DUBAI, Nov. 24 – Senior officials and leading business leaders said today that the fundamentals of the economy of the United Arab Emirates were healthy, and that the federation was taking steps to ensure that it would be able to deal adequately with the financial turmoil roiling the global community. Those steps include improving the liquidity situation of key real-estate companies in w
By Francis Matthew, Editor at Large, Gulf News, Dubai Published: November 19, 2008, 23:15 The UAE has a very young population which has been educated from a curriculum which is global and outward-looking in spirit, in contrast to some other countries in the region which have fostered more conservative and inward-looking schooling or more Islamic curriculums. The widespread awareness of the outside world in the UAE is a vital asset that the country will be able to benefit from
So it has happened, and very early on the morning after history had been made, one of America’s authentic legends, Theodore C. Sorensen, was savoring it all in his lovely apartment overlooking Manhattan’s Central Park. A score of close friends had spent the previous evening at his apartment, watching the results of the election that made Barack Obama the 44 th president
NEW YORK, November 4 – I wanted to be a witness to history. That’s why I decided to fly 7,000 miles from my new home in Dubai to my old home in America. I could have cast an absentee ballot in the American presidential election, of course – the United States Consulate is in the building next to where I live on Sheikh Zayed Road. But I flew back in order to vote in person. I
I flew 7,000 miles to America from Dubai in order to vote in the US presidential election. I could have cast an absentee ballot, but I wanted to come home to Brooklyn and be part of history.
In early October, I decided to take a short break and flew to the country of my birth, India. Although I hold a United States passport, I visit India frequently; and over a career of more than four decades in international journalism, I have written about India often; these writings include columns and books. In New Delhi, I went with my friends Sunita Kohli and her husband Romesh to the home of Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Isher Ahluwalia. Montek is deputy chairman of India's Planning
One thread linking my student days to the present has been Gary Trudeau's wonderful Doonesbury cartoon panel seven days a week. What an extraordinary gift he has for trenchant political and sociological commentary!
It's fascinating to see all these polls showing the fortunes (or misfortunes) of the presidential candidates. But just who do the pollsters call? Who qualifies to be a respondent? What about American citizens living abroad?
EIA estimates that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) earned $671 billion in net oil export revenues in 2007, a 10 percent increase from 2006. Saudi Arabia earned the largest share of these earnings, $194 billion, representing 29 percent of total OPEC revenues. On a per-capita basis, OPEC net oil export earning reached $1,137, a 8 percent increase from 2006. Through August, OPEC had earned an estimated $740 billion in net oil
I watched an extraordinary video that celebrated India's diversity and secularism. Produced by Durga Jasraj and Vikram Shankar, it features lyrics by Javed Akhtar, and performances by everyday Indians and by maestros such as Pandit Jasraj. Truly moving, beautifully photographed. The team behind Durga and Vikram, Arts & Artistes, is inventive and highly motivated. Besides films, the group produces a variety of concerts and other events. Ah, the energy, resourcefulness and determination of
The single most significant aspect of this book is that it's under the byline of Kamal Nath, arguably India's most talented and resourceful politician since Independence. In fact, he's 61 years old -- just a year older than Modern India, which was carved out of the British Raj in 1947. There are those who predict that he will some day be the country's prime minister, and, indeed, some of his friends are already canvassing in his behalf. Mr.
Suharto Without Tears By Pranay Gupte In the cascade of condemnations and condolences that followed the death of former Indonesian strongman Suharto on January 27, one voice was conspicuously missing. That voice was of Dr. Haryono Suyono, the Chicago-trained sociologist who served for almost two decades as Suharto’s minister of population and family welfare. Those two decades represented the most benign of Suharto’s authoritarian rule, not the leas
Timeless Journey: The Maktoum Tradition and the Making of Modern Dubai By His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Note to Editor: This article was published in The Wall Street Journal on January 4, 2008. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed completed two years as ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, and Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates earlier this week. He is writing his memoir, due to be published later this year.) When President G
Gopal Raju: An Appreciation By Pranay Gupte I never believed that Herman Gopal Raju – that was indeed his full name – would ever age. The last time we met in New York, about a year ago, we dined at an Indian restaurant near Columbus Circle. Allen E. Kaye, the well-known immigration lawyer, had joined us. I had introduced Allen to Gopal nearly four decades ago, when all of us were very much younger. Allen subsequently became a columnist for India A
Davos 2008 (Published in TIME Magazine, January 31, 2008) By Michael Elliott High winds on the last day of this year's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos prevented me from taking my usual run from the top of the Weissfluhjoch to Klosters, thinking on the way of what I'd learned during the week. I wasn't too upset. Deprived of my usua
COLUMN-Bush, Rice and irrational optimism By Bernd Debusmann Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:00am EST (Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own) WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Condoleezza Rice said it so often that it could have been the motto of last November's Annapolis conference on the Middle East: "Failure is not an option." Catchy and upbeat, the words would fit nicely on a bumper sticker. George W. Bush opened his last year in office
The single most significant aspect of this book is that it's under the byline of Kamal Nath, arguably India's most talented and resourceful politician since Independence. In fact, he's 61 years old -- just a year older than Modern India, which was carved out of the British Raj in 1947. There are those who predict that he will some day be the country's prime
When more than 3,000 world leaders and journalists start their, well, deliberations on the snowy – and often snow-bound – ski resort of Davos on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum January 23-26, they may well run into inclement weather, not unusual for this Alpine village in eastern Switzerland. Indeed, several mandarins of the global
The Man at the Summit: Profile of Klaus Schwab (Longer Version on an Article Published in Portfolio.Com, January 18, 2008) By Pranay Gupte Not many people know that Klaus Schwab started the World Economic Forum in 1971 as a nice way to get together some of his fellow European academics, along with a sprinkling of management types, for some serious s
(The following is a longer version of an article I wrote for YaleGlobal, the online magazine of the Yale University Center for the Study of Globalization.) In the perception of Arab leaders of the Persian Gulf countries, George W. Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad mirror each other: they are both widely disliked in this region, their shrill rhetoric is not appreci
Professor Arvind Panagriya, who holds the Bhagwati Chair at Columbia University, is one of the most astute observers of the Indian scene. Besides being a stellar economist, he's a writer and speaker of great felicity. I strongly recommend his new book, "India: The Emerging Giant," published this month by Oxford University Press. Professor Panagriya offers a solid stud
Here's an uplifting quote from Barack Obama in New Hampshire today: “If you believe that we don’t have to settle for what the cynics tell us we have to settle for, but instead we can reach for what we know is possible,” Mr. Obama told an overflowing audience at the Lebanon Opera House Monday morning. “I am convinced that we will not just win the nomination, w
(Note: This ditty was composed in honor of three remarkable women who complain bitterly about the shortage of smart, sensitive and single men.) "Coffee in Da Lobby" So there were these three babes in Dubai Who caused a certain gentleman to sigh; When he asked them out for coffee They said to meet them in da lobby. When he trek
By Vinita Bharadwaj Special to Gulf News It is perfectly easy to fall in love with Cuba. There is something in the air. Sometimes, it is driven by the seduction of revolution that still breezes past. At other times, it is the distant strains of the Buena Vista Social Club soundtrack carried on a zephyr from Habana Vieja (Old Havana). By resisting mig
December 16, 2007 The New York Times: OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR You Can Almost Hear It Pop By STEPHEN S. ROACH THE American economy is slipping into its second post-bubble recession in seven years. Just as the bursting of the dot-com bubble led to a downturn in 2001 and ’02, the simultaneous popping of the housing and credit bubbles is doin
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