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Saudi Arabia One Day on Earth 11-11-11

Culture, Movies, Saudi 1 Comment

Husam Alsayed (aka @husam_filmhead) a talented filmmaker and an acquaintance of mine shared on his blog a global event called One Day on Earth, where many filmmakers, no matter what their level of expertise or camera they have can join by filming and submitting short clips of the place on earth they are in, the only catch, it has to be filmed on 11-11-2011, last year it was 10-10-2010.

Husam submitted this wonderful film he took in Yemen, since he was there on 10-10-2010, and this year he is the producer/organizer of Saudi Arabia’s contribution for 11-11-2011.

I thought I would do my part, since both are areas I am passionate about (Saudi and Filmmaking) I have joined the movement and I am letting people know.

So if you are in Saudi, own a camera, think you might add a little flavor to the global nonprofit film, don’t let anything hold you back, join us, all it takes is a short video you can take with your phone nowadays and a submission to the group.

Let us show the world what we want them to see.


One Day on Earth – Saudi Arabia

Husam’s Profile on One Day on Earth (so you can add him)

And if you want to, you can add me also :)

If you are not in Saudi, you can also film anything wherever you are, and submit it… what have you got to lose?

The Passing of Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz

News, Politics, Saudi 3 Comments

“It is with deep sorrow and grief that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud mourns the loss of his brother and Crown Prince His Royal Highness Prince Sultan Abdulaziz Al Saud.” (source)

Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz passed away on October 22, 2011 in his mid-eighties, may he rest in peace. His passing is significant on the world scene because of his position as Crown Prince of the country which sits on more than a quarter of the world’s known oil reserves.

The issue of succession is raised again.

In Saudi (and the world), there is this fear, that the next inline would be more controlling or less controlling, more “religious” more “liberal”, more this, that or the other depending on who you talk to and what they would like to see. The rumors and so called “intelligence reports” about King Abdullah that were online back when he was crown prince, were nothing to be optimistic about, yet in reality, his impressive accomplishments are something most of us are proud of (I sure am, here, here and here as an example, and I don’t think I am alone in that).

Prince Sultan left behind him a legacy also, while some do question it, he was still a man that left an impression on the people, mostly due to his infectious smile and his generosity as I read from reports, and many on twitter on the day of his passing.

My memories of Prince Sultan are only that of passing by his palace in Jeddah on my way to school most of my schooling years, always wondering if he was there or not, now I know… he won’t be living there anymore.

Most Pictures are from alriyadh online newspaper, the last one is mine.

Mal3ob3lena: Bughnah

Saudi 4 Comments

Mal3ob3lena = they are tricking us

Feras Bughnah and his team were detained, rumor has it, because they made this video showing the poor parts of Saudi… I also made a video a while ago showing the poor parts of Saudi and the relief efforts… I am still here, so I know, first hand that it was not due to the video it self, i.e. showing the poor parts… it is more than that.

I can only speculate, as everyone is doing at the moment, and since Yasser Almisfer says he knows… but won’t tell me… I have to think about it… a little out loud.

Saying the government does not know about the problem of poverty is not right, the King himself visited those areas when he was crown prince, so saying the video was an eye opener… is not truthful.

He showed the house of a guy who makes around 5000SR/month, has two wives and eleven children, and they usually eat flour according to the man himself, I know people who live on credit… but not making enough money and yet having two wives and 11 children… and not knowing why you are poor, and actually finding another woman that is willing to marry your broke self… I have to say… the man must have some skills… either that or he just fell on his luck.

He also showed a home of a widow, who lives on social security and the help of the people.

The Imam of the mosque said there is a problem of drugs in the neighborhood, and… some people pimp the women in their household to make money (both problems in most poor neighborhoods all around the world, and I thought that’s why we had misyaar marriages, and other sorts of marriages… to add a touch of legitimacy to those types marriages, but hey, I am no scholar, so don’t quote me on this)

So still, even after I speculate, I am still scratching my head wondering what could it be that had them detained… only time will tell.

TEDxArabia 2011

Art, Culture, Saudi, Tech, Women 5 Comments

I was invited by Big_Hass to attended TEDxArabia on Thursday October 6th 2011, and I am glad I attended, it was interesting to say the least. The Theme of the event was “Live Your Dream”.

Registration was a bit lost, cards were everywhere, and… they couldn’t find the one with my name on it (or my friend Hameed’s card)

I did miss the first part due to me being late, but I didn’t miss much I guess.

Some talks were great, some were boring, and when the rep of the “angel sponsor” (Nestle) started talking, she almost made me hate coffee.

My friend Hassan gave a nice talk about hip-hop and what it should represent (hint: it is not the garbage on mainstream media, it’s a little more like this, or this). My friend Aziz Hamza also gave a presentation about a new iphone/ipad application of hijazi proverbs his company developed.

Ahmad Almehairy, gave one of the most memorable talks of the evening, encouraging small business, and encouraging investors to invest in small businesses. After checking him out online, it turns out he is a VP of a “Private Wealth Management Office LMC invests in Venture Capital, Real Estate & Public Equities. Slogan: Investing for the prosperity of our nation” so basically it was a sales pitch… most of the talks were somewhat more or less sales pitches.

The Smile of Swords as she translated her name (Dr. Basma Alseyofi) was also a very energetic and motivating speaker who wrote a few books and serves as a consultant on many governmental projects.

The nice thing about the event was a live music performance by a group called AlFarabi, who performed their song “story of a king” their musical style was fusion, the song was in Arabic, you can check out a studio version here.

There is a new cartoon coming out about the companions of the prophet, the main hero of the cartoon is the companion Bilal, a freed African slave and the first caller of the athan. The interesting thing is that they used forensic art to find what Bilal and his wife,  and other companions looked like, which would be more authentic than seeing a light skinned actor with blackface playing the part as they usually do in films and series about the period.

I am also excited about a new art gallery which will take place in Jeddah in January 2012, I forgot the name, but not the date :)

All in all it was a good event, thanks to big Hass for inviting me, and thanks for the organizers of the event for making it all possible, it was way better than the videos I saw of last year’s event, and I know if it is done next year, it will be even better… and I hope I get an invitation to the event next year also… either that or I am giving a talk… the last guy on stage gave a talk because he updated a page on “the definition of genius” on Wikipedia.

There was also a moment of silence while standing up for the passing away of Steve Jobs, who without his vision, none of this would’ve probably been possible.

The Schooling Dilemma

Personal, Saudi 9 Comments

As parents of a young boy who is about to enter school soon, we find ourselves terrified at what the future might hold for our little one.

After a quick survey and visits to kindergartens (involving me staying in the car outside because I cannot enter, all female staff and all) we settled on a Montessori style school, he is in preschool now, and while Saudi has a new optional age for entering first grade at five and a half, provided he can read and write in Arabic a little bit, we couldn’t and didn’t want to do that, both my parents have spent their lives teaching, and they were against him entering school at such an early age.

We hope it is good, he just completed his first week, but there are things we didn’t like… and do not like in all of them.

First thing, no music, that to me is unnatural, the policy is no music, because to them, it is forbidden in Islam… which brings me to the second thing… religious training, say what you say about this, but here is my reasoning.

In Islam, a child is asked to optionally pray five times a day when he/she turns seven. Prayer is a pillar of Islam, and prayer becomes mandatory at ten, so why should a child before the age of 7 go through that. He is already asking us questions about death (before he entered the school) and they are uncomfortable, mainly because he saw pictures of my grandparents and asked where they were and how they died and what happens to them now and such… and if they comeback.

And no, I am not the only one having these concerns, a while ago a YouTube video of a Saudi kindergarten caused some rage because they taught kids how to perform an Islamic burial and funeral, things that many kids witness anyway, but should not learn.

There is the option of letting him go to an international school. It is very expensive for us to go with that option, so at the moment it is not an option at all.

His first experience with school is from our time in Australia, where addressing his caretakers was done on a first name basis, he used to call women who had grand kids older than he was, by their first names, now he does not understand why he has to call them “Abla (teacher)” and not their first names.

We also do not like that they sell junk food (they all do, even when I was a kid, and I loved it, but I am a parent now so chocolates and gummy candy should be consumed only when we let him… of course his grandparent do not care about our reasoning so I guess the imaginary control we have is useless).

At the end, we hope his “schooling does not interfere with his education”.

Why Didn’t We Vote in Saudi?

Politics, Saudi 3 Comments

The polls show, we didn’t rock the vote, the Percentage of voters did not even reach the double digits, is there a reason for that?

Could it be, that we just don’t believe in the process?

Maybe we don’t believe in democracy?

Maybe we don’t believe that Municipal councils would change anything (but do we think twitter and Facebook do)?

Vote Democracy

Or maybe the king’s decree to allow women in Saudi to vote and run for municipal elections and shoora council (not now but in the next elections), made men just not want to have anything to do with it as a sign of protest, but that still doesn’t explain the low number that registered a few months ago.

I didn’t vote.

I can only talk for myself, I didn’t vote because I registered in Jeddah, then moved to Yanbu, and I knew of no way to change where I was registered to vote.

I also had no idea who was running for what and what their agenda was, politics is full of hot air, and promises filled with dreamy words are hard to believe especially without precedence of political or social activity in the country, everything is ran by the government.

The previous municipal council electees did nothing to help with anything, it is tough to follow that, none of them are known to have shown up to help Jeddah rain victims as a simple example.

So why didn’t we vote… The simple… Very simple answer is… No one knew about them, and those who knew didn’t care.

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