Far as I can tell, that expression is rather like the Hawaiian “aloha” — and can be used, in Thai, as a generic greeting meaning either hello or goodbye. Yes. We are in Thailand. And it is fair to ask why someone who lives in Abu Dhabi would depart the UAE at this point on […]

[Read more →]

So, Thanksgiving approaches, and for the average American expat the wheels begin turning at least two weeks ahead. “Where? Who? How?”

[Read more →]

This is a big deal for Dubai and the UAE — winning a vote to stage the 2020 World Expo. No event of this magnitude has been awarded to the city or the country. So that would explain the thousands of people in the streets of Dubai, celebrating.

[Read more →]

Is this what it is like to live in New York? In a tower, scant feet from other people … and no one talks to anybody? An almost aggressive “keep away from me” vibe? We know people in this building … but we know them from the newspaper. By coincidence, or more probably word of […]

[Read more →]

With great fanfare, Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based cable network, announced a few months ago that it had the rights to show all English Premier League games in North Africa and the Middle East. And so they did, in the process adopting the modest slogan as “the world’s greatest sports channel” or somesuch, and with ESPN’s […]

[Read more →]

Perhaps this represents some sort of breakthrough. Maybe I have now seen enough soccer that I know a bad game when I see one. Nah. Ten years ago I would have known this was a bad game. Twenty. Al Jazira 4, Al Wahda 3, in the Capital Derby, and an abominable performance by two Abu […]

[Read more →]

Yes, weather is boring. But sometimes we have to share. Like this morning, when the UAE awoke to a storm (!) hovering over the country, one thick enough to 1) block the sun and 2) lead to a temperature at daybreak that amazed those of us who have lived here for any length of time. […]

[Read more →]

The UAE has soccer “derbies”, in the English sense — rivalries between neighbors. Al Wahda and Al Jazira, for instance, located only a couple of miles apart, here in Abu Dhabi. Sharjah’s two teams, Al Shaab and Sharjah, have a strong rivalry, too. But the country does not really have rivalries involving teams from different […]

[Read more →]

I have been thinking about this for some time now. A sort of nightmare soccer scenario. The UAE national team over the past year has played as well as it has at any time in the country’s history. Which may count for nothing on the World Cup stage — a potentially crushing disappointment I wrote […]

[Read more →]

The Dubai Airshow began today, and the first day was an orgy of spending. Or at least an orgy of commitments to spend. It apparently was the biggest day in the history of the aviation business. Boeing and Airbus, the world leaders (and rivals) in building big passenger planes, were the major benefactors of the […]

[Read more →]