The two things everyone seems to be talking about right now in Dubai are Dubai Cares and the road toll system Salik.

Dubai Cares is a charity drive that's been going on for the Islamic month of Ramadan. It's aim is to raise funds to put towards primary education for needy children ... um, somewhere. I assume not in Dubai, though - pretty sure there aren't many needy children here.

On Sunday Gulf News reported that the campaign has raised over 736 million AED - which is $200 million.

And yes, Dubai is still abuzz about the road toll system "Salik" that went online July 1. Apparently the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has decided to waive all fines incurred during first week. There's been a big push in the press about how charitable they are. In every article they keep reminding us that "the RTA's main aim in introducing Salik is not to make money but to reduce traffic congestion".

So this got me thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know).

If Salik is not here to make money, why not donate the 200 million AED ($54 million) that's been collected in the first hundred days? Just give it all away.

I mean, yeah, sure, it's great that Dubai can raise $200 million during Ramadan, especially with how many non-Muslims are contributing. But imagine how charitable it would be if the RTA just flat-out donated its entire Salik haul.

It'd be good public relations, too.

That's one of the things that gets me about Dubai. For the last few weeks the media in Dubai have been flush with Dubai Cares ads; every other television commercial on Dubai One is pleading for help, you can't walk five feet (sorry, one and a half meters) in a mall without seeing the logo thirty-seven times, and the newspapers love to tell us how much money has been raised. But a month in I'm still not quite sure who is getting this money.

I can tell you that 20 AED is a child's school lunch for 2 weeks. That 250 AED is training for one teacher. That 500 AED is one child's school fees for 1 year.

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And the ads have these striking black and white photos of sad-looking children.

Oh the poor children!

But it doesn't say where these sad-looking children live. Darfur? Baghdad? New Orleans?

No, it can't be New Orleans - the prices are too low. $68 to train a teacher? George W. wouldn't let that happen - children might be left behind. And, under his presidency, as he reminded us two weeks ago, "Childrens do learn."

Anyway, I for one wouldn't mind my 4 AED toll going to these sad-looking black and white children. In fact, with Salik's projected yearly tolls of 600 million AED ($163 million), that'd be an awful lot of children getting lunches and educations. And maybe that'd make all Dubai's citizens, Muslim and non-Muslim, feel good all year long.