Being a woman in Saudi Arabia is difficult, as this bit of satire on a regional website points out. They are not allowed to drive, for starters. And it gets much more dire.

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The FIFA Club World Cup dropped by Abu Dhabi the past two Decembers. Kind of an odd tournament because it has a couple of famous clubs and then five not all that well known. And not all that many matches, either. So in some ways, the UAE having its bid accepted for the FIFA 2013 […]

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The Asian Champions League began on Tuesday. It’s just like the Champions League in Europe, except about 10 percent as lucrative. But who knows, someday it could be as big. Hard to imagine, now, but … Whatever the financial ramifications or the television ratings, the Asian Champions League is fun because it is exotic. It […]

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Americans are famously “geography challenged.” Actually, I think most of the world is geographically challenged. I’d say about nine cabbies out of 10 here in Abu Dhabi are unclear on the concept of “California.” These are guys from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India … When they ask me where I’m from, I really should just leave it […]

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I have mentioned how big cricket is here. Huge. Not just big. Monstrous. A big match will stop traffic. If I see 50 guys from the subcontinent massed outside an electronics store, jostling as they try to peer in the window, the odds are about 100-to-1 they are trying to see a cricket match. (World […]

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This is alarming. We know it will be hot here. For a long time. Like, seven months. But we don’t expect 90 degrees with two days left in February. Yet there it is. Seemed hotter than that, actually. Maybe it was just the surprise of it.

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Going on 17 months now that we have been out of California — and out of the United States. I feel as if I have kept fairly good track of several American sports. Others, however, I hardly realize I haven’t been paying any attention until I blunder into some online story and realize that I […]

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Can’t pick your neighbors, generally. If the UAE had its druthers it wouldn’t live just across a narrow gulf from Iran, the erratic regional superpower. Iran is not popular here, but the little countries on the south side of the Gulf don’t make too much noise about it. Iran has 77 million citizens. The UAE […]

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I worked at The National for more than a year without setting foot in Dubai, which is about an hour’s drive up the coast of the UAE. More than a few people here thought that was just plain strange and, yes, I concede it was. A little bit. It would be like taking a job […]

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Just wanted to make sure you’re clear on that. Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, madman. That’s the take in the Arab world, as well, or certainly the part of it that is Abu Dhabi and the UAE … and certainly those who have been speaking out on Libya. Everyone in this country seems pretty much convinced Qaddai […]

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