The only surprise about Dubai’s sudden financial crisis was that it should be a surprise. To any sober eye, the kingdom’s real estate spending seemed unsustainable. There was nothing wrong with the drive to build a modern world city with an exemplary infrastructure—lacking the oil revenues of its fellow members of the United Arab Emirates it made sense to become a commercial and leisure mecca for the region. But it all got far too excessive in quantity and in taste.
November 2009 Archives
Here’s the good news: You can find a 2005 vintage Priorat red that in every way is the quintessence of the region for $27.95. It’s called Roureda Licorella (the flavors mingling in Priorat include a signature hint of licorice).
You may recall the moment in Sir Laurence Olivier’s wonderful film of Shakespeare’s Richard III, when the malformed monarch is run through by a sword on Bosworth Field in 1485
The larger the network of routes flown by an airline, the more efficiently it can operate and compete. But mergers only make sense if the route structures are complementary.
To London where, with healthy appetite, I meet Sir John Falstaff. Where, say I, shall we find a goodly fare for the stomach on this day of cruel November winds?
Heard of Bernard Ziegler? Probably not. He was, however, the invisible hand behind Captain “Sully” Sullenberger’s handling of US Airways Flight 1549 and his life-saving landing on the Hudson last January.
Why is it that we need to go to London to see work of this calibre and relevance? British dramatists have successfully seized this American-designed tragedy and portrayed it for what it really is, a contemptible breakdown of decent and civilized behavior by a new, avaricious class that feels above the normal laws of equity, fiscal as well as social.
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