Although you can't buy an alcoholic drink anywhere in Sharjah, there are plenty of saloons. Some for men and some for women. Confused? So was I for the first few days. Then I realized that "saloon" is the way they spell "salon" here. Saloons are where you go to get a haircut, not to get a drink.

Another interesting variant spelling concerns the products you use to clean the inside of your toilet. On more than one occasion I have seen it translated as 'bowel cleanser" instead of bowl cleaner. Get that one wrong and you won't live to tell about it.

Then there are things like grocery shopping. One thing I learned right off is that the Co-op closes before Friday prayers and stays closed for about and hour after those prayers begin. And during Ramadan, you there's another break in the evenings everyday, just before the sunset prayer.

And then there is the fact that the vendors and the fruit and vegetable souks will literally drag you into their stalls if you shake the hands of "friendship" that they extend to you. More frustrating than that, however, is the fact that they don't post their prices, thereby making price-comparison shopping all but impossible. Malls, on the other hand, are not only as big as you'll find in the US, many of the stores in them stay open well past midnight. A few of them, for instance the Ibn Batuta Mall - the one where the infamous American entertainer was caught recently in wrong bathroom- is the most spacious and architecturally elegant mall I've ever seen.

One thing that was most culturally shocking for me when I arrived here in Sharjah was the way in which both men and women cover themselves in public. Admittedly, before coming here I did not consider myself a big fan of either the "thaub" or "dishdash" the white robes worn by men or of the "shayla", headscarf, or the "abayat", the black robes worn by the women. And while I still and will likely always have a problem with fully or even partially-veiling of women, I can confess to not feeling nearly so antagonistic towards the dishdash, the shayla and the abayat. In fact, I rather like them now. I'll post more on that another time.

Still, with all the modernization and westernization and economic liberalization happening in this region, I saw something in the Sharjah Co-Op, a local grocery chain, the other day that I hadn't expected to see, even in this conservative Emirate. It was the front of the box of toasted corn flakes whose image appears at the top of this post.

As a breakfast cereal whose second ingredient is sugar, the abundant use of pink, along with what is clearly the face of pre-pubescent girl, there is no mistaking who is the target market for this cereal. What I can't figure out, however, is why. The back panel of the box, shown below, would seem to indicate that the producer, the Lebanese-based Fulla, makes three other cereals that it markets to young girls- Chocolate Toasted Rice, Sugar Coated Corn Flakes, and Honey Coated Corn Flakes.

The similarities and differences between the first girl and the other three is noteworthy. What they all have in common is that they appear to be about the same age; they all have fair skin, large eyes, very long eyelashes, and don't appear to be obviously Middle Eastern. Where they differ is that the latter three girls not only do not don headscarves, they latter three sport different color lipstick, eye color, hairstyles and color, and outfits.

Still, I really don't know what to make of this. Thus, I am going to withhold judgement for now and ask some of my students when they return in to campus in two weeks time. My question is, of course: to what kind of girls and from what kind of families are the Toasted Corn Flakes being target marketed?

Linked at: Don Surber |