Going belly-up in Dubai

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Martin Moodie
Martin Moodie is the Founder & Chairman of The Moodie Report.

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It was that moment that hardened Middle East Gala Dinner attendees fear. The local Belly Dancer is swaying and gyrating as the audience claps in time. She begins to swirl her way into the audience as she looks for a partner to take on stage. Everywhere men’s heads are looking down into their laps, keen to avoid the dancer’s attention.

The Moodie Report Publisher was no exception, during the Gala Dinner at the ACI Airport Business & Trinity Forum in Dubai last week. As the admittedly wonderful dancer neared the table, the trembling publisher began to study the intricate leather soles on his new Hugo Boss shoes with mounting intensity.

As she swayed past the Moodie table it looked as though the crisis was over. Until a certain John Sutcliffe, Aer Rianta International-Middle East’s Managing Director, beckoned her: “Over here,” he cried, his finger pointing directly at the cowering Antipodean.

What does one do as an audience of nearly 400 roars you to get up and your fellow table guests scorn your original refusal? In our case you do a passable imitation of a beetroot and reluctantly take those Hugo Bosses and all that lies within them onto the dance floor.

For a man who is to dancing excellence what George Bush is to Mensa, this was the ultimate humiliation. And while winning full plaudits for taking part, the artistic reputation plummeted.
In fact it went belly-up.

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