Latest Entry
Sep 5, 2008 Saudi News
Hacked Ministry of Labor Site
Story
An unemployed Saudi citizen hacked the website for the Saudi Ministry of Labor. He did that by replacing the front page with a message saying the site was hacked and the phrase “We are bored of unemployment can you listen”
Commentary
Unemployment is becoming a serious problem in Saudi Arabia and with the current rate of inflation its just getting worse. Saudi Arabia’s main problem is a young population (50% of population is estimated to be under 15 years old) and reliance on foreign workers (about 5 million immigrant works are officially declared). But I do wounder what does hacking the site will do to solve the unemployment problem? It does show how poor the site is and after visiting it I can say I can make a better site in less than an hour.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Recent Entries
Sep 3, 2008 Announcements & Updates
So I arrived back home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Its was a long trip with a few minor problems but no delays. Working on settling in and adapting to the time change.
Will be back on the site slowly posting as I settel in.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Aug 20, 2008 Announcements & Updates
Well, I am flying home on September 1st and will be busy till then paking and setteling all my affairs in the USA. So as I result I could disappear as I won’t have time to spend on the site. My next post will be most likely sometime after I reach home and settle down. I will also have a podcast up during my first week at home to keep up with my new once a month show policy.
So till then, hope you all have a good time.
Saudi Arabia here I come!
Popularity: 23% [?]
Aug 14, 2008 Saudi News
AlSharif left receiving reward from health minster
Story
A Mr. Bander AlSharif was awarded by order of the king 50 thousand Saudi Riyals and a promotion to the next level. The awarded was in response to the honestly of AlSharif in reporting an attempted bribe.
AlSharif a staff member of the minster of health was approached by representatives of a medical company. The company was obligated to pay millions of riyals to ministry according to a penalty clause in their contract with the ministry. The company offered AlSharif 150 thousand SR to arrange for the canclation of the clause to avoide the payment. AlSharif accepted the offer and immediately reported it to the proper authorities who arrange a sting operation to capture the company representatives in the process of handing over the money. As a result the company will be fine for its actions and banned from and future contracts with the ministry. Criminal charges will be issued to the guilty parties.
Commentary
First thing that cam to mind was the guys name AlSharif which means the honest one in Arabic. Apparently this guy carried the right name. It also nice to see such people rewarded as it encourages others to report such violations and for those that bribe to think twice before attempting it. Saudi Arabia has a rising problem with corruption in recent years due to multiple reasons. Greed is of course one, need is another, and just corruption is another. Saudi used to and still has a problem with a different bribe system a system called wasta (some that knows someone can take care of it) and involved no money as its all about status and relations, people just helping other for exchange of favors or just to show off or to help a friend or family member. Bribery was as common as now mainly because Saudi had a small population and a bribe could easy be discovered as everybody knew everybody else. But with the growth of the country bribes have started to be common and a stand against it is needed. This is one way to fight it and hope they push on.
Popularity: 32% [?]
Aug 14, 2008 Saudi News
Story
The rage in the Arab world nowadays are two Turkish TV series dubbed into Arabic. The Series have been a huge success with a huge following. These TV series have hit a nerve with the Arab world as it provides a similar background the Arabic culture with higher quality production and acting. The results of these TV series is a number of divorces as couples argue about it, woman complain why their husbands are not as romantic as the main male characters in the TV series, and some men complain why their wives don’t take as good a care of themselves as the main female character in the series. The series have also boosted tourism to Turkey from the Arab world to unexpected numbers.
However some religious authorities in the Arab world have declared the series as haram (forbiden) to watch. They say that they are destroying families and provide a bad perspective of life and marriage. One of the most notable Islamic figures to support this view is the mufti (head clerk) of Saudi Arabia.
Commentary
Sure go ahead and forbid it, but its not about Islam its all about men loosing face. Why are Arab men so bad with women? all they expect from their wives is to cook and serve but for them to provide their wives with some love and romance that would never happen. Stop issuing ridicules and stupid fatwas and start working on serious problems. how about a fatwa banning the marriage of girls under 16? Ya ignore all the important stuff and make a stand against the stupid stuff. If your worried about your wife if she watches the tv series just treat her well then you will have nothing to worry about.
Popularity: 36% [?]
Aug 13, 2008 Saudi News
Story
A Saudi woman went to court demanding that her 8 year old daughters marriage to a man in his fifties married to two be annulled.
The father of the girl who is separated from her mother owed money to the groom, in exchange for the money he owned the father agreed to marry his 8 year old daughter to the man who was in his fifties and already had two wives. As soon as the mother knew of this marriage she went to court demanding that the marriage be annulled due to the age of the girl and that the marriage was based on cancellation of loans. She also contacted the human rights authorities and other governmental authorities to stop this marriage.
Commentary
One word here SICK! Now this is a big problem in Saudi Arabia forgetting all about the money part and so on Saudi Arabia does not have a an age limit for marriage. This is based religious reasons since Islam doesn’t provide an age limit. however those were the old days when life was different. Even if Islam doesn’t provide a specific age limit it does provide a lot of laws to protect children and life and using those laws and the current times setting an age limit should be no problem, not only that it should be required! Stop selling girls and stop child molestation because that’s what I see here.
PS: This is an exception and not the norm but such an exception shouldn’t be possible if there was a law with a marrage age.
Popularity: 37% [?]
Aug 12, 2008 Saudi News
Story
Twenty five men from a Saudi tribe starting celebrating and chanting in front of the Riyadh General Court after successfully separating a woman of their clan from a man unknown to them.
The man married his wife with her fathers approval with the opposition of the clan members who refused that a woman of their clan be married to someone from outside the clan. As result the clan members went to court to demand the annulment of the marriage as the man was not one of them. The husband stood still and announced that he will only agree to divorce his wife if her father asked him. Under extreme pressure from the clan members the father broke down and asked for the divorce as a result the couple was broken up. As soon as this happen shouting and screaming was heard all over the court house as the clans men celebrated and some even fell to the ground in prayer thanking god.
Commentary
Tribal traditions at its peak! So the only problem with the guy was that he wasn’t one of their clan so they destroy his marrage. Where in Islam does this come in? This is a major problem in Saudi Arabia where tribalism comes first and Islam second, many believing that their tribal traditions are part of Islam. This is tribal racism at its best. All I can say this is sick and needs to be stopped.
Popularity: 37% [?]
Aug 12, 2008 Announcements & Updates
Well it seems I had some problems with my contact form here on the site, basically it wasn’t working and if you have contacted me using the form during the last 2 weeks there is a good chance I never got you message.
It seems I fixed the contact form and all seems to work ok now, so if you contacted me during the last 2 weeks using the form here on the site and I haven’t replied to you till now, please write me again as this means I never got your message.
Popularity: 38% [?]
Aug 8, 2008 Saudi News
Story
A man in the western province of Saudi Arabia on death row has been taken off death row thanks to a generous donation from an anonymous man of 1 million Saudi riyals in exchange for the victims family pardon. When news reached the killers mother she feel to her knees crying and thanking god and the anonymous donor for saving her sons life.
Commentary
That was the news story and for those of you that don’t understand it let me explain. Saudi Arabia follows Islamic law and part of that law is the concept of “eye for an eye, arm for an arm, and life for a life” however the victim if alive may pardon the offender as well as the victims family if hes dead may pardon the killer from death and usually the victims family makes demands for the pardon. The demands can range to as simple as an apology, memorizing the Koran, up to demanding millions of riyals. So when money if required for the pardon there is usually donations provided from different parties to help the killers family as such an act of saving a persons life is encouraged in Islam.
Personally I oppose the death penalty but I also believe I have no right to deniy the victims family the right for revange with in the law. So I believe the Islamic system is the right system in this situation however they needs to be a law to control the amount of money for a persons life as a few families have abused the system and turned into an investment rather than a revange.
Popularity: 43% [?]
Aug 5, 2008 Saudi News
The Plaintiff
Story
So starting with this post I will be posting some news from Saudi Arabia on occasion.
As the headline says this is a pathetic thing. AlArabiya.net website reports that a man in the city of Taif (western province) went to court to attend a case where he has accused 3 other men of naming calling and offensive language. But when the guy gets into the court room the judge looks up and tells the plaintiff that he has half an hour to go and shave his mustache or he will delay the case. So the plaintiff refused saying it was known of his business how he grows his mustache and the judge kicks him out. So the plaintiff heads to the head judge in the court house who doesn’t help him and sends him back to the judge to apologize to him. However the judge refuses the apology and post bounds the case a mont demanding his assistant that if the plaintiff returns in a month without shaving his mustache not to let him in. So a month later the plaintiff returns hoping the judge forgot or changed his mind but the assistant won’t let him in and informs him that his case has been filed since he didn’t shave his mustache. So now he is waiting for a response from the minister of justice after writing him about this.
Commentary
Now this is unbelievable and just shows how desperately the judicial system needs to be reorganized. Judges like this one are major problem as they attempt to impose their religious views (religious Muslims believe its against islam to have a long mustache) on others even if it means taking away their rights as Muslims and Saudi citizens to a just trial as his mustache has nothing to do with his case. These few individuals provide a bad reputation to the judicial system which is more just then not.
Popularity: 45% [?]
