Alcohol and Prediction Contests

Well, again...consistency with my inconsistency to blog!

This week, Dubai announced that restaurants who cook with alcohol would no longer be allowed to do so. This is a Shariah law country, and that means no alcohol. Fine. I am all for abiding by the rules of the country where I live, no matter how strict that may be. The ironic thing about this rule is that those places who cook with alcohol are licensed to serve alcohol. Every place I have known to cook anything with alcohol has it clearly marked on their menus - alcohol, pork, vegetarian, etc. Cool reminder of the many cultures that live here. However, this new reinforcement of an apparently already established law is just baffling.

Ironically, the government came out two days later and said there was a misunderstanding. Restaurants can cook with alcohol, it just needs to be clearly marked on their menu. Hmmm...someone had a misunderstanding....

As I sit here and write this, in the dark..as it was earth hour. It was nice and we didn't bother to turn the lights back on. I could hear the massive amounts of cash going up in smoke in the firework display at the Dubai World Cup - the biggest pay out of all horse races. It went on forever.

Thinking of those poor horses, I was reminded that there is no gambling here..its not Sharia, or its un-Islamic to gamble. However, it is okay to have "Prediction Contests". Yes, you can take your "bet" at who you think will win in a prediction contest. When you arrive at the race, you purchase tickets. For each race, you then write down which horse you think will come in first, second or third place. You then put it in a box with all the other "predictions". Of all of those who guessed correctly, they are then put into a box and a drawing is held. The ticket that is picked is the winner...now if this is not some warped form of gambling, then I don't know what is! I guess it must have made someone's conscious feel better.