It takes a typical westerner a long time to become accustomed to the work week here. Sunday is Monday. Tuesday is hump day. Saturday is Sunday. And for most people working in the Muslim world, the restaurant chain TGI Friday’s really ought to celebrate a day earlier in the week.

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I have been impressed, since arriving in the UAE — which is only a few air hours from the subcontinent — at what we Americans do not know about India. And vice versa. Take, for instance, Sachin Tendulkar.

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It lasted 23 days, but it seemed longer. Twenty-four teams, originally, from New Zealand to Canada, from Argentina to Sweden. They played 52 games in 23 days, and many of us here in the UAE got quite used to having these kids around, and watching them on Al Jazeera, the Qatar cable station that carried […]

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Emiratis like their cars big … and bigger. Envision a highway grid jammed with the biggest SUVs made in Japan, the U.S. and Europe, and that’s pretty much what the roads here look like, in the Abu Dhabi-Dubai axis. A regular occurrence for anyone driving something less than a land yacht (loaded with all the […]

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The UAE does not observe daylight savings. No moving around of clocks here. The country is four hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time the year round. That is not the case in the United States and western Europe, however, and that is handy, for those of us living here. In some ways. Not so good […]

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A pack of cigarettes can be purchased in the UAE for two dirhams. Or about 50 U.S. cents. Marlboros can be had for Dh9 — about $2.50 — per pack. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that cigarette smoking is a significant issue in the UAE. The World Health Organization puts the level of regular […]

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A lot of hand wringing goes on, in this part of the world, about the future of Arabic. The language. The National often prints stories about how Emirati schoolkids are not quite fluent in Arabic. Neither written nor oral. An astonishing concept, really. (Imagine American schoolkids who can’t actually speak English.) Which usually leads to […]

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I love this story. And the timing is good, too. The Formula One guys are gathering in Abu Dhabi this weekend for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. So, we were looking for ways to localize the big motors story, and our sports columnist, Ali Khaled, came up with this 5-year-old Emirati kindergartner who races go-karts […]

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Sounds medical, yes? In print journalism, it has always meant how well and how predictably a newspaper is delivered, especially to its home subscribers. In the U.S., the circulation department was always seen as mildly disreputable, slippery characters leading a crew of people you might hope did not get on the same elevator as you […]

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Ever wonder what the inside of a modern newsroom in the UAE looks like? Feel free to have a look at this brief video done by a multi-media staffer, and you can see the interior of The National newsroom, as well as lay eyes on a couple of people you might know.

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