HOUSE OVERSIGHT 024931 This is the second time that I have responded to your questions online; the first time was eight years ago, when Internet communications were still in the nascent stage -- although, I must say, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates had already made noteworthy progress in this field. During that initial online interview, my objective was to stimulate the interest of the Emirati community in the Internet when the use of the online communications was relatively limited. Today the usage of the Internet across the UAE has come to be taken for granted; in fact, the Web has been adopted so extensively in both the public and private sectors that e-communications are the norm rather than the exception. We see that a large segment of our society, especially young people, believe that the Internet is the most important source of information, education and entertainment. The UAE continues to lead the Arab world in adoption of information and communication technology according to the annual global infor mation technology report released before yesterday. Little wonder, then, that I get inundated with questions from citizens and media alike. That's why I have chosen to meet with you via my Web site. I think hosting this encounter online will allow all of you to ask as many questions as you wish. In the last few days alone, I have received hundreds of questions from several local and regional newspapers. Naturally, there was some overlapping of questions since they came from so many different sources. Hence, I have tried to consolidate my answers in such a manner that I do not come across as repetitious. This "interview," of course, relates to questions from the media, whose work I consider especially significant in telling the story of how Dubai and the UAE are coping successfully with the global financial crisis, and how our development plans are being advanced with the resilience and determination that has always characterized Emirati so