This was an over-the-top promo for a tournament that's been played annually in Dubai for a long time. The pic's caption is "the world's most luxurious hotel" and those sheikdoms have been a luxury center for quite some time.

I don't know if there are any Arab players on the int'l circuit now. There have been some Indian players and the Pakistanis have absolutely ruled squash for decades.

Uh, Steve the rich and famous have been playing us the same way for a long time. Or are you not paying attention?

I think I speak for everyone concerned when I say: Ban.

Is Al Jeezera carrying it?

If not, who really cares.

1. It's Dubai. Everything there is over-the-top. This is widely understood, and accepted, at least in a shrug-of-the-shoulders kind of way.

2. It's tennis. The have-nots of the Middle East do not give a rats patootie about tennis.

3. If you're going to find a source of moral outrage in this picture, here's a suggestion: what about the ball-boys?

tomorrow night alluvus have not's'll be watchin th'havs at th'oskers. Won't inflame a thing 'n me but some well needed sleep.

Was wondering if you had enough time in Dubai to talk to people about what's really going on there. I mean, on the one hand, it's a modernization success story with a highly praised civil service and professional business culture/climate. And it's a globalization success story, an entrepot for ME, African and South Asian risk takers convulsing to business opportunities in the larger region. On the other hand, it is a bastion of organized... not quite crime, but perhaps licentiousness, replete with Russion mafia money, prostitution, gambling, real estate rackets, and yes, over-the-top displays of wealth -- all envisioned to be bigger and badder than any place on the planet.

I was there last summer and had the fortune to be guided by a local Indian businessman. Dubai is a fascinating city, and, while with different cultural roots, a place much like Singapore in the big splash of modernity and the subtle tensions that exist just beneath the slick exterior.

I remember when Tiger Woods teed off of that roof top:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_879927.html

I lost a lot of respect for him in that moment.

Why?

Q: Where was he hitting the balls?
A: Into the ocean.

Q: What does that say about his values?
A: "The world is my ashtray."

It shows a real lack of enviro-awareness.

Then he followed that episode up with some recent comments about going to the Caribbean to "shoot some fish."

And no, he wasn't referring to photography.

But then I guess it really doesn't matter.
After all, the world really is Tiger's oyster. Because golf, in our economy and social hierarchies, is obviously a more important task then say... schoolteaching.

We obviously "value" golf more.

Which reminds me when I was in Shark's Bay Australia, and saw two blokes ripping apart oyster after oyster at low tide, and tossing away the "empties" with disgust because they were devoid of pearls.

In a nut shell --and with the clarity of poetry-- that moment defined humanity and its values for me forever.

So let's all say a prayer and thank God for Einstein's speed limit! You good folks of Earth aren't ever going to be able to escape the solar system and spread your "values" to other star systems.

Looks like you are just going to have the Moon and Mars to "improve."

I am sure you will do just as good a job there as you have done here.

[Aside: Tiger has made it known that he prefers a legacy such as Arthur Ashe's. That's all to the good for him. But one has to wonder: Son, have you read any of Ashe's books?]

With all due respect, you are trying too hard to micro-manage society. Worry only about the big ones!

eh, I thought it was kind of cool.

Dubai is just trying and succeeding in being the most fun and prosperous U.S. outpost in the Middle East. It keeps the country safe and prosperous. But do they invite the Williams sisters to play tennis in their cool/hot outfits?

Sent your pic to my brother-in-law who spends a fair amount of time in Dubai. He says that if you like their tennis, you should check out the Dubai World Cup at the Nad Al Sheba Racecourse.

Lots of money on those ponies!

Yes, I think it's problematic. A funny example of the problem, though. On a separate note:

Steve, it looks like you're having some problems with thread-hijacking trolls (Online Poker). If you're concerned about this, you might install a code on the site that forces people to retype it any time they want to post a comment. For an example of this, go to pandagon.net, and take a look at what they've done with their comment stuff.

I'm pretty sure it's Dubai that's host to other fun things like - a "six-star" hotel, a group of man-made islands fashioned to resemble a map of the world, not to mention extravagant malls and all the rest of it.

Steve: You're a first world phony. Who are these have-nots of the Middle East you refer to? Do you think that they are worse off than the have-nots of the USA? And by "Middle East", do you include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman ... these being some nations with the highest per capitas in the world? Or do you think all non-white countries are largely poor wit visible disparities of income? And to Linda, yes the Williams sisters show up in the briefest best. Why do you ask? Grow up, study your geography and your economics before you fall to stereotyping those in whose courts your ilk performs for money.

Raychan,
Could I trouble you to expound on "your ilk"? If you would be so kind...

Raychan -- I think it's less that I'm phony than I may be a bundle of contradictions. I just stayed at an expensive resort paid for the BMW Foundation -- and perhaps someone could critique me for that. Micromanagement of social issues does not interest me. I think you are wrong about the have-nots. I think I wrote in my blog that such events like this, in a rather convulsive part of the world, do draw envy from have-nots in the region. . .and there are plenty that exist through the Middle East. You are right, of course, about the per capita wealth of citizens of Dubai -- who import their labor, like Kuwait. My larger point was more of a personal reaction to a kind of over the top event.

But all that said, I probably would have enjoyed it too -- it was just something that struck me as really odd coming from that part of the world at this particular point in time.

All the best,
Steve Clemons

I guess you don't watch TV very much. Try catching a Nexus commercial sometime.

Israel blames Syria for Tel Aviv bombing!

Bwahahahaha!

If a certain regular group of "caring" regulars here don't tithe at least 10% of their income to responsible charities then they are just all talk no walk hypocrites. Just my humble opinion.

Asheesh:
You are starting to sound like some sort of free-lance blog security consultant.

Steve:
Someone could easily go to LA and film 15 minutes by car from the Oscars to show the vulgar rich poor disparity, then interview stars posing in their Oscar de la Rentas. Better, drag over about a 1000 homeless from Los Angeles Avenue to the Oscars site.

Enough of this foolish talk about tennis courts in the sky.

We must attack Syria now before they get more bold. They have blown up and killed Lebanon's former PM, now they are directly involved the Tel Aviv bombing. It seems they want to have it out once and for all. They're just itching for a fight. You can interpret their actions no other way.

Onward!

"We must attack Syria now before they get more bold."

Gustave Gilbert, an intelligence officer, interviewed Hermann Goering at Nuremberg on 18th April, 1946.

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

ike, my boy,
If I send you my e-mail address will you send me a copy of your enlistment documents? I know for a outstandingly, certain, no doubt about it, unquestionable fact that the Marines move people who reason like you right to the front. Get on over there. Good Luck!

bert-
It's a sad comment of the state of human affairs when you have to put "responsible" before charities. Who is vetting them-you?

susan,
A couple years ago as I saw the neocons hook the big American fish I said to my friend that I'll never allow another another fellow countryman to ask of the Germans: "How could you let it have happened?" without me reminding him/her of their complicity in advocating the same behavior.
Unfortunately, those most in need of the lessons of history are, well, too stupid to learn. If all their cherished "freedom, democracy, and economic system" did for them was rationalize the slaughter of Third Worlders, what do they really have? Oh yeah, money.

Rich man's war, and a poor man's fight.

Yikes, the comments are too serious for this photo/post. All I was thinking was "gee, don't go back too far to return that serve..." Long step down I bet. I'm not ME expert, but I didn't think the masses cared so much about the royal family's excesses as much as the U.S. troop presence.

Perhaps the image is merely a simple straw on the camel's back, but when the equilibrium shifts and the order becomes disorder, the true accretion of such energy becomes apparent. The resulting quantum leap seems so disproportionate - but it's not at all. Or maybe not. Perhaps something else will be the ordering mechanism.

This image has power and that's a real acknowledgement. Steve is talking about the numinosity, the unspoken element of the image existing without words. We voice around the emotional subtext, both positive and negative.

So, in a sense this thread is a testament to that emotion in that it got serious quickly - but also to the unpretentious that it is a long way to the water, a long way.