The United Arab Emirates in many ways resembles another “United” country — the United States. And perhaps the most direct correlation is the Emirati preference for the same sort of fast food and rich food that many Americans also enjoy. To it: The Cheesecake Factory.

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I cling to this memory. It isn’t a fantasy. It happened. In a country that always feels as if it is on the wrong side of the microwave door, I find myself indulging in this reverie. The day I wore a sweater.

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Among the melancholy — yet not actually dire — events that can befall a person, as the decades pass: 1. Your high school closes. Or, in my case, all but disappears. Los Angeles Lutheran first moved from the edge of Inglewood to Burbank, and then to Sylmar, where it nearly disappeared and now apparently has […]

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In the spring of 2010, the sports section at The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi was a shambles. Several staffers were solid and energetic, but the section was not well led and had become an afterthought. Three sports editors had cycled through in the two years of the newspaper’s existence, and the section had ridiculous […]

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In a package The National did about the enormous strides in literacy made in the UAE since the formation of the country, in 1971, one of our reporters sought out one of the illiterate elders. And, in his 70s, the operator of a pearling fleet says he sees no reason to learn how to read.

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Last week, we brought you the taxi driver from India who won the drawing for a Lamborghini Gallardo 550 sports car worth about $200,000. And the Abu Dhabi resident made so little money he seemed unlikely to be able to afford the insurance on the car. I am pleased to report — via my colleagues […]

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The long journey back to the Gulf begins at 12:15 p.m. tomorrow. So, what does a person do on the final day of a once-a-year visit to Southern California?

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When they create drawings for prizes, in the UAE, they rarely cut corners. It is not a country where small prizes attract much attention. However, it is a car-loving culture, and a fairly certain way of catching eyes is to give away a high-end sports car. Like, say, a Lamborghini Gallardo 550 — which goes […]

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We Americans living in the UAE often are asked, by friends and relatives back home: “Isn’t it dangerous?”

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An advantage to living outside the U.S., at this point in history, is the ability to ignore most of the horror of what has become the American electoral process. When November rolls around?

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