Cosima Underwater

Oma, Opa, little man, and I are gearing up for the big festivities. Today we bought a tree, and thanks to Opa’s negotiating skills for a very good price (“I may be old but I am not stupid, young man. On the 24th you have to sell them all at half price anyway. I give you twenty Euros, not more.”),  gifts for little man are carefully hidden away, and tomorrow we will pick up a goose for our Christmas dinner from a farm outside Berlin.  We are all set.

A Peaceful and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

In writing it looks so innocent, but in reality rain is a wonder and at the same time an extraordinary problem in the desert. It has been raining non-stop since yesterday, and in non-desert places the non-stop drizzle with a little bit of wind would be nothing to write home about, but here it is.

It’s the first drench in more than half a year. It made all the dusty plants turn into a vibrant green. Nature is a marvelous thing, wondrous, and so efficient and adaptable.

On the downside, the birds who where in heavy flirting mood just a few days ago huddle together on my window sill looking sad and cold. The swimming pool will overflow in less than half an inch. The streets are lakes. And drivers who have never heard of aquaplaning lie in the hospital. No drains in the desert. All these new, shiny buildings, built with 60 billion (or was it double that amount?) of debt, seem to soak up the the rain, not repel it.

Tomorrow the movers will come, and pack up our stuff. They may have to swim.

Censorship is a strange thing. The newspapers write that the economy is picking up. Word on the street is that Dubai owes roughly 10 billion to various Japanese companies. They built the metro. Maybe that’s why only a handful of stations have opened. The Koreans finished the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai, but they have stopped work on a bridge crossing the Dubai Creek. I don’t think the news will get better, it will get worse. Next to go are the fancy restaurants and shops.

My Bavarian Beauty will travel to Beirut. A Lithuanian girl wanted to buy the automotive marvel, but didn’t get a loan. Local banks have no money to lend. So a Lebanese man bought her for his son in Beirut. Cash, no questions asked. I think he got a very good deal. I would have loved to bring her to Hong Kong, but her steering wheel is on the wrong side.

We will be in Berlin in a couple of days, where it is forecasted to be -10 Celsius. That will be a mighty change to the system.

I have been thinking about sayings. They are sometimes right, more often wrong, and they stick in our minds. Maybe more in German minds. The German language is full of them and we use them in everyday language at least five times a day. They are a poetic form of stereotypes.

I am sure you have heard of Dubai over the last few days. I could have told you the first time I visited this place, and that was more than a year ago. It was obvious. Maybe it was only obvious to people like me, middle-aged, lived through the Asian crisis (by far not as many empty high-rises than here), and never prone to believe in snazzy advertising (highest skyscrapers, man-made islands in weird shapes etc, etc).

Last night we were sitting outside, drinking French wine and one of the few friends I made here was saying that the last seven years in Dubai were hard, but she would not want to miss them. It taught her things that she would never have known had she stayed in her country of birth (small,  European, democratic, with a functioning legal system).

On the one hand I agree. I am glad I came here. We are healthy, not in jail, and still have the money to get out of here.  Only one week to go. And it made me thankful. I know that I have been lucky. Your country of birth determines your fate in life. Dubai is full of people off much worse than me, trying to better themselves. I have the feeling that they will soon run out of time to achieve that.

Money. Money. Money. Greed and fear. It’s disgusting what men and women do to each other to get more, and more, and more, and more of it. For some there is no limit. May they choke on it.

Here are the sayings, I have heard during the last week:

Never believe anything until it is officially denied.

Lying makes the world a much kinder place. We all should do it more often.

Don’t throw stones if you sit in a glass house.

Money does not buy happiness.

Men get better with age (with a ;) at the end, why that? … lol)

The tallest building being built is a sure indicator for a property bust.

What is your favorite saying of the day?