The expression “the Arab Street” is misleading. It’s the regional equivalent of Main Street USA, and just as imprecise. That doesn’t stop journalists and pundits from trying to distill a sense of what the average Arab is thinking about an issue — even though the Arab Street begins in Morocco (or Dearborn, Michigan, for that […]

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We found out about it this morning, about 9:30, when we began our day. How old was the news at that point? Not very. Leah beat me to the web and announced, “Osama bin Laden is dead.” I may have said, “Huh.” It was not a moment of high emotion for me. I was already […]

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It’s bizarre. One of those statistics you don’t believe the first time you hear it or see it. The UAE, a country that ranks among the dozen most formidable soccer countries in Asia … and not one of its players play outside the country. None. This is driving crazy the national coach, a Slovenian guy […]

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Maybe it’s Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium. I’ve seen quite a bit of wacky stuff go down there. Two riveting matches in a week. The aforementioned Jazira 5, Dhafra 3 in the Pro League, and now an Etisalat Cup final between Al Shabab and Al Ain that featured three goals from the 86th minute or later. […]

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We at The National devoted four full inside pages to the royal wedding in England. As a republican and a democrat, I find it all fairly appalling. Some $50 million spent so that a couple of Brits can get married? Even though it was going on in the early afternoon here, I am happy to […]

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A photographer named Beno Saradzic has put together a visually stunning time-lapse look at Abu Dhabi. Most of it, but not all of it, focuses on downtown Abu Dhabi, near the waterfront. It’s four minutes, but it’s well worth looking at. Here it is. Need some help with what you are looking at?

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Back in 2008, I did an item on this blog asking for help in choosing a Premier League team for whom I could be a fan. Many of you were quite helpful in that respect, making impassioned and almost convincing cases for a variety of teams. I eventually did an entry on how I had […]

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You read that right. Al Ahli was champion of the UAE Pro League in 2009 but flopped badly in 2009-10, sinking to eighth and losing, shamefully, to a New Zealand semi-pro team in the Club World Cup. Ahli officials blew up the team last summer and opened this season with Fabio Cannavaro in the middle […]

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I don’t understand people who fight with blood relatives. Maybe if they do it for some sort of weird “fun” … but my family isn’t like that. I have always liked my siblings, my cousins, my aunts, my uncles, my nieces and nephews, and they have always been nothing but kind to me. When I […]

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One of those whatever-could-go-wrong … did-go-wrong games. Anyone who has spent any time in sports journalism probably can anticipate several of the directions in which this is going. Big game, isolated stadium, late start, game-changing scoring in the last seconds, basic error of fact not caught, late newspaper. This one had it all.

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