We live in a day of miracles and wonders.
Posted on 04/11/2005 3:38:13 PM PDT by Alouette
DUBAI (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates is to mount robot jockeys on racing camels later this year after a ban on using children in the region's popular sport.
It will become the second Gulf Arab state, after Qatar, to use robots and ban child jockeys following criticism that infants, some as young as four, were being brought in from poor countries to race the camels.
The UAE's first robot jockey exercise has been successfully carried out in the capital, Abu Dhabi, according to media reports this week which also said that the first robots would be produced in August, ready for use in the next camel racing season.
Last month, the UAE declared the use of jockeys under the age of 16 and weighing less than 45 kilograms (100 pounds) illegal from April 16.
The UAE had in principle already banned the use of children under 15 since 1993 but abuses remain widespread and no one has ever been brought to justice.
The US State Department and human rights groups say children are exploited by traffickers who pay their impoverished parents a paltry sum or simply kidnap their victims.
The children, mostly from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, are then smuggled into the Gulf states.
They are often starved by employers to keep them light and increase their racing potential. Mounting camels three times their height, the children face the risk of being thrown off and trampled.
In December, Qatar banned the use of children in camel races and said it was preparing to use robot jockeys in 2005.
With the new law and introduction of robot jockeys, "the UAE will have adhered to the international regulations governing camel racing while at the same time preserving the traditional character of camel races as a popular local heritage," said Sheikh Sultan bin Hamdan al-Nahayan, a senior official.
"Unlike the human jockey, the robot is cheaper to maintain and would not have to undergo the same physical hardship that humans would," he said.
Now that they can't sell them as camel jockeys, the traffickers will sell them as sex slaves.
I love an optimist like myself.
Transformers...toddlers in disguise...
Previously, I'm thinking "camel jockey" was just a funny appellation like "rug rider". To think they actually have camel jockeys. And deadly serious work too, apparently.
"Abdullah! There's somebody named Michael Jackson on the phone who wants to talk to us..."
We live in a day of miracles and wonders.
Drone development under the guise of sport?
Perhaps they will eventually use such robots to guide mobile bombs without sacrificing their children.
So many things the UAE permits and THIS gets changed.
But will the robots become "martyrs"?
WestVirginiaRebel wrote:
"Abdullah! There's somebody named Michael Jackson on the phone who wants to talk to us..."
--> Mr Jackson? Abdullah says you have many eyes on you right now. We can't risk it.
How will the robot know to get off the camels's neck/back?
How will the robot know to get off the camels's neck/back?
I don't know but robots are bad for the economy. Automation takes away jobs and leads to unemployment/poverty.
What are those kids going to do for money? People decry kids working for 12 cents to make shoes but a boycott of the shoes (no push for legislation to raise the minimum wage to $5 around the world) just puts them out of a job. They wouldn't be making shoes or riding camels if the families didn't need the money.
Meanwhile prostitution, slavery, and homicide bombings continue.
Does this mean Tunisia will have to get rid of Donny Most, Anson Williams, and Ron Howard?
Well there's my insanely loud belly-laugh of the day.
I suppose the robots will basically sit there and whack the camel in the ass extremely hard at the mere push of a button?
---wait for it....
-Cool!!!;>
"We Can LIVE!"
"Time and time again, gazing into the innocent, trusting photoelectric receptors of a tiny, newly developed cybernetic construct, I am reminded of a fundamental truth: I believe the robots are our future, and we must teach them well and let them lead the way." -- Helen Virginia Leidermeye, the Onion, June 10, 1999"Incidentally, it's our understanding that the word robot is considered offensive. The politically correct term is Electronic-American." -- James Taranto, Opinion Journal, Friday, March 21, 2003
"Never send a human to do a robot's job."- Gentry Lee, Chief Engr., Interplanetary Flight, JPL
"Hey, Laser Lips! Your mother was a snow blower!" -- Johnny 5, taunting another robot (before destroying him), in the movie "SHORT CIRCUIT"
But will the robots become "martyrs"?
They'll become "mortars."
Why don't they use monkeys as camel jockeys? I'm serious. It would be hilarious!
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