Caught In The Middle But Still Perky

摘要

At the heart of a region better known for tension and strife, and at a time of global financial anxiety, the rich Arab monarchies of the Gulf exude an unworldly calm. Their lucky citizens seem to inhabit an enchanted cocoon of marble-hailed villas, hotels and shopping centres, awaft in costly scents, serviced by an obedient army of foreign workers and protected by the might of the American superpower. Amid such playthings as thoroughbred horses, hunting falcons, yachts, jets and flashy cars by the fleetful, Gulf rulers have pondered not how to stay in power but what new castles, towers and cities to build for their happy subjects.