Gulf News deputy web editor Florence Pia G. Yu plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds.
Pick of the week
Summer surprises
People in Dubai love shopping. There are so many malls; each and every one of them bursting at the seams with people. Now that the Summer Surprises has started, Dubai will become one massive shopping mall. I think the Dubai Summer Surprises is the way Dubai blackmails people into forgetting about the blistering heat with fabulous sales and different weekly themes for kids — colour surprises, knowledge surprises, heritage surprises, sweets surprises and a whole gamut of stuff geared towards entertaining kids.
http://thereisnospace.blogspot.com/
QE2 in Dubai
Cunard has announced that Queen Elizabeth 2 has been sold to Dubai firm Istithmar, which will turn her into a tourist attraction at The Palm Jumeirah. QE2 will leave the Cunard fleet in November 2008, after which she will be refurbished before opening as a "luxury floating hotel, retail and entertainment destination" in 2009.
Interestingly, Cunard's press release states that "Istithmar said its refurbishment programme will aim to recreate QE2's original interior décor and fittings". Personally, if done well, that is something I would certainly welcome after years of ill-conceived refits by Cunard. Of course, it remains to be seen whether it will be done well, but if it isn't, I think we can safely say that lack of funds will not be the problem.
While I am sad to see QE2 go so soon, I am pleased with this news. If nothing else, Dubai has a great climate for preserving old ships, and the money to do it right. If anyone can pull it off, they should be able to.
http://dougnewmanatsea.wordpress.com/
Super car news
If United States has been considered to be the dwelling spot of European ultra-exclusive super cars, then expect some changes since that title might be passed on to the desert land of the Middle East, particularly the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia where dealers are enjoying triple digit growth in their sales.
Unlike in other parts of the world where sports cars are considered mainly as luxury, the UAE sees cars as necessities. The superior mechanical performance of sports cars has become its main attraction, aside from the brand name and the racing reputation and history.
But would you believe that most of the people who purchase sports cars in the region are women? That is according to the Aston Martin's rep in the Middle East, Emma Hamilton, and she even added. "Kuwait is Aston's biggest market and also has the highest number of women buyers".
http://autopartslovers.blogdrive.com/
Unplugged and lost
A single day away from your email, your blog, your favourite websites, your news sources, your bookmarks, your automatically saved passwords, your cookies, your programs customised to just the way you like them, your computer; your everything. Just a single day and you're suddenly lost.
The internet, of course, is at the heart of all this information gathering; this feeling of interconnectedness. But technology is so embedded in our lives that there is a connection between the real and the virtual. The feeling of being "unplugged" is not just a metaphor; it is now an actual feeling, an emotion, a sensation. And vice versa: the feeling of being "connected" is now an actual emotion.
Probably for the first time in human history our minds have evolved accordingly, developing new emotions, new wavelengths, new terminologies to explain how we feel.
http://www.black-iris.com/
The death of Alexandria
Alexandria is my favourite city in Egypt. Even though I never go swimming there, for reasons you will know now, I do enjoy walking along its corniche and its old streets. For those of you who don't know the history of this city, Alexandria was equated with its European counterparts because of its beauty. Today only remnants remind us of this beauty.
I remember a few years ago my mother took me to see her Italian grandfather's old house in Alexandria. We went up the flat and knocked on the door. An office boy opened the door and informed us that the apartment now houses a trading company. We entered the flat and my mom started walking around the flat; telling me what each room used to be. "From this window I used to tiptoe and order zalabya (a kind of oriental sweet pastry) from the sweet shop," she
told me.
I will never forget this visit. A visit to the past. I felt so depressed. Knowing Egypt's past and looking at its state now is what crushes me the most.
http://bigpharaoh.com/
