Commission Ban Cats and Dogs

I have been trying to avoid writing about the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice lately because, frankly, why beat a dead horse? But this one is just too good to miss:

Saudi Arabia’s religious police have announced a ban on selling cats and dogs as pets, or walking them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them as a means of making passes at women, an official said on Wednesday.

Now I’m not particularly a fan of cats and dogs. My friends who are pet owners know this, and they usually keep their pets away when I visit them. It’s not like I have anything against these animals but I just have this fear of getting too close to them. Still, this decision is just idiotic.

But before we get more into this, let’s go back a little bit. This whole ban thing has actually started in Jeddah two years ago. At the time, Jeddah’s Commission said that young Saudis who go out in streets with their pet dogs are violating of the Kingdom’s culture and traditions, and allegedly causing distress especially to families with young children. Interestingly, and luckily for my friend Rasheed who has since moved to Abu Dhabi, the ban has never implemented. “All pet stores are still selling cats and dogs,” one pet owner told Arab News.

However, although Riyadh and Jeddah are two big cities in the same country, they can be quite different on matters like these. The Commission is much, much more powerful in Riyadh than in Jeddah and therefore I expect this ban to be fully implemented in the capital.

Of course it is needless to say how ridiculous this whole thing is. The reason the Commission presented for the ban is kind of a joke, really: “because of men using them as a means of making passes at women,” they said. So you go and ban dogs and cats? How about punishing those so-called men? I guess you are too busy invading people’s privacy and controlling their lives to bother with few men who use their pets to annoy others.

Related:

My friend Grace notes the different takes between Saudi and American media.

Normal Country

In a moment of frustration yesterday, I posted this rant on Twitter: “If only we were living in a normal country…” Apparently the short sentence struck a chord among my fellow twiterrers and a meme was born. Here’s some examples:

7anno: that’s “if”

CivilLizard: If only anyone can come up with what’s normal for the majority or can find me a country they can call normal.

mohamed: define normal…

weddady: in a normal country u don’t have to show marriage license 2 eat in a fish restaurant

krispijnbeek: in a normal country every one has a irrepressible quote on their site to remember freedom ain’t a free lunch http://bit.ly/2HrKpK

asad_wosaibi: in a normal country, I can choose what education program my kids go thru.. study science, math.. or have fun with arabic lessons

alfarhan: In a normal country, they don’t stop drivers in the highway for 20 min because a damn person is passing by

bianconeri4ever: In a normal country the Twitter experience is actually enjoyable, because Tinyurl.com is accessible :P

yazeez: in a normal country ppl dont start their tweets with “in normal country”

thecrazyjogger: In a normal country they don’t block all the links starting with tinyurl.com

thecrazyjogger: In a normal country they don’t ask all ur license n registration for a car if its going thru a checkpoint n the car is fulla teen guys

However, I have some great friends and thanks to one awesome friend of mine the day ended on a happy note, so I finally said: In a normal country, _great_ things can happen too :-D

Why We Are Happy

When John Burgess published a recent post on Crossroads Arabia titled “Happy Saudis!” I was like “Huh!” The post links to a chart from a study conducted by the World Values Survey based at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research which states that Saudi Arabia is the 26th happiest country in the world. “It’s widely believed that it’s almost impossible to raise an entire country’s happiness level,” says Ronald Inglehart, political scientist at U-M and the director of the World Values Surveys.

The “surprising finding” has prompted me to think what possibly could be the reasons behind the overwhelmingly positive attitude of my countrymen…

Because human rights are respected and any violation of these rights is not tolerated.
Because the government is transparent and accountable.
Because the inflation rate is above 10 percent.
Because only 22 percent of Saudis own a home.
Because our public healthcare services are awesome.
Because our education system is mass-producing geniuses.

See? The list is endless!

How about you fellow citizens? Why are you so goddamn happy?

When the Minister Becomes a Waiter

Ghazi al-Gosaibi, the Saudi Minister of Labor, is seen here wearing a waiter uniform and serving food at Fuddruckers in Jeddah. The minister criticized those who look down on some jobs saying they do not understand the spirit of Quran.

The Six Quirks Tag

I have been tagged by fellow Kuwaiti blogger The Stallion.

These are the rules:

Link the person(s) who tagged you.
Mention the rules on your blog.
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers’ blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

My Six Quirks:

I am paranoid about time. I hate to be late to the point that I usually show up too early for my appointments. Of course that’s not healthy in this part of the world where people have no respect for time.
Sometime I will do/say something unpredictable just because I enjoy surprising others. I am always amused by how people react when they are caught off-guard.
I have something for bags, pens and notebooks. Bags are not quite popular among young men here, but I have always liked them and I keep buying more of them even though I end up not using them that much. Same goes for pens and notebooks: I do most of my writing now on a computer, yet I can’t seem to stop myself from buying more pens and more notebooks.
I am no longer able to read printed newspapers. I read all my news online. Something about following news on the web has made the papers rather unusable to me.
If the person talking to me is lame, I tend to expect what he is going to say and almost say it before he does. It has taken a lot of practice to stop myself from finishing stupid people’s sentences.
At least for two hours after I wake up in the morning, I’m usually not in the mood to talk to anyone. However, I like to get things done early in the morning and find myself more productive at these hours than any other time in the day. You think I’m a morning person or the opposite?

I tag:

We Like to Party!

My friend Mahmood has just found that Manama is at No. 8 on the list of Top 10 Sin Cities in the world. According to the website, our Bahraini brethren should thank us, the Saudis, for putting their capital on the international sin map:

Manama is a popular spot for Saudis to kick back from their country’s restrictive laws. Here they can get hammered, go clubbing, mingle with the opposite sex, and if they’re really daring, they can pick up prostitutes — a practice that’s illegal but widely available. For many Saudi males this proximity to an open culture is irresistible and many jam the causeway and fill flights to the city every weekend. Do you want to see what happens when Saudis cut loose and leave the rules behind? You may need to get in line.

We rock, don’t we?

Still Fugly

I can’t for the life of me understand why would someone pay $1.72 million for something ugly like this, even if it carried the number AAA-1111. But I guess you know what they say: you can’t buy good taste.

Saudi Jeans

Category Humor