If you want to experience the opulence of the Arab peninsula, its artistry, its wealth, the Arabian dream in the modern world, you’ll head for Dubai this summer, and get a taste of Dubai luxury that’s bound to stay with you for the rest of your life.

Of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Dubai is the most modern, on a par with New York, London, and Paris when it come to luxury. It’s quickly becoming a favorite among tourists throughout the world. Once a fishing town on the Persian Gulf, it has become an Arabian point of pride. In 1959 Dubai was governed by Sheik Mohamed bin Rashid al Maktourn, who had a vision of a Dubai bristling with skyscrapers, paved with modern roads, a place to do business, a place with opportunity, not only for the people of the U.A.E., but for international concerns as well. His dream has now become a reality and a jewel.

He began by scrapping out wharves, where once there had been just a creek, and brought new shipping businesses to his town. He followed up with new homes, new schools, sports centers such as golf and tennis courts — where today, the world pros play. With opportunities abounding, new investments came, American-style malls, luxury hotels, and man-made islands. Today, an eight lane highway cuts through the middle of the city, skyscrapers standing elegantly on each side. In those skyscrapers are international businesses, enjoying Dubai luxury in the coolness of their air-conditioned offices. A truly multi-cultural city, seven out of eight people are foreigners. Over 150 different countries are represented by the population, many of them working in this fresh, young city, many more there simply to enjoy Dubai luxury as one of the millions of tourists who come to the city to treat themselves to the mega-malls, beaches and to the glamorous hotels that have come to represent Dubai luxury at its best. From a quiet desert town along the Persian Gulf, Dubai has become the most exciting place in the Arab world.

It didn’t happen all at once. In the last twenty years it has grown into a realized dream. This rapid growth is the result of Dubai’s welcoming and favorable attitude to business growth and investment. To encourage business growth, Dubai declared ‘free’ zones, where businesses are exempt from both customs and taxes. Particularly attractive to international businesses, is the freedom to transfer funds. It’s business and tourism that’s Dubai’s greatest source of income now, not the oil that started flowing from its land in 1966. Oil only represents 6 percent of its GDP. Here’s an Arab city that’s proof that Arabs know how to make capitalism work for them.

Built to host the well-to-do, it has becomes their destination for both business and recreation. Dubai has become famous for its duty-free shopping malls, its diversity of restaurants, the friendly people, its pubs, theaters, and gorgeous sandy beaches. The islands called ‘The World’, 300 man-made islands that form an archipelago, can be purchased for an easy 30 million for those who want to make this pulsating city their home. Many Americans have come to Dubai to retire there for its variety, peacefulness, and Dubai luxury, for an Arabian paradise.

If you’ve got the funds, if you love the sun, you should not deny yourself the Dubai luxury. Take a vacation there, and see if you aren’t tempted to stay. Bring your royal dreams. Dubai is there to make them real.

For centuries, Middle East water wars have raged over the Jordan River, from its northern headwater gushing at Mount Hermon, down its 200 mile stretch to where it empties as a brown syrup into the Red Sea. Prior to the modern era, tribes fought along the Jordan for riverbank access for their tribes and herds. Agricultural communities sprang up along the river to divert its water into their fields. Water has always been a precious commodity in the dry land of the Middle East, worth fighting and dying for. Today, Middle East water wars still continue on the Jordan, with occasional skirmishes between contending states. Wanderers may be blown to pieces by the mines that lie along the riverbanks. Of late, however, the fight is cooling down, especially along the lower Jordan; the river has been polluted, nearly beyond repair. Ironically, the river’s pollution is now uniting some long time enemies.

At Mount Hermon, the water is frothy in the river’s tributaries; about 10 miles further south of Mount Hermon, the Wazzani, Dan and Benlyus springs converge into the Jordan in the Hula Valley. In the 1950s, Israel and Syria fought a Middle East water war over the Jordan where it touches the Golan Heights, with Israel winning Golan and access to the water there. Draining the swamps along the Golan, Israel  created prosperous farmlands in the Hula Valley. Although refuse still finds its way from the Hula Valley into the river, the water is not greatly polluted. In 1964, Israel completed the National Water Carrier, a canal that feeds water from the Sea of Galilee, down and across Israel, all the way to Tel Aviv. Building the canal caused contention with the Arab nations, particularly Jordan, and though the two countries are at a stable peace now, the NWC canal still accounts for much of existing animosity between the two countries. The canal is a major factor in the reduction of the rivers’ flow, but Israel is not the only one to contribute to that reduction. The Yarmuk River, which runs into the Jordan from the borders of Syria and Jordan was dammed by both nations. The Yarmuk was diverted to fill the King Abdullah canal that parallels the Jordan all the way down to the Red Sea. Damming the flow of the Yarmuk River was a significant issue between Jordan and Israel, but was resolved so amicably that the resulting resolution inspired the 1994 peace agreement between the two nations. After Israel took the West Bank in 1967, another Middle East water war seemed ready to break out, but agreements between Israel and Jordan at the Oslo peace talks in 1994 eased the strain.

Even up to Nabulus, the Jordan is clean enough to host some freshwater animal species, but from there, down to the Red Sea, the Jordan serves as a sewage river. Here, the water is so polluted, few freshwater animals have survived. It is also the most thoroughly mined area along the Jordan and the riverbanks are heavily militarized. The degree of water pollution is apparent, as the Jordan trickles as a sludge into the Red Sea, a cesspool that justifies its alternate name, the Dead Sea.

Today, Middle East water wars are not fought over the lower Jordan and the Red Sea. Instead, environmentalists from both Israel and the Arab countries have joined together in an effort to bring the lower Jordan and the Red Sea back to health. Some don’t believe it can be done, and building a canal like the NWC has been proposed. With this cooperation between old enemies, whatever the solution, the Jordan has called these people to work together for a common cause. Perhaps in time, the river might teach them to live in peace – at least as concerns the Middle East waters.