Today’s Links

CITC has blocked islamlight.net, the website which hosted the infamous fatwa by Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak. Although the fatwa can be considered hate speech and a call to violence, I’m generally against such censorship. CITC should stop this practice of making decisions on our behalf on what we should, or rather should not, read on the web.
Corinne Martin is an artist who lives in Saudi Arabia and makes these awesome paintings based on vintage pop culture icons.
Music concerts are rare in this country. Music concerts in universities are super rare. But hey, what do you know? Jeddah Legends, the band of which Qusay is the lead singer, have recently performed a concert in KAUST. Why oh why KSU never hosted any concerts?

Today’s Links

Prince Abdul Aziz bin Bandar has been appointed as deputy chief of the General Intelligence at the rank of minister. The Prince’s previous positions include heading the Anticommunism Department of the GI.
NYT has a nice video on the evolution of Olympic pictograms. You don’t know what a pictogram is? Well, this a good chance to learn something new.
Speaking of the NYT, Maureen Dowd was (still is?) in Saudi Arabia. According this article in al-Watan daily, Dowd visited the southern town of Rejal Almaa’. I don’t know why she was not wearing the abaya.
Olivier Arvisais from the Université du Québec à Montréal in Canada is conducting a study on socials issues and labor market in Saudi Arabia. He recently launched website to obtain responses that could help him with his research. If you are a young Saudi, you can help him by answering the questions there.

Today’s Links

Note to Arab News: my last name is al-Omran, not al-Omranm. The way you misspelled my name makes it unpronounceable. Another thing: I don’t blog for Saudi Jeans. Saudi Jeans doesn’t pay me any money. Saudi Jeans is my blog. It’s the website where I blog. Also, don’t rephrase what I said and then put it in quote marks. Kthxbai.
Fellow blogger Najla Barasain is about to leave KSA soon heading to the US in order to continue her education. She is understandably worried.

Today’s links

The lingerie boycott did not succeed, reports Arab News. Why? Reem Asaad says because people’s reactions to social causes is weak in Saudi Arabia. I agree with her that even if the boycott itself filed, raising awareness is still a good outcome of the campaign.
~~I have previously posted a video on how KAUST students entertain themselves, but the night version is even better:~~ UPDATE: After speaking with the video owner, I decided to remove it because it might compromise her safety. She did not ask me to remove it, but I thought it would be better for everyone. Sorry.

The minister of justice said his department is drafting a law that would allow female lawyers to argue legal cases in court for the first time. Progress, I guess.
Finally al-Ahsa is getting its share of the development cake. I was hoping that SAGIA would choose the region for its new project, but it’s actually SCTA that decided to invest here. Al-Oqair beach, one of my favouirte spots on the east coast, will be the home for a SR50b tourist city that is expected to create 80,000 jobs and generate SR100m in annual revenue.

Hani Naqshabandi: “We Saudis are not greatly different from anyone else, in money or knowledge or health. Poverty has no homeland, for it thrives in every country, ignorance exists here as it does everywhere else, and health problems that others have elsewhere are also found here. We might be better than others at some things, but they are also better than us at others, but no one is “better”, in an absolute sense, than anyone else.”
Popular Mechanics correctly notes that King Fahd International Airport in Dammam is the the largest airport in the world in terms of landmass. It is so enormous that it is actually about 28.5 square kilometers larger than Bahrain. What they fail to mention though is that it’s so empty most of the time it feels more like a ghost town than an international airport. The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) is rarely in the news, but it’s actually one of the worst performing government departments. (via jb)
Speaking of ghost towns, Nathan Deuel writes about life inside the DQ. Few weeks ago I wanted to visit Nathan’s wife Kelly at their house in Riyadh and he had to come pick me up at the checkpoint at the DQ entrance. He wrote about it here.
~~How do KAUST students entertain themselves~~UPDATE: After speaking with the video owner, I decided to remove it because it might compromise her safety. She did not ask me to remove it, but I thought it would be better for everyone. Sorry.
Jeddah United basketball team has joined efforts with automobile distributor Haji Husein Alireza & Co. Ltd. to launch Khobar United, the first of its kind women’s sports organization in the EP. When I visited Jeddah two years ago I had a chance to attend a kids tournament organized by Jeddah United where I also met the team’s captain Lina al-Maeena. Sports in girls’ schools is still being debated, but what these guys have been doing is really impressive.

Hillary Clinton was in Saudi Arabia. There was lobster and lamb with the King. She was received like a rock star in Jeddah, where she signed autographs but did not talk about women’s rights. Also, more sanctions against Iran, which she said was on its way to becoming a military dictatorship. Madam Secretary did not, however, comment on the flourishing democracies in the Gulf, because, you know, she is so cool!
Today’s picture: female volunteers at JEF.
According to the latest report from the Ministry of Civil Service, the government employed 31,000 persons in 2008. 63 percent of those were women, most of them in education.