Dubai scion gets degree in dadology

Sheikh Majed bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum is the heir to the throne of Dubai. His father, the emir of the city-state and the prime minister (a campy term) of the United Arab Emirates, is the famous Sheikh Mo of Dubai lore, the man who has given us all those fake islands in the shape of a palm tree, the world's first seven-star hotel, and the world's tallest building.

Sheikh Majed, or "Mini-Mo" as he has just been called for the first time, hopes to be just like dad some day. To wit, he engages in a lot of emir-y things:

Here he is opening the 2009 Desalination World Congress; There he is cutting the ribbon on the Dubai Airport Expo; Over there he is inspecting Dubai's newest golf course, the "Earth course" ahead of the Dubai World Championships, which took place this past weekend.

Here is his facebook page. (You'll notice he has only about 100,000 fewer fans than Queen Rania.)

Here is his official website. (It seems to offer no function whatsoever.)

And here is his new Master's degree.

Sheikh Majed bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, scion of Dubai, just received a Master's degree in Police Studies for a thesis* entitled "The Genius of Crisis Management in the Vision of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al Maktoum" (his daddy).

According to the report [ عربي ], Sheikh Mini-Mo wrote about how Dubai has a long history of crises both internal and external, and only by the grace and wisdom of great leadership has the emirate been able to overcome adversity.

And nobody's got grace and wisdom like Majed's own papa Sheikh Mo, who has (with his $28-billion net worth from the oil wells) lifted Dubai out of perpetual threat by building a gleaming, shimmering, ostentatious police state.

To his credit, Majed also credits his earlier ancestors in the hereditary line of the Dubai emirate, as though to underscore the point that genes play a role in determining greatness, lest we fear for the future when Mini-Mo is ruling Dubai.

* In Arabic: بعبقرية إدارة الأزمات في رؤية الشيخ محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم

Dubai ex-pat Hockey League laces up for new season

The Tuque Souq is primed and ready for another NHL season, and the crisp, cool October air filling the room at night has us dreaming of Luongo's butterfly, Phaneuf's crushing checks, Heatley's wrist shots and Kovalev's antics (yes, and even the Leafs).

The air must be similar over in the United Arab Emirates, because another season of the Dubai Mighty Camels - the common nickname for the UAE Ice Hockey League - is on its way soon.

The defending champs are the ECFT "Canadians" [that's their logo pictured] who took home last year's Dubai Mighty Camel Cup after an 18-5-1 season that saw them score a league-high 157 goals.

(ECFT stands for Emirates CAE Flight Training; CAE stands for Canadian Aviation Electronics, a Montreal company founded in 1947 that provides civilian and military flight training.)

ECFT captain Ron Murphy was surely the season MVP last year, leading all players with 61 goals and 58 assists. [Click here for full standings and stats from last season.]

The 7-"herd" league is made up of mostly Canadian and American ex-pats living in Dubai, which is also home to a recreational hockey club for ex-pats.

The Tuque Souq will keep you posted on the season.

Canadians in the Middle East: Heather Hulkenberg

From the Calgary Herald: Canadian ex-pat and children's author Heather Hulkenberg, who lives in Dubai, has found an eager audience in her adopted home-away-from-Canada.

Her forthcoming children's book, her third, to be titled Peri's Perfect Plume, is "the tale of a peacock with less-than spectacular plumage who travels the world with a helpful, bearded Sheikh in hopes of finding some feathers to purchase.

"[W]hat makes her kid-lit success so remarkable is that her popularity is not limited to the children that attend the numerous expat schools there. She has also found an eager audience in the insular world of Dubai's Islamic private schools, where the children of some of the richest and most powerful Arab families attend."