Designed for Theft

Mall of the Emirates, supposedly the biggest and most advanced shopping mall in the Middle East, has a tremendous footfall of over 1 million visitors per week. The mall is a state-of-the-art shopping center with stores from all over the world ranging from smalled retail outlets to huge department stores such as Harvey Nichols and Debenhams.

You would think that when they install a security system it would include the entire mall. My question is:

Why would you have so many blind spots to the security cameras and why would you not decide to put extra cameras covering those blind spots?

The reason I pose this question is that I got my pocket picked yesterday at Mall of the Emirates. My wallet had a substantial amount of cash in it, apart from an obscene amount of money in cheques. Upon checking the mall's security cameras, the officer came back to me saying

"sorry sir, but we checked the cameras and the only positions (3 of them) where your wallet could have been stolen are blind spots to our cameras! One is at a weird angle, one is covered by a pillar in the building and one is covered by a signpost."

GO FIGURE!

Hypocrisy

For many people who live in the Middle East, hypocrisy is fast becoming an aspect they are seeing more often than not. I was watching a football game today, Arsenal Vs. Tottenham Hotspur, in the English Premiership, being played on the Emirates Stadium, with reference to EMIRATES AIRLINES, the national carrier of the UAE based out of Dubai.

In the middle of the game, I noticed advertising signs all around the Emirates Stadium saying “Thinkisrael.com”. This is a website promoting tourism to Israel. It is a deal that Arsenal club has signed with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism to promote tourism to Israel from England. While I have no personal issues against that, everyone is free to do what they wish, I find it slightly alarming that this is condoned by Emirates Airlines, the main sponsors of the team and stadium, who, as a policy in this country, refuse to acknowledge the existence of Israel as a country.

Before I start getting slated on this blog for writing this, I am not writing in support of either opinion, be it that supporting Israel or not, this is not a political posting, rather questioning morality and pointing out hypocrisy.

Hypocritical?

Inspired

I fear not so much the evil brought about by actions of evil men, but more that evil which is brought about by the silence and complacency of good men.