Mourning

We just found out that Sheik Mubarak bin Mohammed al Nahyan just passed away. He was one of the older guys in the ruling family and the father of Sheikh Nahayan who is the minister of higher education among other things. I'd never heard of Sheikh Mubarak before and when I went to the internet to find out more, there really isn't any more. All the middle eastern news agencies report his death and an official three days of mourning. No age, no cause of death (not even the 'go to' - natural causes. Nada. We do get three days of mourning. In the old days that would apparently translate into a total shut down of schools, offices, industry and commercial enterprises (ie woo hoo three days of vacation). But Abu Dhabi is more progressive now. So the latest manifestation, so far, means: yes, there is school and yes, there is work. But Radio 1 and their raucous disc jockeys Simon B, Danny and Sheena have been silenced and in their place there is the equivalent of arabic muzac. There's apparently a complete ban on alcohol and we'll see about music and dancing. In two nights time we have the American School's gala---It's a brazilian carnival. Dry and Silent. Hmmm sounds like a blast.

We'll see how this develops...