I tried to do the lettering above in relaxing colours, but it didn't work. You'll just have to imagine them...
The National today reports that EIDA, the Emirates Identity Authority, has told us not to panic. Which is nice!
"Calm down, don't panic, your deadline isn't until the end of 2010," Darwish al Zarouni, the director general of EIDA told the newspaper.
Gulf News (600g) meanwhile is still carrying the clear message that 430,000 expat professionals haven't registered and there are only 13 days left for the deadline to expire.
I, who hold an appointment to get my card in September (the first available at the Rashidiya ID centre when I booked) am going to go with The National on this one.
The communications aspect alone of the ID card initiative has been a fascinating case study for me. Truly fascinating...
7 comments:
Hahaha... So there's a new deadline? Imagine the surprise! This whole thing has been a mess from the very start and any kind of message about having to hurry up to do it has no credibility!
Truly fascinating... but illogical, Captain.
"Truly fascinating: totally illogical"
Pure genius - it should become Dubai's strapline in all future PR. Patent it now and make your fortune!
I honestly do not get what all the fuss and confusion is about? EIDA has been clear from day 1. 2010 has ALWAYS been the deadline for expats to get ID cards. ALWAYS. And that has not been set by EIDA but by government decree. For locals 31st Dec 2008 was the deadline. Jan 1 2009 they were supp to have a card or face fines.
Where EIDA messed up was trying to be nice with us expats. They said lets make it easy for white collar workers to get an ID and not be lost in a rush when ALL expats come crashing through the EIDA center doors.
So EIDA came up with the Dec 31 2008 'deadline' where white collar workers could REGISTER themselves for the EIDA, without being lost in the rush of construction workers, maids etc etc etc. The word deadline got ppl confused as they thought they cud not apply for an ID card post Dec 31 2008 or Feb 28 2009 for that matter. But the truth is THEY ALWAYS COULD. If they missed the 'deadline' of dec 31 they were not gonna get fined or have problems. the only hassle they would face was if they missed their particular 'deadline' they wud have to get their cards processed when the real rush of blue collar workers begins.
the 'deadline' was basically EIDA giving white collar workers preferential EXCLUSIVE treatment. the expat community has of late begun to act like a confused mob lead by dodos in the media who seem more intent on creating confusion than getting rid of it.
expats. sit on it. u CAN and ALWAYS COULD get an ID till 2010. just that after feb 2008 the 'exclusively for white collar worker' time period wud have ended and ud be lost in the rush of thousands more getting their IDs. If you thought the white collar rush was bad do you want to wait for a free-for-all rush to begin???
seriously! I have lost count of how many times EIDA has come on Dubai Eye (Dubai Today) and STILL ppl are confused. Gosh!
EIDA's PR failure was thinking giving certain expats a slot to get their cards would make it EASY, on the contrary they underestimated the IQ levels of most expats and those informing them.
Right MT, so its just us expats being stupid again. Silly us, we expected the government to make sense, duh!!!!
And what about me who paid up and got the card way back in Oct????? :-(
Absolute PR disaster though!!!
But I wouldn't want to take away credit from the foot soldiers at the Al Barsha centre.... I cannot think of a more efficient bunch.
Who was it who said deadlines are expected to be extended. Well here's me, extended in a fake leather chair from Dragon Mart waiting for the real deadline. I hear indoor smoking is banned, though.
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