Some of you might have noticed the January 2007 issue of National Geographic with Dubai as one of its cover articles. On that note, here’s a little something to look at from my archives. National Geographic, February 1946: That’s right, probably one of the first articles in NG dealing solely with our little island of hope, Bahrein: Port of Pearls and Petroleum – With 6 illustrations and Map, 11 Natural Color Photographs by Maynard Owen Williams.

No, nothing to do with another daytime television show about speed house remodeling or a popular regional dish (machboos.) Rather, Space Invaders and Machibuse here refer to classic arcade games. Those of you who have not played the original games might still have come across the many versions and clones of Space Invaders and Pac-Man (Machibuse is the original, Japanese name of the pink ghost Pinky in Pac-Man. Incidentally, Pac-Man was originally called Pucman in Japan.

The US vs. John LennonPeace now.

While Arab, and in particular Islamic countries, face an uncertain future in terms of defining their own presence in the global arena and developing a hegemony of sorts that will help them shape their own destinies, it is worth examining the underlying roots and foundations of Western, and in particular, US hegemony. The Renaissance called for reason, it called for a revival of the human spirit through science, discovery and the arts.