James Will Be Back August 16.

Hello NIGHTLINERS!

I am off on my summer leave, I am writing a book that I will be talking all about when I am back in the hot seat.

Don't forget about TEDxDubai on October 10!

Have a good summer and speak to you all very soon.

James

June 24---Noel Duigan furniture and Professor Dan Connell on Africa and Why it matters.

n hour 1 we spoke to Noel Duigan, www.noelduigan.com, about designing chairs in the UAE and never had a business plan!

In hour 2 Professor Dan Connell of Simmons College Boston joined us for a discussion about what is going on in the Horn of Africa and what we might expect in the future.

June 23---Rethinking our education from the ground up!

Mr. Ian Gilbert, www.independentthinking.co.uk, Dr. Lesley Stagg, Greenfield Community School Principal and Dr. Clifton Chadwick, of The British University of Dubai, talking about the future of education. And in a nut shell why it is a mess!

Hour 2 Anna Pavlova and Shelly Frost talking the music revolution in Dubai!

June 22---the99.org and Dubai Traffic Police

In hour 1 of the program we spoke to Dr. Naif Al Matawa about the world's 1st super hero comic based on Islamic culture and values, www.the99.org.

NAIF AL-MUTAWA
CREATOR & CO-WRITER, THE 99

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa is the creator and co-writer of the comic book series THE 99 , the world's first superhero team based on Islamic culture.

While working as a clinical psychologist with former prisoners of war in Kuwait and with survivors of political torture in New York City, Al-Mutawa witnessed firsthand the cancerous effects of social, racial, and religious intolerance. This led him to write, illustrate, and publish To Bounce or Not To Bounce, a children's book designed to introduce children (and adults) to concepts of international understanding and cultural diversity. The book went on to sell tens of thousands of copies worldwide, as well as win a UNESCO award for children's literature in the service of tolerance. The Success of To Bounce or Not To Bounce led to a sequel, What's In A Color!?

Dr. Al-Mutawa's children's books are now used in schools throughout the Arab World. His quest for tolerance and global understanding led him to create THE 99. e, joined us to talk traffic in Dubai.

In hour 2 Colonel Jamal Mohammed Al Bannai, Director of Violations with Dubai PolicDR.

June 21--UAE School Fees and Driving School.

Hour 1 we listened to interviews from DubaiToday, www.dubaieye1038.com, with Ralph Tabberer of GEMS and Clive Pierrepont of Taaleem.

Hour 2 Alix joined us for a talk about the Woman's Driving Academy.

Email James@arnonline.com for details.

June 17---Liars and Domestic Violence UAE

We spoke to Melanie Lindner, www.Forbes.com, about her article HOW TO SNIFF OUT A LIAR.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/13/lie-detector-madoff-entrepreneurs-sales-marketing-liar.html

How To Sniff Out A Liar

Melanie Lindner, 05.13.09, 04:40 PM EDT

Everyone stretches the truth a little. Here's what to look for (and how not to get found out).

There are plenty of dangerously skilled liars--and not just the Bernie Madoffs and Jeffrey Skillings of the world. Indeed, under the right (or wrong) circumstances, we're all guilty fibbers.

In hour 2 Ohood Khamis Al Suwaidi and Dr. Azhar Abuali of the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children, 800-111, about domestic violence in the UAE.

Mobile Media Revolution

We are living a media revolution. Mobile media should be on your lips. Giorgio Ungania of SAE joined me for a conversation with Peter "magic" Johnston about 15 second feature films. In hour 2 we spoke about mlearning with Ammar Shami of ABJAD consulting.

We began and ended the evening with a conversation about TEDxDubai.

The War Against Obesity!

We are in a crisis. Too many obese children and not enough being done in a coherent manner.

There are 6 stakeholder groups: state, family, education, private sector, media, health sector and too little is being done by all!

Mayada Wahsh, program officer for UNICEF, Osama Al Othman, In-Motion, Alison Fawcett, Nurse at Greenfield Community School, and David Jenns of Libra all joined me to work through this issue.

June 14--- Hayati Healthcare UAE

www.hayatihealthcare.com



Dr. Michael Malty and Tariq El-Titi talk about Hayati Healthcare, www.hayatihealthcare.com, and the fact that it is the 1st short-term medical loan facility in the middle east.

And they just won the the MIT Arab Business Plan Award.

HAYATI is the first ever dedicated Patient Financing company in the UAE and throughout the entire Middle East! Whatever your healthcare requirements, if your medical insurance policy doesn't cover the costs of the procedures you need, HAYATI is there to support you. HAYATI Health care Financing ™ allows patients to pay convenient and affordable repayments over time, instead of paying 'up-front' cash payments prior to treatment, so you can get the procedure you need, when you want it!!

MIT Arab Business Plan Awards Declared

(Staff Report)

13 June 2009http://www.khaleejtimes.com/biz/inside.asp?xfile=/data/business/2009/June/business_June546.xml&section=business

Two fledgling companies, one involved in patient financing, and another, a service provider that can rank non-spam emails according to their importance, competed with more than 1,200 companies from 17 countries spanning North Africa, the Gulf and Levant, and emerged as first place winners to split the $50,000 prize money in the 2009 MIT Arab Business Plan Competition. UAE’s Hayati Health Care, led by co-founder and chief executive officer Dr. Michael Matly, and partners Dr. Tarig El-Titi and David Matly, shared the prize with Saudi Arabia’s Syphir — a five-man team led by spokesperson Ghassan Fayad and co-creators Husain Al-Mohssen, Courtland Allen, Faisal Alibrahim, and Abdulrahman Tarabzouni. In second place with a $10,000 prize, was Egypt’s Rice Straw Fertilizer Company with team members Ibrahim Khater Youssef, Ahmed El Dorghamy, and Mohamed Abdel Raouf. Third place honors with a $5,000 prize went to Jordan’s Blog Souq composed of Ahmad Takatkah, Adey Salamin and Ammar Ibrahim. A special award was given to another UAE team, Vaxeal Therapuetics, a therapeutic vaccine research company formed by Dr. Ahmed Bouzdi, Dr. Bernard Maillere, Giampietro Corradin and Wassim Chehadeh. “This year’s competition turned out an amazing quality of participants, we had a very good quality of people and teams with very unique business plans,” said Ziad Younes, vice-chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum for the Pan Arab Region in Lebanon. The MIT Arab Business Plan Competition is the equivalent of the MIT business plan competition in Cambridge which was initiated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni Association. The non-profit and volunteer-driven organisation builds connections to technology entrepreneurs and to communities in which they reside, as well as produces a series of educational programmes about entrepreneurship through its network of 24 worldwide chapters. “The quality of the participants’ business plans reflect that they understand what the competition is trying to achieve - that is so have a new crop of entrepreneurs that takes into consideration sensitivities and specifities of the Arab region,” said Younes. Hayati Healthcare is the first ever niche ‘‘patient financing” company in the Middle East. It markets and sells patient financing loans either through Healthcare providers to their patients, or directly to patients. Michael Matly, a Lebanese-American who holds an MBA degree at Harvard and an MD degree at at Mayo Medical School, innovated on the widely-used US model by including medical procedures such as dentistry and orthodontics, fertility treatments, LASIK and ocular plastics, knee replacements and other procedures that are not covered by conventional medical insurance and which, require large out-of-pocket cash payments by patients. “I was working in Dubai with my partner, Dr. El-Titi at the Dubai executive council, and we started seeing that the quality of healthcare in UAE is improving, but because of that, it was becoming more expensive, so we realised there was a funding gap. Patients wanted to have medical procedures that are not covered by insurance, or they did not have money to do it. We thought of creating a financing company, this is already being done in the US. We have a partner bank that is underwriting loans, our company is the intermediary between the bank and patients. We want a health care program that is more affordable and accessible to people,” said Matly. Syphir co-creator Ghassan Fayad, who is finishing his Phd in mechanical engineering at MIT this year said the team has already come up with three prototypes of systems that would rank email based on their importance.

June 10 UAE Marine and Volunteerindubai.com

Hour 1 Dr. John Burt spoke to us about the marine environment in the UAE and why we need to wake up.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=theuae&xfile=data/theuae/2007/september/theuae_september486.xml

Expert highlights threat to UAE coral reef population

By Criselda E. Diala

19 September 2007

DUBAI — Global warming and man-made stressors could pose a serious threat to the UAE’s marine eco-system, a lecturer from the Zayed University Dubai stated on Sunday.

Following years of research, which assessed the emirates’ marine ecology, particularly along the coasts of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, lecturer and marine biologist John Burt said that future increases in temperature may test the survival of coral reefs and eventually other marine life in the UAE.

“The reefs hold a huge economic and ecological importance because they serve as habitat for juvenile fish and other marine life. The diminishing number of reef species due to environmental disturbances would result in an imbalance in the marine eco-system,” Burt pointed out.

Speaking during a meeting hosted by the Dubai Natural History Group, Burt said that in a span of nearly 10 years, following the El Nino phenomenon of 1998, marine researches have showed that a “mass die-offs” or bleaching of corals have occured across the world.

Bleaching, Burt explained, results in corals literally turning white due to the absence of algae or one-celled organisms. “This was a serious concern because corals that have died can’t get replaced quickly,” he said.

In the UAE waters alone, the presence of a certain species of coral called “acropona” used to be 62 per cent of the coral population before the 1998 bleaching of the Arabian Gulf. However, only 22 per cent of the same species exist today.

Burt also highlighted that coastal developments in Dubai that paved the way for the construction of man-made breakwaters have served as artificial reefs. “Breakwaters are distinct because the materials used in its construction have been suitable to a certain species of fish. But most marine life still prefers natural reefs,” he pointed out.

Aside from global warming, a concern that Burt also raised was the potential danger to the marine eco-system from a desalination plant being constructed near the coast of Abu Dhabi. Once operational, the desalination plant may contribute to the increase in the salinity of UAE waters.

Hour 2 www.volunteerindubai.com with Lola Lopez, change your world.

Volunteering your time to assist any non-profit aid organisation is the most rewarding way to give back to society.

Relief and Aid Organisations rely on volunteers to keep overheads at a minimum, thus ensuring that every penny possible goes to those who need it.

This group is aimed at bringing together ANY organisation, good cause or individual effort in the UAE, with people willing to help out. Even if only for ONE HOUR and even if it’s infrequent, it makes an enormous difference.

June 9 Dr. Lynda Moore talks about her research on Emirati Women and Leadership

The UAE has grown at a very rapid pace since 1971 and there is a tremendous amount of research and public policy to be done when it comes to Emirati employment.

Of particular interest in the UAE is the role of women, Emiraties, in the workplace.

Professor Lynda Moore has started that research and she speaks to us about her findings.

June 9---UAE Philharmonic Orchestra

Did you know the UAE has a philharmonic orchestra?

The UAE Philharmonic Orchestra was founded by Conductor & Artistic Director Philipp Maier to start promoting the need of an orchestra within the United Arab Emirates.

Originally called Dubai Philharmonic Orchestra DPO, the UAEPO consists of musicians resident in the UAE and performs regularly at private events, public concerts and corporate functions. The UAE Philharmonic Orchestra is the only full orchestra in the UAE and represents a major step towards orchestral culture and musical education within the UAE. There is an increasing interest amongst international media concerning the fact that there is a resident Philharmonic Orchestra in the UAE. Equally the interest amongst international artists in a performance with the UAEPO is increasing permanently.

Most recently the UAE Philharmonic Orchestra received wide recognition from the government in Abu Dhabi through its participation in the 8th Al Ain Music festival where the orchestra was featured alongside such famous orchestras like the Staatskapelle Dresden or the La Scala opera.

The UAEPO's performance - also featuring 2 world-premieres - was filmed by Abu Dhabi Television.

Many international projects with leading artists from around the world are in planning.

The consistent growth of the UAE Philharmonic Orchestra proves the need for an orchestra in the UAE and its ever growing diverse population.

Other orchestras around the world have shown great interest in the UAEPO and in contributing to the growth of orchestral culture in the UAE.

A ground-breaking initiative to develop music as a way of life within the UAE

The UAE have consistently raised the bar in international marketing through Emirates or Etihad airlines, various Shopping Festival, innovative architecture with iconic buildings and sports marketing. Now the UAE have the chance to raise the benchmark once again.

The UAE Philharmonic Orchestra does not only perform classical music but an innovative blend of European and Arabic music especially composed and arranged to reflect the modern and diverse culture of the UAE. And, apart from being a premier destination-marketing tool, the establishment of the UAEPO also has a vital social and educational role to play – encouraging musical development within the UAE.

June 8----Mark Dziersk of Brandimage and Deron Beal of Freecycle.org

In hour one we spoke to Mark Dziersk, VP Design for Brandimage, the worlds largest design and branding firm. Mark is passionate about design and how it links and works within an entire company!

In hour 2 we spoke about the freecycle concept with Deron Beal.

Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,763 groups with 6,854,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on “Browse Groups” above the search box. Have fun!

June 7---ICE and HEELSandDEALS.org

In Hour 1 we spoke to Nawaar Al Daas about ICE, In Case of Emergency. Do you have an ICE listing on your mobile?

In hour 2 Claire Fenner and Georgia Hearson both are women entrepreneurs and both have started a networking group, heels and deals, to help other women realize their entrepreneurial dreams.

Welcome to Heels & Deals

Are you a woman who owns her own business, is self-employed, or is dreaming of starting up? If so, Heels & Deals is for you. Meet other like-minded female entrepreneurs, share inspiration and knowledge, make friends and ultimately, do deals!

A big thank you goes out to the guest speakers of our May event, Dawn Lyons from the Referral Institute and Kelly Lundberg from Divine.

Registration is now open for our June event which includes 'Online Social Networking for Businesses' with guest speaker Kellie Whitehead and a Power Networking session! Simply go to the 'Events' page to register.

Best wishes,

June 3---www.go-green.ae and Mobile Technology

In hour 1 UAE internet pioneer Sharad Agarwal, of CYBER GEAR, joined me to speak about www.go-green.ae.

Go Green’ web portal was launched in July 2008 to remind people to be mindful of and sensitive to the natural environment in our daily life The main objective of the site is to increase the awareness of environmental issues that affect the future of the planet.

Go-Green.ae features ‘Green Stories’ that demonstrate the steps taken by corporations as part of their commitment to preserve the planet. Global organisations such as Panasonic, Orange, Toshiba, Cisco, Discover, Dell, HSBC, Google, Emirates Airlines, Marriott, Hotels and Resorts Intercontinental Hotels, Grand Hyatt, Zipcar, Nissan and Mazda share their ‘Green Innovations’ online.

Go-Green.ae is updated 24/7 with information relating to news, events, technologies, videos, web resources and success stories in the field of energy conservation, sustainability and environmental protection.The recently launched ‘Green Heroes Program’ gives credit and encouragement to individuals who have contributed in the fields of renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainability.

In hour 2 Imran Kazmi of Synergize Group joined me for a conversation about the role of the mobile phone in our lives.

Imran@crscube.com
http://www.synergize.org/

June 2---Executive Search and World Environment Day

In hour 1 Magdy El Zein, managing director of Boyden Middle East, joined me for a discussion about executive level employment and the state of affairs.

UAE | Dubai

Suite 101Saleh Bin Lahej Building
P.O. Box 35499
Dubai 0
UAE
Phone: +971 4.2826868
Fax: +971 4.2828171
Email: info@boydenme.com

Associates

• Magdy El Zein
• Gabrielle Robinson
• Paul Shrigley
• Natalie Williams

In hour 2 Jamal Al Falasi joined me for a discussion about World Environment Day.

"Jamal AlFalasi"

Jamal Alfalasi, from the United Arab Emirates, was elected to the Tunza Youth Advisory Council of UNEP on the 30 of August 2007.

He is an Environmental Awareness officer, working under the Environmental Education Project for the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, in Dubai. The Environmental Education Project aims to increase awareness on environmental issues facing Dubai today, and help apply environmentally friendly living. Its main audiences are public schools, and offices.

His aim is to work with youth from all over the world in order to expand and strengthen the impact of environmental awareness to the people of the world.

Jamal was born in 24 February 1987. His main interests are reading and traveling. He dreams of opening his own book store one day, visiting the biodiversity of the Amazon forest, and working closely with WWF.

www.uned.org

	Your Planet Needs You! Millions of people around the world will Unite to Combat Climate Change for World Environment Day 2009 People around the world will unite for the planet on 5 June for World Environment Day 2009, with a strong call for environmental action just six months before the crucial United Nations climate change talks in... more»

June 1--- Adwomenme.com and Global Media Ethics.

In hour 1 we spoke to Preethi, Creative Director at OgilvyOne, about the www.adwomenme.com initiative.

Adwomen Middle East is the first ever Women’s Marketing and Advertising platform in the region. As a not-for-profit organization, we are bringing together some of the best advertising & marketing female talent in the region to discuss work, drive innovation, inspire ideas and get to know our peers.

Apart from creating a fun professional forum for women, one of our key objectives is to also give back to the community through educational development initiatives. Plans are to establish a mentorship program that will bridge the gap between current industry leaders and female students passionate about advertising, marketing, and communications through mentorship programs.

As part of the educational initiative the group will also hold open house meetups for members and all women from the industry on a regular basis. Meetups will feature different key speakers each time around; there will be screenings of members’ work from across the region and discussions on hot new topics and popular trends affecting the industry. The essence is to keep the dialogue fun and creative, and encourage out-of-the-box thinking.

On this site, members will be showcasing work and creating original content. We will be creating message boards for members to support and provide feedback to one another. The site will also keep everyone updated on the latest industry developments and forthcoming events.

Eventually, we hope to establish professional affiliations with other industry networks throughout the region and beyond. This connection will allow our members to link with like-minded industry leaders.

We hope you join us as we revolutionize the Advertising and Marketing Communications industry for women by finally creating the kind of network we deserve.

Interested in partnering us, sponsorship opportunities or something so amazing we’ll drop everything to write back to you instantly?

http://web.plattsburgh.edu/academics/communication/faculty/rao.php

In hour 2 we spoke to Dr. Shakuntaa Rao Professor of communication at the State University of New York Plattsburgh about global media ethics.

Her current research has two foci. As part of a research group comprised of Herman Wasserman (U of Sheffield), Clifford Christians (U of Illinois-Urbana), and Stephen Ward (U of Wisconsin-Madison), Shakuntala has been working on a project titled, "Towards a Global Media Ethics: Exploring New Theoretical Perspectives." Funded by the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (South Africa), where the group members were in residence in 2007, the project is an effort to develop a philosophically rigorous and culturally informed theory of global media ethics that can serve as a basis for future research and media reform. The group jointly authored a journal-length paper which appeared as a special issue in Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies. Shakuntala is currently working on integrating the concept of critical regionalism to global media studies.

Shakuntala's recent presentation on global media ethics has included panel discussions and presentations at the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics Conference (San Antonio), Russian Communication Association Conference on "Global Communication Studies Today: At the Crossroads of the Disciplines" (Moscow), Punjabi University (Patiala, India), and International Islamic University (Chittagong, Bangladesh).