Back in January we had a sand storm come through the city. It was a Friday right after church and the golf tournament had just started. Sand storms are an odd kind of storm that most people don’t have the opportunity to experience. Fortunately it cleared by the next day and we had a pleasant day at the golf tournament as shown in my posts below.
I took this picture a month ago. It’s particularly interesting to me because baseball is not a popular sport in Dubai… it’s particularly American. And the Burj Dubai is so clearly visible in the background. My oldest daughters work the concession stand at the ballpark.
This is a very interesting report on Dubai and it’s visionary… Sheikh Mohammad. I’ve not completed both parts but it’s a great summary of what’s happening here in the city.
The CBS website won’t let me embed the part 2 video. So here’s a link to it:
My parents came to town about a week ago and the last thing we did together was spend a day at the Dubai Desert Classic Golf Tournament. It was a blast! We saw Tiger Woods (who eventually won), Ernie Els, and many other great golfers.
The best moment was watching Ernie Els birdie the hardest hole on the course and then to have his caddie throw my daughter the golf ball!
First really clear day in a while. The Burj Dubai and Business Bay construction site sprouting from the desert.
Update: Ministry of Education cancels school until Sunday!
Update: January 2008 now the wettest on record in the UAE!
Weird week in Dubai. Monday was declared a state/private holiday due to President Bush’s visit to town. (see motorcade pictures below) Then it started raining on Monday afternoon and it really hasn’t stopped since then. The roads and some neighborhoods are flooding. Some people reported being in traffic for 4 hours from Sharjah trying to get to Dubai… a trip that normally might take an hour.
Now school tomorrow has been canceled (happy kids) due to the flooding and traffic woes related to the rain.
Bush and flooding. The “planets” will never “align” like this again in Dubai. A few pictures below.
Burj Dubai shrouded in fog and clouds.
Sheikh Zayed Road skyline with fog and clouds.
Rare rainy roadway on Beach Road, Dubai.
Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have taken this picture while I was moving 
… watery roundabout in Jumeirah.President Bush visited Abu Dhabi two days ago and then Dubai yesterday. I think it was his first visit here ever. All of Dubai was basically shut down yesterday. They declared a Emirate-wide private and public holiday late on Sunday afternoon. Many roads were to be closed for the better part of the day.
A friend snapped these pictures out of his apartment window. It’s the President’s motorcade. Very interesting!
This road is never desolate like this!
Notice the police at the bottom right.
Police helicopter hovering overhead as the motorcade passed.
This is Sheikh Mohammad’s car. Notice the license plate number “1″. He usually drives this himself.
Motorcade Limos.
Not sure what’s in this car/truck. Looks “special” though.
Sallelite communications/tracking car?
Three identical Escalades… tight formation.
But someone’s peeking out…
Could that be President Bush?… I think it is.
Update: Now I’m not so sure… here is a pic of him that day from the local newspaper. What do you think? Tie matches but the coat might be too dark in the photo.
Burj Dubai Update:
The Burj Dubai reached 600m and 158 floors in early January. That is the tallest and most floors of any building in the world. Here is some interesting info from a recent GulfNews article:
“Cladding work of the tower is now ongoing at an accelerated pace with 58 storeys already wearing the shimmering sheen of the high-performance cladding system,” the statement said.
“The primary materials used – reflective glazing, aluminium and textured stainless steel spandrels and vertical stainless tubular fins – accentuate the tower’s height and slenderness to the eye.”
Burj Dubai is now taller than Taipei 101 (508 metres) in Taiwan and CN Tower (553.33 metres) in Toronto, Canada.
When completed, the tower will have used 330,000 cubic metres of concrete, 39,000 metric tonnes of steel rebar and 142,000 square metres of glass – and 22 million man hours.
More than 5,000 consultants and skilled professionals workers are employed on-site at the tower.
I’ve taken some time off work to be with the family during this Christmas season and that always means my blogging slows down. But there’s much to post and discuss so it’s time to jump back in!
Before I move on to other news and ideas I’ve given you a few pictures I took during the Christmas season here in Dubai. Dubai is a wonderful place in the Arabian peninsula in that they allow the celebration of Christmas. I’m thankful for that. But I think that much of the motivation for the demonstrably public nature of Christmas is for merchandising reasons. Dubai retailers have learned the “cash cow” that a commercialized Christmas can be. It’s kind of a shame but again, I’m grateful for the allowances that are made for celebrating this Christian remembrance in an Islamic country.
Here’s a short (and low quality) video of the Tagalog song they sang for us.
I recently had to buy four new tires. As I waited at the local petrol station for the new ones to be put on the car I noticed a sign I’d never seen before in that garage. “Cleanliness is Next to Godliness”. Now I’ve heard that saying before but never seen it posted in a auto garage!
I understand the desire to have the workers keep their work environment clean. It would promote safety in the work place and an image of excellence. But IS cleanliness next to godliness? Does the cleaning of your body or your environment enable you to better draw near to God and be like him?
A few things come to mind.
Jesus said stuff like this on the subject.
Mark 7:14-23 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)
And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”
In Islam, one place and time where physical purity is necessary is during prayer. Muslims must physically cleanse themselves for their prayers to be heard by God and therefore effective. The cleansing procedure is called Wudu.
Islamonline.net says, “Muslims must have perfect ritual prayers to pray the Salah (ritual prayers). Here is an excerpt from their posting on the subject.
Physical purity means cleanliness of the body, clothing and environment. According to the rules of Islam, Muslims should keep their bodies and clothing clean from any impurities, especially the body wastes of humans and animals.
Islam insists on the use of clean water to cleanse the body of impurities, and only when water is not available can a person use other things. Even the clothing should be perfectly clean from any impurities. For that reason, Muslim bathrooms have a source of running water or pitchers of water next to the toilet.
Similarly, any animal discharges — including the saliva of dogs — are unclean and Muslims should make sure their clothing, environment, and bodies are free of those impurities.
Muslims must have perfect physical purity to pray the Salah (ritual Prayers).
You are in this state of ritual purity of wudu’ until you urinate or defecate, pass wind, sleep, or become unconscious. If you do any of these things before or during the Salah, you must repeat the wudu’.
The history of the phrase itself seems to indicate that it came from ancient Hebrew writings of the 2nd century A.D. In English it appears to have derived from Sir Francis Bacon and then later John Wesley, the famous Christian evangelist, mentions it in a sermon in 1791.
As a follower of Jesus, I tend to think that cleanliness doesn’t have much to do with godliness at all. I can see where an understanding that one’s body is a creation and gift from God should lead one to take care of your body. And there are some references to working hard with your hands (as opposed to being idle) in the New Testament. But cleanliness is hardly a “doorway” to godliness.
What do you think?
