Last night, I attended another one of the cultural activities accompanying the Riyadh International Book Fair. It was a panel on the censorship on media, and the speakers included Dr. Mohammed Abduh Yamani, the former minister of information and one of the country’s prominent intellectuals, Dr. Mohammed Al-Romaihi, the general secretary of the Higher Council of Culture in Kuwait, and one of my favorite writers, and Nahed Ba-Shatah, a columnist that I linked to her writings on several occasions. The announced program also included Abdul-Rahman Al-Rashed, manager of Al-Arabiya channel but he was not there for unexplained reasons. The panel was moderated by Turki Al-Sudairi, the editor-in-chief of Al-Riyadh newspaper. Like the two activities I attended before, the forces of darkness were present in the hall, and again, they ruined the whole thing.

First, Dr. Yamani talked about his experience with censorship as a minister, and then it was Dr. Al-Romaihi’s turn to talk. He made some really interesting points, but what I liked the most was his last remark. He said, “the more our education system fails to achieve its goals, the more we need censorship,” and I think it is very clear that education in our region is a major failure. Few minutes before Dr. Al-Romaihi finished his remarks, one of the sheikhs from the first row interrupted, telling him that time was up. Dr. Al-Romaihi did not take it very well, and asked the sheikh: “Are you the moderator of this panel or what?” It was really embarrassing. When these rude lunatics are going to learn how to be polite?

Next, Al-Sudairi said that due to the limited time available, they won’t be able to take all the questions by the audience. Here, the same shiekh started shouting at him, saying that he is acting some kind of censorship, and that he should not be on the podium. Al-Sudairi promised the angry sheikh that he will be given enough time to speak his mind, and that’s what actually happened after Ba-Shatah finished her presentation.

From this point, and except for two comments from the female participants, logic was totally lost from the hall. A sheikh named Ahmed Al-Farraj said they should have had a religious scholar on the podium, because censorship is a part of “the prevention of vice,” and that this era of media revolution and openness requires even more censorship. Another sheikh sitting next to him said that the moderator of the panel should be censored. “All programs in the media, and the people behind them, and the minister of information should be presented to a Sharia court,” he added, because he thinks that they have violated Islamic laws.

Nuha Al-Nasser said the answer is in dialogue and not censorship, while Laila Al-Uhaideb asked if we can depend on heads of newspapers to raise society’s awareness on censorship. Right after Al-Uhaideb finished her short comment, another sheikh asked to speak, and attacked her, accusing her of calling for sex education in her writings. He also attacked other female writers such as Maha Al-Hejailan and Samar Al-Megrin. At the end of his speech, he asked the government to increase censorship on media, and to sack Iyad Madani, the current minister of information, “because he is not capable for such position.”

It was clear that the panel was going in the wrong direction, and it would only get worse if the moderator gave another chance to the extremists and their propaganda, so he announced the end of the panel, even though they had more than 30 minutes left. However, that was not the end for the forces of dark, who continued their demagogic behavior. They went to the podium, surrounded Dr. Yamani, and started talking loudly with him. Dr. Yamani looked very angry when he left. The idiots! The man is old enough to be a father of all these stupid sheikhs, yet they showed not respect to him.

After leaving Dr. Yamani, they headed to Al-Sudairi and Dr. Al-Romaihi, but I could not see what was going on between them. Few seconds later, I heard them roaring: Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, which was really scary because I was afraid that one of them might just blow himself up and kill us all, but thank God that did not happen.

This sucks! Those lunatics are just ruining it for everybody. They come to every panel and lecture, do their ugly thing, and then leave happily as if they were making a victory of some sort. They are so rude and impolite, and they don’t even know how to listen. I was planning to attend more panels and lectures, but if these creatures are going to come and make their crappy show every time, then maybe I’ll just stay home and read a good book instead.

As Farah puts it, the first Saudi Blogging Awards were so “adorably put” by our Jeddawi friends Rimyoleta and Dotsson. For some reason, Saudi Jeans was NOT even mentioned when the awards were announced for the first time. But later on, after some protests (or was it by popular request? ;-), SJ was nominated for the News Flash Award, and I was nominated for the King of the Saudi Blogosphere Award. The idea is very nice, and I’m thinking of officially supporting it as a part of the much-delayed-but-very-soon launch of SaudiBlogs.org. Now, go vote (not necessarily for me, but that would be nice, btw ;-), and may the best wins.

I have to say that I’m kinda disappointed with the response I received regarding the Riyadh bloggers meetup that I called for. I don’t know if this is because they don’t want to come, or simply because they did not hear about it. So, I’m asking you that even if you are not coming, but you still like the idea, to spread the word by posting about it on your blog. The meetup will be on Thursday March 2, 2006, starting at 20:00, and the place is Dr. Cafe, King Abdullah Rd. Thanks.

Last Wednesday, Riyadh International Book Fair was opened. I was looking forward to this event for two reasons: a) because I will get the chance to buy some books that are not usually available here due to censorship and other factors, and b) because the organizers of the book show, the Ministry of Higher Education, have been talking for months about making this fair an exceptional event.

I went there on Thursday morning, and the place was crowded. As usual, a large number of visitors were flocking at the small spaces of a few publishers, while most of the rest publishers were doing nothing but removing the dust off their untouched books. The locations of the famous publishing houses such as Dar Al Saqi, The Arabic Cultural Center, Dar Al Jamal, the Arab Establishment of Research and Publishing, and Dar Al Mada, were the main spots of attraction to readers. Meanwhile, most of other publishers’ locations, especially Saudi book publishers, were almost empty.

I purchased 8 books; four of them were novels while the other four were non-fiction. It was surprising for me that Dar Al Saqi did not provide any of the Saudi writer Turki Al-Hamad’s novels; not even his latest book Reeh Al-Jannah, a novel about the 9/11 suicide bombers. Al-Hamad’s books are usually banned in Saudi. The best-seller Banat Al-Riyadh by Raja Al-Sanea was not available too, which leaves me wondering if it was banned.

Other activities of the book fair include a gallery for Saudi artists, lectures, panels, and workshops on several topics and cultural issues.

Last night I went to a panel on cultural diversity, and I have enjoyed a very good discussion. The panel was done the Saudi style, with the only female speaker Dr. Khairia Al-Saggaf talking from another room, where we could not see her but only listen to her voice. This made Dr. Warner Dawm, the German speaker, says he wishes Dr. Al-Saggaf was sitting with them on the same podium. She did not comment on that, but one of the audience later told the German guy to respect our culture and traditions. I did not think he was being disrespectful, and I’m glad that he did not apologize.

There was a lot of extremists in the audience, who insisted that anyone different from us is an infidel, and that we have to deal with him on this principle. I liked it when Dr. Faisal Al-Muammar, the moderator of the panel, stopped the same man from talking in an offending manner about Shiites, describing them as rafidha. Shiites were the subject of a hot debate at the end of the panel, when Dr. Khaled Al-Dakheel said that Shiites are part of us. This was the point where the panel went out of control. Before Al-Dakheel was able to complete that sentence, a Sheikh from the first row interrupted and told Dr. Al-Dakheel that Shiites are not Muslims, and that he has to say this.

Al-Dakheel was surprised by the rudeness of the man and refused to say that. Here, tens of extremists sitting on the left side of the hall started shouting, and told Al-Dakheel to shut up. To bring that chaos to an end, the moderator had to announce the finishing of the panel. As soon as the panel ended, a large group of the long-bearded-short-thobed guys gathered around Al-Dakheel. I could not hear what they were telling him, but I saw him later leaving with one of the organizers from a side door.

Few minutes after the beginning of the panel, Dr. Mohammed Al-Zulfa, member of Shoura Council who called for the right of women’s driving, came and sat next to me. I could not talk to him, even though I really wanted to do that. But after the panel was ended, the same people who were gathered around Al-Dakheel came and stood around Dr. Al-Zulfa and started talking to him. They were telling him to stop calling for women’s rights, and that he has no right to talk about such issues because they should be only tackled by Sheikhs and scholars. Al-Zulfa refused to obey, and asked what’s the difference between him and these sheikhs. “Is it something with my clothes? I can change my clothes, you know,” he told them.

The organizers were telling the people that they have to leave because they are closing the gates now, but the extremists kept on shouting. “Do you want to face God on judgment day with women’s driving next to your name?” one of the sheikhs asked Dr. Al-Zulfa who did not reply (I have recorded a short .3jp video of the incident. I will try to upload it soon).

Anyways, I will be attending a lecture on the development of Saudi novel today’s afternoon, a panel on the effect of censorship on media on Sunday, some poetic readings and panel on cultural identity on Wednesday, and some more readings and a panel on education and its form in reform on Thursday (you’ll be there and you’d like to meet me? Just drop me a line: saudijeans at gmail dot com). The Riyadh International Book Fair will last for more seven days, and if you are in town I advice you not to miss this event. Probably it is not as exceptional as the organizers promised, but it is still worth a visit.

Several Saudi bloggers meetups have taken place in the past few months, and I was not able to attend any of them because I either was out of town, or they were girls exclusive ;-) I’m thinking about a meetup for Riyadh bloggers this weekend, and I want it to be big and great. The suggested date is Thursday March 2, 2006, and the place is to be decided later, depending on the number of those coming. If you are coming, please leave a comment here, and it would be also nice if you could write about it on your blog. Thanks.

Sometimes I work very hard on a post, hoping it would sparkle a discussion, provoke a controversy, or at least attract a decent number of comments. But then I get frustrated because that post would go unheard of, as if it never was. And sometime I carelessly write a one-line post, out of boredom or because I had nothing better to do, and I find myself faced with some very interesting comments from readers; comments that worth to be a separate blog posts by themselves. Most bloggers know that, and know how does it feel (and no, I’m not talking about those newbies who write two posts and start complaining about traffic).

Few months ago, I wrote a post out of frustration, and thought it won’t receive any comments, because, well, it was not that good. However, the post received some comments, one of which has accused me that my only point of writing the post was to hook up with girls. Actually, that post has a story. I started writing it after I was back from Ikea frustrated, and as I usually do with posts that contain more than one paragraph, I slept on it for several days.

When I returned to the post, I read it and found it dry and tasteless, so I thought I would spice things up a little by adding an innocent joke at the end; nothing more, nothing less. I was just trying to be sarcastic, which I apparently failed to do. But few days ago, I received some new comments on that post, and one of them actually included a real mobile number (I removed the comment). I was surprised, to say the least. How about you? What do you think?

Here is a story from the NY Times on the emails that college students send to their teachers. The story says that “e-mail has made professors much more approachable. But many say it has made them too accessible, erasing boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance.” However, in KSU the story is quite different. I remember one of my biochemistry teachers who told us that if any of us has any question, “he can come to my office at anytime.” He did not provide us with any way to contact him; not even the phone number of his office. So, being the geek that I am, I asked him if he could provide us with at least his email address. “What? What did I just tell you? I said come to my office!” he said angrily. I never found him in his office.