It's hard to overestimate how the world has changed as a result of COVID-19. Pre-pandemic, people were reluctant to contact one another virtually, whether it be on Zoom or Skype or on another audio-visual medium. This has changed. People now contact one another virtually as a matter of course. This means workshops and presentations, of which there ...
New Zealand PM bows out
Here's an article from The Economist which, while talking about John Key's resignation, states that NZ is "one of the most successful countries in the world. While this is debatable, there is no doubt that Key has had successes- namely international recognition- along with failures, housing, immigration and the environment. We have yet to see whether the new Prime Minister, John English, will have the same success.
by Lucia Dore While the COVID-19 pandemic continues in most parts of the world (the US, the UK, Europe, Brazil and India are among the countries that are worst hit), the economic fallout from the pandemic affects everyone. Although international trade continues at a slower pace than before, international travel has stopped almost entirely- well, it...
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an economic fallout everywhere. The extent of the fallout, however, seems to depend on how hard and fast an economy locked down in the first place and the choice the government made between health and the economy. Can the economy "open" if its population is concerned about its health? Hardly, was the answer the New...
Being an entrepreneur is rarely easy and it's arguably harder during times of pandemic. So, it's great to have a resource like Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center, an entrepreneurship hub based in Sharjah, an emirate in the United Arab Emirates. However, there's concern that governments and banks in the region are not doing enough to support...
COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on many industries around the world, the travel and the aviation industries particularly. Fewer people are flying and in some countries, like New Zealand, which has no community transmission, people are reluctant to leave for coming back will mean spending another 14 days in managed quarantine. Moreover, people...
I have been thinking about the financial markets a great deal lately and have been considering why some people get rich and some people don't. In Dubai, in the UAE, (a city I know well) many people live a wealthy lifestyle, but do they really have money? This article made me question whether stockmarkets are a place to make money as I, and many oth...
I was surprised to read that Syria is the world's largest producer of amphetamines, or stimulant drugs. They speed up the messages travelling between the brain and the body. This article tells how the Italian police confiscated 84 million Captagon tablets at the port of Solerno, south of Naples. The shipment was worth $1.2 billion, believed to be p...
COVID-19 is crippling the global economy. International travel has almost come to a halt- for non-essential travel anyway. EU countries have opened its borders to 14 countries, New Zealand (where I live) is among them. New Zealand is one of the safest places to live right now, given that there is no community transmission of COVID-19. Some 22 live ...
Financial technology (fintech) is taking off, especially in places like Dubai. But how is Africa's largest city doing? I'm talking about Cairo in Egypt of course. Greater Cairo has a population of about 20 million. Here's one opinion. It argues that with its wider economic strategies both generally and specifically with fintech, the country can hel...
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by Lucia Dore The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is well placed to deal with the impact of COVID-19, according to a report by Oxford Business Group (OBG) entitled "How is COVID-19 impacting the ICT sector in Saudi Arabia?" The report says that KSA 's response to the COVID-19 pandemic was "aided by sustained investments in health...
I wrote this article two years ago. It is just as relevant now as it was then. Not much has changed. by Lucia Dore To what extent is communication the key to a successful organisation and to great leadership? How does good communication make an organisation great? And what difference does good communication make to the implementation of a public re...
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected major cities around the world, including those of the Middle East, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Muscat, Beirut, Doha and Tehran. What will happen to these cities? Will they bounce back? Will the importance of cities like Dubai continue, especially as a financial centre? Countries that thought they beat ...
Israel's urge to annex the West Bank is causing concerns for Jordan. The country's King Abdullah II has refused to meet with Israel's PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, because it continues to annex the West Bank. Abdullah refused to take the call from Israel's PM to discuss its plan to annex parts of the West Bank in July, a big part of the US President's Pe...
There is little to suggest that the Syrian War, which has run for nine years, is likely to end soon. Nonetheless, the US State Department is expected to announce on Wednesday (US time) the first round of targets under the so-called Caesar Act. One of the aims of the sanctions is to stop the Syrian regime from seeking foreign investment to rebuild t...
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has brought about huge implications for Turkey. It has to confront its own racism- which it is reluctant to do. The Gulen movement and the Kurdistan Workers Party (the PKK, which is deemed a terrorist organisation in the United States and Turkey) are among the parties that are accused of bringing about the upri...
Living in any country in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) - - no matter for how long it is- will not allow you to acquire a passport. I have a New Zealand (NZ) passport and lived in the United Kingdom (UK) for long enough that I could get a passport there- and that was after only five years. Of course, I lived there for much longer. Coming from ...
What Benjamin Netanyahu does regarding the annexation of the West Bank by Israel is anyone's guess. Will he go ahead with the move? The problem that is he is counting on the US and President Trump to approve it. President Trump, has other things on his mind, however. It's not just the COVID-19 pandemic with which his administration has to deal but ...
Seniors, like most people, around the world are struggling with the current lock downs. What of their future? Lucia Dore looks at the economic implications of COVID-19 for seniors and what may happen in the future. The future economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on seniors varies between countries - from Europe and the Americas to Asia/Pacific....
The killing of George Floyd by a white policeman in Minneapolis, USA, has reverberated around the world. One of the places where significant parallels are made is in Israel, where the Arabs feel marginalised and are targeted indiscriminately by police. The killing of autistic Palestinian man Iyad Hallak is arguably a perfect example of brutality by...
How the Gulf economies will get their economies back on track as COVID-19 numbers reduces is a dilemma I have been mulling over for some time. In the past, most of the countries have relied on oil to keep their budgets in order. Dubai, of course, is dependent on logistics, and on oil from Abu Dhabi. Qatar is reliant on natural gas of which it is th...