The UAE has been the media spotlight – both positive (Abu Dhabi F1) and negative (Dubai World hiatus) – heralding a new era of Dubai Bashing (see my thorough how-to here) as well as justified criticism and the typical market flux a la Pelham 123 (so who made $300m now?).

Yesterday was the 38th UAE National Day, and these special occasions, like Eid and Thanksgiving and Christmas, are here to remind us of the greater good that we keep tucked in the shadows. For it is easy to dwell on our miseries and use them as our crutch to move forward, but it takes a movie scene, an Oprah episode or a family-feud-free-family-gathering to remind us that we have it good.

What has the UAE given me? A good beating! Yes, and I am thankful for it. Tough love is what everyone needs, and tough is what Dubai is about. Being exposed to so many cultures (and, seriously, there are just so many nationalities here) teaches you to be tolerant and respectful to people around you. It teaches you how to collaborate and communicate effectively in teams and with individuals. It gives you pleasure when expats greet you with “Eid Mubarak” and inform you – genuinely – that their perception of Arabs has significantly changed through their stay in Dubai. And it lowers the barrier of the “them vs us” concept, when we all hold hands together for a cause, raising awareness through marathons and walkathons around town.

On the sombre days, Dubai teaches you patience. It teaches you to network, to use your wits, to appreciate the value of money (and damn this city is expensive!). It shows you who your true friends are and how much value do you have in people’s lives, and they in yours. With Dubai’s every-changing population, and the tough competition – both on personal and career levels – it becomes quickly apparent who you should place your trust in.

But most of all, what I am truly thankful for is to be part of this “movement”, to celebrate the rise of a nation, no matter how much it stumbles on the way. When I have visitors over and show them around town, not all of them are impressed. “We have tall building in NY, so?”. Indeed, NY is a class of it’s own. But you won’t appreciate Burj Dubai unless you have seen it being built over the years, floor by floor. It’s difficult to appreciate or imagine that the 25km stretch of land between Dusit Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road and Jebel Ali was a desert only 7 years ago. It won’t make sense to an outsider as you describe how Garhoud Bridge was only three lanes, and how the 7 lane roads were 2-3 lanes only a few years back. It’s sounds ludicrous as you describe how one thing was here a few months back and now it shifted in its entirety to another location.

Yes, Dubai functions and looks like a living being. It evolves and changes – too rapidly sometimes – but you, too, grow with it, and grow to love it. I don’t know about you, but I feel a deep sense of pride when I show someone around town or talk about the city. There is a sense of awe as I drive around town at night or take a trip on the metro just for the heck of it, to see the city from a slightly higher altitude.

So yes, you can bash Dubai or the UAE as you like, come up with rhythmic news titles and call yourself an expert in laughing at Dubai’s constant stumbling about, mediocre media, censorship, and the cult that is known as Etisalat.

But what has your city done or achieved in 30 years? 10 years? Last year?

Wishing you all a great Ramadan! May this month bring you peace and prosperity

Except Etisalat, they need to die a long horrible death for adulterating the access to deviantART.

I didn’t put in the "du" reference on purpose but it does sound funny LOL!

I got my visa, finally, and I am a student again! My classes will start first of Ramadan, so I decided that since I’m not getting richer by being unemployed I might as well go see my family now since I can afford it!

So in a few hours I will be eating koosa and I will be hearing granny’s story on how I got tied to the chair leg when I was a toddler so I don’t go hug the sobya (heater) in winter (I had a fetish for anything warm. Thinking about it, I still do). I would be hearing that story for the billionth time but it’s always as good as the first time.

Not to mention it’s good for my early age alzheimer I seem to develop!

Will be back to Dubai (get it? DuBye?) on August 4. See you in two weeks!

Who of you hate fruits, say aye!

AYE!

Or is it I?

Regardless, hideous fruits must be abolished from human consumption. Yes, I know, fruits are all the rage these days - vitamin source and those environmental and Go Green imbeciles and Healthy Lifestyle crap nutritionists can’t tell you enough on the importance of fruits.

go-green + fruits = lies! all lies! (hint: it’s a PIE chart!)

Though surprisingly they ask you NOT to eat fruits if you’re on some sort of diet or whatever.

See what I mean?

Here is the thing. We are terrestial animals. Right? We should eat terrestial stuff. Things that are within arm’s reach. Figs and apples don’t count, but I will let them pass, this time.

Fruits grow on trees for a reason, and that reason is that fruits are food for monkeys, squirrels and avian fiends, like hummingbirds and other feathery repulisve organisms. If you’re too persistent to eat a fruit, wait for a bird to eat it then shoot the bird and eat it. You get more nutrition that way, and the bird would have pooped out the harmful vermin found in fruit.

apples have the most vermin

Which is the whole point, see. Birds look for worms in apples. It baffles the mind that you say ewww to a worm then go eat an apple. Are you INSANE?! No sense of logic whatsoEVER!

Stuff that grow on the ground are veggies. See, they come from the earth, and stay there. They don’t shoot aaaaaaaaaaaaaalll the way up to feed creatures of the sky, or monkeys and giraffes. Tomatoes are the only edible fruits because they grow on the ground. Yes, they’re NOT vegetables. Proof? Proverb: “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” Indeed, your IQ has now gone up by a point. You’re already a generation ahead. Go invent something, like a way to make trees taller hence fruits unreachable.

dragon fruits are for dragons and other lizards. it’s slimey, disgusting, and there’s no right way to eat it

See, fruits are taking over the WORLD. Fruits are all the rage, it’s almost like a new religion. What’s worse is that they’re given all those cute names so your girlfriends go nuts over them and you’re forced to pod along. Peach? PEACH? Pear? Watermelon? Strawberry? Mango?

which one of those is your girlfriend?

Fruits incorporated themselves into our vocab so we call our babies and girlfriends with such hideousness, to make us love fruits more! Even stores* are named after them!

You don’t get to call your girlfriend lettuce or cucumber or brocolli. If you did she’d think you’re calling her fat or disgusting. Peaches are fatter than lettuce last time I checked.

Pesticides are designed to poison fruits so you don’t eat them. Poor insects have it instead. It’s like there is no choice for scientists but to make us believe fruits are important, so we keep eating them at a rate faster than they reproduce to get rid of them.

Oh the sacrifices mankind makes for mankind!

kiwis are hairy and hard to swallow for a REASON: they’re not made for human esophagus

Take up your coat of arms (with a nice brocolli symbol), arm yourselves with pitchforks and scythe blades and a morningstar and a halberd or whatever Dungeons & Dragons weapon that stirs your fantasy. FIND EM ALL AND KILL EM ALL! Just like Pokemon**.

*this post is NOT sponsored by Apple or Mango

*** this post may be sponsored by anti-Nintendo fanboys