I've been called a lot of things in thirty years of working in the Arab Gulf

Persistent. Passionate. The woman who doesnt take no for an answer.

But my favorite — the one that made me laugh the first time I heard it, and the one that has stayed with me ever since — is Blonde Wasta.

It started in Ann Arbor.

I was putting myself through the University of Michigan the old-fashioned way, waitressing for tuition money, when I met some Emirati students. What happened next is something that anyone who has ever met an Emirati will immediately understand.

When you meet one, you inherit a tribe.

What Overload, risk, and shifting work culture are doing to professional responsiveness

For most of my career, a basic professional expectation held steady. If you reached out respectfully, particularly on behalf of a credible organization, you received a response.

It might not have been the answer you wanted. But it was an answer.

Today, that expectation no longer reliably holds. Emails go unanswered. WhatsApp messages are read without reply. LinkedIn messages disappear entirely. Even people we know, people we have worked with, supported, or collaborated with, often fall silent.

At first, this feels personal. Then confusing. Eventually, it raises a more fundamental question. What changed in professional communication, and why has silence become so common?

One of the unexpected benefits of being the mother of a son who was fascinated by blockchain and crypto long before they became mainstream was that I had an early front-row seat to the space. I learned as much as anyone does who Satoshi Nakamoto is, understood how blockchain structures worked, and even drafted white papers for new token projects. That early exposure gave me a foundation that has since become invaluable in my professional work. (And yes, it also meant I could hold my own in conversations about the Wu-Tang Clan and was singing along with Chance the Rapper back when he was still an underground Chicago phenom—but that’s a story for another time.)

I am offering my opinion on the impact of the current Israel-Iran conflict, based on my over 30 years of experience living within the Middle East's geopolitical landscape, specifically from the perspectives of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and its impact on trade and investment.

I can offer them an abbreviated five-minute spiel, but this generic monologue hardly scratches the surface of an actual How-To for their own industry.

I decided to share a few mini-case studies over the next few weeks to help explain the process.

In the GCC, business is personal. Deals are built on trust, introductions, and sometimes a shared cup of strong Arabic coffee.

I first traveled to Dubai in 1987. I remember an Emirati friend had a t-shirt that said:

Today I stepped out of the US Pavilion at Gulfood in Dubai to

One of the cardinal rules of selecting an agent or distributor in UAE has always been to exercise caution