Dubai

December 21, 2013

How Dubai Stollen Christmas

Bloodshed, flooding, people fleeing persecution, the fodder of biblical stories from the Holy Land. Only sadly they’re not ancient stories trotted out for the Christmas season. They are present day Christmastime in the birthplace of Christmas. But Noel in its current incarnation is supposed to be about fun. And really, why shouldn’t it be? A Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Dubai, Egypt, Food, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine, Syria

Christmas in the Middle East, Christmas Stollen, Dubai
October 20, 2013

Ya Tair al-Tayer (Oh Bird in Flight)

It’s plane…No, it’s a bird…No, it’s a bird on a plane… At the Amman airport yesterday, I ran into an old childhood friend and her family. Coincidence as neither one of us lives in Amman. Then we all ran into Arab Idol winner Mohammad Assaf and posed for a photo with him. Small world that Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Arts and Culture, Dubai, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Travel

Air Travel, Falcons, Flight, Hunting
May 25, 2011

The Right To Drive Well

I support jailed Saudi Manal Al Sharif’s right to drive. I support her right to join the men on the roads in her country, a country that has one of the highest car accident fatalities in the world, like most of the countries in the region. See, having spent big chunks of my life in Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Arts and Culture, bahrain, Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Travel

Driving, Manal Al Sharif, Middle East, Safety, Saudi Arabia, Women
February 19, 2011

Bahrain Again

Since the uprising in Egypt, I’ve been getting e-mails from people asking me if I’m okay, if I’m safe with everything going on the Middle East. Safety in the Middle East is just a question of where you are standing at a given moment. Sadly, I have never known the Middle East not to have Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, bahrain, Dubai, Middle East

Bahrain, Michael Jackson, UAE
May 15, 2010

STILL COOL ENOUGH FOR SEVENTH GRADE

When my world of sophisticated urbanite and Mother Nature friends come to Dubai, there is an inevitable rolling of the ideas and what has become a cliché to my ears, “This place is all about the malls.” Like blatant consumerism and the globalization of American brands in an air conditioned utopia is a bad thing. Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arts and Culture, Dubai

Dubai, malls, UAE
January 7, 2010

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

I’m opposed to making lofty new year’s resolutions–aside from the token and easily forgettable “I’ll try to eat less chocolate”—as they sometime trivializes a dream. But I’m happy to make resolutions for others, kind of like the UN. Here are my new year’s resolutions for the Middle East, and I know they’re laced with loftiness Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine

Middle East, New Year’s Resolutions
October 30, 2009

NOT ALL GULF COUNTRIES FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT MICHAEL JACKSON

As I got into my first taxi in Bahrain last weekend, the taxi driver shocked me: He was Bahraini. He dressed and looked like someone from the UAE, but he was most definitely not Emirati. Emiratis may live just down the Gulf from Bahrain, but they do not drive cabs. Heck, they barely ride in Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Arts and Culture, Author, bahrain, Books, Dubai, Middle East

Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, UAE
June 12, 2009

NOT ALL ARAB COUNTRIES HAVE CAMEL CROSSINGS

Not all Arab countries are created equal—most of them have oil as a big part of their identity, but for some it’s the oil that runs cars and for others it’s the stuff the comes from olives. A couple of them, like Algeria, have both. Sometimes the contrast between Arab countries is minimal, such as Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Author, Books, Dubai, Jordan, Middle East
May 30, 2009

The Best View Of The Ski Slope In Dubai is at…

Dubai has now become the international destination for indoor wonders, but the Atlantis, Palm Jumeriah, the Burj Dubai (tallest building in the world), the seven star Burj Al-Arab, and all the other more recent developments don’t seem to come as close to the excitement that people seem to have at seeing modern Dubai’s first wonder, Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Dubai, Food, Lebanon, Middle East

About Alia

Alia Yunis is a writer, journalist and filmmaker. She is currently producing and directing “The Golden Harvest,” a feature length documentary about how olive oil has shaped the Mediterranean culture, cuisine and history for 6,000 years, through war and peace. Her debut novel, The Night Counter (Random House) has been critically acclaimed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. It was also chosen as a top summer read by the Chicago Tribune and Boston Phoenix. The Boston Globe has called it “wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious.” Alia was born in Chicago and grew up in the U.S., Greece, and the Middle East. She has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in several cities, especially Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including The Robert Olen Butler Best Short Stories collection, and her non-fiction work includes articles for The Los Angeles Times, Saveur, SportsTravel Magazine, and Aramco World. She currently teaches film at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.