abu dhabi re-run (week 4)

hi all,
i'm back in pittsburgh, trying to get over jetlag and deal with a cold. here are some thoughts from my last extremely busy week in Abu Dhabi. photos to come...
-C

10/26/06
The WWF Living Planet report was published this week and it shows that the only country with a greater ecological footprint per person than the United States is... you guessed it... the United Arab Emirates! The UAE come in at almost 12 global hectares per person, and the US brings up a close second at about 9.5 global hectares per person.
Another interesting statistic is that the UAE's water withdrawal-to-availability ratio (the total annual water withdrawals against the annual renewable water resource available to it) is 1,533%, with total withdrawals of 800 m^3 per person per year. By comparison, the US w-t-a ratio is 16%, with 1,600 m^3 annual per capita water use (so obviously we have a lot more water available) and Peru's w-t-a ratio is 1% with 750 m^3 annual per capita water use.

Check out the report, it's really interesting:

10/29/06
Today is the first official day back to work after the Eid holiday, so the rhythm of the office has changed a little. For one thing, the "office boys" are back in full force. What is an office boy, you ask?
Well at first I thought it was just the guy who makes sure there's enough paper in the printer, changes toner and stocks the fridge with soft drinks and water (our office boy showed us the stash because he wanted to be sure we didn't die of thirst during Ramadan). When I saw him today, he was dressed in full caterer attire, with a vest and bow tie and asked if I wanted anything to drink, because he would serve it to me at my desk (I asked for OJ, he brought me some in a glass with a straw, with a bottle of water on the side). During meetings, another office boy (this is what everyone calls them by the way, even though they are all full grown men, so if you ask me they should be called office butlers instead) comes in to ask each attendee what he/she would like to drink. I am not sure whether I think this system is a great idea or if it just makes me feel weird.

10/30/06
We just completed 4 days full of meetings, one right after the other, so now is the time when we finalize our documents to include the input we received (sorry I can't tell you too much more - confidentiality requirements)... In any case, this is really the final countdown and I'm stressed but excited to have the assignment almost finished. I probably won't send the final round of photos until I get home (no time to upload and annotate them). For those who wanted to know more about the project, check out this link, which gives the official info about the project thus far: