The New Republic

I haven't seen anything by Tom Friedman or Fareed Zakaria about Dubai. But who knows? Maybe they are confiding to their diaries, although I don't think their type enjoys diaries. (I don't like them either, except the diaries of others.) Anyway, there's nothing good to say about Dubai, and Tom and Fareed don't like to displease their friends. Unless they are no longer their friends. READ MORE >>

Presumably the rulers of Dubai and Abu Dhabi are currently locked in negotiations regarding the exact terms that will be attached to a “bailout” for Dubai World. We’ll never know the details but if, as seems likely, the final deal involves creditors taking some sort of hit (perhaps getting 75 cents in the dollar, at the end of the day), does that matter? READ MORE >>

Officially, the only news coming out of Dubai on Sunday was that the central bank of the United Arab Emirates, the seven-state federation of which Dubai is a part, will extend ample credit to banks in Dubai. That should avert a series of runs now that it's pretty clear Dubai's banks have piles of bad loans sitting on their balance sheets.    READ MORE >>

Click here to read Steven A. Cook on why we should expect the Palestinians to launch a third intifada. READ MORE >>

Last week, I noted a story in the Abu Dhabi National about how many Russians appear to be remarkably nonchalant, or even sanguine, about the potential impacts of global warming on their country. There were even quotes to this effect from high-ranking officials in Moscow, including Vladimir Putin, who, back in 2003, was daydreaming of a time when Russians could shed their fur coats. It didn't exactly bode well for global climate talks. READ MORE >>

According to some popular Muslim accounts, the marble Kaaba structure at the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca was built first by the angels before God created mankind, reconstructed by Adam, and later rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael. It's safe to say that none of these builders could have anticipated the latest use of the Mosque's image, in a promotional DVD for the Abraj Al Bait Towers, a giant new skyscraper complex slated to be built just across the street from one of the entrances to the Grand Mosque. READ MORE >>

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Look, almost everything is possible in a tiny country that has some some 10% of the world's oil reserves and only 370,000 citizens.  The other inhabitants (about 1.4 million souls) are visitors to second- and third-homes but mostly indentured laborers who, on arrival, are deprived of their passports and ordinary civil rights.  Oh yes, and guests in the many hotels (including one in the "seven star" class).  The world's tallest building will soon attract more visitors to Abu Dhabi which ABC reports (surely erroneously) whose citizens have READ MORE >>

Is the "fix" in at the Times for Abu Dhabi and Dubai? How the hell do I know. But there sure has been a lot of attention paid to these meaningless mini-states. And from the following list I've left out Tom Friedman's periodic encomia to their wise leaders. But I did go back six months and here's what I found. In Sunday's Times, a half page photograph of "SURFBOARDING ON A DESERT EXCURSION OUTSIDE DUBAI, MARCH 3, 200." Oh, so chic, so stylish. Then, going backwards: "Emirates Eyes Film Eminence," June 27 READ MORE >>

We stopped over for refueling in Dubai. But we remained on the plane. So I saw nothing up close. On the other hand, I did see the dozens of sky-scrapers rising out of the desert, including the one with the hotel with the helicopter pad precariously extended from the umpteenth floor of the colossus. This is a commercial wonderland that includes an artificial ski slope. Do you want to spend the next winter holiday in Dubai...skiing, with a nice hot chocolate after? I confess to a certain provincialism. I sometimes confuse Dubai with Abu Dhabi. One has oil and the other doesn't. READ MORE >>