One of the biggest selling points for people and businesses relocating to the UAE, over the first 44 years of its existence, has been the near universal absence of individual taxes. No individual income tax. No sales tax. No inheritance taxes. No property taxes. If you were paid $100,000 by your employer … you received […]

[Read more →]

A sort of steady one-upmanship here in the aviation world. Who has the longest commercial flight in the world? At the moment, it’s Dallas-Forth Worth to Sydney, at 16 hours and 55 minutes. By February 2016, it will be Dubai to Panama City, at 17 hours and 30 minutes. But not long after that … […]

[Read more →]

Air conditioning is a very serious concept, in the UAE. Without it, the country is close to uninhabitable over the six-plus months of summer. To make do without it for any length of time is to be reminded of how perilous is civilization’s grip on this land. Without AC, Abu Dhabi and Dubai would not […]

[Read more →]

Summer is grim, in the soccer-loving precincts of the world. Most countries have soccer leagues that play from August and into May. And in June and July? A whole lot of nothing, aside from some tennis, some golf and … (ack!) cricket. For what seems like a month, the sports department TV, which sits poised […]

[Read more →]

It wasn’t long ago that leaving the U.S. for the Old World meant learning to live without a wide range of foodstuffs, from Oreos to blueberries. Now, pretty much everything you have ever eaten is available. Even perishable fruits and vegetables. Which still amazes me. Like the little box of blueberries I am looking at.

[Read more →]

Abandoned cars are the dumped mattresses of the UAE. An economic problem “solved” by property owners who simply walk away from their former investment … a solution that cannot be swept up in the morning. The National reported this week that Abu Dhabi Municipality has impounded 3,000 vehicles of some 4,300 abandoned on the streets […]

[Read more →]

A pundit on the BBC World network said, “It seems like 2005, not 2015.” It’s Dubai thinking big again. With a project to include the Dubai One residential tower, at 2,332 feet the world’s tallest; the world’s longest indoor ski slope, an 8,000-capacity arena and an enormous mall with a retractable roof. Also part of […]

[Read more →]

When we left the country for Abu Dhabi, in 2009, the whole of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ season could be seen on TV by consumers who had even lower-end cable packages. This month, we came home during ball season … and I was able, for the first time, to experience the ridiculous situation — now […]

[Read more →]

Most major movies made in Hollywood make their way to the UAE, sometimes opening on the same day as they do in the U.S. But certain movies … Well, you can’t really plan on seeing them in Abu Dhabi. Which is why we spent two of the past three evenings in Southern California theaters. The […]

[Read more →]

A lesson on how bad the drought has been in the “Golden (tilting towards brown) State”. It rained here today, and Californians were more joyful, verging on giddy, in reacting to it than are Emiratis, for whom rain is even more rare. We were on Fletcher Avenue, behind Griffith Park in Los Angeles, when we […]

[Read more →]