Apparently It Was Thankgiving Day?

*Click Photos to Enlarge

Gentle Readers,

The Thursday of Thanksgiving I was all packed and ready to go camping. We we scheduled to leave at 2:45 so I headed out to get some lunch shortly before that. As I entered Deli Marche (one of the nicer establishments in the student center which serves freshly prepared stir fry with fresh ingredients) in the student center, I was ecstatic at what I saw; three massive roasted turkeys with chefs behind each one. Accompanying the turkey were sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and apple pie. While I am highly appreciative, the staff at Deli Marche should stick to their Asian specialties. I will preface that the turkey was the best I've had in my life as it was very juicy, but the "gravy" they used was indeed stir fry sauce. The sweet potatoes while delicious, were cinnamon apple flavored, the stuffing was served cold, and the apple pie was... well, nothing beats a homemade apple pie. The meal, however foreign, left me in high spirits and a triptophan induced coma.

My friend Rajeev took Max and I camping in Fujairah for the night. It was a three hour drive to reach our destination. Upon arrival, it was dark which made things a little difficult to setup and we took a leap of faith hoping we were in a good spot somewhere between the town of Fujairah and the Omani border. We soon figured out the only thing in the tent bag was the tent; no stakes, poles, nothing; but have no fear, we did have tiki torches.


This presented us with some difficulties as we debated between being ingenuitive with the supplies available, or figuring out where we were going to sleep when that time came. That time indeed came and saw Rajeev sleeping in the backseat of the truck, Max zipping himself inside of the tent despite it being collapsed (something to do with a fear of crabs), and I slept right on the beach in a sleeping bag.

I awoke sweating profusely in the sleeping bag as the Arabian sun has no mercy even at 830 in the morning. Much of the day was spent lounging on the beach, taking advantage of our isolated location to get our mind off things.

Looking down the shore shortly after dawn:

Before making our way home, we packed up our site and drove a few miles down the road to do some more exploring. Max was determined to swim to an island before the end of the trip so we set out to do just that. The swim was a somewhat short jaunt out to a few rocky outcrops in the sea. There was nothing much to see in the ocean on the way out, though I nearly had a heart attack when I thought I saw a barracuda.

Max and I after reaching our island. Turns out he doesn't have the same affinity for swimming as he does for beaches, though all in all we had a good time.

Upon reaching the island though, we saw hundreds and thousands of fish in all shapes, sizes and colors. We did some skin diving for about an hour, amazing aquatic life. I took joy in diving down about 20 feet to depths and schools of fish under scuba divers nearby.

Looking back to shore from the island we swam to:

Going through my head; "I'm doing this for free, suckers..." Though there is an advantage for paying for all the gear as I sliced my leg and foot open pretty bad while maneuvering under some rock formations before rejoining Rajeev.

Nowhere in Sharjah or Dubai can you find good, fresh produce. But in the mountains in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE... go figure...

Fishing commenced at our campsite.

Beach scenes to make you jealous

Coral hurts

I Didn't See Nermel

*Click Photos to Enlarge

Gentle Readers,

I have just returned from a day in Abu Dhabi, the Capitol of the UAE, a three hour drive to the south. Saad, Sara and I went to a conference at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. The topic of the conference is Future Arabian Gulf Energy Sources, and focused, obviously, on the future of oil and renewable energy resources in the GCCs. The conference was attended primarily by members of the UAE's legislative body, municipal administrators, industry representatives, and diplomats, but with a little string pulling and lying, we were able to gain seats as registered participants. We got plastic ID badges, leather bound folders, books, pens and all. We heard speakers from the IAEA, Saudi and Emirati utility firms, as well as a German research institute. The overall sentiment was that the GCCs are not in the slightest bit interested in replacing their electricity utilities with renewable energy resources. This is somewhat understandable as oil is what has allowed their region to prosper economically. The German, being a stereotypical, intuitive, and reasonable German, tactfully asked the leaders at the summit why not make the common sense switch to renewable electricity production? He addressed the GCC's concerns of not making oil profits by asking why they would want to waste their oil on domestic electricity production within the region when they could convert to renewable energy sources while both increasing supply available to sell in international markets and conserving what they would otherwise be using and extend the longevity of their fossil fuel deposits. He ended by stating that 65% of all electricity production could be supplied by totally renewable energy resources by 2050. Thats a staggering number when you think about it.

A bit about Abu Dhabi: it reminded me a lot of Hollywood except with nicer cars. Palm tree lined boulevards, immaculate skyscrapers, but much more somber than their neighbor to the north, Dubai. After the conference, we went to lunch at the rooftop restaurant in the Royal Meridian Hotel. It was an amazing restaurant with an even more astounding view as we were on one of the highest floors in all of Abu Dhabi. We were appropriately dressed as we had just come from the conference: jacket and collared shirt required. I had one of the most amazing Cesar salads I've had in my life followed by a medium rare roasted duck breast with cherry and green onions. It was some of the best service I've ever encountered at a restaurant.

Table at Al Fanar rooftop restaurant

View from the top: overlooking the Corniche and the Persian Gulf

A bit of Abu Dhabi's Skyline

The Royal Meridian - Restaurant naturally on top

Note: I'll try to include more photos in future posts. I don't want to bore you too much with my words.

But You Can't Take the Norse...

Gentle Readers,

It is with great pleasure that I bring you the following news:

Not only are many of my friends here now using the phrase "Uff-Da,"

but they're using it in the correct context.

You Were Right, Sam Cooke.

But not for the better.

Gentle Readers,

I went to the Dubai Atuoshow this weekend. Its the largest exhibition of its kind in the Middle East, which is of no surprise, and it only comes around every two years. The event attracts the world's premier automobile manufacturers, and is the only autoshow with a strict formal dress code that I'm aware of.

The event brought me to a somewhat disturbing realization that I'd prefer not to delve into. However, it goes along these lines; I was surrounded by and sat in the most exotic and luxurious vehicles made and wasn't even phased, as if it were second nature. This place gets to you, and when it does, it hits you like a brick wall.

No, its Not Killing Your Elm Trees

Its long, I know, but some may find it interesting... some. I won't be offended if you don't.

Gentle Readers,

One can make the argument that the oil rich nations of the middle east, or any oil rich nation for that matter, are the mercantile or "rent" states of the 21st century. Today, however, oil has replaced the gold and silver that once flooded the markets of colonial Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Simply put, any country that relies heavily on the extraction of a natural resource found within its sovereign territory for revenue is a Rent State. By definition, "countries that receive on a regular basis substantial amounts of external economic rent," are rentier. The massive funds procured by the sale of petroleum are essential to understanding the political economy of not only the UAE, but all oil rich states.

Within the UAE, there are seven emirates (or states) with a very weak federal government, but a strong sheik, the monarch with the final say on all things pertaining to the country. This monarch, the leader of Abu Dhabi (capital of the UAE) is also considered the leader of the country. In addition, Abu Dhabi is the only emirate that has oil within its territory. The capital uses this to its advantage to gain a political following on two levels. First, Abu Dhabi subsidizes the six other emirates with remittances creating subservient governments in each of these territories as they rely almost wholly on Abu Dhabi's sharing of oil revenue. Any leader who may oppose a decision made my the leaders in Abu Dhabi will be either cut off or immediately removed. Second, the oil remittances win over the support of the populous. The Sheiks provide schooling, housing, land, as well as a monthly stipend in exchange for political backing. One must note, however that these are only bestowed upon the approximately 800,000 Emirati citizens though the number of people in the country numbers 4,000,000. The Sheiks in the UAE have experienced very little resistance due to their calculated spending of oil money as is the case for many of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) countries.

The rentier state policy is futile without first formulating an extensive international economic integration of oil remittances. As oil money floods the market, inflation naturally occurs no matter where it is spent; be it construction, tourism development, military, or education. Nothing, aside from keeping the money out of the market will curb inflation. This begs the question of how the GCC leaders are able to succeed in securing political support from their people while keeping inflation low, yet places like Venezuela are facing inflation rates of 20.4%. It is important to keep in mind the small population of the GCC nations, with the largest being Saudi Arabia, which some argue is on the brink of a population boom which would cripple their rent state policy. Their small population allows a massive amount of currency to flood the market to produce luxury goods while funneling an even more massive amount of curreny into foreign investments such as currency, foreign stock markets (The UAE, in the last month purchased 18% of Nasdaq's worth in addition to Nasdaq's entire 28% share of the British Stock Exchange), or luring international business to the region. This effectively keeps currency out of the domestic market and prevents inflation.

Venezuela, on the other hand has a population of 26,000,000. Hugo Chavez has flooded the domestic market with its own currency in order to buy political backing. While the people may need the schools, markets, hospitals, and police forces he has created, Chavez has failed to dully keep his own currency out of the domestic marketplace leading to massive inflation rates resulting in poverty. These effects are known as Dutch Disease, which simply put, blames high interest rates on the deindustrialization of a nation's economy and reliance on the extraction of natural resources to fund a nation's development.

The "cure" to Dutch disease is a two fold approach. As previously mentioned, it is vital that the inflation of real exchange rates must be slowed by draining the domestic market of currency and investing it elsewhere. In addition, the competitiveness of the industrial sector must be restored. Alternatively, a government can resort to protectionism as a last resort. This however creates its own problems as tariffs and subsidies could potentially amplify the effects of Dutch Disease by restricting foreign investment.

Well, I wanted to talk about how the UAE government shamelessly buys support from its citizens but for better or for worse, I got off on a less biased tangent. Oh well... I'm gonna go eat some muesli with berries...