Speaking of the Arab awakening, when are we going to wake up?

Nariman works in business development in Jordan and is on a mission to a gulf country. Throughout her trip, she would complain about the number Indians there were, and how it is difficult to understand them (once to an Indian expecting empathy), or how everything smells when they're around. At some point, she just blurts out "Look. I can't stand them. OK?" In one of the business meetings she had with a local, she started asking about the reasons for the competitive edge some companies have over others and then deduced "Yeah it's maybe cause they have so many Indians". The local business owner said "But we all employ many Indian engineers. You know they get paid more than Arabs. They don't need to come here, there's a boom in their country."

You'd expect Nariman to have been shocked to the core by this piece of info. But no. She made a derogatory remark and brushed it off. We are Arabs. Of course we are better.

True story.

Giving the term "matching clothes" a whole new meaning

I'm currently attending CityScape Abu Dhabi, an exhibition and conference on real estate in the region. The exhibition obviously hosts booths of regional players showing off their luxiourous residential or tourist projects and investments. The booths are actually quite fancy and in most cases tasteful. But something caught my attention and increasingly disturbs me. The women representing the exhibitors are not only required to wear the same clothes (in most cases extremely short skirts), they are also dressed in accordance with brand, i.e. The same exact colors as the logo. The men, on the other hand, are simply wearing suits. What exactly does this mean? That the women exhibitors are actually exhibition items, like the branded pens and chocolates? Are they also on offer somehow?

Something is not right here.

5 degrees of separation

I'm sure most of us have at one point stayed at a hotel in a Gulf country. The question is, did anyone ever take a look at the thermostat inside the room to check what temperature is set in there? Well I have and it's 17 bloody degrees! It's 45 outside. Do they really feel the need to take it down 28 whole degrees? Is 22 not bearable weather anymore? How can all of Europe, which is normally accustomed to a much colder climate, live with 22 but we can't? How do we justify those 5 degrees less? OK I'm not gonna ramble. I'll leave the hilarious Ed Byrne to make my point:

Now this post isn't about the Gulf; I think we can safely give up on those guys. It's about my recent experiences in Beirut and Amman, where the weather has been quite mild and pleasant (and I'm talking 24-26 degrees during the day!). But in most places I went to, the A/C was blasted on at Siberia levels. And when I complain to the waiter, they always say they will take care of it and just ignore me. I have to carry my jacket with me wherever I go. Now I don't get this. Last time I checked, we weren't exporting any fossil fuels. What we seem to be importing though is the fossil-fuel-exporting countries' bad habits of unjustifiable waste - simply to show off.

Can't we just enjoy the weather a bit, bask in some sun and never ever have to listen to a smart ass like Ed Byrne say how great his summer would have been in Beirut if it weren't for the penguins?