A fair question, especially if you live in North America. Why Phuket? Hawaii or the Caribbean are very similar, and much closer. I can’t imagine I would have come here, from L.A., for instance, because the distance is so great. Hawaii is five hours; Phuket is more like 18 from LAX, with a plane change, […]

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Far as I can tell, that expression is rather like the Hawaiian “aloha” — and can be used, in Thai, as a generic greeting meaning either hello or goodbye. Yes. We are in Thailand. And it is fair to ask why someone who lives in Abu Dhabi would depart the UAE at this point on […]

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So, Thanksgiving approaches, and for the average American expat the wheels begin turning at least two weeks ahead. “Where? Who? How?”

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This is a big deal for Dubai and the UAE — winning a vote to stage the 2020 World Expo. No event of this magnitude has been awarded to the city or the country. So that would explain the thousands of people in the streets of Dubai, celebrating.

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Is this what it is like to live in New York? In a tower, scant feet from other people … and no one talks to anybody? An almost aggressive “keep away from me” vibe? We know people in this building … but we know them from the newspaper. By coincidence, or more probably word of […]

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With great fanfare, Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based cable network, announced a few months ago that it had the rights to show all English Premier League games in North Africa and the Middle East. And so they did, in the process adopting the modest slogan as “the world’s greatest sports channel” or somesuch, and with ESPN’s […]

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The modern Abu Dhabi has never lacked for street names. It is not at all unusual for streets on the island to have three names. And those that did not? They now have a third. Or a second, at least. How can a street have three names? Like this:

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Perhaps this represents some sort of breakthrough. Maybe I have now seen enough soccer that I know a bad game when I see one. Nah. Ten years ago I would have known this was a bad game. Twenty. Al Jazira 4, Al Wahda 3, in the Capital Derby, and an abominable performance by two Abu […]

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In the past century, I would say three moments in American history warrant “where were you when it happened” questions and recollections. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. “A date which will live in infamy.” The terror attacks of September 11, 2001. And the third, about one-third of the way between those […]

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Yes, weather is boring. But sometimes we have to share. Like this morning, when the UAE awoke to a storm (!) hovering over the country, one thick enough to 1) block the sun and 2) lead to a temperature at daybreak that amazed those of us who have lived here for any length of time. […]

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