This news story says that, according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), 11% of Saudi Arabia populaion use the internet. I have tried to find the story on MCIT website, but the fornt page reads: Browse in Internet Explorer. (!!) WTF?!

How much do Saudis spend for tobacco? An amount enough to build 17 health care cities. Try to imagine this number: $4.8bn.

This week is the National Smile Week in Britain. Good idea. I think we could use this around here.

Jeff Jarvis thinks that Thomas Friedman is asking the right question regarding the Newsweek story. Friedman says:

I have not read of a single fatwa issued by any Muslim cleric outside Iraq condemning these indiscriminate mass murders of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds by these jihadist suicide bombers, many of whom, according to a Washington Post report, are coming from Saudi Arabia.

Again, Friedman is making a good point. I could not agree more.

Where on earth the government of a country has the right to name your own children? Yep, you guissed that right. Here in Saudi Arabia. Maram Makkawi writes a good column on how government can iterrupt something that is none of its business. “Unfortunately, we have a strong popular culture, supported by many regulations, that gives others the chance to intervenes in one’s most private matters,” she says.

Raid Qusti is daydreaming, and wondering why all foreigners still remain outside Saudi mainstream. Usually, such stories tend to blame Saudis for not being friendly and welocming to foreigner. This time, Qusti blames foreigner for isolating themselves in compounds. “You’re not really living somewhere if you do not speak the language of the host country, avoid mingling with locals, do not see other parts of the country, and do not make local friends,” he says. Good point.

“The e-Government Program – Yesser – translates the Saudi Government’s keen interest in implementing the e-government concept.”