Would be a lot richer now if I would have stuck with it. The gravy train has slowed I’m sure, but the good times will return. At least my mental whack stack has images from five continents. No action in Saudi though. The British nurses were the only possibility, but never happened.
That was what I was the most jealous of. I ran into people at nice hotels the whole way out into Asia that were basically spending their 20’s getting paid well, put up in nice rooms and traveling the world. I’m getting depressed just thinking about it.
Yeah, it was rough. I had been working in Brisbane, Australia for a month, I said hello to the receptionist on our floor like I always did, she says, “Have you figured it out yet? Ah, no. Figured out what? That you can have anybody in this building you want. Including you? Yes.” Tough part of my life I tell you.
Not only that, am one of the Natives. A Muslim UAE national.
Never happened.
How do you feel about the UAE’s portrayal in American movies? Specifically, was Fast and Furious 7 an accurate documentary of life in the UAE?
And maybe help us understand life in that part of the World before the arrival of Western industry?
http://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-02-16/opec-oil-production-deal-doesn-t-change-anything There is a big “IF” associated with this production freeze…
No way Iran is signing up for this. Although Iran and Russia are allies, and that could get awkward.
It depresses me too. Hoping to spend my 30s that way once I get more experience and King Sanders wants to take all my money.
STL & Ghibli
STL
I still to watch F&F 7. But I expect it has few clichés
Mission Impossible Ghost’s Protocol was using the backdrop of Burj Khalifa’s area, which is a nice place. The Sand Storm, doesn’t happen like this.
The Force Awakens (shooting of the film started in the UAE), is accurate. I myself was a Jedi but turned to the dark side.
Ghibli
The UAE was a trade hub for the past 2000 years (some trade artifacts go back to 5000 years, but no proof of continuity to present). First airport and first radio station in the ME were in the UAE. We were open to the world. We had good relations with the East and the West. We didn’t have a moment of “arrival of western industry”; it was all gradual as it happened to all the world. Actually we have better commercial/industrial relations with Japan than any western country. Growth became much faster when oil was discovered. The difference between the UAE and the other neighboring countries is that we considered returns from oil an additional source for investments. We are obsessed about value added. For eg, the UAE and Kuwait produce the same amount of Oil, but we have 3 times the GDP.
Life style for us UAE natives didn’t change much. We’re deeply attached to our traditions that goes back to the days of Abraham (the Prophet not Abe Lincoln). Life is easier now, we have modern appliances, modern transportation means, modern health services, iPads; but we still wear the same traditional cloths (men and women), eat our traditional dishes (some recipes are 1500 years old), maintain our deep rooted slang, maintain family values,…and we maintain the same tribal system (the higher you go up on the social ladder, the more is expected from you toward your society and the more you’ll be socially punished for wrongdoings. We have a saying “the master of the tribe is their servant”). Social mobility is extremely high. More than 50% of our Minsters and state officials came from poor families. We had several members of the ruling family reporting to second generation immigrants. Education and skills are highly valued in our society.
Our Achilles heel is our region. It’s an emotional region. Pragmatism is foreign to them. There were a lot of changing radical ideologies (secular and religious). Over the past 50 years the region had: the Marxist, the Socialists, the Capitalists, the Liberals, the Nationalists, the Baathists (secular socialists), the Colonists, the Revolutionists, the Separatists, the Anarchists, and 15 conflicting religious movements. All of these movements started by glorifying their followers and villainizing their opponents.
Why not you come and visit the UAE? It’s the number one tourist destination in the ME. The UAE is an international hub. We receive more international travelers than the US (excluding Mexicans and Canadians at land border crossings).
Why there is no information about US weekly oil production for 12 days now? am I missing something? was the data of low quality or weird so it was not released yet?
everyone piling into KMI
Sounds great. Do you think western countries should set up a federation of monarchies and adopt Sharia law?
In spite of inventories that continue to pile up and production remaining at highs that dwarf the demand, Oil Ministers have managed to conjure up some pretty impressive rallies over the last couple weeks. DWTI has retreated from the $400 level to 285ish now, and the market is eating up all the hype. I’m convinced there will be no production cuts, especially not from Iran. that said, I don’t think the market has had its fill of sweet talk, so I expect oil should rally to the low to mid 30s from wishful thinking, without any actual change in the poor fundamentals.
If DWTI reaches the low 200s i’ll load back up
Can you quantify “dwarf”? 1%, 5%, 10% greater than demand? Do you see any elasticity in the supply or demand, short term or long?
why would I think that? Why smart people become silly when it comes to discussing Islam? Why should we care what system other people implement? This is every Country’s, State’s, City’s, Town’s own business. Intervention is justifiable ONLY for humanitarian purposes. And by the way, in Sharia law, Christians and Jews are entitled to be judged according to their own relegions not to Islam. This is not practiced in many Islamic countries because of the influence of the local traditions. So the countries that the world thinks are radical Islamists, don’t obey the Sharia law. And the Sharia law gives almost unlimited margins for a Civil Law. And behold the following information : the Sharia law addresses the rights of hermaphrodites. People don’t admit it because they don’t like it socially. I can go on and on… If a country was applying true Islamic rules in the 50’s of last century, it would be the most progressive country on planet.
“Ghibli” are you an Arab, or a fan of the Japanese Studio?
Magicskyfairy, are you faring well? I hope your timings results in an overall positive outcome. Be careful and take cautious steps.
Probably true, but neither of which is saying much relative to the other ME countries. The UAE is essentially the only UAE country that has anything for tourists to do (except Egypt), or can get into without a visa. Where alse would a tourist visit? Yemen? Saudi? It’s also home to 2 of the largest airlines in the world that basically force you to transit the UAE to go anywhere and can often have overnight layovers which makes you be a tourist. Not that I’m complaining, I got a bargain fare to South Africa last year on Etihad and have visited Dubai courtesy of an Emirates connection. But I’d say many of those tourists are there because they are transiting, not because they planned to go there.
so far so good. I’m going short now with DWTI at 250. been staying in cash since I sold it all at 392 last week, and I was tempted to jump back in a couple times, but with API report coming out today, and Iran saying they “support efforts to stabilize prices” aka not saying anything at all about their own production levels, It seems like time to short again.