The Spinning of The World

I am so pleased to be able to report that The World is reviving.

A collection of islands, strategically placed in the waters off Dubai, this development can be seen from space - a bit like China's Great Wall, I understand.

 Reflecting the activity of the real thing - aka, the world, without capitals (as in not upper case, that is - obviously the real world has many capitals), The World took a serious nosedive in 2008 when no developer could see any point in proceeding, let alone any profit. Stillborn.

Now, as the world is slowly nosing itself out of the doldrums - that's if you're 'on message' - then The World is seeing its re-birth, its resurrection.

Lebanon is completely up and running. A loose collection of islands referred to as the Heart of Europe is shortly to be developed. 

So The World recovery is not sticking to the script of the world recovery in its entirety, it would seem. Where's Brazil? India? China? - the booming economies comparatively untouched by the western meltdown. Or even USA, whose government figures purport to show a fledgling recovery as long as normal rules of Economics are not applied.

The Heart of Europe development is projected to include Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden and St Petersburg - the latter, never to my knowledge being a country in its own right - but plenty to go at culturally, perhaps. Interesting choice of initial countries. Very steady.

Does Dubai do 'steady'? 

Glitz and glamour and self indulgence do not immediately spring to mind when considering Germany, even before The Age of Austerity and before the Germans had to pick up a vast proportion of the tab for bailing out their more glamorous, indebted partners in the EU.

Switzerland has mountains, cuckoo clocks, The Sound of Music and yodelling. Oh, and Roger Federer. Again, admirable (mostly), but not glamorous. 

The Netherlands......well, not sure whether the Dutch somewhat laissez-faire approach is a good fit with the Middle East.

And so on......

So, we're left with the culture of each country which is, of course, not to be overlooked - but it might well be here.

So. How should each island be developed? I daren't make any suggestions in this medium, but I shall amuse myself by allowing my mind to run riot.

But I do so hope The World is a success as it comes around again.

Diversions

Here's a list of things that I don't miss from UK.........

This was going to be the opening sentence of today's blog but before I could get stuck in to my 2000 words (ha!), daughter sent me this photo of the the most beautiful Spring day in the UK.

Which is ironic - because The Weather was going to head my list of UK pet-hates.......

So - look at this and see what you think.

There is surely no better place to be than the UK on a day like today.

We're having a sandstorm here - 36 degrees and poor visibility.


Like this;

No contest.

Miss home sometimes.

Chucked Out of Saudi for being TOO HANDSOME??

Is this the Emirati man who, allegedly, with two others was 'asked to leave' Saudi for being too handsome?

What did the Saudi authorities think might happen? That he would so excite the passions of the Saudi women that all morals would be thrown to the four winds along with their discarded abayas?

Handsome he certainly is. Rich and famous he certainly will be, if not so already.

Sky News - reality, trivia and truth

Is it ever going to stop raining? Is Summer ever going to arrive? 

Apparently not. And this is Dubai, not the UK

Sky News might like to run this as a news item - would make a change from 'the worst pollen season ever, ever, ever, since records began is going to hit the UK - millions of teenagers will be blinded by their own tears, failing their exams as a consequence....'

What????

So the 24-hour news producers at Sky run a day of complete domestic trivia whilst vilifying Dubai for imprisoning, 'torturing' and trying three Londoners for drug involvement.

This follows hot on the heels of the horse-doping scandal at the Godolphin Stables which ran and ran for days and days.

It is also a precursor to the state visit to UK of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, scheduled to start tomorrow. 

Apparently, the prison sentences of the 'London Three' will be on the agenda for the discussion between the UAE President and Prime Minister Cameron. Have they nothing more important to cover than that?

Maybe H.H. Sheikh Khalifa might like to counter with the behaviour, generally, of ex-pats in his country who are here solely because there is no direct taxation. That's the bottom line. They have the arrogance to dress inappropriately, drink until they can hardly stand, barf up in public - a bit like any night, in any town, on any street in the UK - but they have the arrogance to a) think they can get away with it or, b) think they can bleat about human rights when they do get caught. 

Perhaps there should be a vetting process when leaving the UK - all shorts, shaven heads, tattoos would automatically deny exit. 

Instead of chasing ex-pats for UK and all the costs that this will entail - spend the money instead on the new exit procedure. Keep all these people on UK soil and the government will have achieved revenue-collection by a different route.

Everyone's a winner.

Except Sky News, of course, whose default position is knocking Dubai/UAE and who will even clear the decks of other news to draw disproportionate attention to their stories.