same code allows personnel’s to accept unsolicited gifts of non-monetary value. Such items have to be of nominal value and they should be within the accepted business practices of the company and be within the common courtesy (14). It is said that gifts could be used as a way of compromising the employee’s decision on service to clients or encourage favoritism to some clients. From the code of ethics, it is quite clear that employees are only allowed to accept gifts of nominal value and any gifts offered to them that are of extravagant values or monetary values should be reported.

I agree with the stipulations of the code of ethics of Agility concerning gifts acceptance because such a policy encourages fair treatment of all clients, investors, and suppliers. It is quite obvious that most of the time, gifts are given as a way of coercing someone into committing favors to the person they come from. It is therefore logical for Agility to put in place such serious measurers to ensure normalcy and fairness in their organization. As the saying goes “there are no free lunches” it is surely true that extravagant gifts will always have a hidden agenda. It is therefore understandable for Agility to prohibit their employees from acceptance of some of the gifts especially those of monetary value. Such policies are therefore valid to a large extent, especially for an organization that wants to ensure fairness to all its suppliers, customers, and investors.

References:

Agility code of ethics. Agility logistics. Agility. Web. 1 November 2011.

Agility CSR report of 2011.Agility logistics. Press release 2011. 29 March 2011. Web. 1   November 2011.

Bueble, Elena. Corporate social responsibility: CSR communication as an instrument to     consumer-relationship marketing. Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2008. Print.

Water Issues in the Middle East

Some of the largest oil reserves are in the Arab world located in dry places. Demand for water is increasing, where they are few rivers.

Climate changes where temperature will rise and increase in the population where they will reach over six hundred million.

Middle Eastern governments provide cheap or free water to their people although in the future water will be scarce.

Yemen, where it is the poorest Arab country imports eighty to ninety percent of its food. Mahmoud Shidiwah says that Sana’a will run dry in six years.

In the Arab world; Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and the UAE will be short in water supply where Turkey has a surplus but unwilling to share.

They just realized the problem and now built around one thousand five hundred plants to provide drinking water to the Middle East and North Africa.

Riches await as Earth icy north melts

Countries are fighting over their territories in the Arctic, the reason for that is the ice is melting and there is a race for oil, fish, diamonds, minerals and shipping routes.

The Arctic has twenty five percent of the world undiscovered oil and gas, where Russia estimated profits from their stake would be approximately two trillion dollars.

In 2005, Russia was the first to send an exploration vessel without an ice breaker help because it had a modernized design where it could break its way through the ice using its stern.

American transportation has bought an unutilized Northwest Passage, which was bought for a few dollars.

Few years ago, reports indicate that it would take one hundred years for the ice to melt although recent studies say that it may happen within ten to fifteen years, so the five countries are rushing to claim their territories and at the same time wanting to get a bigger portion.

Desert horsemen keep the pace

The RAK police headed by Lt Col Khaled Hamad Al Merri petrol the remote areas in the desert looking for trouble makers, while on horses using mobiles and walkie-talkies for communication.

In the past, the idea of patrolling came from the Second Caliph in Islam. The horsemen use silence as a weapon.

For several years Lt Col Al Merri has tried recruiting emarati horsemen but still not succeeded in doing that.

The horsemen go out in groups while having a break in the hotter season so when winter season comes they increase their patrols due to the vacation where most people camp.

What’s good about horses is that they could reach remote areas where cars can’t reach. To not over exhaust the horses they work in shifts of four hours where they are over protective and love their horses.