May 18, 2013

King Faisal and Steve Jobs

This is the work of @MohammedALenezi and I like it, what if they really met?

Of course Steve Jobs (or actually Apple the publicly traded company) had Saudi investors (or maybe it was just one) like Alwaleed bin Talal

and many pictures of King Abdullah inaugurating new projects show him looking at a screen of an iMac,

yet we do not have an official apple store in Saudi, and no support for extended warranty and the resellers in Saudi do not honor apple’s international warranty on its products.

May 15, 2013

School Year Finished

Qusay Personal 0 Comment

I was talking to a few colleagues last Tuesday and they told me that the school year is over, even though there is one more week to go until finals start.

When I came home on that night my son was sound asleep, and I didn’t wake him up, naturally I wanted to deliver to him the good news, his first year of school is over

When he woke up Wednesday morning the first thing I told him was “you don’t have to go to school today” in which he replied with the biggest smile and a loud “yes!”

A couple of weeks ago I was explaining to him what summer vacation is, thankfully Phineas And Ferb already gave him an idea, and he is looking forward to the “hundred and four days of summer vacation”

Except his summer vacation is not only around 90 days.

Apr 27, 2013

Kicked Out of Jenadriyah for Being Too Handsome

Qusay News 0 Comment

When I first heard about the men from the Emirates being asked to leave the Jenadriyah festival for being too handsome I just knew it was going to be the type of news that makes it to international headlines (Arabian Business has an article about it… because it is good for doing business I guess).

Why? One, not every day do you read about men being too handsome. Two, it is about Saudi Arabia and gender mixing and segregation. Three, every man and woman would want to see what too handsome looks like. At the same time The Economist just published an article saying woman have unrealistic expectations about what they deem attractive (we all know men always were like that…so no study needed).

So, what would the Hai’a know about being too attractive? You know, they just allowed women to sell to other women at women’s stores… so all those years they didn’t care about men handling women’s undergarments and selling it to them in those stores and they decide to single out three men doing an ancient traditional dance next to farm/desert animals? Hmmm… maybe it was the animal attraction that was in the air, except I do not think animal smells cause arousal… but I could be wrong… you know how it is… different strokes for different folks, and I’m not one to judge.

Now I have seen Brad Pitt’s eyes pixeld out, and I did post the picture a while ago on twitter, but to think that Hai’a might ask men to leave… well, unless those men were famous or looked like money, I doubt women would flock to them in drones… oh wait… I think I found the reason… they might have had on that axe deodorant… sorry, I’m cutting this post short because I need to go buy some.

Ok, now I’m back… and that axe thing did not work, either that or my wife chased them away when I wasn’t looking… anyhow, the story is probably missing some details, the Hai’a does escort men out when not accompanied by families during family time, and if the men were flirting with women… then preventing vice is part of their job description… even if those men were part of the show, cuz there is no chip and dale in Saudi.

Apr 20, 2013

Domestic Abuse

Qusay Politics 0 Comment

The King Khalid foundation has released this powerful picture in its campaign to stop domestic abuse.

Very powerful and graphic to say the least.

Captioned with “what is hidden is greater”

Apr 19, 2013

The Boston Bombing

Qusay News 2 Comments

I am saddened by the bombings that happened in Boston, I have a couple of friends over there who were very close to the events and I have read their recollections of the events. One (Wael Moathen) had his events quoted by many news agencies, the other (Mohammad Bokhari) whom I met and worked with while helping with the Jeddah flood relief activities a couple of years ago, both are on scholarships from Saudi universities studying towards getting their PhDs, and you know this is a story they will tell their students over and over each year.

Like the rest of my world I was holding my breath hoping it was not a Saudi, and you cannot blame me for doing so, most news outlets kept insinuating that it was Arab or some middle-eastern looking guys, and just as much as the DC sniper got Dave Chapelle hoping he was not Black (which Chapelle says he knew because the sniper took the weekends off)… that pressure cooker story got me worried… yet I know my people won’t let a good pressure cooker go to waste like that, cuz nothing makes a kabsa faster than a pressure cooker does, and my people like their kabsa.

Then the events kept on getting stranger in Boston, a shooting at MIT? What’s next? Some Harvard graduates will F-up the world economy? oh wait… they already did that.

Apr 4, 2013

Saudi Cracks Down on Illegal Workers

Qusay Saudi 4 Comments

If you have been to Saudi Arabia for more than a day, you would realize its dependence on a foreign workforce.

While nothing is wrong with that, if done legally, is justifiable… but its not.

Many companies and individuals employ people who either didn’t enter the country for work, or are illegal immigrants, and the companies and individuals are more than can be counted, and as long as there is a supply and demand, the cycle will continue… but should it?

So the ministry of labor started a major crackdown on illegal immigrants and cutting in half the fake iqamas (the right to stay permits), as they should.

The problem I have is the videos and pictures I’ve seen for the activities of detaining those people.

The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about it, and the picture they have on one of the incidents (at least that is what anyone would think) even if the guy is a killer, he should not be detained like that. (picture below).

A video I’ve also seen, and everything makes it online as soon as it happens, has a very cruel video of an arrest taking place، Kicking to the head and twisting of arms, this should not be happening.

Our own Harvard Graduated Lawer Bandar AlNogaithan @SaudiLawyer is also appalled at what is going on and expressed so on twitter, posting a link (in Arabic) on how England treats those who have violated British Immigration laws in a humane was, even though it is more crowded and the youth in UK are unemployed.

يا مدعي التحضر الذي تؤيد #حملة_الجوازات بدون ضمانات قضائية وحقوق، إقرأ هنا كيف يعامل مخالفي نظام الهجرة في بريطانيا twitmail.com/18Jl

— بندر النقيثان (@SaudiLawyer) April 4, 2013

I agree with the crackdown, but not with the methods I’ve been seeing.

Of course this has hit home, it has put many businesses and some schools and universities on halt. We will also see a delay in some already delayed projects, as most sub-sub-sub contractos employ anyone who can move.

Some families have been living in Saudi Arabia for a couple or more generations, and some do not have legal status, however, the step to give some Burmese residence residential permits is a step forward and should be noted.

Apr 3, 2013

Blocking Social Applications

Qusay Saudi, Tech 1 Comment

Saudi Arabia might ban a few applications like the popular WhatsApp, Skype, and Viber (I always wondered why they never banned Viber in Saudi Arabia since it is/was made by an Israeli company).

The reason… security, that is it basically, those applications became very popular even though there are many other applications that do the same thing, but somehow, these became the apps to have and communicate with… why? well thats a question for Seth Godin.

This is not new of course, in 2010 I wrote about the blackberry messenger ban which was almost banned in Saudi (and China and India and others) but then RIM caved in, no one wants to lose money, and no government wants to lose the control it feels it has over what it can hear through the grapevine… especially if it is about “them guessing how they knew, about someone’s plans to make them blue” (sorry Marvin Gay for playing with the lyrics)

Of course cartoonist Jabertoon (Facebook page) got creative with the subject of the hour and produced three funny cartoons.

A man communicating with his love while the “man” is watching and laughing.

Cyber law is keeps on evolving with technology, and you know how fast that goes and changes these days… and how slow governments around the world are to make legislations for anything.