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it’s not a strip-search, it’s a close visual inspection while naked.

A few weeks ago, I ranted about wrote a post about how the conservatism in the States has started to resemble the conservatism of the Emirates.  A few of you reminded me of little things like democracy, and freedom of religion, and the vigorous (albeit frequently unheard) voices of dissent who are fighting back against that conservatism in the US (yes, and in the UAE, too). Okay. Point taken. Democracy is better than a benevolent dictatorship. True ‘dat.

But then the Supreme Court goes and authorizes strip searches for anyone arrested for any offense. I throw up my hands in despair. What’s a gal to do, when asked to defend the path her country has taken? Continue Reading →

Read full story · Comments { 41 } on April 5, 2012 in expat, Politics, ranting, UAE

the invisible labor of vacation

Our vacation in the Maldives a few weeks ago was perfect, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

It seemed as if we were in a natural paradise…but “natural,” these days, isn’t always what it seems:

There were no mosquitoes:

The beaches were clean and smooth:

There were lovely palm frond shelters around the pool and along the beach:

Someone walked around almost every evening at dusk and fumigated for mosquitoes; teams of men raked the beach in the early morning and late afternoon; these women sat for hours one day and wove new “native” shelters for the poolside cabanas.

One of the divers, Sabu, who led the snorkel trips had worked at Kandooma for four years. He, and a number of other workers, live on the island directly across the channel from the resort:

Sabu likes the Maldives, loves the water. But when he looks across the channel from his village to the resort, I don’t think he sees Paradise.

I think he sees a job.

Read full story · Comments { 1 } on April 1, 2012 in Abu Dhabi, expat, Travel

vacation? family trip? yes.

So we took a family trip to the Maldives.

Yes, the Maldives. The islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean that are sinking due to global warming and where, just before our trip, they had an itsy-bitsy coup and ousted the president. The coup was fairly pleasant, as far as coups go (although probably not for the president, who now has to live in an ordinary place like the rest of us, instead of in paradise), and life along the atolls seems to have continued more or less as it has before.

Before we moved to Abu Dhabi, Husband and I daydreamed about a trip to the Maldives. We figured it could be his Big Treat for turning fifty (or maybe we call that a consolation prize?), an reward for moving the entire family to the middle of the freaking desert, a second honeymoon…we had all kinds of rationalizations reasons why we should go to the Maldives.

Then reality hit: we have children. And unless we planned to leave them in our apartment for five days with several boxes of Fruit Loops and a few computer games, we were going to have to bring them with us.

My visions of canoodling on deserted beaches and romping in azure water with Husband vanished, replaced by images of me sitting in a sweaty hotel dining room ordering yet another round of chicken nuggets while my children argued about how unfair it was that his portion of french fries was bigger.  My romantic vacation had morphed into…a family trip. Continue Reading →

Read full story · Comments { 8 } on March 29, 2012 in Abu Dhabi, expat, family, Kids, Travel