Shahar Peer is causing quite a bit of controversy over her visa denial to enter the UAE for the Women's tennis tournament. NY Times, unbiased as always, ended a piece by Harvey Araton with,

Tennis should finish its business in the gulf this month, and say bye-bye, Dubai.

Sports are mixed with politics. Sporting contests are an alternative to war. I am not sure how one can imagine the two to all of a sudden not mix. They mix. They mix all the time.

Larry Scott, the chairman and chief executive of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, gambled on Dubai. I find it hard to believe that he would have thought the Emirati's would grant a visa to an Israeli on an Israeli passport for a sporting event. High level diplomatic mission.. sure. As long as these visas are not high-profile and not reported in the media, it will happen. So, either Scott is demonstrating incredible naivity or is lying. The UAE is not Qatar. Doha carved a niche out for itself as the political rebel in the GCC. A good by-produt of this is Al Jazeera. The UAE has consistently maintained a conservative political outlook.

Dubai has been getting a lot of bad press in international media lately. Unlike in the past, there don't appear to be a plethora of positive news to offset the bad stuff. While it is understandable in such times, I can't help but feel that whoever is handling the Dubai Inc. communications brief is dropping the ball somewhere. A lot of them.