In response to, or inspired by, the commentary by Gavin du Venage about the possible “extinction” of expatriate workers in the developing regions of the world, which we examined in this blog post yesterday, a UAE citizen has done his own “think” piece for The National. In this piece, an Emirati named Khalid Al Omeri […]

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We have had a bit of a debate in the pages of The National over the past few days about the future of expatriates in the developing world. Those of us who are, in fact, expats have paid close attention to the discussion, and I will refer to it in today’s post, as well as […]

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Someone in the Dodgers marketing department deserves a raise. This is just plain brilliant: A Hello Kitty “mini bobblehead” night at Dodger Stadium.

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This is a very big development for the tourist board in my hometown — Long Beach, California. The New York Times, easily the most relevant newspaper in the country … and possibly the most significant in the world … has included Long Beach in its “36 Hours” travel series, in a story posted this past […]

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Before letting Uzbekistan drift into my personal history, one more observation. About religion there. What is now the nation of Uzbekistan was ruled by Russia from about the middle of the 19th century, and then by the Soviets, who took control of the Russian Empire in 1917. Uzbekistan escaped Soviet rule in 1991, meaning the […]

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As a Baby Boomer whose life was heavily influenced by the Cold War, I wanted to go to Moscow before the Soviets went out of business. But events conspired to keep it from happening. I was to have gone to the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but then came the U.S.-led boycott over Afghanistan (them, again), and […]

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When you’re on the high side of the big five-oh, you get a little more stingy with the “I’ll never forget that!” declarations. At this age, you have a pretty good notion you’ve long since forgotten an awful lot of “unforgettable” stuff. But this setting, this game, this result … was so exotic, so unexpected […]

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It wasn’t the worst example of me leaving behind something important in a cab. But it is in the discussion. A few months ago, I left my wallet in the cab driven by our regular guy, Leonard. That made for a few minutes of panic before we got him on the phone and he said, […]

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To work in a British-English newsroom, like The National, is to regularly hear expressions unknown in the United States. One of the handier is “minus-one,” used when referring to media activities on the eve of a match. That is, it’s about the match, but “minus-one” day on the calendar. It is when coaches come out […]

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Yes. I am in Tashkent. As in “Uzbekistan, capital of.” The places that the game of soccer can take a person! It may be the greatest gig in sports writing. A “dateline” is what American journalists call the name of a city/town (and sometimes its country) that is placed at the very start of a […]

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