Independence Day

Photo GulfNews

Rumours that Sheikh Mo was at Camp David to negotiate the sale of the United States of America to Nakheel or Emaar are unfounded.

I mean, how ridiculous, even if a combination of wasta and wampum can, indeed, shape history and has done so on the far side of the Atlantic.

Wampum, right? In 1630 or thereabouts the Dutch purchased from the local Native Americans the land the colonists had settled and named Nieuw Amsterdam for a passel of wampum, noted by historians as merchandise to the value of 60 Guilders.

Now Nieuw Amsterdam is best described as extending to comprise no more than today's Lower Manhattan. But on Wall Street and in the immediate environs such institutions as CitiGroup, BearStearns and other leadinglights of the finance world are based...



But even if Sheikh Mo were inclined to cast a covetous eye on Nieuw Amsterdam, and prepared to offer substantially more than 60 Guilders, would he not find that Abu Dhabi had beaten him to it?

Enough of this poppycock; let the American national holiday be celebrated. Below, Amy G and her kazoo...