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Unless you've been living in a cave without any access to the outside world for the past week, you can't have failed to notice a certain campaign about a certain shark growing in popularity.
Readers from across the world have been following the Gulf News campaign to free Sammy the Whale Shark from the Atlantis Hotel.
One of the furthest afield comes from the city of Angels. No not Bangkok, but Los Angeles.
OK, the writer is from the UAE but it is still nice to see Shaikha M (a blogger) (http://uaecommunity.blogspot.com) keeping an eye on events back home while away.
"I think the really fantastic bit of this is that the public is getting involved with the campaign. The people who are wearing the "Save Sammy" buttons are in reality staging a polite protest and expressing their social conscience, and Gulf News posting their photos is giving this campaign legitimacy."
Slightly closer to home, news has also reached one of the UAE's most entertaining bloggers.
More blatant trumpet blowing.
Fake Plastic Souks (http://fakeplasticsouks.blogspot.com) has picked up on Gulf News's erm … magnificent gesture of a free Free Sammy badge (see if that phrase makes sense) but also offers a little bit of PR advice for the people at the Atlantis.
"It's the latest in a growing string of PR nightmares being experienced by the hotel and the Gulf News campaign won't be helping. Right thing to do? Free the shark, fast."
Down the road in Abu Dhabi, the rhetoric is a little more forthright, with the author of Abu Dhabi Tales (http://abudhabitales.blogspot.com), adding her two fils to the debate.
She writes: "Shame on the authorities at the Atlantis who have done this to a wonderful animal. This is cruelty and I have no idea who has the sick brains to relish in the miserable plight of a marine animal. This is equivalent to strapping a human being to a sofa. Good on Gulf News to start this "Save Sammy" campaign. I have to say it is quite unlike the local media to actually have a voice."
Quite.
Elsewhere in the world there is some kind of financial meltdown going on but surprisingly few bloggers in the UAE have been pontificating on it, preferring instead to focus their attentions on the other "only story in town", the giant Cityscape exhibition which ended at the weekend.
The matter-of-fact Real Estate webmasters blog (http://www.realestatewebmasters.com
/blogs/elisor/6328/show) gave its verdict on the world's largest property development fair, saying: "For me the highlights were two large announcements, both close to the opening of the exhibition."
The announcements were the world's tallest tower (that's not the Burj Dubai but the Burj bashing Nakheel Tower and Harbour) and the massive all encompassing Jumeirah Garden City.
This blogger, Paul, added a note of caution, saying: "As much as the real estate sector here is booming, do we need more high-end developments or do we need developers to concentrate on low-end properties for lower income earners?"
A more local perspective came from The Desperate Princess in Dubai. (http://desperateprincessdubai.blogspot.com) who concluded: "There is so much opportunity, and Cityscape's success demonstrates Dubai has carved out a niche the whole region and world is benefiting from, especially in the current state of economic affairs."
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