A revisionist autobiography

02:31 pm - A good picture is equivalent to a good deed. - Vincent Van Gogh

If you read this blog, there's a good chance you enjoy pictures of this part of the world. So check out uaephotos, and feel free to contribute there.


I figured you guys might enjoy another stitched 270° view of Business Bay.


This stitched shot was taken from the same overpass, but looks only in the direction of Sheikh Zayed Road.


Let's go inside and take a look around.
( Buildings! )


The Ibn Battuta Gate complex is being completed.
( It lies just outside Ibn Battuta Centre )


Longer term readers may recognize the dome at the center of the mall's Persia court.

Finally, a video for my fellow crane lovers via basaferetch.

Current Mood: calm

12:02 am - The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. - James Bryce

The Islamic Solidarity Games have been called off because Iran and its neighbors cannot agree on whether to call the body of water between them the "Arabian Gulf" or the "Persian Gulf." I imagine qatar was not the only person to find this ironic.

I thought the Black Swan was overly pretentious.

The Men Who Stare at Goats was alright, but Sherlock Holmes was so good I'm waiting for a sequel.


A stitched shot of Sheikh Zayed Road, as seen from Al Khail Road.


Similar, but from across Zabeel Road 2.


Dubai's skyscrapers do not abut one another to form New York-style vertical walls. Even so, this is pretty damn impressive. It certainly didn't occur to me when I first visited Manhattan that I would soon be able to look up in Dubai and see tall buildings in every direction nearly blot out the sky.


This is one of the many neighborhoods that have sprung up from sand in the south of the city in the past 10 years.
( The northern end of the marina )

Current Mood: content

12:08 am - A man without a vote is man without protection. - Lyndon B. Johnson

India's prime minister has raised the prospect of non-resident citizens being given voting rights before the next national elections. I'm not holding my breath. But the political ramifications of such a move, both at home and abroad, would be very interesting indeed.

The Economist is asking if some Saudi Arabia social norms are slowly becoming more liberal.

"We withhold one month's salary as a general practice. It is very common in case of workers and cannot be called a delay in salary." Umm, okay then.

Last week, I attended the opening of the world's tallest building.
( My trip )


And the marina.
( I kept going )


We got to whiz by stations that weren't yet ready.
( And going )


Eventually, I arrived at a station that had been opened early in order to be of some use on this day.
( Till I got there )


I began to scour for a vantage point; alas, this one had poor views of the tower, and was already full.
( It got darker )


There was no place to rest a tripod so I have only a handful of shots of the actual opening ceremony, all of them blurry.
( But then there was light! )

11:51 pm - It is impossible to walk rapidly and be unhappy. - Mother Teresa

Avatar's politics and dialog were occasionally annoying, but it sure was pretty.


Dubai started off as a trading port along this creek.
( By the water )


On both sides of the creek, the government has set up covered markets that are meant to evoke bazaars in times past.
( A look inside )


It might look like a heritage structure from the outside, but, well.
( Buildings )


It was Christmas and the morning of the Muslim sabbath when I walked around, so a lot of people were resting.
( Relaxation )



This pretty mosque's proportions made it difficult to photograph well.
( More houses of worship )


And now for the stuff that didn't fit into any other category.
( Miscellanea )

Current Mood: sleepy

03:01 pm - The retrospective glance is a relatively easy gesture for us to make. - George Crumb

( A look back at the year in photographs )
Poll #1503932 Pictures from 2009
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

Which picture posted on this blog in the past year did you like best?

Current Mood: calm

11:14 pm - A good teacher is a master of simplification and an enemy of simplism. - Louis A. Berman

In Dubai, metro users must listen to muzak. The geek in me really loves the idea of a one compartment on each train instead featuring a lecture by university professor.


A stitched 270° view from near the entrance to Business Bay.


The construction will continue until demand improves.
( Hubris )


Sheikh Zayed Road, seen from Al Khail Road.
( Three more from the area )


This leads to the metro station at Terminal 3 of the airport.
( Passageways )


A mostly residential building in Bur Dubai.

Current Mood: apathetic

07:50 pm - He who tampers with the currency robs labor of its bread. - Daniel Webster

Michael Bay getting the mail, courtesy of christheblogger.

North Korea has repeatedly watered down its planned currency redenomination owing to public pressure, which has taken the form of riots and suicides, among other things. I thought that state was so repressive it would be able to get away with anything.

Catalonia has banned bullfighting. This pleases me.

I wonder what will become of Dubai's new plan to build pedways. I like the idea, but placing them on Sheikh Zayed Road seems ill-advised, especially since the area already has regular metro stops, with feeder buses serving areas in between. It would make more sense to put such elevated walkways in the older parts of the central business district, as mrputter once suggested. To be sure, you couldn't just build along one straight line, but you would enhance an area that is short of space for pedestrians and buses and possibly creating new place for retail outlets. If Dubai had unlimited funds, I would love to see the two sides of the creek connected this way. As things stand, I rather wonder if this project will ever get off the ground.

Metropia had some great animation. The dystopia portrayed was so dark that when bad guys started showing up halfway through the movie, the mostly white screen actually hurt my eyes. Which seemed fitting for a world where people are not supposed to travel except by subway. As a movie experience, however, it scored more points for 'strange' than for 'good.'

If you have a non-paid LJ account and want a $10 coupon (as described here), let me know.


Tall building is tall.
( Around Burj Dubai )


Dubai Internet City.
( There is a body of water in the middle )


A lone tower on Sheikh Zayed Road.

11:19 pm - If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging. - Alan Bennett

Blah blah blah pictures.


A stitched shot showing much of Sheikh Zayed Road.


I like this close up better.
( More from behind Sheikh Zayed Road )


Here are still more pictures from behind Sheikh Zayed Road, except these ones are all from the base of Emirates Towers.
( Lots of glass and concrete )


Emirates Towers, just in case you've somehow forgotten.
( They're tall )


I'm trying my hand at flower macros.
( Floral arrangements )


Inside the Fairmont Hotel.

Current Mood: good

12:02 am - Congestion is beautiful. - Raymond Hood

Can we all agree that shoe-throwing has jumped the shark?


The Burj al Arab is probably Dubai's best known landmark. The hotel recently celebrated its tenth birthday.


I wonder if anyone's still building.


There are a handful of really neat buildings grouped together on the generally dull highway that is Ittihad Road.
( Take a look )


By now, all of you are probably familiar with the Burj Dubai.
( The building and its surroundings )


Looking up from below the base of a building on Sheikh Zayed Road.
( A lot more of the same )

Current Mood: disappointed

10:50 pm - We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love. - Jonathan Swift

The Swiss have voted in a referendum to ban minarets. My little protest against this discriminatory step is to show you pictures of a mosque in Dubai I think is pretty.


( Close up )


The Jumeirah Beach Hotel, as seen from the Gulf.
( One more )


Let's take a look at the area around the start of Sheikh Zayed Road.
( By day )


Now let us survey the area from a height.
( By night )


Do the Donna Towers remind anyone else of Chicago's Marina City?

Current Mood: listless

09:08 pm - Moonlight is sculpture. - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Would you like to see some pictures of Dubai? Okay then.


Once I got this shot, I figured I was going to have a good evening.
( The marina by night )


This is about as close as the general public is currently allowed to get to the Burj Dubai.
( This building is a large part of why I use a camera with a wide angle lens )


Picnic breakfast, Dubai style.

Current Mood: content

05:20 pm - I saw a bank that said '24-Hour Banking,' but I don't have that much time. - Stephen Wright

I visited Abu Dhabi over the weekend. I didn't get to walk around nearly as much as I had planned, but that means I have an excuse to go back. I can't wait; there is an awful lot I would like to explore.


A pedestrian crossing outside Marina Mall.
( The Father of the Gazelle )


Very few people in Dubai use (or even know) the official names for streets. One short stretch of Khalid bin al Waleed Road is almost universally known as Bank Street, owing to the number of financial institutions with offices there.
( Glass and concrete )

Current Mood: complacent

02:20 pm - It's not so unusual to run out of someone else's currency. - Jeffrey Sachs

Kuwait wants to delay the launch of the single Gulf currency, planned for 2010. I don't know if anyone really expected it to go ahead. I don't even need to describe political battles to explain why; it is enough to point out that the four states still nominally committed to the project have yet to agree upon a name for a currency they will ostensibly start circulating in a few months.


A stitched image of the skyline along a major arterial road in Al Barsha.


Another image, showing a different part of the neighborhood. I like the idea of Al Barsha far more than I do the actual neighborhood. Much of the area is taken up by tightly packed buildings, each approximately 10 stories high. These extend some distance away from Sheikh Zayed Road, the major highway running along one side. The density ought to encourage all sorts of urban life, especially given that there is a mix of residential and commercial space, with retail outlets below most buildings. Sadly, there are very few pedestrians. Most roads lack sidewalks, and arterial roads have insufficient numbers of crossings. Bus service is very poor, and the only metro stop opened thus far serves the area's largest mall. Throw in construction, a large number of empty sand lots, and a distinct paucity of restaurants, and you can see why almost everyone who has a choice drives. Still, the area at least has the potential to turn into an interesting place. Sadly, the same cannot be said of most other parts of southern Dubai, where individual developers have created dull, single-use communities inspired by North American suburbs.


Sheikh Zayed Road, as seen here from the metro, is slowly acquiring depth. There are plenty of buildings to the right of the area pictured. Folks on the other side of the highway can now use pedestrian crossings built for the metro, allowing them to access more shops and restaurants without the use of an automobile.
( Five more pictures with skyscrapers )


A mosque in Bur Dubai. The green light on the right is shining down from a minaret.
( Four more pictures from the area )

05:24 pm - There is no sincerer love than the love of food. - George Bernard Shaw

Venezuela will fine television stations showing the American animated series, Family Guy. Was it because of the show's suggestive situations or violence? No, it is because is a talking dog is promoting marijuana legalization.

I suspect mrputter would love Japan's Ogori Cafe. So might you!

Are you familiar with the homosexual agenda? Via tomscud.

For an organization you hear so little about, China's Central Organisation Department sure is powerful.

Spot the invisible man.

I wish I could check out this example of urban renweal in New York.

A female government employee in Dubai is suing the organizers of an academic excellence award for publishing a photo of her in which she is not wearing a face cover, or niqab. She is claiming the picture ruined her reputation and status in the community. "My family and husband were shocked and devastated when they saw my picture & they even asked me to quit my job as a teacher and stay at home."

Football clubs in this country are selling so few tickets that they risk becoming ineligible for Asia-wide championships. I have no idea why these clubs haven't tried to market themselves to expatriates, a large number of whom are just as enthusiastic about the sport as the Emiratis who show up to support their sides. Clubs also face strict restrictions on the number of foreign players they can field, a factor which contributes to the low standard of play. It would be great to have a single Gulf-wide football league of a higher standard, with no restrictions on player movement within the six countries of Gulf Cooperation Council. Perhaps we'd then have fewer Gulf businessmen buying clubs in Europe, and fewer expatriates paying attention only to clubs on that continent.

Dubai has never had great street food along the lines of New York, Mumbai, or Cairo. It makes up, however, with its inexpensive sit-down restaurants, which are easy to find in the older parts of town. The rest of this post will show you some of the dishes my friends and I like to order when we eat out. All of them, save for the Ethiopian plate, cost AED 15 ($4) or less, and most items pictured are vegan.


It looks like chu_hi approves.
( Ethiopian food )


When sit down for a Levantine meal, you usually get some free salad and pickles. (Comments from mrputter are not welcome here.)
( More food from the Arab world )


This is a thali, which translates literally into 'plate.' You get unlimited refills of each dish, save for the dessert and yogurt, including the poori you see in the center. South Indian thalis are traditionally served on banana leaves. At AED 15 for 14 items making up a complete meal, it may be the best value for money of anything in this post.
( South Indian food )


A dhokla is a bit like a cake, but not nearly as sweet.
( Fast food from western India )

Current Mood: chipper

06:18 am - In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance. - Joseph Stalin

Ronald Reagan tells jokes about the Soviet Union.

The United States ambassador in Kuwait seems to have gotten caught up in a tempest in a teacup. One member of parliament reportedly calling for her expulsion from the country, after she jokingly compared members of the chamber to dogs. In another incident involving animals and cross-cultural communication snafus, an Indian minister, himself a former diplomat, has gotten into trouble for comments he made on Twitter regarding 'cattle class' travel with 'holy cows.' Opposition calls for him to resign are likely to go nowhere. Opposition parties in India, whatever their political strength or ideology, ask for resignations over such petty issues (and to so little effect) that they remove any credibility from such statements when they might actually serve some purpose.

An Iraqi helped set up Norway's oil industry, keeping it from turning into a dysfunctional mess and/or dragging down the rest of the country, as was the case in so many other exporting states. I thought his story was fascinating. Hat tip: rfmcdpei.

You might remember how people in the Emirates pay large sums of money in order to derive prestige from license plates with certain numbers. Apparently, the new trend is to do the same with Blackberry pins.

In this post, chu_hi examines the concerns of prospective metro riders in Dubai.


Wafi is Dubai's most upscale mall.
( Look around )


Terminal 3, the newest and shiniest passenger terminal at Dubai's airport, is used exclusively by Emirates airline. Here is a view of a large sign outside the building, as seen from the metro.


I'm not sure why a tire showroom in an industrial neighborhood like Al Quoz has pseudo-Mughal architecture, but cities can be random like that.


Speaking of which.

Current Mood: tired

12:11 am - Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one. - A. J. Liebling

The view from the front of a train on Dubai's new metro.

Italy's prime minister claims that he sued newspapers that were politically at odds with him because he wanted to defend press freedom. I am reminded of Tom Lehrer's comment about Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace Prize: "It was at that moment that satire died. There was nothing more to say after that."

Kuwait is following in Bahrain's footsteps by partially abolishing the sponsorship system used to regulate the employment of foreign workers.

Studies have shown most people in the UAE don't wear seat belts, something which has doubtless contributed to high road fatality rates. A new campaign aims to add designer labels in order to make seat belts more desirable.

Everything's Gone Green was sort of like Garden State except it didn't suck. Vancouver looked gorgeous on film, and I want to visit more than ever.

My final set of pictures from DC involves that city's mass transit system.

Metrorail!
( Stations )

I have a lot to say about Dubai's new system, but you will have to wait until I organize my thoughts (and pictures). The following is an initial glimpse.

Speeding away from a train headed in the opposite direction. I think this was at the Union Square station, but chu_hi can correct me if I have that wrong.
( Trains and stuff )

Current Mood: chipper

09:57 pm - Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. - Mitchell Kapor

Not long ago, I mentioned a search engine for religious Jews. Now, Muslims have one too! The Humanist Society may soon have to deny rumors it is backing a site that says 'No results found' when you try to search for God.

A plane belonging to the UAE air force was detained in India after it was found to be carrying undeclared arms to China, an exporter of the same. There is a distinct paucity of detail in reports about this unusual incident, which is a pity.

During the economic boom, hotel prices in Dubai skyrocketed. As developers rushed to meet new demand, they came up with ever fancier ideas of what to build. Prices have since dropped, but the hotels under construction are now the largest in the world, overtaking Las Vegas. The average hotel being built will have 417 rooms. Despite project cancellations, some of which affected hotels already under construction, Dubai is currently slated to add over 47,000 rooms to its existing 58,147.

I can only imagine the developers of the Pentominium have already sold the vast majority of space therein to buyers facing minimal liquidity challenges. Awarding a contract to build a 124-story tower in Dubai in this economic climate would otherwise most likely be the economic equivalent of hara-kiri.


Sheikh Zayed Road by sunset. The buildings you saw last week all lie to the right of the sun in this stitched shot. Today, I'm going to look at Business Bay, which accounts for some of the towers to the left.
( First three stitched shots of that area )


The Executive Towers buildings are hard to miss.
( A look around Business Bay )


A view in the direction of Business Bay from the top of the Address. The buildings in the foreground lie in the Burj Dubai complex.


Al Ghubaiba Bus Station usually throngs with people and vehicles, but it is deserted this Ramadan evening.

Current Mood: indescribable

12:08 am - If there's an intellectual highway, there's also an intellectual subway. - Stanley Crouch

The UAE recently seized illegal North Korean arms bound for Iran. It says a fair deal about all three countries that it took weeks for this news to emerge.

Loins of Punjab Presents was lots of fun, even if it did traffic in stereotypes. I almost wish I knew more about Bollywood, so I would get more of the inside jokes.

Over the past few weeks, I have tried over and over again to stitch together a picture of the entire Sheikh Zayed Road skyline. So far this has been the least bad one:

( Four more attempts under the cut )

One of these days, I will get a shot I am happy with! For now, I will just have to accept that even single shots of the buildings on that road are not always going to come out as crisply as I would like.

The green lights lie on the roof of Dubai Mall, in case you were wondering.


So what can I show you of Sheikh Zayed Road?
( Let's start with the urban canyons )


So what does a massive wall of buildings look like anyway?
( Find out )


So what else can you see from the area besides these reflections of Emirates Towers?
( A lot )


Let us now examine individual buildings on the road.
( I've picked out some of my favorites )


Emirates Towers, as mentioned above.
( Two other night shots )

12:02 am - Of dead kingdoms I recall the soul, sitting amid their ruins. - Nathaniel Parker Willis

I saw a sign in Al Barsha the other day instructing me to drive slowly because I was entering a construction zone. In order to avoid redundancy, they should just put up big signs at the airport so that everyone coming into the country is aware of this.

Anyone who has seen Being John Malkovich is likely to remember the scene in which the eponymous actor journeys into his own head, seeing umpteen copies of himself dressed differently but saying the same thing. Burn After Reading reminded me a bit of this, not only because the same man had big roles in both movies, but because a number of the characters are variations of one another, albeit in a marginally more subtle way than placing Malkovich's head over dozens of bodies in the same frame.

India's largest communist party would still have us believe that socialism is inevitable, and the future lies with them, rather than the country's two biggest parties. Then again, listening to their rhetoric on imperialism is a little like stepping into a time machine.


Let's take a look at the ghost town at Jazira al Hamra, in the northern emirate of Ras al Khaimah.


This is chu_hi, whose gorgeous pictures of the day can be seen here and here.
( Abandoned buildings )


Ras al Khaimah's only block with more than two high-rise buildings was surrounded by smaller structures.
( More from the city )


The atrium inside the Holiday Inn in Al Barsha.

Current Mood: complacent

12:24 pm - If a politician isn't doing it to his wife, then he's doing it to his country. - Amy Grant

The Chinese trust their sex workers more than they do their politicans. I was surprised mostly that this made it to the pages of state-run papers in that country.

Have you heard about the Jeddah Casanova? More surprises for me, this time because I didn't think anyone could regularly pick up women using their phone's Bluetooth functionality.

Not long ago, I hoped to read a book about each country in the Middle East. I do most of my reading on a computer screen these days, and very little using dead trees. It was just as well The Birth of Modern Yemen is available as a free e-book. You can read my review on 'Aqoul.

The Wrestler slowly drew me in, although it still seemed like a movie where very little actually happened.


Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky...


Obligatory cranes.

Current Mood: quixotic