You can take a woman out of Britain but you can’t take away her British newsmedia. Praise be to the Guardian and BBC websites. Here I get to hear about floods and snow as I sit in the (quite nice now) 38 degrees of the afternoon. And here I get to read news about the UAE that demonstrates a level of criticality way above that which is available internally. There is a new newspaper that in print form appears to have modelled itself on the look of The Guardian. It’s called The National and is a little less bland or euphoric in its domestic news reporting than Gulf News. But not much.
So I would like to refer you to three recent The Guardian articles. These do as much as I can in depicting life out here, the internal mental debates one has with oneself when justifying living here, or when attempting to comprehend the significance of events, actions and symbolic gestures.
Manchester City: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/08/premierleague.manchestercity
Construction and Immigration: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/08/middleeast.construction
The pragmatic compromise: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/05/middleeast.gender
