DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
by Mark Silva
They served goat brains on the buffet in the hold for pool reporters here today, but I cannot directly report what it tastes like -- read on for a review.
.....As we were led in we saw Bush arriving from an interior door to the courtyard, where he was greeted by six young girls - they must have been under nine, because at nine they must go under cover and these girls were not covered but rather wearing bright gowns - half of them in fuchsia and half of them in turquoise.
..."Hi girls," said Bush, arriving to their greeting, as they burst into song. Their hands were henna'd with designs and Bush remarked on their "beautiful hands." After the song, two stepped forward with baskets of flowers and said "Welcome to Dubai."
The girls who greeted Bush and the ruler of Dubai are younger than nine, for at nine they must cover their heads.
They walked to the front bench in the center facing the rugs and now 12 girls, all dressed in the hot blue and pink gowns - fuchsia and turquoise, Dana Perino assures me - started dancing on the carpet before them.
....They circled and swayed and made great flourishes to music, and the president smiled broadly, nodded his head to the rhythm and tapped his right black-shoed foot in decent timing. The dance lasted a while and Bush was beaming throughout.
"Shukran," Bush told the girls. Thank you.
The drizzle had ended by the dance's end, and then four robed men came out with hunting falcons on their arms - fabulous big birds of light brown tones with dark markings, and they approached Bush, who briefly took a bird on his arm and handed it back. "Beautiful birds," Bush said.
With this, we were led out and motorcaded to the cultural center past the famous Dubai creek, which was not active on this national holiday - declared so for the Bush visit.
Your pooler dubbed it Freedom Day.
They circled and swayed and made great flourishes to music, and the president smiled broadly, nodded his head to the rhythm and tapped his right black-shoed foot in decent timing. The dance lasted a while and Bush was beaming throughout.
Shukran," Bush told the girls. Thank you.
2 comments:
u know that i am American too,but i hate Bush so much,and i cant` Imagin myself talking to him face to face after all the wars in the arabic Country.
when he was going around the arabic country,there were muslims deaing under his armies hands..
Hello Dunia,
I'm Stephanie, a student at the University of Vermont in the US and I'm currently enrolled in a "Gender Studies in the Middle East" course. I knew that Libya was one of the countries in the Middle East that used sharia to govern over its people, hence the mandatory veiling of girls. What I was surprised to learn was that the girls were to begin veiling at age 9. To me, this seems a bit young- I was wondering, how do you feel about it, and about sharia as law in general?
Thank you,
Stephanie
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