From Dubai Correspondent James O’Hearn… Just in the Gulf News, out of that den of tolerance and wisdom known as Ras Al Khamiah, a couple has been arrested for having sex in their car. A Bangladeshi man and an Indian woman have been sentenced to a year in jail followed by deportation. So far, so [...]

From Dubai Correspondent James O’Hearn… In 2005 I married a wonderful young woman named Nerissa D’Souza. Her family is Goan, and though she is Indian by nationality, she spent her entire life in Dubai. When I moved to Dubai in 2006, I moved in with her family, and by 2007 I had become a “traditional” [...]

As little as five years ago, most outside the Middle East had never heard of Dubai. A 7-year boom turned sand dunes into a glittering metropolis of night clubs and man-made marinas, creating islands in the ocean, the world’s tallest building, its biggest shopping mall, over the top luxury services and innovative architecture.  Dubai is a temple of capitalism in a region never known [...]

From James O’Hearn… This news story is old new by now, but for some reason I just couldn’t bring myself to close the tab on my browser holding this story.. “A police officer was moderately injured on Saturday evening during police raids on flats that were operating as brothels in International City. A little over [...]

From James O’Hearn… One thing for sure about this wacky little emirate is that there is an incredibly high number of malls per capita. The wife and I recently decided to hit a new mall each week, and counting off just the ones we know, that list is going to take quite a long time [...]

From James O’Hearn… Most years, when the fall premiere season arrives, it is a safe bet that a majority of the shows will land with a thud. For some reason, only one or two shows will stick in a given year, but then along come these bumper crop years where the small screen is suddenly [...]

From James O’Hearn… Twitter is a dichotomy. On the one hand it is the most vapid, pointless extrapolation of the useless small talk paradigm ever put into concrete form. On the other hand, it is the most powerful collaboration tool, and passive information retrieval system ever devised.   Say wha?   Simply put, if you [...]

From James O’Hearn…   I came home today an interesting comment left on my post in blandness. The commenter, Ah pois, seemed taken aback by my apparent preference for food in Canada over food in the Middle East. The issue is a little more complicated than that, but overall, I do prefer a great deal [...]

From James O’Hearn. . .     I came across an interesting article in the New York Times, about how the Internet may be irrevocably changing the way children and teens learn to read, including what they read, and how they read.   Right now I teach in a country that has no history of [...]

In his travels around the world RELATIVITY OnLine’s James O’Hearn discovered something: home is where the heart is, but it’s also where the socio-cultural norms of a society are represented. From the suburban sprawls of Winnipeg, to the cluttered neighborhoods of Tokyo, to the sandy streets of Dubai, O’Hearn examines the buildings and houses that [...]