Khartoum, Sudan 15 to 18 March 2006

View from my hotel room: it's "haboub" season, dusty sandstorms in the heat of summer's zenith.
View of the blue nile in front of the hotel where at a distance a new hotel (funded by the Gadaffi family) is being built.

A bilboard I worked on as part of a campaign for our Sudanese client, standing tall in real life.
JEF

Work in Dubai 03

Part of the thrill of working with an international cast of creative folks at my work place is seeing impromptu works of inspiration like this.

Digitally composed by Andres Vergara (from Sweden) this image of Times Square is an homage to our company's works from past to present. What's more, it's great as a desktop wallpaper. Stay tuned: more on Andres in future posts.

Working in Dubai 02

That's Peter Walker (getting slapped), Khaled Gadallah (going for the close-up) and "directed" by Vincent Raffray. This was posted not too long ago! Stay tuned: more on Pete, Vincent and Khaled later (seriously)

Memoirs of a Princess

And we thought the geishas had it tough. This book has been around for a while but it bears a greater significance for me now, serving my tenure in Dubai. It's all too familiar with the stories we read in the papers about how women are treated in fundamentalist Islamic places in the world but who would have thought that Saudi princesses were exempt? Read Sultana's story and you will know why it is the type of story that makes us sit up and count our blessings. Apart from that, it is a story that is spellbinding, and just like "Memoirs of a Geisha", it is just screaming for a movie deal.

Working in Dubai 01

All about Fragmentation in the Expatriate Community. Here's a letter published in Friday's edition of 7 Days in Dubai (10 March) and my response to the writer (below)



If what R Debrett-Smythe expressed is true, then 7 Days should start consulting housemaids on matters of the economy because (as the writer proudly asserts) they are the new sources of dependable information. I am neither Australian nor South African but I have my own mind to be offended by such blatant ignorance. I have been hearing about the pathetic state of inter-nationalistic animosity within the expatriate community before I arrived in Dubai. Now I am seeing for myself how fragmented the expat "community" really is.

In this day and age where trade and technology has allowed us to carve our own niche, explore new options for work and build a home in any part of the world, it is shocking to find that the very people we've respected as fore runners of our modern world hopelessly devolving and degenerating into name-calling, racism and blinding stupidity. Fortunately, us thinking folks would rather express our deepest pity for the deluded ones still reeling from post-colonial hangover. Let's face it: the only place of significance for colonialists everywhere is the History Channel and while many (like the writer) still cling desperately to a petty monarchy and its tourist-brochure heritage, the rest of us have, quite laughingly, moved on.

Yes you do get what you pay for, but I suspect it's because you haven't been getting any in the first place.

15 Minutes

Okay here it is: my fifteen minutes of fame on the February issue of Gulf Marketing Review's bumper edition of "Agency & Client 2006"... Cheers everyone.