Torture of a Sri Lankan maid by nails in Saudi Arabia
“A Saudi employer and his wife, who are accused of torturing a Sri Lankan housemaid by hammering nails into her body, have been arrested in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, officials at the Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry said Monday.” CNN
I’ve tried to reserve judgement on the couple, not that abuse of workers does not happen in Saudi (or in many parts in the world) but the story was just too much to really take in, that is human violence, that is premeditated, and if the case was true, the couple need to be tortured first, with some medieval torture instruments before anything else. However, in reality, they must be not right in the head, and I hope they do not have children because I would not want them as my parents.
I remember I once had a sewing needle get into my back during gym class at eighth grade while doing sit-ups in the soccer field, it hurt, bad, I had to go to the hospital and get surgery to get it out less than 24 hours after it got in, because it had swollen and I could not walk straight because of it, so what that woman suffered was nothing short of hell.
I also have to wonder if the couple had some kind of medical book, or if they thought they were performing acupuncture on the poor lady, inserting all those needles without accidentally killing a person does not happen by chance, and not getting infected must have been some clean surgical grade material they were using… I am just asking these questions out loud.
If it is true as I said, then somebody needs to do a psychological evaluation on the couple, if not, then that poor woman suffered by whoever inserted those things in her.
It makes you wonder how bad humans could be to each other, I know of an experiment (made into a movie called Das Experiment) and I know kids drive other kids to suicide by bullying and now cyber-bullying… I just wish this was all not true… but that is all a fact of life.
On a lighter side of things, my parents had employed many domestic helpers over the years, some still call my parents every now and then to say hello, one even named her daughter after my mom, so I personally know it is not all bad, since many of the families I know have had drivers and maids for so many years.
I pray Lahadapurage Daneris Ariyawathie gets well soon, and I hope she gets justice.
Thank you
I started this blog (at its previous home) a little over a year ago, and I am thankful I did, as it has been a wonderful experience, I’ve learned a lot, met some wonderful people, all of which I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do, had I not started blogging.
This is not a little birthday for my blog, but a BIG THANK YOU to all of you, each and every person that reads my blog and spends time reading it, I am sometimes surprised at where people who read my posts live, all the way from Tokyo, Japan to Cochabamba, Bolivia… it is a trip for me to see your locations, and sometimes… more often than not… I cannot believe it.
The first comment I got was negative and I did reply to it negatively, but then I deleted them both. However, the latest comments I’ve been getting were all positive and overwhelming to say the least.
I was once asked why I blog, and I answered ”because I like to spread knowledge, whatever little that I know” I also elaborated on that point in a previous post by saying ”we live in an age unlike any other before, where walls of ignorance are being knocked down by knowledge… the difference this time, is that this knowledge is not controlled by Church or State or any other organization, this knowledge is straight from each and every individual who is willing to participate in this torrent of knowledge sharing through new media outlets… and that… to me… is wonderful.”
So, Thank you very much, again and again 
Targeted Citizen
I liked this video/documentary in so many ways. The content was great, the music was great, even the South African woman was great… that is if you watch it all the way to the end, you would love it, I once got the same “I hate Arabs” and then a “where are you from?” and… well you have to see the video
It is 15 minute only, and it is worth watching and letting people know about it.
Targeted Citizen – English from Adalah on Vimeo.
The documentary is made by Adalah, an independent human rights organization and legal center.
Road Rage
This video reminds of driving in Saudi, and some other parts in the world, even in a world with enforced traffic rules it road rage does happen, especially during the holiday season 
But this classic Disney production says it very well
Stuffed
I learned how to read and write in English before I knew how to read and write in Arabic, and due to that, I do not remember having any major problems either understanding or being misunderstood when communicating in English.
American slang was not much of a problem since American media with the music Read more
On Hitting women, and Killing Humans
Remember when that religious man said it is permissible to hit your wife if she spends too much? Remember the uproar and the ongoing cases between that man and the reporter?
Well… here is another religious man… that says it is permissible to kill others Read more
P0rn1
Yep, that is p0rn1 spelt with a zero and a one, to represent the digital age which made it easier for everyone no matter where they are to access massive amounts of p0rn, and due to that, almost everyone tried to copy Hugh Hefner and Larry Flint, I have not seen playboy mansions popping up anywhere, so I assume none were that successful, or maybe no one is that ostentatious anymore, who knows, but I saw this expose a while ago, and young women are making a lot of money working the webcams from their bedrooms.
Teenagers Men love to look at women, and p0rn in its variations from soft to hard is a multibillion dollar industry worldwide, the figures are huge and increasing according to family safe media.
The internet, well, you know, if the internet were a street or a real place… this is what it would look like, Dave Chappelle made a funny sketch about it, watch this. Basically p0rn comes to you, you do not even have to go to it.
Now when people say Saudi’s or other guys have p0rn on their phones… well, you cannot go to a gas station in Saudi to get the latest issue of triple-x or to the nearest video store and get the latest release from triple-x productions… so… what is a man to do? Not even car magazines have scantly clad girls standing next to a low rider on the cover for guys to look at on the magazine rack in the supermarket checkout line while waiting their turn and probably getting poked by their significant others in the side for not moving when the line moved because they failed to notice, while they swear they were looking at the men’s fitness magazine not the low rider magazine because it had an article on how to please her in ways she never experienced before… yeah I’ve seen it happen before, you guys know who you are… shame on you.
I am not making excuses for anyone, just an explanation. Other than that I will plead the fifth, I know I am not an American citizen and I am not living in the United States of American, but I will still plead the fifth
At the end of this post, I would like us all to hold hands or put them on our keyboards and say a prayer with this little girl.
La Influenza Porcina
I have to be amazed at the human condition sometimes when I read the news, the H1N1 virus, or as it is also known as swine flu, scares the living lights out of some people, as it should, it is after all an illness, whether it is as serious as it was formerly thought it would be or not, the regular flu, if there is one, takes the lives of many every year.
A recent story in the news is that a group of “religious” people prevented a few volunteers from posting flyers and passing them out to people passing by one of the mosques in Jeddah… I do not find that very funny or amusing… but disturbing. The men were volunteers handing out educational material.
This material is medical in nature… which is better than “the burn some incense of so and so to ward off the H1N1 virus” email that has been circulating, which for some reason I never hear the religious establishment refuting.
However the flyers were banned because they contain pictures of “those with spirits”, lets just forget that they have their pictures all over television in Ramadan and out of Ramadan, and the money they handle has pictures of Saudi Kings on them.
It is not just people in the Muslim world of course that are terrified of H1N1, but I found a video of Jewish rabbis flying over Tel Aviv chanting prayers and blowing horns to ward off the influenza porcina virus.
[youtube= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AUZFidaYQk]
p.s. I just wanted to write influenza porcina instead of the swine flu… just sounds better to me.
The Looming Towers
I’ve written and re-written this post several times, only to delete it and start again. I’ve reached the point to where I will just write it as it comes.
A couple of months ago Fouad Alfarhan recommended to his facebook friends a book called “The Looming Towers” and he raved about how good it is. So I decided to give it a read, and I have not regretted reading it.
While reading the book I would get flashbacks of images of my life, the day Abdullah Azzam was killed I was still in high school, and I remember one of the teachers blaming the Soviets for it… turns out it was one of the first of many mafia style killings of those who call themselves Muslims against each other in their struggle for power and command.
I grew up in that era, during the gulf war many in my school volunteered in the Saudi army, none that I knew went to join the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, a few teachers did, and came back with stories that had us school boys wide eyed and in awe of their heroics (most if not all were BS, which were things I discovered later on in life).
It is not a secret that when the mujahedeen were fighting America’s proxy war against the soviets many in the Muslim world were encouraged to join in the “Jihad” and many governments (including the American government) financed that war with billions of dollars, weapons, machinery, and every other thing they needed… after all they were fighting the infidel atheist soviet army that wanted to wipe Islam and all other religions and then demote us all to the level of animals, as they told us of course. I never bought that load of crap, and still don’t.
I’ve had no doubt that if Osama was not from an affluent family he would’ve been killed or at least detained at the first hint of dissident… no one gets as many chances as he did to conform.
What I loved about the book is the approach it took, it was more like a novel than a series of events, and I am not even going to attempt to review the book because I won’t do it any justice.
However, if you read this book, you will learn a lot about the bureaucracy of government agencies, and how they did not share information with each other which lead to the unfortunate events… the event that changed the world as we know it for my generation, and probably for many generations to come.
As the memory of 9-11 is a few days away, I send my sympathies and prayers to all those who suffered directly or indirectly from that attack all over the world.
It was not easy to begin this post, and it is not easy to end it… but to sum it all up as I see it… there is a lot of money in the middle east, and whoever controls it gains tremendous power… and that is what it is all about… not religion, not God’s word, not the oppression of the weak or cleansing society from all that ails it… it is all about the money… not even about Gog and Magog, or bringing forth Armageddon or trying to make Jesus come down.
Say No to Crack
In an effort to restrict the spread of crack, I read that Saudi is coming down hard on boys wearing saggy pants… Now I am not totally with that decision… But I am happy they are cracking down on them… But I also wished it was the parents who were doing the disciplining not the hay’aa…
I will not talk about long hair, since I, once upon a time sported the eighties haircut like Turbo from ”Break Dance” the movie, but I do get bothered with the long unkempt hair that the young guys… “undo” their hair in…. however, I get annoyed when I see a group of them… and they all seem to have the same style… No individualism whatsoever! isn’t that what cool is all about? being able to be unlike the crowed? where people try to imitate but they will never duplicate ones own style? But what should I expect, we/they all wear the same style (thobes with minimal variations on theme)… A characteristic of many religious societies which can be seen in orthodox Jewsand Mormons with their magic underwear, priests, nuns, monks in a monastery, the Amish… you get my point I guess.
I do however think that sagging pants are way cooler than this… But that is just me, you know what I’m sayin?
There was a disscussion at SaudiJeans, where Khaled says that they warned them, therefore it is ok that they arrested them… well, not all laws, even the ones that are easier to enforce are carried out.
I am unhappy that they are doing this and happy at the same time. Unhappy because I do not think that dress code should be enforced… happy because… well, because I hope they will target kids like the ones here which Souma talked about…
Now the thing is… and this is for those of you who have not been to rural areas… pants are not considered modest or “Islamic”, and many in the military think it is Haram to wear them, and had it not been a requirement they would not wear it… and you want them to tolerate the showing of underwear?
