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1781 Bank of North America, 1st US bank opens.
1857 Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada.
1879 Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp.
1946 French troops leave Lebanon
1970 Paul McCartney files a lawsuit to dissolve Beatles
1973 Johan Cruyff chosen European soccer Player of year
1977 Amir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah becomes leader of Kuwait
1982 TV soap "Doctors" ends 19 year run
1991 USSR, last day of existence
1991 Dow Jones closes at record high 3168.83
1997 Microsoft buys Hotmail E-mail service
1999 Control of Panama Canal reverts to Panama00690901
2006 The death toll for Americans killed in the Iraq war reached 3,000
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In a festive atmosphere in Abu Dhabi Barcelona won the FIFA Clubs' World Cup for the first time in their history. There were many highlights from the day; the great crowd, nice organization, the Argentine fans and Messi's genius goal.
This time we decided to move early from Dubai and avoid traffic congestion which would start an hour before the match, just like the semifinal. As we arrived we set off to the Fans' Oasis to get the colors painted on our faces, the flags and the photos in the warm up for the game.
Abu dhabi police stole our cigarettes for security reasons and then we took our place in the stands. This is my third time in a football stadium, and I have to say this was the best of them all! 43,050 fans came to see the likes of Messi, Ibra, Henry, Xavi and Veron. soon it was clear that Estudiantes fans were outnumbered, as the UAE local population was clearly siding with the Catalans. Having said that, the Argentines were not going to be intimidated by the other side! They were impressively organized, loud and never gave up! I can't say this about us as we were largely posers :). Not spaniards that is. The spaniards behind me tried in vain to create a rhythm, but our Spanish capabilities stood in the way.
An interesting incident took place. A police man approached the Saudi guy sitting below me and ordered him not to unfurl the Saudi flag! I couldn't understand why as others were waving other flags but the police man insisted. The Saudi guy expectedly ignored him and continued waving the flag for spite!
The match was exciting and we had a lot of fun, but as time passed by I was nearing the point of heart attack until Pedro looped a header past the Argentine goalie in the 89th minute. The crowd went nuts! And I personally lost my voice at that moment, and almost lost my eye to the flag being waved by the spaniard behind me! Off to extra time.
The Argentine fans started losing their drive as they began to realize that they had a glorious advantage which they threw away in the last minute. The tension continued until the little diavello, that is Lionel Messi "chested" a cross by Alves to the far side of the goal! The crow went "Loco" and Messi ran half the pitch in celebration! What a nerve! Not with his foot, not with his head but with his chest! Oh so casually. Now I can boast that I saw Messi scoring two goals live! I just admire this player, and I couldn't have asked for a more rewarding end of the day.
The crowd spent the remaining 8 minutes or so shouting and singing adding salts to the Argentine fans wounds!... Then comes the final whistle to announce Barcelona World Champions, and the Cherry on the top was Messi being named the Player of the Tournament! Nobody other than him deserved it. Veron took the Silver ball, and Xavi collected the bronze.
After the Ceremony we headed back to Dubai. On the way back, 160 km's everyone we saw was wearing the Barcelona Jersey with the Blugrana colors covering their happy faces. We stopped by a gas station to have a late night snack and you could swear this was a gas station in Barcelona! It was just a fantastic atmosphere.
We took a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, I'm too tired to try and download them from my Camera at this late hour. But we promise you'll have them posted soon enough :)
Viva Barca, and Viva Messi.
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"I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.", Albert Einstein.
It's already Christmas in Dubai! After a couple of weeks of uncertainty, Dubai woke up today to a gift. 10 Billion Dollars is the amount that Abu Dhabi splashed to make sure that Dubai's troubled government-owned companies are safe.
In simple terms, this means that companies like Nakheel will be able to fulfill their commitment and pay back the banks. Is this a good news? Well, it depends on how you look at it. See, the alternative for Dubai would've been risking the City's reputation as a safe and reliable investment destination. Companies and individual investors would have been reluctant to come here and spend millions of dollars on investments.
So we established that this will help Dubai protect it's image. The question is; are there any strings attached to it?
Well, let's agree that no one gives free money. Definitely not 10 Billion dollars. It is highly probable that Abu Dhabi would like to have some stake in Dubai's thriving businesses; like Emirates Airlines or Dubai Ports, etc. It's also possible that Abu Dhabi wants to get a chunk of the Cherry that is Dubai's global image. Is it that bad? Absolutely not.
UAE is made of 7 small emirates, and it's certainly not bad that you have one Emirate helping the other. That's what a union is all about after all. Besides, if one city goes down it will drag the other one with it, and if one thrive it will pull the other up with it. So, if there were any strings, it will only make the bond between the two cities stronger and the residents whether locals or expats will definitely benefit from it.
This scenario becomes all the more favorable when you consider that other sources of funds/ strings can come from abroad. It was never a positive thing to have an external influence on your domestic policies or decisions. Whether help comes from USA, EU, Russia, China, KSA or any other source, that is an influence and a potential risk that UAE doesn't need.
So, Happy Eid and Merry Christmas to Dubai.
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I can proudly boost that the last time I intentionally tuned to an Arabic music channel was 8 years ago. The reason is that I got disgusted and ashamed by the extravagant amount of bullshit they play. And although I commend Melody for the great job their marketing team is doing promoting the channel with themed sketches like "Melody Tunes, all engelish all za time", "Melody tatahadda al malal", and "Melody aflam, aflam arabi... Om el agnabi", I can safely assume that they also have outclassed everyone else with their outrageous and shameless clips!
Today, and while I was vegging with a friend of mine doing absolutely nothing, we ended up throwing away the remote with Melody on. Suddenly, appeared on TV what initially looked like a joke, or maybe a new sketch. Much to our surprise it was actually a song by a girl called Pamela Quwaiq! The song was titled "Dada egh!". Still not knowing what is it that is just about to be thrown at us we kept watching! If I want to best describe her I'd say she looked like a cheap prostitute. With a dress barely covering her butt, she appeared to be acting in the opening scene of some porn movie! Things got better with her first two lines:
Dada dada egh.. Ngegh ngegh!!...
Now, I can't claim that the girl is not pretty. She probably qualifies as a candidate for Hareega's Mikro-blogging eye candy, but letting her sing on satellite TV is an insult to everyone! The point is, if I wanted to see flesh or a naked girl I would've simply got me a porno and cut straight to the chase! My question is, what purpose does this video serve??
This is definitely not a song for adults, cause dada egh is barely the line you'd use to address your lover, and if it's directed to kids then the amount of prostitution on display makes it inappropriate for humans well into their 40's! It's worth mentioning that the clip was directed by the "artist" herself.
Just as it ended we were treated to a song by Rami Ayyash - who is still convinced that he is sexy- and Ahmad Adawyya! Bullshi again. Less amount of prostitution though. Finally, a guy called Nabil Ajram caused my a Diarrhea with his " Bet'azzebni leh" clip. Prisoners sporting gayish unifroms being persecuted by wanton girls.
We decided the best thing to do is to go to sleep.
When I have my own kids I'll do the same thing our neighbor in Jordan did and will delete Melody, Mazzika, Rotana and the rest from my channel list.
Finally, I've predicted in an earlier post that we will start exporting porn to the rest of the world in 50 years. I'll revise that. It's going to happen in 20.
