Retro is slowly making a comeback in Dubai and that warms the cockles of my old heart.

Let me explain. When I sometimes reminisce about the good old days with my young adult children they look at me as if I were an old fogey, but on the other hand these very same modernists will swoon over old pictures, ancient architecture and other antiques I may have on my dressing table or in my jewellery case.

The point I’m trying to make here is that which is old has its value… for knowledge and experience, for its culture, its history and even the feeling that decades ago somebody built it, made it, wrote it, fashioned it, created it or simply just kept it.

In the 17th century, a poor young lad called Dick Whittington travelled to London to seek his fortune. "The streets are paved with gold," he was told time and time again by the people of his village.

Dick, with his cat, went off to London and in true fairytale form became rich, married the woman he fancied and became Mayor of London, not once but three times.

In the 20th century, it was hundreds of thousands of young men of different shades and creeds with names like Tom, Dilawar and Hari who came to seek their fortune in Dubai – the city of gold. Many had their dreams come true. They became rich beyond their greatest expectations and aimed to live happily ever after. However, there were others with similar dreams, who fell between the cracks and unhappily stayed poor, grinding out a living or, worse still, giving up all hope and ending their lives.

The World Health Organisation declared October 15, 2008 the first ever "Global Handwashing Day" and is mobilising millions of people around the world to wash their hands regularly with soap.

I’m chuffed. As an obsessive-compulsive hand washer I feel vindicated that a global organis-ation has taken my phobia of hand-transmitted diseases very seriously.(Touching Dilemmas, September 27, 2007)

The World Health Organisation declared October 15, 2008 the first ever "Global Handwashing Day" and is mobilising millions of people around the world to wash their hands regularly with soap.

I’m chuffed. As an obsessive-compulsive hand washer I feel vindicated that a global organis-ation has taken my phobia of hand-transmitted diseases very seriously.(Touching Dilemmas, September 27, 2007)

Further, all those people who make it a point to shake hands beware – WHO is planning to transform handwashing with soap from an abstract good idea into an automatic behaviour in homes, schools and communities worldwide to save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention.

The US presidential debate was why I woke up at the unearthly hour of 4am early Wednesday morning. The financial crisis that has rocked the United States and the UK and which has forced a country like Iceland to go into financial meltdown was on my mind and I expected both Barack Obama and John McCain to go head to head on the economy.

Unfortunately that was not to be. Instead, while flicking channels I came upon a shocking documentary on how young men and women in the US are committing suicide because of their overwhelming debt.

The pain of the parents narrating their sad stories sent a shiver down my spine and led me to think of the hundreds of thousands of young expatriates in Dubai who live beyond their means and, worse, do not have parents or older relatives to catch them if they should fall.

This Eid Al Fitr, while the public sector got a week off from work and the private sector just two days, there are some who complained they were in the wrong job because they got none.

So, if you are one of those whining away about how you may have taken a wrong turn in your career path because you always have to work while the rest of the country is on holiday, take heart, help is near.

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