Keith is British, well educated and a Human Resources professional. He lives in Al Barsha with five other workmates in a 10-room villa and pays Dh75,000 a year in rent for a room of his own. Very soon he is going to be homeless.

He cannot afford to rent a flat on his own and his single status was a problem. He recently had to borrow the full year’s rent to pay the landlord, who wanted one cheque and he had to keep up with his car and utility payments.

Keith is depressed and cannot concentrate on his job because he is terrified that if the Dubai Municipality inspectors come around and fix the now notorious Red Letter on the villa that he is living in; he will be up the creek without a paddle.

Living and parking space in Dubai comes with a heavy premium. Do you, like me, feel that as the years go by there’s less and less space? In my experience the quiet, spacious residential neighbourhood I’ve lived in for the last three years has changed considerably.

There’s new construction going on to the north, south, east and west of where my family and I live. The large open space in front of the building where children played until their parents gathered them up is now a parking lot.

It’s a lot noisier. Not the pleasing sound of children happily shouting but construction noises, large pick- up trucks and dumpsters running their engines loud in the middle of the night and the cacophony of traffic.

Exactly seven years ago today a series of coordinated attacks by Al Qaida against the United States marked the beginning of an era where "security" and "war on terror" became the bane of our existence.

The world lost its innocence. I realise that there have been two major wars before I was born and the world had then lost its innocence too; but in the new millennium, I feel nothing quite prepared us for the everyday agony normal people have had to go through for the past seven years.

Taking a plane ride to go on holiday used to be a joy. Now however the nightmare begins even before you get aboard.

John McCain, the 72-year-old presumptive Republican candidate in the US presidential elections, made a maverick political move last Thursday by placing a woman almost half his age on the vice presidential ticket.

Pretty, sassy, 44-year-old Sarah Palin, it is hoped, will weave her magic to divert female voters, especially the ones that voted for Hillary Clinton in the democratic primaries.

No one really knows if that will happen until the elections are over and a winning party is announced. Until then of course the very private family life of Sarah Palin is going to be fair game and her dirty laundry not just washed in public but torn to shreds.