Random thoughts here--So, we're beginning to feel the semester come to a close. What, I think it's a about a month and we're all outta here? In all my moving around the US, and now the world, I have experienced a normalling effect. I move to a new place, it's weird and foreign for a little while. Then it becomes home: the new normal. So, this effect has run its course and Dubai feels pretty much like home to me--the little lives we all live--sequestered on campus at AUD, our diverse excursions around the gulf/middle east, going over to friends' houses for the evening, renting movies, going to the beach. All this makes a rhythm that adds up and eclipses previous normals. So what was it like to live in the States? I'm having a hard time recalling.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Blog Update at The Office
Random thoughts here--So, we're beginning to feel the semester come to a close. What, I think it's a about a month and we're all outta here? In all my moving around the US, and now the world, I have experienced a normalling effect. I move to a new place, it's weird and foreign for a little while. Then it becomes home: the new normal. So, this effect has run its course and Dubai feels pretty much like home to me--the little lives we all live--sequestered on campus at AUD, our diverse excursions around the gulf/middle east, going over to friends' houses for the evening, renting movies, going to the beach. All this makes a rhythm that adds up and eclipses previous normals. So what was it like to live in the States? I'm having a hard time recalling.
Mosendam, Oman: On the Water
This is a shot from the little Dhow that we tooled around the Omani Fjords on. A few of the villages up there are only accessable by water. We were constantly passed by Omani's in speedboats, cruising to Khasib for groceries or whatever. And I didn't even get sunburned.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Article in the Gulf News
I found this one in today's Gulf News (Dubai's main paper.) Read on:
Outcry over Afghan convert facing death
By Meher Murshed and Bassam Za'aza, Staff Reporters
Dubai: Islamic scholars yesterday said US President George W. Bush and other Western leaders should mind their own business and must not interfere in the case of an Afghan facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity.
Abdul Rahman, who converted to Christianity in Germany 16 years ago and returned to Afghanistan in 2002, faces death if he does not revert to Islam. He was arrested two weeks ago after his family complained to authorities.
Bush has stepped into the row, saying he would pressure Kabul over the "deeply troubling" matter, while the United Nations says it believes Abdul Rahman will be spared.
The case, the first of its kind in Afghanistan, has put the government in a dilemma, with Western countries on whom it depends for military and financial aid demanding that it respect the right of freedom of religion and spare him the death penalty.
Dr Ahmad Abdul Aziz Al Haddad, a renowned Islamic scholar with the Dubai Department of Islamic Affairs and Charitable Works, told Gulf News: "This is none of their [the West's] business ... Bush and the West should stay out of personal beliefs. They should not intervene in a purely religious matter of Islamic law [Sharia]."
Dr Al Haddad added: "If this penalty is carried out, it will protect many weak-willed people from deserting their religion. If the independence of the judiciary is among the bases of democracy, then it is unjust to interfere in this case. Democracy as practised by the West is fake because it contradicts itself in one of the most important bases."
Ahmad Al Qubaisi, a leading Islamic scholar, told Gulf News: "This President bombards thousands of civilians in Iraq. It is not strange that he defies the feelings of a whole nation, which considers a person who deserts Islam an infidel. Bush will immediately declare a man an outlaw if he deserts the US system and spies on America. This is a double standard by the US and the West. This stand is a crusade against the Muslim world."
The judge handling the case, Ansarullah Mawlavizada, said the courts were trying to find a "good solution" which could include persuading Abdul Rahman to revert to Islam. Abdul Rahman, 41, is in jail while his trial continues, with Sharia law, on which the Afghan constitution is partly based, ruling that conversion from Islam is punishable by death if the defendant refuses to revert.
Outcry over Afghan convert facing death
By Meher Murshed and Bassam Za'aza, Staff Reporters
Dubai: Islamic scholars yesterday said US President George W. Bush and other Western leaders should mind their own business and must not interfere in the case of an Afghan facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity.
Abdul Rahman, who converted to Christianity in Germany 16 years ago and returned to Afghanistan in 2002, faces death if he does not revert to Islam. He was arrested two weeks ago after his family complained to authorities.
Bush has stepped into the row, saying he would pressure Kabul over the "deeply troubling" matter, while the United Nations says it believes Abdul Rahman will be spared.
The case, the first of its kind in Afghanistan, has put the government in a dilemma, with Western countries on whom it depends for military and financial aid demanding that it respect the right of freedom of religion and spare him the death penalty.
Dr Ahmad Abdul Aziz Al Haddad, a renowned Islamic scholar with the Dubai Department of Islamic Affairs and Charitable Works, told Gulf News: "This is none of their [the West's] business ... Bush and the West should stay out of personal beliefs. They should not intervene in a purely religious matter of Islamic law [Sharia]."
Dr Al Haddad added: "If this penalty is carried out, it will protect many weak-willed people from deserting their religion. If the independence of the judiciary is among the bases of democracy, then it is unjust to interfere in this case. Democracy as practised by the West is fake because it contradicts itself in one of the most important bases."
Ahmad Al Qubaisi, a leading Islamic scholar, told Gulf News: "This President bombards thousands of civilians in Iraq. It is not strange that he defies the feelings of a whole nation, which considers a person who deserts Islam an infidel. Bush will immediately declare a man an outlaw if he deserts the US system and spies on America. This is a double standard by the US and the West. This stand is a crusade against the Muslim world."
The judge handling the case, Ansarullah Mawlavizada, said the courts were trying to find a "good solution" which could include persuading Abdul Rahman to revert to Islam. Abdul Rahman, 41, is in jail while his trial continues, with Sharia law, on which the Afghan constitution is partly based, ruling that conversion from Islam is punishable by death if the defendant refuses to revert.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Religious Bumper Stickers in the Gulf
I was walking back from lunch and saw the following bumper sticker.
They need to work on their english skills..
They need to work on their english skills..
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Camp Oman
So Greg and I are taking a few of the girls up to northern portion of Oman tomorrow for a passport run. (us Americans have to leave country every sixty days or face a stiff daily fine of 100 deehams.) Thankfully we're going to make the most of it by camping on the coast! Ruthie's family has a bunch of camping equipment: a tent, sleeping bags, cookstove, tiki torches.. well, we probably won't need those... you get the idea. I pick up the car tomorrow, (split 5 ways, it'll be a cab fare) and we'll be gone for two nights. I'm making like Greg (who bolted from six classes this week to run off to Istanbul.) by skipping my International Management class on Saturday. This will allow us time to drive back to the city. Everyone's goal is a fun cheap weekend. I'll see about putting up some pictures when we get back.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
DP World: Some Comments
So what is a typical American in Dubai's perspecive?
Most of the Americans, here at AUD, see the hoopla in the states over the takeover of six US ports by Dubai Ports World as just a bunch of thinly veiled politics. A chance for politicians to get some air time before elections. "How could intilligent people overreact so much?" we've been asking. Below the grandstanding this is largely about America's distrust of Arabs as a people. "They're all bad guys," we seem to think. The outcry against the deal is based on many naïve and unwarranted fears.
Most people don't know that the UAE is the most liberal of all the Gulf Countries, and a great partner on the war on terror--one of the most pro-US countries in the Middle East. While the Arabs here are always a little peeved at the US for some reason, at the same time they still love us. They like our movies, coffee, music, business practices, cars, television, food, universities, cities, landscape, and pretty much everything else about us. Dubai is westernized to the extent that I have to continually remind myself that I'm not back home or in Europe.
Even if this country was more conservative/fanatical, it still doesn't discount the fact that a corporation is taking over these ports. Corporations (and most people in Dubai, it seems) want one thing: to make money. I think the US can find no better partner than a company who's profitability depends on free and unhindered (by war, or bombs, terrorists, or whatever) flow of goods into our country.
I find two things ironic in all this. The first is that the democrats and the White House have switched sides. Hillary Clinton is suggesting legislation to block ports from being run by foreign firms, a super America-First stance usually reserved for the right wing. And Bush is arguing for the softer 'let them trade' position. One that placates Arab sentiments and reinforces our image around the world. Something we heard non-stop from John Kerry in his 2004 campaign. The second irony is that, in our rhetoric, we are holding the UAE government responsible for the fact that terrorists on 9/11 used private banks and airlines in the UAE, but we, at the same time, try to tell the Arab world that the Dutch government has no proper ability to apologize for cartoons published in their private newspapers. Seems like a double standard to me.
Most of the Americans, here at AUD, see the hoopla in the states over the takeover of six US ports by Dubai Ports World as just a bunch of thinly veiled politics. A chance for politicians to get some air time before elections. "How could intilligent people overreact so much?" we've been asking. Below the grandstanding this is largely about America's distrust of Arabs as a people. "They're all bad guys," we seem to think. The outcry against the deal is based on many naïve and unwarranted fears.
Most people don't know that the UAE is the most liberal of all the Gulf Countries, and a great partner on the war on terror--one of the most pro-US countries in the Middle East. While the Arabs here are always a little peeved at the US for some reason, at the same time they still love us. They like our movies, coffee, music, business practices, cars, television, food, universities, cities, landscape, and pretty much everything else about us. Dubai is westernized to the extent that I have to continually remind myself that I'm not back home or in Europe.
Even if this country was more conservative/fanatical, it still doesn't discount the fact that a corporation is taking over these ports. Corporations (and most people in Dubai, it seems) want one thing: to make money. I think the US can find no better partner than a company who's profitability depends on free and unhindered (by war, or bombs, terrorists, or whatever) flow of goods into our country.
I find two things ironic in all this. The first is that the democrats and the White House have switched sides. Hillary Clinton is suggesting legislation to block ports from being run by foreign firms, a super America-First stance usually reserved for the right wing. And Bush is arguing for the softer 'let them trade' position. One that placates Arab sentiments and reinforces our image around the world. Something we heard non-stop from John Kerry in his 2004 campaign. The second irony is that, in our rhetoric, we are holding the UAE government responsible for the fact that terrorists on 9/11 used private banks and airlines in the UAE, but we, at the same time, try to tell the Arab world that the Dutch government has no proper ability to apologize for cartoons published in their private newspapers. Seems like a double standard to me.
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