Surely Some Mistake? Dubai Runs Out Of Petrol
ALEXANDER MCNABB: You couldn’t make it up, could you? Dubai, part of major oil producing nation the United Arab Emirates, has run out of fuel. Seriously.
Books are Best: A Luddite’s View of the Kindle
ALEXANDER MCNABB: I am a huge fan of the Kindle but, in the spirit of intellectual freedom, I am prepared to consider the merits of the book. Briefly.
Ambition, Inspiration a Heady Scent at ArabNet
ALEXANDER MCNABB: I went to the event with high expectations and they were, in the main, met, matched and knocked out of the field. This is now a crucial regional event.
The UAE’s Ghost Town, Jazirat Al Hamra: Beware The Djinn
ALEXANDER MCNABB: “…Locals would tell spine-chilling stories, goading each other into a state of fear…”
Title Irony: Why Journalists like to do PR on PRs
ALEXANDER MCNABB: It infuriates me because I know how very dishonest the practice is – from a media that insists on telling us that it is the only trustworthy source.
An Inflection Point for Arab Entrepreneurialism
ALEXANDER MCNABB: Seeing this level of digital entrepreneurialism in the region is a delight and, rightly or wrongly, I see ArabNet as an inflection point.
Google and Ghonim: The Horns of a Dilemma
ALEXANDER MCNABB: The best outcome for the corporate people at Google would probably be a quiet resignation and a few public words thanking Google and exonerating it of involvement.
Why Words Should Not be Allowed To Lose Power
ALEXANDER MCNABB: If a Kit-Kat is awesome, what then is the sight of two million Egyptians gathered in brotherhood in Cairo’s Tahrir Square?
The Day the Egyptians Stopped Seeing the Joke
ALEXANDER MCNABB: Every time elections would come around, Egyptians would laugh about how this time he was going to lose. It struck me the other day the laughing had stopped.
Egypt’s Uncontrolled and Uncontainable Tweets of Rage
ALEXANDER MCNABB: Blocking Twitter won’t stop word getting out. You’re as well to try and stop grains of sand falling through marbles.
Torches: Understanding Mohammed Bouazizi
ALEXANDER MCNABB: I find it hard to even think about what would drive a man to contemplate the act – the acrid stink of petrol, vapour shimmering, a scratch and whiff of phosphorous.
Reading Matters: The Medium and the Word
ALEXANDER MCNABB: I honestly had my doubts about the whole Kindle thing before I took the plunge – and now I’d recommend it to anyone.
The BMW Slogan – Consume its Corpse, Please…
ALEXANDER MCNABB: There’s a tremendous power to slogans, a way of condensing and simplifying thoughts that can become catchy, even thought-provoking.
Snow Joke: How to To Combat Travel Chaos
ALEXANDER MCNABB: It’s mad to have people looking at screens talking to customers when those customers could be looking at the screens themselves.
Total Confusion: The UAE National Identity Card
ALEXANDER MCNABB: The ‘application application’ has been removed. Typing centres have been closed. And the clock is ticking towards the end of year deadline.
There are Bad Days, and then there are…
ALEXANDER MCNABB: Adding to that, we have finally had it confirmed that, in the UAE, ‘freehold’ actually means ‘usufruct’. What the hell is ‘usufruct’..?
The Future’s Coming, Please Tell the UAE’s Telcos
ALEXANDER MCNABB – Technology has allowed us to speak to each other in ways unimaginable five years ago. The telco operators in the Middle East, however, don’t appear to have caught on yet.
An Incredible Journey behind the UAE’s 39th National Day
ALEXANDER MCNABB: I have some old video footage of Sheikh Rashid, a man that used to take 5am tours around his city as it was being built, in true Arabian Nights style…
Strange Searches leading to Plastic Destination
ALEXANDER MCNABB: Fake Plastic Whore Face, Tantalise your tastebuds, mish mushkila ya habibi meaning, what is mineralised water and the Nipple souk… Fake Plastic Souks is the expert on them all…