Beno Saradzic is at it again. Three years ago, the Slovenian photographer, who lives in the UAE, gave us a spectacular time-lapse photo/video of Abu Dhabi. It seems much more recent, in my memory, but here is the blog post from 2011. The new photo project is named: Beyond: Memoirs in a Time Lapse. You […]

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For the sixth anniversary of The National, tomorrow, the newspaper at which I work, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, it was decided by the editor, Mohammed Al Otaiba, to do something different. Something very different. Our four standard news sections … with almost no words. The mission: Telling the news of the day through […]

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A month ago, I noted with alarm that Landon Donovan, the greatest soccer player to play for the U.S. national team, appeared to spend a lot of time walking during a Galaxy game in Tijuana. Which led me to wonder if he were pacing himself … or carrying an injury. And it may have been […]

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Outside the front door of an apartment here in my building in Abu Dhabi is a sort of welcome mat. One with a message. It reads: “OOOOH GOODIE! “YOU’VE ARRIVED! “(at last)” It strikes me as a bit of an unusual welcome mat.

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned to Abu Dhabi tonight, and it seemed to get plenty of attention. The du Arena on Yas Island appeared to be filled to capacity (about 6,000) to see an eight-bout card capped by the American heavyweight Roy “Big Country” Nelson knocking out Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira of Brazil. This was […]

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At times, driving in Abu Dhabi, a person could be excused for thinking he was in south Orange County. The green medians. The palm trees. The sun. The four-lane (in each direction) highways crowded with SUVs and recent makes of high-end cars. At other times, we are reminded some significant gulfs exist between ways of […]

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We make room for offbeat stories and lists and lots of photos on pages 2 and 3 of The National sports section. The stories can come from anywhere in the world. Even, say, San Francisco, where the first ball of the Giants’ home opener was thrown out by … “Batkid”. But before we get any […]

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In an annual Arab Youth Survey, the UAE led all destinations on the question of “where in the world would you like to live?” The country was No. 1 in the poll, with 39 percent of all respondents (“youth” was not defined in the story) naming the UAE as the place they would like to […]

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I’m trying to figure out how this happened. How Al Ahli of Dubai went from being one of the better teams in the UAE soccer league to being the unrivaled best team in the country. And, like many takeovers, it was incremental. I saw Ahli play last night, against Al Jazira, just down the street […]

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It’s nice being on the 10th floor of a building. With a balcony. Sometime, it lends itself to a view. Such as a really interesting sunset, above. A couple of points:

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