A story covering the Gulf-States without any superlative? unthinkable, unplaceable, doesn’t earn any money! A cliché? Not at all. “At full throttle through the desert” that’s the promising title of a one-hour TV documentary, broadcasted last sunday (August 15th, 2010) on “Kabel Eins”. Not fancy enough? Not really, especially as the circuit has been built close to the habour and
Concession or commerce? RTL of all private TV stations in Germany, a station that’s not really known for its intellectual TV programme adapted intercultural dialogue for itself? Or is it simply about decreasing ad spendings which suffer from online and mobile rivalry, looking for new target groups? It is Ramadan. That month of fasting of the Islamic lunar calender known
This story is pure Arabian Nights Entertainment. It seems to be endless and is always told from a different angle: The possible addition of Turkey into the EU (European Union). Also, the news report on 3Sat (a German TV station), “Between Orient and Euro-Cent” (Video, Länge 28 min.) acts on that “never-ending-story”. It is again meant to portray how progressive
“Dubai Speed” as a allusion to the futuristic image of Dubai. Sure, that always works. Well-timed to meet the woes of the global financial crisis, the book “Dubai Speed” by Michael Schindhelm, former director of the Dubai Culture and Art Authority was published. An (almost) shellproof success on the book market – finally one enjoys reading bad news about a
For decades efficient Turks have shown us how to do it – the „good“ business with national dishes: the legendary “Döner Kebab”. Whereas the money-focused American had reached mastership by now the German tries to achieve his certificate of apprenticeship: The production and sales of „halal food”. Halal (in Turkish helal) is an Arabic word meaning lawful or permitted. According
The good news is: Dubai has made it into an international study comparing 21 global cities with each other. Given the ambitious goals the city-state has set itself will they be happy with rank 15th out of 21 cities? Since late September 2009 things seem not to turn out as they were meant to be for Dubai. What happened and
What has been extensively identified as the „most beautiful day in a woman’s life“ can turn out to be a nightmare in some places: marriage. We are not talking about the traditional „Get together” of relatives and friends on a hot summer day. But, about forced weddings with some unloved stranger, which take place on pain of penalties – physically
I am currently taking part in a “cultural competence” training course. A field, I have been engaged in and fascinated with in a while. Especially with regard to the deployment of so called expatriates, who are often, to my mind, send insufficiently prepared to subsidiaries abroad. It is often neglected by companies that such employees are regarded there as ambassadors
The Middle East Messenger (MEM) is coming of age: starting today all articles displayed in this blog will be bilingual! Caution: this only applies for articles published from June 6th, 2010 on. Choose your language via the Sidebar and choose between a German and an English blog version. I feel summer creeping in and I’m tired of this town again…
They are back: Four girl friends from downtown Manhattan, New York, the “Concrete Jungle” that Alicia Keys sings about in her soundtrack “Empire State of Mind” accompanying the movie. It comes back when the soundtrack starts: the comforting “Sex and the City”-feeling that made grey tueday nights bright blue. It comes back but it does not remain for long. Just