UAE
Bahrain: The West practises selective dudgeon
DUBAI: It was the 19th-century British statesman Lord Palmerston who coined the maxim that nations have no permanent friends, simply permanent interests. And rarely in recent times has that adage been so nakedly displayed as near here in the tiny Gulf petro-kingdom of Bahrain, the first place in the Middle … read more >>
The Banker Who Couldn’t Get Out of Qatar
DAVID PROCTOR’S biography as a career banker remains proudly displayed on the website of Al-Khaliji Bank, the three-year-old Qatari bank where “we pride ourselves in finding ways to do things differently”. Outwardly, there’s nothing particularly unusual about that. Bank executives often have their CVs puffed on the ‘About us’ tab … read more >>
Dubai’s debt crisis – a ‘new paradigm’ built on sand
DUBAI – At Dubai’s soaring, spurious peak, one factoid the emirate’s bling-burdened battalion of ‘corporate communications consultants’ liked to slip to junketing media was that Dubai had the world’s densest concentration of cranes. Impossible to verify but too good to ignore, the glib observation almost always made it into media … read more >>
The Dubai ‘miracle’ was always a mirage of spin
NOW that the external impact of Dubai’s sovereign debt crisis seems to have passed, for now at least, what’s the big lesson from this drama-in-the-dunes? I think it boils down quite simply: don’t believe the hype. Dubai claimed to have the ”biggest this”, ”largest that” and the ”most of just … read more >>
Hot spots, pot shots and gold pots for the brazen and the bold
Hot spots, pot shots and gold pots for the brazen and the bold Compile a fake CV, head for a war zone, and a fortune in taxpayers’ dollars can be yours, writes Eric Ellis. RESOLVED to make big quick money in 2007 at the frontier of commerce? Sure, YouTube … read more >>