Sharjah is the San Bernardino of the UAE. Lots of hard-working people there, but many of them without much money, and if a really goofy story happens in the UAE, it’s a fairly safe bet to suggest: “And it happened in Sharjah, right?” Just as in San Bernardino or, maybe, Vernon or even Compton in […]

[Read more →]

The National opened for business in April of 2008, and the newspaper had a website from the start. Of course. But in the past year or so, efforts to get readers to the site have intensified, and more people are involved on the web side of things, and page views have gone up dramatically. So, […]

[Read more →]

This is so UAE. This is so Dubai. Conspicuous consumption just cuz. We are into measuring things here, and we like stuff expensive, because not many places on the planet have so many people with money to just throw away on something like the world’s most expensive cupcake. And how much does it cost?

[Read more →]

The UAE has two cities of real significance: –The political capital of the country, Abu Dhabi. –The economic and tourist capital, Dubai. As you might expect, the cities are rivals. Residents of each are likely to defend their home city and belittle the other. And this applies across the economic spectrum. Emiratis of the two […]

[Read more →]

I am a bit stunned at the idea that people get their “news” from Twitter. The system is fine for instant opinion or random complaints or raves. But it’s less believable, as a new source, than just about any medium ever invented. “No filters” is the operative phrase here. The guy sitting next to you […]

[Read more →]

I’ve seen a lot of soccer, over the past 25 years. From AYSO to the World Cup. Hundreds of matches. Maybe a thousand. But I still do not know this game in the way that someone who grew up playing and watching it does. I don’t know soccer like I do baseball, basketball, (American) football, […]

[Read more →]

For months, I’d seen the kid in the newsroom. Maybe 26. One of our drivers, waiting for an assignment. He always wears a baseball cap. Backwards. Jauntily. With “Chicago” in script on the front of the hat — which puts it on the back of his head. It is not a look we commonly associate […]

[Read more →]

He came, he saw, he stunk it up. If anyone has the Latin for that (after the veni, vidi part) … feel free to pass it along. Diego Maradona‘s first season as a coach in the UAE came to an ignominious end on June 10 when his Al Wasl team blew a 3-1 lead after […]

[Read more →]

Another one of those “only in the UAE” stories. Well, maybe in Qatar. Or Bahrain. But pretty much only here in the Gulf, where many regular Joes have more cash than common sense. A Turkish businessman fell afoul of the law in Dubai (perhaps still the world capital of conspicuous consumption) … because he abandoned […]

[Read more →]

I have driven an automobile more than 1,000 kilometers — more than 620 miles — in four days. Making it the most intense siege of driving inflicted on me since leaving California more than 2.5 years ago. And the verdict? I did not like it. At all. I have decided that, like many other activities, […]

[Read more →]