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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
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Rooftops
An Algerian film by celebrated Algerian director Merzak Allouache called Rooftops was probably my favorite film at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival this year. Of the films I saw, it’s the only one that kept my full attention. Just like rooftops get my full attention in real life, especially in the Mediterranean areas of the Continue reading
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BEING THE LUXURY ITEM OF A BRAND
I once asked the editor of the liberal newspaper where I was doing my undergraduate internship in Minneapolis to write a letter of recommendation for me. The recommendation was sealed and it was a couple of years later before I would come across it in my file at work. I had assumed the reference letter Continue reading
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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
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Ketching Up With Freedom
Freedom is the gotcha word of the Middle East decade—it’s the reason everyone is claiming to be helping—i.e. bombing, maiming, spying on and killing–everyone else. The definition of freedom (and its purpose) is a little vague under the circumstances. But I was set straight this past summer. I was on an airplane and sitting next Continue reading
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Saudi Sombreros
And the lady in the big hat is….? Having a bargaining competition at the souq over the price of a heavy Yemeni clay pot with a woman covered in black, including her face and hands, is not easy—you can’t hear what she’s saying through her niqab so well and you’re not sure what she’s thinking Continue reading
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Go Ahead and Film Me—Nothing Changes
“So what are you here to film?” he asked from his battered bamboo chair, as he exhaled from the stub of the cigarette in his hand, the smoke blending in with the dust sweeping through the camp. He was about 40, and had been sitting in that dark alley his entire life. One of my Continue reading
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The Green Food Season
The Levant is among the many places across the world where spring means baby lambs, tree blossoms and the new buds that will produce precious bounty in a two or three months. It’s also the green food season—when winter’s Swiss chard, dandelion greens, endive, escarole and so many other leaves recognized for being wiltable in Continue reading
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What Film Directors Look Like
As kids, we grow up with clear imagery of what professionals in certain professions look like. In my Sesame Street days, I learned farmers wear overalls with checkered shirts, nannies are British and carry parasols, and professional Arabs wear white robes and headdresses accessorized with grenade belts. These images came to me from film and Continue reading
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That Mad Game
…There have 14,000 wars in the last 5,600 years, and at least 160 since 1945. Children are far more likely to experience war at some point during their childhood than they are to grow up without it.” J.L. Powers, That Mad Game: Growing Up in a Warzone I was rather reluctant when I got an Continue reading
Alia Yunis 