You want DVD?

Yes folks, the famous fake DVD sales people of Dubai were dealt a shocking blow today as six people were jailed for selling illegal DVDs.

I've never bought any myself. I once borrowed a friend's copy of Lions for Lambs and wasn't overly impressed that the night scenes were so dark I couldn't see any action. Granted it does probably get quite dark in the middle of the Afghan desert at night, but I presume the director thought about that and brought some lighting. I was, however, amazed by Tom Cruise's fluency in the Russian language and the way he effortlessly slipped between that and his native American. Who knew Tom Cruise was a cunning linguist?

Whether it's this experience, or a symptom of being shockingly honest - or maybe the FACT advertising that banged on about how fake DVD's single-handedly support those naughty drugs barrons actually worked on someone - I can hold my hands up and say I have never bought a fake DVD. Even at 10 dirhams a pop.

I mentioned this to my Kuwaiti colleague the other day who was stunned. "But I see it like this" he said, "in buying fake DVD I support my local economy rather than some international film maker". How so? "My neighbour is probably the guy making the DVDs"

A lovely piece of cultural insight!