“I realize I'm late to the party: Dubai is long past its media moment. The flurry of breathless write-ups—in Sunday travel sections and glossy lifestyle magazines—has come and gone. We're on to the next destination already. (Laos. Yemen. Low-altitude space orbit.)—more here
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The clichés begin springing to life the moment I arrive in Dubai's gleaming airport. Whirring along on the people-mover, I pass an endless stretch of ads for high-rise condos and high-tech office parks. Each promises greater swank than the last. None has been fully built yet. The ads are conceptual drawings: crosshatching sketches in the outlines of 70-story towers, newly dug harbors, bustling helipads …”
(Definitely worth reading, I’d have to say this is one of the best articles about Dubai yet)
The latest offering from DAMAC
ReplyDelete[...]All of which brings me back to falconry. At one of the museums, I saw an old photo of a sheik with his prized falcon. The caption read, "The key to falconry is the relationship between the falcon and the falconer," which seems reasonable enough. The text also observed that the falcon was wearing one of those little leather hoods, and in parentheses it noted the Arabic word for these masks: burqa.
ReplyDeleteSuddenly, the thought of those birds, forcibly hooded, tied by the ankle to their master's wrists, gave me a small chill.[..]
Thats hilarious
Good reading. It's clearly an outsiders take but it has more depth and perspective.
ReplyDeletethe depth seemed quited shallow in some ways. He read into Dubai only as far as he wanted.
ReplyDeletea very good article to read, just saw a website regarding arab news which is
ReplyDeletehttp://www.alkhaleejtoday.com/
To cg...he is coming here for fives days to write an amusing travel piece. Do you want him to have read the trucial states book before he arrives?
ReplyDeleteThe crazy thing is that he is spot on. The 'heritage' side of dubai is hard to find, and I've been to the falcon centre. Impressive from the outside, nothing on the inside.
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ReplyDeleteI actually found the article to be rather boring and a bit naive and condescending, a bad combination.
ReplyDelete