When I go home later this summer, BOTH my birthday packages from May 2008 will be waiting for me

You may recall news arriving last month that my oldest friend had found a battered package on her doorstep - one she had sent me from Toronto to Abu Dhabi more than a year ago.

I've complained about this before: homesick, in a new land, knowing two awesome care/birthday packages were heading in my direction. I didn't actually stop looking for them until shortly before my birthday this year. Neither my brother or my friend stopped mentioning it. And the worst part - no more care packages. I couldn't explain why the packages never arrived. They were addressed correctly, and every day I see the office mail man roll his suitcase full of letters and boxes into the office.

Anyway, when my friend wrote an excited email to tell me that the package had arrived back, she ended with these words: "there is still hope your brother's package may still be returned to him." Lo and behold, I got a text from brother late last night, saying "just got the package back we tried to send you last year".

Wow. And weird. And what, exactly, happened to them? I shall probably never know.

Snap caption: two cars, two cats

Sheikh Zayed: Hockey player

This picture hangs at the Abu Dhabi Ice Rink (more on that later). There are pictures of a young Sheikh Zayed, founder of the nation, doing almost everything, including bowling and shopping, but I had to chuckle when I saw this. Apparently he knew how to play hockey as well. And why wouldn't he. I love this picture all the more because it incorporates my favourite word in all of the UAE: "Ghantoot". I also like the hand gesture he is making in the top pic.

Thanks for the heads-up WAM; without you I might have mistaken it for "balmy"

From the Emirates News Agency this afternoon:

Very Hot Weather ahead

2009-07-04 11:04:23

WAM Abu Dhabi, Jul 03rd, 2009 (WAM): The National Centre for Metrology and Seismology predicted hazy and hot-to very hot weather for Saturday. Towering clouds may appear over the eastern mountains by afternoon.
The winds will be light to moderate in general, freshening at times during afternoon causing blowing sand and dust over western and internal open land areas. This may reduce the horizontal visibility.
Relative humidity will increase during night with chances of fog over some coastal and interior areas.
South Easterly and later south westerly winds will be some where between 05 to 10 knots during morning, becoming NW-NE at a speed of 08 to 14 knots by afternoon and evening, reaching 18knots at times over the internal and open land regions.
WAM/AB

To burqa or not to burqa, a question I (thankfully) don't have to answer

It really hit home how much my perspective has changed since moving to the Middle East when Nicholas Sarkozy, the president of France, said in a state of the republic speech last week that burqas would be banned in his country.

“The issue of the burqa is not a religious issue. It is a question of freedom and of women’s dignity,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “The burqa is not a religious sign. It is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission, of women.”

Mona Eltahawy argued that Sarkozy had done good in an op-ed piece for the New York Times:

"I am a Muslim, I am a feminist and I detest the full-body veil, known as a niqab or burqa," she wrote. "It erases women from society and has nothing to do with Islam but everything to do with the hatred for women at the heart of the extremist ideology that preaches it."

The thing is, I know if I never left Canada, I would also have perceived this as a good move, a progressive move. Not that I am agreeing with the reaction of an editor I respect upon hearing the news – he called Sarkozy a "tosser". I've just moved to the fence. Things are more complicated than they seem, is all.

It's easy to look at the burqa as a tool of repression, I get that, I've done it myself. And of course, I can wear whatever I want (within reason, and while I am here, best if shoulders and much of my legs are covered) and I am grateful for that. It's just that when you live in it, when you are really here, in a place that draws together Muslim women from so very many countries, from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia, you see all the sides. The women I see, excluding nannies, and the other obvious, etc, don't seem downtrodden, or put upon, or demoralised (although I am sure many are) - mostly all I can think about them these days is how incredibly, suffocatingly hot they must be. And then again, this is a religion that is incredibly segregated: when the prayer call goes five times a day, it is men streaming to mosque, not women. Weddings, funerals, meals - for the devout, I gather, rare are the gatherings where men and women sit together. Is banning the burqa in France going to make any real change?

I struggle with the variety of ways women here cover themselves - including the Emiratis who are fully draped - even their eyes under cover of a dark black veil. And the young girls too, ones that seem too young for such a message. But I also know women who will argue it is their choice to cover, that it protects them, from the looks of men who are not their husbands. Then there is Moza al Muhairi, a 47-year-old Emirati, has been wearing the burqa since she was 12. She told The National a couple of weeks ago that the burqa was part of women's beauty regime.

"It is meant to beautify the woman and hide all her flaws," she said. "It is not about suppression."

It could be argued that the notion of hiding one's flaws is about suppression, but whatever. I also know of a former colleague, raised in Abu Dhabi before moving to Ottawa, Muslim, who chose to begin covering herself - head, not face - with a hijab when she was 18. She wrote a column about it for The National.

"It was a scary yet exhilarating decision to make," she explained. "I knew I would be making a proclamation to the rest of society that I was different. At a time when other kids were piercing and tattooing their body parts, I was choosing to become more religious in a faith that was misunderstood – even before September 11."

And other women, including a colleague of mine, have argued that Sarkozy has no business making such pronouncements, that conservative dress is a matter of national pride and personal choice.

"What gives anyone the right to tell women what sort of dress liberates them?" asked Tala al Ramahi in her column in The National.

Look, I have no idea, I really don't. I do know it's just not as easy as saying 'you can't wear a burqa, it will be good for you'. I don't know a single woman who likes being told what to do or what not to do.

Even by a politician who thinks he is on their side.

Paris Hilton in a My Cozzie?

No, of course not. (That is a My Cozzie above, by the way) Ms Hilton has been in Dubai and Abu Dhabi (Wednesday night, Etoiles nightclub in Emirates Palace) to shoot the new season of her reality show, where she will try (again) to find a new best friend. Although how they'll stay best friends when she goes back to LA is anyone's guess.

Anyway, she has been wearing all sorts of ridiculous, gaudy outfits while she's here - bedazzled headbands and big bouffant hair dos and flowy gowns I gather she thinks are what women go out in. I have never seen anything like this in 14 months:



But then she did a photoshoot in a bikini with the Dubai skyline behind her and the international press went nuts. I have no idea why, it's perfectly fine to wear a bikini here - I just did it last week. Not on the street of course, but on the beach or a private beach club it's a-okay. I saw the My Cozzie, designed to provide modest coverage for the Muslim woman who wants to swim, the other day in a store. I have never seen anything this elaborate at the beach, although I did once see a woman swimming in her abaya. It did not look fun, although she seemed to be okay with it.

There is loads of stuff you have to be careful about when you come here, but I wouldn't say wearing a bathing suit would be one of them. In fact, I opened up my Facebook a couple of days ago to see a picture of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Ruler of Dubai, shirtless in the water. He'd posted some "beyond work" photos. They are there for all to see: www.facebook.com/sheikhmohammed

Why wouldn't you park here?

All it takes is a few days here to get how much people do not care about how they park, only that they park. I have rented a car with a friend and the other day I stopped at Spinney's to get some (bacon from the pork room) groceries. This was what I found when I came out. (Mine is the white car). Ten minutes later, guy in truck comes sauntering out and I McGyvered out of the spot.

You can't even go "grrr" because it's just so ridonkulous.