December 2 is celebrated as National Day in UAE. It’s a public holiday. However the day is spent in usual UAE style celebrations throughout the country. There are parades, fireworks, and other activities.

Today a fireworks display is planned at Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. It is being claimed that these fireworks will outshine the one at the Atlantis.

I believe UAE has come a long way in 37 years of independence. Supported by oil resources, the country is taken full advantage of the revenue generated by oil and invested in infrastructure, tourism, and trade. It has not removed all the flaws and shortcomings in its policies yet, but I am sure it will get there in few years.

So congratulation to the government and people of UAE on 37th anniversary of National Day.

Few months ago I spotted Linux operating system being booted on the display screens of an airplane. Recently I was at the newly constructed Terminal 3 of Dubai airport, and spotted this error message on a display screen. The dialog box obviously looks like that of a Windows operating system.

I not being judgmental, but being associated with IT industry and familiar with the shortcomings of Windows operating system, this error message on a display screen of one of the best airports of the world brought a sarcastic smile on my face, and I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it.

Have you noticed any such OS error messages on display screens at public places?

The last few weeks and days have been super busy for me. This blog deserves much more then no new post for weeks.

So while I try to come up with a strategy to update my blog in a timely manner, I would like you enjoy the following story.

Atlantis, the newest hotel in Dubai celebrated its launch last weekend in a grand style. It was regarded as party of the decade, the most expensive party and so on, with an army of celebrities present, and fireworks bigger then this year’s Olympic games, claimed to be seen from space, although I am sure if aliens would be holding their breath in space to watch that.

In this time of economic hardship, only Dubai can pull off this stunt. That’s why I always say this is the best place to be at this time not only because Dubai and GCC in general are less effected by the economy, but also because there is so much happening here it is going to be one hell of an experience witnessing it first hand.

Here’s a video from CNN of the fireworks.

I am leaving tomorrow morning for Muscat, Oman. Will spend around 36 hours there. This is going to be much better than my previous trip to Qatar when I left in the morning and returned by night. At least I’ll get some time to rest, and perhaps look at the place a little closer.

The newest shopping mall in Dubai, The Dubai Mall (why can’t they come up with some creative names for their malls?), opened its doors to the public on November 4.

This mall is supposed to be the biggest mall of the world with over 1200 shops waiting for the visitors to spend some serious money. It also has a giant fish aquarium, an ice-skating rink, and 22-screen cinema, and plenty of other entertainment and dining options. In short, Dubai Mall is aiming to be your one stop destination for everything.

OK, enough marketing crap (not that I work for Dubai Mall). So I happen to visit the newly opened mall on November 5, a day after its opening. What I found out was that the mall is indeed huge. It will take a full day to see it all, and I don’t think it is humanly possible to see the entire mall in a single visit. Moreover, only a handful of shops were open. It will take a few months for the mall to be fully operational with all the shops and entrainment areas open. After that it will be the ultimate destination for anyone visiting Dubai.

One thing that was open was the giant aquarium, and this reason alone is enough to go to the mall. Seriously, its amazing. Words can’t describe how great it was to see all the fish right in front of you. And there were sharks in the aquarium!

To see all the pictures I took of the mall, click here.

I also have a video of the aquarium with close-up view of the sharks. Coming soon on my blog.

With the election of Barack Obama as the new president of United States, I believe a new era of international affairs has started.

I personally like him as a politician and am a great fan of his public speaking skills (at least one thing will be greatly different in the new president). If I were a US citizen I probably would have voted for him as well. This is indeed a historical moment for USA and the world. The election of an African American as the president is a big deal, if you look at the history of United States.

History is full of stories of how African Americans were denied basic human rights in the USA not too long ago. If you want to know more about it you should read the book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, or watch the mini-series based on the book. America has come a long way since its early days to the point where an African American man is the president of the country where people of his race were untouchables.

It also proves that people of America have finally developed the sense and maturity to look beyond the color of the skin of a person and see what is in the heart and soul of him.

To be honest, as much as I wanted Obama to win, I did not expect it. I was skeptical about people of America electing a Black man as their president. I was afraid that deep inside the heart of white Americans there is hatred for Blacks, and they will never accept a black man as their ruler.

I am so relieved to have been proven wrong.

I hope Obama will do whatever it takes to fix the damage caused by his predecessors. If he is able to do that he will not only be remembered as the first black president, but also as one of the greatest president of the Unites States of America.

One of the hot topics these days is world economical and financial crisis. The entire universe is holding its breath and watching the stocks go up and down and currencies fluctuate.

As a side effect of this, Dubai is under limelight (as if it never was), and everyone is speculating about the future of Dubai.

It is no secret is Dubai is being effected by the financial crisis, and the effects will continue to arise, but my prediction is that this region will not be as severely effected as other worst hit regions like Europe and America.

The reason is simple. Gulf region is the fastest growing region in the world in terms of economics and business opportunities. And because of oil resources, the demand of which will not go down for years to come, the government can continue to fund the projects and organizations to avoid collapse.

The only concern is about the real estate market, which has been booming for a couple of years. The problem is that there are no buyers in the market at the moment and investors are avoiding risk. So the prices there were going up constantly have been steady for a couple of months, but they are not going down.

A correction in the market was long overdue. So this might be the time for it. Dubai will see a correction in the real estate market over next few months, and prices might come down by a few points, but as soon as they become affordable again, there will be a surge of buyers.

There is a huge target market that is being ignored at the moment. That market is the people who live and work in Dubai, but are living in rental properties only because they cannot afford to buy one. Once the property value comes down to the level where Dubai residents can afford it, they will start buying and this will result in stabilization of prices.

However, there are dozens of residential projects that will be ready in 2009 and 2010, resulting in huge supply of property, and perhaps not enough buyers (or investors), which again is a good news for residents as such property will be available to them at affordable rates.

So this is really a roller coaster ride. There will be ups and downs over the next few years. Plenty of people will make and lose money in the process. But overall I see a very bright future for this region, simply because of the financial backing the government has in the form of oil, which they can use to support themselves for a long time.