I knew a couple living in Dubai who expressed great joy and happiness about their living arrangements. In their building, they had a mall, a gym and a cinema complex, and in their apartment, they had a large balcony. On weekends, they said, they NEVER HAD TO leave the building. I had never thought of […]
A ‘societal value’ shared by Norway and the United Arab Emirates is the importance of being ‘best in the world’. It is quite possible to be ‘best’ at something without actually being good at it. The key is to find a field that is so narrow as to eliminate competition. That is why Norwegians have […]
Dubai was the first and only thing I thought I knew about the United Arab Emirates before arriving there. What little I might have learned of Arabia during my school years had not trampled the virgin snow of my ignorance. At that time, no photo of Dubai existed that did not include Burj al Arab—the […]