There is no real decolonisation sans economic heft. Otherwise it’s only virtue signalling that fills up libraries. China can hold its ground even after the mess and aggression’s against India and other neighbors as it has the money.

@suketumehta ‘s brilliant book on migrants/immigrants.

‘Jaikishan Heights’ in Queens, New York gave me a chuckle.

And the chapter on African migrant taxi drivers in Abu Dhabi is fascinating, and hard hitting. There should be more work on African migrants in the Gulf.

Raining Investments for Mukesh Bhai.

#UAEinIndia

Clearly the conception and lived experience of national history is not uniform. Pre British era histories are complicated. One place’s hero is another place’s villain.

Reading The Anarchy by William Dalrymple, Page 72

Have re-read this incredible resource over the last decade to find new insights, or reaffirming old observations regarding the desi Khaleeji experience with local sponsors, the subtle disadvantage in everyday lived experience. Andrew Gardner’s work never feels dated. #gulf

Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore’s webinar on ‘Unpacking UAE’s Foreign Policy’ moderated by a leading Omani Scholar Prof Abdullah Baabood

Great Emirati Panel, very comprehensive.

01.06.2020

Half a year blew away
With it carnage
Leaving wreckage
For a while
To sense make
Is it an Error 404
Of a time
Where every search
Hits a ‘Firewall’
A Great Wall
Of Challenges,
Confront with a mask
With a ‘distance’
From ‘Business as Usual’