Filed under: Auctions, Art Once the undisputed land of conspicuous wealth and consumption, the United Arab Emirates is being squeezed by a large drop in oil prices. It's a shame this comes after the region's addiction to art has become fully entrenched. Sotheby's is planning its first contemporary a...

The Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) hopes to achieve a monetary union, with a common currency, by 2010. Bloggers from the region, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, debate the merits of the union and more importantly what name they want for their new curren...

and they call this guy a "moderate muslim": Unity Coalition for Israel On January 30, 2009 excerpts of a speech by Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi were aired on Al-Jazeera. In the speech, Qaradawi made vicious remarks about Jews, inciting Muslims to put Jews in “their place� as Hitler had done, in reve...

Let this be the title of my monthly blog entry. And from the meaning of it, it seems i’m refering to somebody else(yan kung magrereact ka!). Naku, feeling mo lang yun! Let me tell you what really happened to me today. I just came from the hospital paying my medicine bill in the pharmacy becaus...

NB: Sproglette's lungs are clear, she's just a reincarnated yoga master, that's all. A while back, Hubs asked me, somewhat hesitantly, to have sex. No, I'm kidding. He asked me if it would be ok to host a young colleague of his and his girlfriend for a few days.  He thought, not without reason,...

Are the Saudis behind Muslim terror most everywhere, or does it just seem like it? After all, 80% of Al Qaeda were Saudis several years ago. What's the figure now? We know that Zarqawi's Iraqi Al Qaeda was full of men from the Gulf, not necessarily Saudi Arabia, but Arabia nonetheless. Fallujah was ...

Two evenings ago, Sproglette and I went for a hustly bustly walk on the Corniche. The sun was setting, people were out, picnicking, powerwalking, running. Little kids riding their bikes. It was good to get out because we had been in the apartment all day and both of us were antsy. I forced myself to...

So, there I am, yielding, as one does, before entering a moderately busy roundabout. I'm turning left, so I wait while rusting buses carrying day labourers, cement trucks, and other rumbling machines, not to mention obnoxious SUVs like my own, speed or jerk by. I am waiting for an opening.  Spr...

Back story: So the other day I was banned by internet Qatar, basically an entire country can’t read my website. So here is my letter to them. Dear Internet Qatar, Hi from the United States! I am just writing to talk about your recent decision to ban my site from your country. Personally I feel...

It has finally happened. In the past I have been successful in pissing off small groups of people like Adult Harry Potter Fans, grown men that wear diapers, and Patton Oswalt (he counts as multiple people because he is fat). Today though marks a historic occasion. My blog has been banned in an entir...