tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56234832945946108812024-03-03T22:22:59.581-08:00A Canadian in Abu Dhabi, UAE*Experiencing expathood since 2008. Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.comBlogger1388125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-44833708538226829522019-01-12T06:07:00.003-08:002019-01-20T09:45:36.312-08:00How to be a happy expat<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Because a cloud wall makes you want to take a selfie. </td></tr>
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After 10 years living in the UAE, some of that time happy, some miserable and the rest just about everything in between, I finally feel qualified to write this piece.<br />
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The answer to the question "How to be a happy expat"?<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Stop complaining about where you are (and find a way to laugh about the things you don't understand). When you find fault with your current situation just because you can, just because it's not what you are used to or were brought up in, you won't be happy. You'll be expecting the place that you are in to do something for you – something you've already decided it can't – and placing your full happiness at some future date, when you are in a different place.<br />
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And this doesn't go for the laborer supporting his family back in Bangladesh, or the nanny from the Philippines, or the taxi driver from Kenya, or any one of the multitudes of people who are here out of necessity rather than choice. This goes for the rest of us. The privileged rest of us.<br />
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I don't hear a lot of this complaining anymore, mostly because I don't hang around people who complain much. (I hang around people who complain just the right amount. Either that, or they are funny about it).<br />
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And if any of my friends start to complain, they won't have much fun because I'm not listening. Or I'll attack them with logic. Like the other day, when an out-of-sorts friend and I wandered around a weekend market and she made a casual, not uncommon, complaint. "It's just not real," she said. "It's a bubble."<br />
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Well, I argued. It feels real to me. I have worked here, lost a job here (more on that later), regained my footing here (more on that later), fallen in love here, had my trust and heart broken here (more on those... you get the picture). I have a house and a cat and friends and new friends and a family I chose and I've been here 10 years and it sure feels like my real life.<br />
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If I had a dirham for every time I heard someone complain about the lack of forests, or restaurants that aren't in hotels, or cutbacks on airlines or expat packages that aren't what they once were or the way Carrefour sends out those mini zamboni-like floor cleaners <i>right at the busiest times </i>(okay, that last one was me).... I'd have a lot of dirhams is all I'm saying.<br />
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I've done my share of complaining, believe me. (And you do not want to see my face when I get a call about a delivery that starts with "what is your location"?) Which is why I can tell you that the only way to be happy in another country is to stop comparing it to home – and finding it lacking – and start focusing on all the things it does have. Opportunity, diversity, a global mindset – not to mention location.<br />
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I met an awesome woman in her 50s recently, who left her corporate banking job in the US and became a pilates teacher and decided to travel the world by herself. But like many dramatic things that people fantasize about doing, that was a bit overrated and a lot lonely (little known fact until you do it). So she based herself in Abu Dhabi and goes on short weekend trips to the coolest destinations through <a href="https://www.meetup.com/trekkup/">Trekkup</a> (more on that later too). "I like living in the middle," she said simply.<br />
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I dream of home, less now, but I do. I miss forests, not that when I lived in Canada I spent much time in them. And I do have in my mind's eye a green sort of retreat that I imagine retiring to. (Although now that I am likely priced out of the real estate market, it will probably be in a trailer park). Living in the middle though – that has given me <i>everything. </i><br />
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When I first moved to Abu Dhabi and things went wrong, my go-to reaction was to say to anyone who would listen "I'm leaving". (I apologise to whoever was listening). Yet I was acutely aware, even in my tantrum-like state, that when things went wrong back in Canada all those years I lived there, I would never threaten to leave. I never would have. Where would I have gone?<br />
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Somehow between then and now, in the stop-and-start way of learning and of finding yourself and of life, I figured out how to be a happy expat, and a grateful one. And I did this through experience, through counting up all the cool things that have happened for me here, things that would not have, could not have happened in Canada.<br />
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And when you are far from home, because you have chosen to be, that's how you stay happy about it. And laugh about the rest.<br />
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<i>Note: In case anyone has been wondering, I didn't post here for a long time because things were happening. Crazy things were happening, people. Crazy things have happened, including <a href="http://livehealthy.ae/">this</a>. I'll be writing about some them. I won't always be lecturing either, promise. And if I haven't said so before (and I'm afraid that I haven't) thank you for reading all my things starting way back when. It means the world to me. </i><br />
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates24.453884 54.37734380000006223.9911055 53.731896800000065 24.916662499999997 55.02279080000006tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-62153323506605347372018-09-07T14:42:00.002-07:002019-01-20T09:46:11.534-08:00That time when home feels more strange than away<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and my dad, Larry, on his birthday. </td></tr>
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There are a million great things that have come into my life ever since I left Canada for the UAE more than 10 years ago – a trip I thought might last a year or two, tops.<br />
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I've been aware that the experience has altered me totally and completely for most of the time to varying degrees. (I often liken those first few months to having my personality disintegrate, and then the rest of the year as me rebuilding it into something I could vaguely recognise. It's something else, leaving one life and building a whole other one for yourself.)<br />
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For a long time time I've felt as if I have feet in both the Middle East and Canada, but at the same time, nowhere and everywhere. I try not to wonder what would have happened if I didn't leave, because it goes nowhere, and anyway, generally I've decided the million and one crazy-cool experiences I've had, the financial gains, the career advancements and let's not forgot the array of friends make up for any stability I forsook when I upped stakes on Ottawa, Canada.<br />
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But this trip. <i>This trip home. </i>I'm a freelancer and my own boss now – more on that story later – and due to work volume I was stuck in the UAE heat for most of the summer. So I decided I would come home for almost a month and work remotely. It's a long time to be out of your life, that's for sure, so probably one reason for how I'm feeling.<br />
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It's been great. I took my 8-year-old niece and 6-year-old nephew away up north to a cottage for the weekend, just us three with some of my university friends, was there for their first day of school, partied with my brother and took my dad out for beer and snacks on his birthday.<br />
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I also have a palpable sense that this time I have crossed over into a sense of "other" that is very profound. I always joke that I'm like Balki from <i>Perfect Strangers</i> when I come home, befuddled by debit machines and ringing up my own groceries and even pumping my own gas. But now I feel like Balki emotionally too. Like, nothing is making any sense. Why is everyone renovating their perfectly nice, perfectly-sized houses? Why are some of my friends talking about retirement? Why don't people seem happy? Why is everything so expensive? Why do the buses have giant ads on them promoting snooping services? Why does every second woman have semi-permanent fake eyelashes? Why is everyone wearing workout clothes? Why do people have remote control golf carts? Why are there so many massage therapy centers? Why am I not interested in any of the news in my hometown newspaper, the one I was dying to work at for several years at the start of my career? Why do I have zero answers, after all this time, when everyone asks me "do you know when you think you are coming home"?<br />
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I do know my dad has taught the work "inshallah" to all his golf buddies, and now they say it all the time when they are taking a shot, except he taught it to them wrong and they "ahhhshalla" and when I dropped him off this morning one of his buddies yelled it at me happily and I cracked up.<br />
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Basically I have gained a decade of worldly experience by packing it all in for the unknown: 40-plus countries, wild adventure, love, deep learning, a total metamorphosis and some betrayal and heartbreak thrown in for good measure. Sure, Canada seems weird to me. So does the UAE. That's just the way it's going to be, I think. And as for my head? Well I've learned enough, and experienced enough, to realize that I know nothing and I question everything.<br />
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Pretty good investment, I'd say. And that's really all I'm sure of.<br />
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-88009524286283395872018-04-22T06:09:00.002-07:002018-04-22T06:09:30.531-07:00I feel like Avengers: Infinity War is getting enough press but Burj Khalifa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-37702128920623135272018-04-02T23:57:00.000-07:002018-04-03T04:20:29.123-07:00Tadweer is recycling in Abu Dhabi: Be still my heart! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me recycling for the first time in years.</td></tr>
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Two days ago I saw two men putting what looked to be recyclables into a dumpster just like the one above, in the parking lot outside the Park Rotana, and I thought, hmmm. Then I spotted two of the same bin outside my apartment and literally, my heart soared.<br />
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I still don't know anything about the bins, other than that they are there and I am happy about it, but believe me, I'm looking into it.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
It's cool timing that these bins have appeared, because today <i>The National</i> published <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/uae/abu-dhabi-s-slick-plan-to-turn-waste-cooking-oil-into-electricity-1.718199">my story</a> about the plans Tadweer, The Centre for Waste Management in Abu Dhabi, has to capture methane at its Al Dhafra Landfill and use it to power a new plant to incinerate about 18,000 tonnes per year of medical and hazardous waste and convert 20,000 liters of used cooking oil per day into biodiesel. All of that was just going into the landfill, by the way, and all of the methane was going into the atmosphere.<br />
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For years I schlepped my recycling down to a non-descript depot outside Spinneys (another, different one that didn't have a clear owner/operator), feeling pretty virtuous for the extra effort. For several years I wrote a column in <i>The National </i>called Green Queen, after all. I had to walk the talk.<br />
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But then I met a friend who did work in this area – he is a lawyer – and he told me not to bother, that whatever I dropped off there wasn't being recycled. So I stopped. And I've felt privately ashamed as well as slightly depressed about it ever since. I am just one person, but I generate so much trash, no matter what I do (including an ill-conceived attempt last year to slow-compost on my balcony. There is a tub out there now full of rotten food that I can't bear to look into).<br />
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The municipality did announce a door-to-door recycling scheme years and years ago, one I wrote about at the time for the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, but it never materialised. But I really think, considering the mentality over here – the "chuck it" mentality – that it was too ambitious at the time.<br />
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Slow clap Tadweer. Slow, happy clap. </div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-86408999285848637052018-03-28T05:33:00.002-07:002018-03-28T05:33:34.698-07:00I want to lose my heavy baggage next trip with this $1,000 Travelmate robot suitcase<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Wouldn't it be fun to walk through the airport with one of these "fully autonomous" <a href="https://travelmaterobotics.com/">Travelmate</a> suitcases, which cost US$1,000 (Dh3,672) and come with a removable four-hour battery that can also be used to recharge any mobile device. There is also a fingerprint lock system, a built-in scale and a GPS to locate it if the absolute worst happens and your flight lands at 3am at Abu Dhabi International Airport and your suitcase is MIA and you have to line up at that little kiosk when you are so tired you can barely see. </div>
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Of course I have also begun to envision scenarios where this robotic suitcase turns on you and refuses to stop at Duty Free, or some similar, or you run out of juice and it just refuses to move, like those petulant three-year-olds I always see slowly killing their parents at airport security. And I question: is it really fully autonomous? If that were true, couldn't it just flat out refuse to make the trip with you, or start spitting your clothes out as soon as you laid them in while packing? I shall never know. My trusty Victorianox looks set to last forever. </div>
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The Travelmate was one of the exhibitors at the inaugural <a href="https://travelmaterobotics.com/">Amaze Expo 2018</a>, which featured an array of high-end lifestyle products at the Dubai International Financial Centre's The Gate and wrapped over the weekend. </div>
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Travelmate was one of the exhibitors at the Amaze Expo 2018 </div>
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-3258536163411094242018-03-27T04:54:00.000-07:002018-03-27T04:58:27.676-07:00Image of the day: Instagram bait galore in the INDEX Dubai's Off the Wall feature<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Belgian "street luxury" artist Pablo Lucker. </td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.360000610351563px;">I've been seeing these all over Instagram lately and now, Dubai. It's worth a trip to the 28th <a href="https://www.indexexhibition.com/">INDEX Dubai,</a> on at the Dubai World Trade Centre until Thursday March 29, for lots of reasons. But one is to get a shot like this in the Off The Wall feature</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.360000610351563px;">. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.360000610351563px;">The side-ways room was created by Dubai-based interior designer Sharon Jutla and features furniture and décor worth an estimated Dh1.4 million from US designer Jonathan Adler. </span></div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-68442631794585599222018-03-27T04:26:00.000-07:002018-03-27T04:26:23.146-07:00Overheard in Abu Dhabi at #MediaMondaysUAE – #ToroToroAD edition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"Please don't take my picture. My image is worth money."<br />
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-64765171139445441562018-01-18T05:45:00.000-08:002018-02-07T05:04:47.283-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My heart always soars when I see AEDs (not dirhams, defibrillators) in public places. This has only happened in the last few years and it's a huge development. Years ago I wrote about losing my friend Rob Evans, who died out on Yas Island at the age of 37, for no real good reason. By all accounts those who were with him that terrible night say it happened quickly, but I always wonder whether if there was a defibrillator nearby... would it have made a difference. Either way, I think of Rob when I see these and thinking of him always makes my day, because he was a hilarious, gentle, kind and imaginative soul. You can read all about him <a href="http://annmariemcqueen.blogspot.ae/2010/11/shall-i-play-song-hey-rob-evans-i-didnt.html">here</a> and <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/home/the-very-picture-of-an-adventurous-life-1.556105">here</a>. </div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-63079067184421582702018-01-17T05:45:00.003-08:002018-02-07T04:53:20.958-08:00Costa Coffee catches up with almond and coconut milk<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I haven't had a cafe latte in years, as milk makes me feel gross and like my pants are two sizes two tight. I'm obviously not alone, according to the boom in non-dairy, and that's why I was so excited to see that Costa coffee is now not only offering almond milk, but coconut milk too. (Coconut milk makes a better latte, in my opinion). These types of milks are on the regular back in North America.<br />
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Unfortunately the first morning I ordered one I mistakenly took the wrong order and drank half of it before realizing - and it was hot milk! Only hot milk. What adult orders this in the morning? And why would I, coffee's greatest lover and non-drinker of cow's milk for years now, not realize that I was drinking milk and not coffee for so long? <i>Because cow's milk is forbidden and delicious, and I think I didn't want to know, that's why. </i>Anyway. Starbucks Middle East needs to wake up to this, as do the other chains, because this trend is definitely and finally landing here. I love getting non-dairy alternatives at Nolu's and Nectar (the amazing juice bar at BodyTree), two of my favorite places to get healthy snacks.<br />
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If anyone knows of any other places who are making the switch, please let me know!<br />
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PS: Did you know you can make your own almond milk easy-peasy by blending two tablespoons of almond butter with a cup and a half of water and a pinch of salt (vanilla if you are into it?) You cap and keep in the fridge, just give it a shake when you take it out. <i>It's fine, it just separated. </i>Not only is this cheaper – milk alternatives are crazy expensive at the expat-supermarkets where they are reliably found – but healthier. The boxed varieties have stabilizers and emulsifiers in them; not so natural. Now you know! Or drink milk. Or whatever you like to drink.</div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-25740955848391743402018-01-15T07:35:00.001-08:002018-01-15T07:39:56.102-08:00Day 1: Whole 30 in the UAE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I’m not a fan of fad diets and I’ve pretty much figured out how I like to eat: clean, with minimal dairy and bread items. </div>
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But I was home in Canada for three weeks over the holidays and ate my face off. Also, I’m intrigued by some of this diet’s claims, particularly that it can reduce pain. (For some reason, I have had an inordinate amount of it in the last year).</div>
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So I ordered a ridiculous amount of vegetables from a new delivery company, <a href="https://www.thehonestcounter.com/">The Honest Counter</a>, which I can highly recommend. I’m to avoid all dairy, grains, sugar, legumes and alcohol for the next 30 days, then slowly add them in to my diet after to see what’s bothering me. </div>
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(I drew the line at making my own condiments. C’mon.)</div>
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The day got off to a bad start when, after resisting this banana bread at Costa, I accidentally made off with the wrong drink order. It took me way too long to realise that instead of drinking an almond milk latte, I had downed half of some sort of all-milk drink. (I haven’t had milk in years - it was delicious!) How could I mistake a cup of hot milk for a coffee, you might be asking?</div>
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Well I’m working at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center this week and I couldn’t find the office I’d just left, okay? I think this diet might address brain fog, too. </div>
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But not if I keep drinking milk accidentally. </div>
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-83414223969259515982018-01-15T06:51:00.000-08:002018-01-15T06:53:09.057-08:00China's Iconiq brings freaky new driverless cars to Abu Dhabi's Masdar City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="text-align: left;">The Chinese company Iconiq will test two driverless cars at Masdar City this year, including the Level 5 – developed in conjunction with Masdar – above, an announcement made at the World Future Energy Summit at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. </span></div>
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Iconiq's chief executive said the company plans to deliver the first L5 fleet for the Dubai World Expo in 2020 and begin mass-producing them at the end of 2023. </div>
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The Chinese company's Iconiq Seven, one of the world’s latest EV models, is also on display at the World Future Energy Summit. This car is fully connected with Microsoft’s AZURE cloud technology and is set to hit the market in 2019. </div>
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Masdar started testing funky little driverless cars back in 2010, which became a fun activity for visiting family and friends and brightened up a grumpy mid-summer afternoon for me many years ago, although I have no idea whether they are still there or not. </div>
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The future is here.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><i>Editor's note: I'm working at the World Future Energy Summit at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre this week, if this or any other post seems just a little bit random. Fun fact about me: I love everything to do with sustainability. Don't believe me? In the early days of The National I wrote a column as the <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/home/sleep-green-for-a-better-night-s-rest-1.416498">Green Queen</a>, which was no small feat back in 2011-era UAE, if I do say so myself.</i></span></div>
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-69917568317933061532018-01-01T16:46:00.002-08:002018-01-01T16:48:19.129-08:00It's 2018 & now we are all paying VAT. Also, I was on the radio<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hey there. Happy New Year. I was real ready for it to be 2018, because 2017 was basically the best of times and worst of times for me – 2016 too, come to think of it – and I'll be writing a little bit more about some of those adventures in the coming weeks. I've got a bit more free time these days, and I'll be writing about that too. New beginnings, and all.<br />
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For now though, one of the new things I started doing at the end of 2017 is reporting for CBC Radio's programme <i>The World This Weekend</i>. I used to be an Ontario Morning correspondent for CBC back in the day, and later filed reports for Ottawa Morning and I have to say, it's a real thrill to be back on radio. As a foreign correspondent-type person. (I always dreamed of being a foreign correspondent, but I kind of took a different route in my career) Anyway, it's a medium I love and will be doing more of. So stay tuned for that too.<br />
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For now, you can still <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/ae/podcast/cbc-news-the-world-this-weekend/id278115096?mt=2#episodeGuid=http%3A%2F%2Fpodcast.cbc.ca%2Ftwtw%2Ftwtw_20171231_2200.mp3">check out the report </a>I did this weekend on the five per cent value-added tax that launched today across the UAE.<br />
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As Alia Yunis, a Californian I interviewed for the report, puts it: "Taxes are one of those words that you never want to hear, but they seem to be getting inevitable so you can run but you can’t hide from them, as much as people try to." </div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-78430447453055819822017-12-11T06:14:00.001-08:002017-12-11T20:14:16.885-08:00Haifaa Al Mansour will screen a film in Saudi Arabia one day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I interviewed the Saudi director Haifaa Al Mansouri at the Dubai International Film Festival over the weekend, before news hit that Saudi would definitely have movie theaters starting next year. Still, when I asked her how she would feel about the possibility of seeing a film in her home country after a lifetime of not being able to, she said the cutest thing:<br />
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“See a movie? I’ll have a film playing!”<br />
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Al Mansouri is the kingdom’s first female film director who made a name for herself with her debut, 2012’s <i>Wadjda</i>. The changes in Saudi are pretty cool all around, but when it comes to the arts they must be particularly meaningful for someone who had to learn about film from television and hide in a van to direct shots in her first feature.<br />
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We spoke the morning after she won the IWC Filmmaker's Award for a script she wrote with her husband for a stop-motion animation project called <i>Miss Camel</i>. It sounds the cutest, all about a Saudi camel who dreams of bigger things, including traveling to compete in Abu Dhabi's annual camel beauty contest. Full story <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/diff-2017-haifaa-al-mansour-won-t-get-the-hump-after-winning-funding-for-camel-movie-1.683644">here</a>.<br />
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-69173605111055025902017-12-10T04:07:00.000-08:002017-12-10T05:32:35.040-08:00Courage + 'when are you coming home'?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">I love this Anais Nin quote. This quote always makes me think about my life in two parts: before my mom Christine died of cancer when I was 27 and she was 53, and after.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">Not only did it lurch me into adulthood in the three short months she was ill - like so many women, I wasn’t so much an adult who made my own decisions as a person who leaned on my mother in every way - but it brought something else into sharp focus. What if I died? What if I only made it to 53?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">What if my mom knew she was going to die then? What would she have done differently? I know one of the paths she didn’t take, using her nursing degree to become a flight attendant, was something she thought often about. I know she was great at living in the moment and getting immense enjoyment from silly things, and lifelong learning and growing, and challenging herself, and that she loved being a mom. What else, I won’t know. But life from that moment changed forever for me, and ordinary became impossible.</span></span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">The idea of expansion is huge for me, because one thing I have pondered since my first, painful few months of adjustment in Abu Dhabi, and continue to think about almost 10 years after leaving Canada is: ‘what would have happened if I didn’t come’? Never mind the dozens of places I’ve been, the priceless shift in perception, the awakening. Just what about the people I’ve known here? The men I’ve loved, the women who’ve held me up, the souls I’ve just brushed by, the stories I've been lucky enough to tell and hear. I’m rich in life from this. I'm rich in travel. No wonder I always say I won the lottery when I got a job here. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">It’s important to remember that everyone has courage within them. People who do courageous things, far more courageous than I ever could, were scared to. They just didn’t let it stop them. I was scared senseless getting off a plane in a country I had never been to, all my belongings in five bags. It got worse after I landed, when I basically felt my personality disintegrate, and I had to put myself back together again. (Not the last time that has happened over here!)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">About a year ago my life fell apart, again. (Life falls apart more when you take chances, I think. At least that's what I tell myself) Something happened in my personal life that made me question my own sanity, and almost every thing I had ever thought or known, every framework and belief and comfort and sense of trust I had ever held. (I'll write about it someday, when it's... smaller) As 2016 turned into 2017 things not only got better, they got amazing for a few months. Just downright amazing. And then my life fell apart again, whomp, one-two punch, and things were terrible and horrible. (I'll write about it someday, you know... when it's smaller) I felt like someone pushed me out of a moving car in the middle of the desert. People were lovely and helpful and supportive, and I'm so lucky to have the friends and family I do. But most of the advice I got from people in Canada, most of the advice I still get from people in Canada, as I work through my Humpty Dumpty putting herself back together again routine? "Just come home". Like that would fix everything. Like after almost a decade I don't have a 360 degree, fully dimensional working life here. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">I don't blame anyone at home: they can't see this. They can't see into my heart and soul, they can't feel the depth of experience there; there is no way they can know the volume of change that has happened in me. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">I don't think anyone back home, other than my family and closest friends who get it, could comprehend that going back to Canada now seems scarier than getting on that plane 10 years ago. It's hard for me to imagine how my utterly transformed self could just slip back into a homeland that looks and sounds more foreign than all the dozens I've visited. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">My life expanded immeasurably because I took a big risk. I felt contracted in my lovely little Canadian life, and there was a call. I'm not saying it was a hero's journey (well, maybe it was my hero's journey) but I could have ignored it and saved myself a lot of complication, and fear, and uncertainty. But then, no expansion. That's why it always makes me chuckle, and sometimes it makes me cranky, when all anyone in Canada seems to ask is ‘when are you coming home?’ </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">Like everything I’ve felt and experienced over here, the life I built, the friends I've made, the ways I've grown, mean nothing. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.360001564025879px;">It does though, to me. It means the world to me.</span></div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-46089941979487293372017-11-10T05:50:00.003-08:002017-11-10T06:06:53.851-08:00Jenny Holzer's For Louvre Abu Dhabi and 6 more lady parts art not to miss<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of three Jenny Holzer script walls in <i>For Abu Dhabi.</i></td></tr>
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When I visited the Louvre Abu Dhabi this week for a preview before it opens to the public this weekend (and boy is this a gorgeous building) I was particularly looking forward to installation commissioned from the American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, titled, aptly, <i>For Louvre Abu Dhabi</i>. Although she is often known for using neon light, most recently seen in her current exhibition, <i>Softer</i>, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Holzer’s Louvre Abu Dhabi piece features something much different - and she is not messing around with the details.<br />
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She has used three stone walls to recreate three magical-looking historical texts throughout the museum. The first marble relief (pictured above) is located to the left upon entering the main foyer under the dome, behind August Rodin's sculpture from 1900, <i>Walking Man, On a Column</i>. This piece represents the oldest of the three texts, found on a Mesopotamian clay tablet excavated from the ancient city of Assur in modern-day Iraq. It recounts a creation myth imagined almost 4,000 years ago and told in two languages, Sumerian (left) and Akkadian (right) cuneiform scripts. That myth? Well, as it goes, after creating the heavens, earth and rivers, the gods created the first humans by mixing clay with the blood of a sacrificed diety.<br />
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The original, which is part of the Berlin Vorderasiatisches Museum in Germany, can be traced back to the birth of writing in Mesopotamia. It is something else to see.<br />
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The choice of Holzer is enlightened, particularly for this region, something that was echoed by Roxane Zand, Sotheby’s deputy chairman for the Middle East, when I spoke to her earlier this autumn.<br />
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“That is extremely exciting, because in the conceptual world there aren’t that many women who are as successful as the level of Jenny Holzer, so that in itself is significant, that a female artist has been chosen,” says Zand. “Secondly, she’s at the forefront of her field and to have an American woman having a work there is a significant thing.”<br />
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<b>Leonardo Da Vinci's <i>La Belle Ferronniere</i></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy Louvre Abu Dhabi. </td></tr>
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The woman’s dark hair is parted in the middle, accented across the forehead by a delicate chain and jewel, and tied up in a low chignon in the back. Her outfit and adornments are stylish but not lavish, standard for both her station and stage in life. The look on her face is hard to peg: she appears serene, if not a bit impatient, perhaps the slightest bit mischievous, and quite possibly throwing some of the earliest recorded side-eye to the left. <i>La Belle Ferronniere</i>, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s rare paintings also known as <i>Portrait of an Unknown Woman</i>, is one of the high-profile loans made to the new Louvre Abu Dhabi for its first year.<br />
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Although there are many who believe the identity of the woman depicted in La Belle Ferronniere remains a mystery, Martin Kemp, professor of art history at University of Oxford, a Leonardo expert and author of the newly published book <i>Mona Lisa: The People and The Painting</i>, isn’t one of them.<br />
Kemp believes the woman is Lucrezia Crivelli, mistress to Leonardo’s patron, the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, and mother to his son. The painting is one of only four portraits Leonardo painted of women, with the others being <i>Lady with the Ermine</i>, which depicts another of Sforza’s mistresses, Cecilia Gallerani; the Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de' Benci and, of course, the Mona Lisa.<br />
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Kemp is reasonably assured <i>La Belle Ferronniere</i> is Crivelli, because there are poems that refer to the actual execution of the painting, and the date lines up: Leonardo lived in Milan from 1482 until 1499, and the painting was done sometime between 1490 and 1496. Most telling, however, is the way the woman is poised.<br />
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“There’s a very characteristic way that he paints the duke’s mistresses, rather than the members the court,” explains Kemp. “Members of the court, the high-ranking people, were always shown in profile… interestingly when Leonardo came to portrait other women who obviously didn’t have that high aristocratic status, he went what I call ‘free style’. He turned the figures towards you, he used their eyes and their mouths to communicate the nature of the subject. I think La Belle Ferronniere looks out in our direction but actually looks, if you trace it, slightly above eye line, so somebody of importance is being looked at who is more elevated than us.”<br />
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<i>La Belle Ferronniere</i> was the first artwork that Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, the Musee du Louvre and Agency France-Museums announced would be loaned to the Louvre Abu Dhabi from the The Louvre in Paris during its first year in operation. The painting’s stay in Abu Dhabi, after a stint at the Milan Expo in 2015 followed by a restoration in Paris, not only marks the first time it has been outside Europe, but the first time a Leonardo has been shown anywhere in the Middle East.<br />
“Any painting by Leonardo, in that we have under 20 surviving, is obviously an item of major interest,” says Kemp. <br />
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It had long been thought, Kemp points out, that perhaps the parapet in front of Crivelli, which was not a standard technique in Leonardo’s paintings, may have been added some time later. However examination at the Louvre during the restoration showed that not to be true.<br />
“It’s interesting that the figure is set above a parapet, above that stone band along the bottom, which is unusual for Leonardo,” says Kemp. “But we know that he was aware of portraits by Venetian artists, particularly Giovanni Bellini. He sets his portraits very often behind a parapet, it’s a way of setting it up in space. It gives a kind of distance between us and the picture surface.”<br />
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<b>Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey's <i>Ayoucha whole fig[ure]</i></b></div>
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Another important part of the permanent collection is <i>Ayoucha whole fig[ure]</i>, the earliest known depiction of a veiled woman. The daguerreotype, which features a shimmery image captured in mercury on copper plate, shows the top two-thirds of a sturdy, broad-shouldered woman known as Cairene. She is clad in a thick abaya with heavy folds, staring into the camera from some distance. There is nothing else in the photograph.<br />
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The image was taken in 1843 Egypt, by the French artist and photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey when he was on a tour of the Middle East, and remained in his private archive until the Louvre Abu Dhabi acquired it in 2011. The early photography method Girault de Prangey used to capture Cairene was painstaking and expensive. It involves polishing a sheet of silver-plated copper, treating it with fumes to make the surface light-sensitive, then using mercury vapor to reveal the image. It was then treated, rinsed and sealed behind glass. The result is ethereal, with the colors changing as it appears either positive or negative according to angle and lighting.<br />
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“It is an image that will become one of the icons of 19th century photography,” Laurence des Cars, the former curatorial director of Agence France-Museums and now director of the Musée d’Orsay, told UAE newspaper <i>The National</i> in 2013. “You are dealing with a very rare and fine example of a new technique in 19th century art.”<br />
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<b>Egyptian funeral set for the princess Henuttawy</b></div>
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The Egyptian funeral set for the princess Henuttawy dates to the latter half of 10th century BCE and includes three wooden coffins - two beautifully painted and preserved, the third in fragments - and her cocoon-protected body. Featuring the open eyes set in the typically expressionless gold face of the time, the exterior of Henuttaway’s set features another fascinating detail: perfectly aligned and erect gold hands with extraordinarily long and thin fingers.<br />
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When the acquisition was unveiled earlier this year, Jean-Francois Charnier, the scientific director of Agence France-Muséums, and head curator for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, said he expects Henuttawy to be a centerpiece not only of its Egyptian collection, but the museum as a whole.<br />
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“The great care and attention given to the delicate features of the princess’s face and her ‘living’ eyes still watching us across the millennia remind us of the identity of the deceased person, who was a Pharaoh’s daughter,” the curator explains.<br />
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<b>The Bactrian Princess</b></div>
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For some reason I am obsessed with this curious little 25.3-centimeter tall creature. In the permanent collection, an air of mystery and allure surrounds her, this 4,000-year-old sculpture representing one of Central Asia’s earliest empires, located in modern-day Afghanistan. She is strangely beautiful, but also slightly alien with her sharply oval eyes, wearing a woven dress carved out of a soft, soap stone-style chlorite, her arms outstretched, handless, her ivory face almost mask-like.<br />
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Having the Bactrian Princess places the Louvre Abu Dhabi among other world-class institutions, Carl Lamberg-Karlovsky, professor of Archaeology and Ethnology at the Harvard University department of anthropology, told me. He estimates there are only about 20 in the world, with most all of the major museums in the world having one in their collection. It is believed the Bactrian princesses were used as part of some sort of religious object, or in a ritual - perhaps a funeral.<br />
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“They’re highly valuable,” he says. “We don’t know, of course, how many there are in private collections. If you want to deal with a comprehensive coverage of a bronze age civilization, having one of those is a benchmark of the Bactrian civilization. It’s a common aspect of a signature piece of that civilization. It immediately identifies it as Bactrian.”<br />
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Another person as captivated as I am by the Bactrian Princess is Dr Lamees Hamdan, the commissioner of the first United Arab Emirates pavilion at the Venice Biennale, founder and creator of the luxury beauty line Shiffa and one-time Oprah Winfrey guest.<br />
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“I’d like to know more historically about what kind of dress and beauty fabric they were using, did they have oils, did they have makeup, quote unquote, and where did they get it from? Did they get it from their place of origin?” she told <i>The Art Newspaper</i>. “So just from that one item you can actually look into a whole society. It’s important for me, as a woman, to know and be interested in the roles of women, not only in society, and modern societies in different parts of the world, but also ancient civilizations in different parts of the world.”<br />
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“The burials that are found are really quite rich, they have pots, pieces of metal, things like that,” says Lamberg-Karlovsky. “And in those burials it seems that women have greater amounts of burial goods than do men…So that leads to some individuals concluding that the status of women in the Bactrian civilsation was rather high, maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not.”<br />
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<b>Giovanni Bellini's <i>Madonna and Child</i></b></div>
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The Louvre Abu Dhabi provides a neat link between Leonardo and that painter whose technique he may have admired - or at least attempted to emulate - in Bellini’s <i>Madonna and Child</i>, an oil on panel painted between 1480 and 1485, acquired as part of the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s permanent collection. <br />
Considered the father of Renaissance painting, Bellini specialized in such devotional depictions. Yet while the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s painting is typically luminous, unlike many of his others that also feature landscapes, it offers only darkness in the background.<br />
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There is, however, a parapet, which in this case acts like an alter. The child sits on it, atop the Madonna’s scarlet robes, gazing up at her.<br />
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<b>Alberto Giacometti’s <i>Standing Woman II</i></b></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Another female subject, on loan to Louvre Abu Dhabi from the Collection Centre Pompidou, is Alberto Giacometti’s </span><i style="text-align: left;">Standing Woman II</i><span style="text-align: left;">, circa 1959-1960. The Surrealist Swiss painter-sculptor’s figure, with its rough surface and elongated, emaciated frame, embodies one of his standard themes: the unclothed woman. </span></div>
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A search for meaning and truth is believed to have driven the obsessive artist, whose work was the subject of a major retrospective earlier this year at the Tate Modern. In a letter to an art dealer in his prime, he describes the depths plumbed during five years spent battling through a piece that he had thought would take mere weeks: “Nothing was as I imagined. A head, became for me an object completely unknown and without dimensions.”</div>
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-80353990371383116212017-11-04T02:42:00.000-07:002017-11-04T02:42:03.972-07:00It's back! It's back! Get ready for the Terry Fox Run 2018<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Go <a href="http://www.thinkflash.ae/events/terry-fox-run-2018">here</a> to register for this 8.5km track along Abu Dhabi's Corniche on Friday, January 19. See you there!</div>
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-4959201170336714632017-11-02T02:39:00.004-07:002017-11-02T02:39:53.751-07:00If I knew then what I know now: Buying a car edition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I just returned from another trip deep into Mussafah, Abu Dhabi's industrial area, after taking my car into the Volvo dealership. It was to be a routine service, but as they delicately explained, there is something wrong with my engine. Gulp.<br />
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So I left the car, ordered a Careem, and am back at home expecting a big bill - or maybe having to decide whether I even bother fixing the car. But I'm also facing next week without a car, when I really need one, because the technician already warned me this was going to take awhile.<br />
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And here's where if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't bother buying a used car in Abu Dhabi. I would go new.<br />
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I bought my 2008 Volvo C70 back in 2013 because it was a) a convertible and b) a good price. And although I have loved that car more than any other in my life, it has had some major problems over the years. I once blew a radiator hose on a trip back from Yas Island, which damaged the engine (and which I suspect is the source of today's problem). That's when I found out how long it can take to get parts. I had to rent a car because it took two weeks to get the parts and do the repairs. <br />
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The next year I cracked the oil pan going too quickly over one of the massive speed bumps out at Yas Mall. Another very expensive repair, another two weeks without my car. You see what's happening here? Even a smaller repair can take days, versus the hours I was used to back in Canada. Only the biggest job there would take two days. But that is there and this is here.<br />
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And although I am sure Mussafah is lovely, the traffic is terrible, it's very confusing to navigate – I still need to Google Map it, after all these times – and I could do without driving out there for servicing.<br />
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All this to say, while I am a huge proponent of buying used almost <i>everything</i>, to cut down on waste and rampant commercialism and because it's cheaper, in Abu Dhabi, when it comes to a car, I say go new.<br />
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Who needs to deal with long stretches of time without their car? Long waits for parts that need to be shipped in from Europe? The worry, the hassle? I think it's cheaper, not to mention way more convenient, to buy new with a warranty. </div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-6614905986648334392017-11-01T09:28:00.000-07:002017-11-01T10:52:35.804-07:00Today in firsts: Standup paddle boarding versus kayaking<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eastern Mangroves Corniche.</td></tr>
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I've been meaning to try standup paddle boarding for 5 years now. During an interview with an expat website literally five years ago, I indicated that I was going to be trying standup paddle boarding <i>imminently. </i></div>
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And the thing was, I meant to. I really did. I don't know where the time goes on these things, but I guess it's the same gaping hole that swallowed my book and my screenplay. But you can't really compare something that would take two hours and is a five-minute drive from my house to something that would take hundreds of hours to complete. </div>
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ANYWAY. The other day my friend and I made a plan to finally do it. We met at 9am at the place just off Eastern Mangroves Promenade. We got our paddle boards. We found them very, very tippy. We managed to get ourselves out into semi-open water, but we soon realized that due to the extensive dredging-esque operation going on down there, we didn't really have anywhere to go. After an hour our legs hurt and, our dream of getting away from it all fading, we decided to go back. Now, standup paddle boarding is a favorite activity of some people, and maybe I'll hear a passionate defense from someone, and perhaps I shouldn't judge after just one shot where we had to listen to (and look at) a lot of noisy machinery. </div>
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But I'm going to. Because I absolutely love kayaking. And the whole time we were standup paddle boarding, we both kept wishing we could be sitting down. </div>
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My favorite part of the day came when I asked if we could get a discount on the price due to the dredging. The nice guy manning the paddle boarding booth put me on the phone with the owner, who was awesome, listening as I explained the whole setup wasn't really what we had imagined. </div>
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"Could we have a discount?" I asked.</div>
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"Okay," he said. "What would you like to pay?"</div>
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"I would like to pay nothing," I said. </div>
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"Okay," he said. </div>
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All that to say, I prefer kayaking. </div>
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-65568247636610396152017-10-16T09:25:00.000-07:002017-10-16T09:25:23.079-07:00FINALLY: You can book appointments at the Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi online<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">*Me and a Mountie.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">While I have always taken great pleasure in getting to the embassy early enough to get the '001' ticket, I'd much rather do this. In an email sent out tonight to Canadians in the UAE, the embassy announces: </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">To better serve your needs, we are pleased to announce our new online appointment system for requesting passport or consular services for Canadian citizens. This will avoid long and sometimes unexpected waiting times. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">You can do this either through the<a href="http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/uae-eau/index.aspx?lang=eng"> website </a>or through <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CanadainUAE/">Facebook</a>. </span></i><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br />
*Not a real Mountie.</div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-12648102804974378802017-10-16T08:50:00.000-07:002017-10-16T09:10:11.548-07:00People are super stressed out in the UAE and they often have no idea why<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnjuslkKI3UvhgADLroG2kwiSrhmO8RD2_92MUBIuWPR2jKmoCNbNKGA3C55nFyK0dDXZOlD5-FAzIXk23VWWhVxYUIzV2KW55N7vPQXuq_8lKF4kLD80XiX-LPQExYTlQMidsMtFXNqc/s1600/depressed.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="472" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnjuslkKI3UvhgADLroG2kwiSrhmO8RD2_92MUBIuWPR2jKmoCNbNKGA3C55nFyK0dDXZOlD5-FAzIXk23VWWhVxYUIzV2KW55N7vPQXuq_8lKF4kLD80XiX-LPQExYTlQMidsMtFXNqc/s320/depressed.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I wrote an article on the <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/wellbeing/the-connection-between-inflammation-and-depression-explained-1.667199">link between depression and inflammation</a> for <i>The National</i> this week and it's getting some really good traction and reaction. One of the most interesting things to me, in researching it, was that Lighthouse Arabia, a therapy centre in Dubai, sees the same pattern in the people who come in for help.<br />
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People present at the end of their rope, figuring they've got some sort of clinical problem, only to have their therapist focus on stabilizing their body with sleep, good food, exercise, et cetera, before even thinking about their psychological issues. Dr Saliha Afridi, clinical psychologist and a managing director at the centre, says that usually helps them feel better. Then they are calm and clear enough to figure out what the real problem is.<br />
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<i>"I think if you took underneath those symptoms, a lot of that has to do with an unhealthy lifestyle, inflammation of the body, difficulties in relationships, chronic stress, and poor sleep patterns, and if you manage for those, the depressive symptoms almost always manage themselves. Usually the depression lifts off."</i><br />
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This makes me feel so sad for all the people who aren't coming in for help, and as we know, most people don't ask for help. Dr Afridi even told me very few people are self-aware enough to say "I'm in trouble here" and reach out. So how many people are out there just suffering in emotional pain on their own?<br />
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Of course the bad news is that often underneath that stressful episode lies a real problem people don't want to deal with: a relationship or job that is no longer working being some of the top causes.<br />
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The link between depression and inflammation is one of my passions, by the way, as I've struggled with my own moods much of my life and have only put two and two together in recent years, that what I put in my body is directly correlated to how I feel in my body. (I really should have figured this out before, but there you go) Life is much nicer when you are living healthfully, managing your gut microbiome, sleeping, moving. Then when things start to get stressy, eating well, sleep and exercise are often the first things to go, replaced by bad habits, when they should be the only things you are focusing on. And then everything gets worse. Inflammation is what makes you feel so low when you are sick; imagine what that terrible diet, drinking problem, smoking, sleep issue or lack of movement is doing to your psyche on a daily basis.<br />
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Also, I quote an excellent book on the subject, <a href="http://kellybroganmd.com/">Dr Kelly Brogan</a>'s <i>A Mind of Her Own,</i> and I highly, highly, highly recommend it to people who are struggling. It is aimed at women, but there is tons of good stuff in there for men. I am hoping she comes out with version targeting men, I think it would change a lot of lives.<br />
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Too many people are turning to medication for their terrible moods, or just not living a real life, living a tiny, scared, upset life, when the keys to feeling better is often <i>right there</i>, and often very simple. </div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-71540648086633845812017-10-01T12:36:00.001-07:002017-10-01T12:36:10.051-07:00A few things I learned from Kim Kardashian West's Harper's Bazaar Arabia cover story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DO4OL3_lraBcu1zjUCNcdDCuEsH_y2JPbL0sZSkRB3MqJLnPbfJ9wp6m9j00eaPl0Zm1HfHAt-dILvO5CB0WZDISogjPkMmMCIPaAyCgmCeww26c5xeUMUXtmEOVT4HunJ18OlBZetg/s1600/Screenshot+2017-10-01+23.22.32.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="237" data-original-width="902" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DO4OL3_lraBcu1zjUCNcdDCuEsH_y2JPbL0sZSkRB3MqJLnPbfJ9wp6m9j00eaPl0Zm1HfHAt-dILvO5CB0WZDISogjPkMmMCIPaAyCgmCeww26c5xeUMUXtmEOVT4HunJ18OlBZetg/s320/Screenshot+2017-10-01+23.22.32.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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• This month Kardashian West will launch a fragrance specifically for the Middle East. It is a blend of, and I know this will be hard to believe, oud and gardenia. The bottle is based on a healing crystal. (I'm not being sarcastic when I say I can't wait to see it.)</div>
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• Kardashian, who is Armenian, loves Cher, who is also Armenian. </div>
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• The photo shoot with Mariano Vivanco had a "hard out" at 6.30pm, because Kim's nanny leaves at 7pm.</div>
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• At night, after the kids are in bed and she's waiting for Kanye to get home, she wears a robe and watches television. Chiefly <i>Dateline </i>and <i>Family Feud</i>. </div>
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• Although she once said she's not a feminist, this time around she says in her soul she is a feminist, but she doesn't need labels to know what she is inside her soul.</div>
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• She has a group text chat going with hair guru Jen Atkin and Dubai beauty mogul Huda Kattan. The trio might "host a girl boss cruise or a retreat to give advice to girls looking to launch their own business."</div>
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• She doesn't follow POTUS on Twitter. (Although she did just tweet at him about Puerto Rico). </div>
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• She said nothing about having another child. Or two of her sisters having children. Which they all are.</div>
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-67594355844132225302017-09-21T02:42:00.000-07:002017-09-21T02:42:12.228-07:00Overheard at the Belgian Beer Cafe, Intercontinental Abu Dhabi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Has anyone ever given a stewardess a tip? </div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-29131627525732070112017-09-20T02:00:00.001-07:002017-09-20T02:29:54.977-07:00Breaking news: Are cigarettes being pulled off (or flying off) Baqala shelves in Abu Dhabi ahead of the big tax hike? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh97oFiT67JpT4JHVlstznMd-CWQyxac910as4dVKSCNaCb0ML-pkVofzm0QAVFCzEW9ZrAYilHwLg9AZEURYfk8UKMYg5bQ1kIei4oR_6gvMReW7YLlj1hG9HiSNw_uorX1z44IC4bUek/s1600/smokes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="290" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh97oFiT67JpT4JHVlstznMd-CWQyxac910as4dVKSCNaCb0ML-pkVofzm0QAVFCzEW9ZrAYilHwLg9AZEURYfk8UKMYg5bQ1kIei4oR_6gvMReW7YLlj1hG9HiSNw_uorX1z44IC4bUek/s320/smokes.png" width="181" /></a></div>
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This guy posting on Abu Dhabi Q&A, the endlessly entertaining Facebook page, seems to think so. </div>
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<i>"So no more selling cigarettes in baqala near to my place as municipality told them to remove all cigarettes from the shelves," he writes. "Is this happening all over Abu Dhabi?"</i></div>
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<a name='more'></a>I'd go across the street to my local to confirm now, but I'm wearing slippers, a sweatshirt and short shorts and it's still very hot out. I predict <i>The National</i> will very soon be doing a story on this, because I'm mildly psychic, so when they do a) we'll know for sure and b) I'll link to it.<br />
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As so often happens on public forums, the Abu Dhabi Q&A post yielded 65 comments but no answers to this poster's plea. Most people pointed out that smoking is disgusting, while others linked to news stories about the pending 100% jump in price, due October 1.</div>
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That's when the price of cigarettes in the UAE will jump from Dh11 to Dh22 as part of an aggressive new tax on tobacco and sugar-laden drinks. People from the West, of course, will find this a very mild price and probably still take cartons back home to their coughing families, where packs are costing upwards of Dh40. </div>
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On the anecdotal front, I have heard the pending tax <i>may</i> have prompted some sort of situation where Baqalas have to remove all their cigarettes in preparation for charging more. Or perhaps paranoid smokers are just madly stocking up and emptying shelves in the process.</div>
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A friend told me last night that when she bought her last packs on Friday (Vogue slims) her Baqala staffer said one local man bought 100 cartons, which seems like a bit of a tall tale but then again, people <i>really</i> like their cigarettes in the Middle East. </div>
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-47467918016406177512017-06-01T02:34:00.001-07:002017-06-01T02:43:50.966-07:00Nice one: UAE domestic workers get legal protection and rights<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This week the Federal National Council <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/uae/fnc-approves-bill-that-limits-domestic-staffs-work-hours">passed a bill</a> that gives the UAE's maids, nannies and other domestic workers a day off, holiday pay and limits the work day to 12 hours (at least 8 consecutive).<br />
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In the absence of a law governing this stuff, and having heard so many horror stories of employers of all nationalities rampantly abusing the labour and human rights of their domestic staff, this is a very good first step in protecting the rights of the most vulnerable of workers.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Look, people abuse their domestic staff the world over. I get that. People aren't very nice sometimes. But I don't really know people with domestic staff back home. I don't travel in those circles. I had a man who cleaned my apartment every month when I lived in Ottawa, and he charged me $60 and had his own business.<br />
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So I've always been amazed in the UAE when expats who have no business having a staff or a salary that would support a staff suddenly begin hiring them, ranting about them and (probably) treating them very badly.<br />
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Shortly after moving to the UAE I wrote one of my first stories for <i>The National</i> on something I'd noticed on the Arabic television channel, MBC, which I'd taken to watching, even though I didn't understand it. It was an <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/uae/adverts-target-abuse-of-domestic-workers">advertising campaign</a> funded out of Saudi targeting people who abuse their domestic staff. The experience was an extreme eye opener.<br />
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A year after working here a good friend decided to go back to New Zealand, and she had a shocker when she tried to find a job for her nanny (both she and her husband worked and they had two little ones) through local message boards. The women who replied, many of them who were not working, were aghast that they'd given their nanny two days off a week and paid her double what they were required. Some were even angry about it.<br />
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I don't remember if my friend ever got her nanny a job; I just remember really appreciating my friends for not being like the other people with nannies.<br />
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Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623483294594610881.post-12457078035263492542017-05-31T04:13:00.003-07:002017-05-31T04:13:48.822-07:00Overheard in the newsroom: Cat bite edition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've had 5 rabies shots and I still don't have rabies. It's not working. </div>
Ann Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07794550687631644019noreply@blogger.com0