ARTICLE: "Young and Arab in Land of Mosques and Bars," by Michael Slackman, New York Times, 22 September 2008.

ARTICLE: "Arab TV Tests Societies' Limits With Depictions of Wine, Sex and Equality," by Robert F. Worth, New York Times, 27 September 2008.

Great big article on the subversive presence in the Gulf that is the UAE and Dubai in particular. While it was reasonably more quiet during Ramadan when I was there, you could sense the difference very clearly. Unlike going to, say, Cairo, in Dubai you could feel the how young men and women behaved differently, like you were in another world.

Nice bit from one transplanted Egyptian:

"I was more religious in Egypt," Mr. Galal said, taking a drag from yet another of his ever-burning Marlboros. "It is moving too fast here. In Egypt there is more time, they have more control over you. It's hard here. I hope to stop drinking beer; I know it's wrong. In Egypt, people keep you in check. Here, no one keeps you in check."

That's what you get with 80% of your population being expats drawn from 200 nationalities—the New New Amsterdam of the Gap. Bring on the Glorious Revolution!

Others say it's the Vienna of the cold war—"playground for all sides."

Tell me this doesn't sound familiar:

Dubai dazzles, but it also confuses. It appears to offer a straight deal—work hard and make money. It is filled with inequities and exploitation. It is a land of rules: no smoking, no littering, no speeding, no drinking and driving. But it also dares everyone to defy limitations.

It is a place that offers the possibility for reinvention.

Subversive indeed.

The more such connectivity emerges, expect more Mickey Mouse fatwas—no pun intended.