On Your Bike – an Untrue Ad Executed Badly
ALEXANDER MCNABB: My delight is enhanced that the latest piece witless buffoonery originates from HSBC, the bank that likes to say 'Is there anything else I can do to help you?' at the end of calls where they have been signally useless. …
Publish it Not – Israel and the Sultans of Spin
JONATHAN COOK: Most freelancers forced into this position would either have learned to tailor their reporting to what was expected by the news desks or have headed off to another conflict zone. I stayed...…
Are they Messengers or Missionaries?
STEVE ROYSTON: Successful companies tend not to fire their communications people. That’s not to say that politics, ambition and personal fiefdoms won’t get in the way…
Entrepreneurs to leave mark for next generation
SULTAN AL QASSEMI: Arab governments need to understand that without pan-Arab initiatives, true prosperity will not be achieved. We must capitalise on our strengths as a region with a population larger than the United States...…
Privacy and the Law
ALEXANDER MCNABB: One month in jail and deportation for filming an actual incident and posting it online may appear madly draconian, but the UAE (and the Gulf in general, actually) has always had a fraught relationship with photography...…
Saudi Arabia: How Far Can a Fatwa Go?
My analysis of the fatwa is that the conservatives of Saudi society are not ready to see women as cashiers. The majority of grocery store cashiers in Saudi Arabia are foreign nationals from Pakistan and India.…
A more balanced federal budget benefits us all
SULTAN AL QASSEMI: But how can the country cover a federal budget shortfall of Dh18.2 billion, which is now carried by only Abu Dhabi and Dubai? A tax regime...…
Censorship over KSA Unemployment
I have written on unemployment before. The situation is desperate. It’s bad for men and much worse for women... According to Mr. Al Dosari 12000 Saudis apply when only 45 positions are announced...…
UAE Media Shame and ‘The Tent Next Door’
Gulf News deserves to be held to a higher standard than Gulf Today, though. And in this, it has failed. Its silence is nothing less than shameful - and its shame is clearly exposed by The National.…
‘If it bleeds, it leads’. Agendas, bias, ‘poppycutting’
The UAE finds itself in the international spotlight again - and for all of the wrong reasons. So why do the Western media 'accentuate the negative' and forget the positive when reporting events in the Arab world? …
