MATT J. DUFFY: Private parties should be allowed to settle differences via civil courts and truth should be set as the ultimate defence against defamation.
THE HEDONISTA: ‘No photos’, ‘No Fixed Price’, ‘Come back later?’ Ah yes, the recurrent phrases heard buying ‘Dubai Kitsch’. So what’s the best way to go about it?
DAVID WESTLEY, BUSINESS BREAKFAST: Thursday’s announcement of a ‘loss’ of $2 bn (Dh7.35 billion) in “unauthorised trading” at UBS’ Delta One desk was spectacularly timed…
I heard ‘Uthman bin ‘Affan saying, when people argued too much about
his intention to reconstruct the mosque of Allah’s Apostle, “You have talked too much.
I heard the Prophet saying, ‘Whoever built a mosque, Allah would build for him a similar place in Paradise’.”
MICH CAFE: The closer you get, the more splendid the mosque looks. The size is breathtaking and I had difficulty getting the four 60-meter-high minarets in one frame.
SULTAN AL QASSEMI: This year is an ideal time for the UAE, the only successful union in the Arab world, to institutionalise a State of the Federation address.
SULTAN AL QASSEMI: UAE national observers commented in private that many names on the UAE petition calling for an elected parliament were UAE members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
MICH CAFE: It works for pizza, why not for shisha? An enterprising Beirut businessman spotted a gap in the market and has a Vespa equipped staff to fill it.
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.
MISHAAL AL GERGAWI: Unlike an Emirati or Qatari, a Saudi doesn’t have delusional expectations of financial entitlement and pre-deserved stature at the marketplace. A Saudi is glad to find a job at all.
MISHAAL AL GERGAWI: We seem to be in a constant state of ‘re-assessment’ or ‘re-evaluation’ of education in the region. Bottom line: We’re still not delivering.
MISHAAL AL GERGAWI: That the GCC is able to cooperate and function so well is both comforting and alarming. Comforting because it confirms the council still functions, alarming because it only does so in self-preservation mode.