Newsflash: "Lewd stares distressing for women" from The National

You've got to love The National.  First of all, this article appears to have been printed in the "Sport" section.  Hmmm.

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090711/WEEKENDER/707109836/0/sport

In case you don't feel like reading it, here's a one-sentence summary:

Western women get stared at in Abu Dhabi.

There are plenty of little cultural tidbits in this article, sprinkled around like hundreds and thousands on a cupcake, but my favourite is this quote:

"Emirati men are courteous.  They never stare."

Well, this might be true, but it's also true that I've been honked at, asked to sunbathe, and invited to the beach for a swim by men who are unmistakeably Emiratis.

So what is this all about?  In my mind it seems it would have been more appropriate for the implied quantifier to be the existential, as in 

Ex NOT STARE(x), where x = Emirati Man

rather than the implied universal

Ax NOT STARE(x)

But that could just be the frustrated semanticist in me talking.

I think what's at the heart of the matter is this:  For some reason, expats have the idea that they should never, ever, say anything negative about life in Abu Dhabi.  Don't take my word for it -- go log on to some Abu Dhabi expat forum, start a thread titled "One thing I hate about Abu Dhabi."  Then count the minutes until some moderator deletes your post and gives you a little electronic slap on the hand.  I'm not advocating that we all bash Abu Dhabi, but let's try not ignore the fact that certain aspects of life there are dislikeable, and let's not apologise for disliking them.

Including the fact that men, some of whom are Emiratis, stare at us.