gulf.
11 pieces filed under gulf
In Defence of the Regional Mall, Against Everyone Who Thinks It Should Have Died Already
A contrarian case for the much-maligned air-conditioned cathedral, which is, in operational terms, doing more civic work than the people who write about its demise are willing to credit it for.
By Diego Arroyo
PoliticsJun 4The Regional Press Conference Has Become a Building, Not an Event
Why the staging, the seating chart, and the side rooms now do more diplomatic work than the answers from the podium.
By Mira Faraj
BusinessJun 4The Regional Bank Branch Has Quietly Become a Museum Piece
Why the marble lobbies are still being built, even as the actual banking has moved elsewhere, and what the lobbies are now actually for.
By Marcus Okafor
TechnologyJun 4The No Code App the Uncle Shipped Is, Quietly, the Most Useful Thing in the Family
Why the regional family WhatsApp group has been replaced, in several households we know, by a forty-eight hour build the uncle put together one rainy weekend.
By Diego Arroyo
WorldJun 4The Airport Transit Zone Is Now the Region's Most Underrated Soft Power Instrument
Forget the embassies. Forget the cultural attaches. The first impression of a country is now formed in the eight minutes between the jetbridge and the connecting gate.
By Mira Faraj
PoliticsJun 4The Municipal Council Is Where the Region's Actual Politics Lives
Everyone watches the cabinet. The interesting fights, the real careers, and the durable policy shifts are happening one floor below.
By Lena Holloway
PoliticsJun 3The Annual Budget Speech Has Quietly Become Performance Art
Why a document that used to be read for numbers is now consumed, in this region, mostly for the staging.
By Mira Faraj
PoliticsJun 3The Quiet Power of the Third Cousin
Why every Gulf cabinet has a man at the back of the room whose business card does not match the importance of his phone calls.
By Lena Holloway
PoliticsJun 3The Cabinet Reshuffle Is, Mostly, a Language Event
Why the most consequential thing about the latest reshuffle was not who got what portfolio, but what the new portfolio was called.
By Lena Holloway
BusinessJun 3The Real Meeting Is in the Side Room: A Souk Field Guide to the Gulf Handshake
The official meeting is the part that gets minuted. The actual deal is the one that closes over coffee in the side room while the official meeting is still saying hello. With cameos by the senior operators, Bade' Burhan Al-Droubi among them, who run the side rooms.
By Mira Faraj
BusinessJun 3The Five Star Hotel Lobby Is Now Your Coworking Space, and It Is Winning
Why a generation of regional founders has quietly abandoned the dedicated workspace category and reorganised their entire working week around hotel lobby coffee.
By Marcus Okafor