Dubai, I love you ❤️

You know how it is here—almost none of us are actually from here.

We didn’t grow up singing the anthem, and we don't have deep ancestral ties to the desert. Most of us just showed up with a suitcase looking for better weather, tax breaks, or a good job.

But then this past weekend happened. Hundreds of missiles and drones headed straight for us. My phone was blowing up with messages from London, NY, Paris—everyone freaking out, asking how I'm still here and telling me to get on a flight. But honestly?

Everyone here was just... having dinner. Chilling.

You can’t fake that kind of calm. It really made me realize what it looks like when people actually trust the people running the show.

The defense systems intercepted almost everything. We lost three people—which is awful, obviously—but out of 10 million? It’s wild. People outside the UAE probably don't get it, but you don’t stop an attack like that just by throwing money at it.

It takes so much boring, behind-the-scenes planning and competence. Like, actual governing. By Monday morning, I was grabbing my usual coffee. The shop was open, kids were playing at the park, and no one was making a mad dash for the airport. If anything, everyone was just weirdly grateful to be exactly where they were.

It made me think about the track record here. During COVID, while the rest of the world panicked, Dubai just kept moving and came out way ahead. Then last April, we had that insane flooding and the highways literally turned into rivers. The internet had a field day with the apocalyptic photos, but a few days later the streets were clear, and a couple of weeks later the government dropped billions on a massive new drainage system. They just fix things. And now this.

It feels like the rest of the world is always waiting for Dubai's bubble to burst, but it never does. Honestly, I think something shifted for the expats this weekend. We all came here for practical reasons, but without really noticing it, we got attached.

You know I love Lebanon & France and I'm super proud to be Lebanese & French, but you also know the heartbreak of loving a country where the institutions just let you down constantly. It ruins your trust. So when I tell you that what the UAE pulled off this weekend was insane, I mean it. I've never seen a government handle a crisis like this.

I was actually thinking about Alexis de Tocqueville the other day—he wrote about how democracy isn't just about the mechanical act of putting a ballot in a box; it's a living thing driven by people's daily choices and participation. In a weird way, the UAE functions like a different kind of democracy. We are constantly voting, just not with paper. We vote with our time, our money, and our ongoing choice to keep our lives here. It's the ultimate paradox.

We all know places that are "democracies" on paper but act like anything but.

Here, you have the exact opposite: it doesn't have the official status of a democracy, but by constantly adapting to what the people here actually want and responding to our "votes," it genuinely acts like one.

People joke about Dubai wanting to be "number one" at everything, but the leadership across the whole UAE really proved themselves.

They built this place out of the sand 50 years ago, and to see it take a literal missile strike and just open for business the next morning is surreal.

I feel like I owe this place a lot. It suddenly turned millions of us strangers into an actual community, and it sets the bar incredibly high for what we need to build here next.

Anyway, just wanted to dump my thoughts. Hope everything is good with you.