Who Knows the Laws?

While waiting at the train station in Ahssa, I thought it would be a good idea to take some pictures of the arrivals and departures schedule so I can consult them next time I take the train. Well, maybe it wasn’t the best idea.

Police Officer: HEY YOU! What the hell are you doing?
Me: Taking a picture of the train schedule. Is there a problem?
PO: Don’t you know that photography is prohibited?
Me: As far as I know, there is no law banning anyone from taking pictures here.
PO: Says who? Photography is prohibited in government buildings.
Me: I’m sure the law clearly states that photography is allowed in all public spaces except military buildings and places which have a sign in view saying “Photography Prohibited,” and I haven’t seen one here.
PO: There is no such law! If there was one how come I never heard of it? Show me the pictures you’ve just taken.

I show him the four pictures, he tells me to delete them, I delete them, and he tells me to go back to the waiting area. I walk back to my seat, shaking my head in disbelief of what just happened. I hear the officer loudly calling me again.

PO: Why are you shaking your head like that? You don’t like what I have told you?
Me: It doesn’t matter if I like it or not. I just found the whole deal absurd and that’s why I was shaking my head.
PO: Are you Saudi?! Shoe me your ID!

I hand him my ID, he inspects my name and asks me where I live. I calmly and politely answer in the same manner in which I responded to all his previous questions. He stares at me and then angrily shouts: “Go back to your seat!”

What happened with me at the train station could happen to anyone. You do something seemingly harmless and you find yourself in for a stupid long questioning with one of those ignorant, incompetent and rude police officers. The difference here, however, is that I knew the law was on my side. My arguing irritated him, especially that he looked like he had no idea what law I was talking about. He expected me to apologize for an offense that I never did, and I when I didn’t he didn’t know what to do with me. It didn’t help that his younger colleagues where standing there watching the scene.

Similar incidents happen all over the Kingdom all the time and one problem is that most people don’t know their rights according to the law; the other problem is that some low ranking police officers seem to believe they can abuse people just because they carry a few stripes on their shoulders.

NSHR has been working to raise awareness by publishing and distributing booklets educating people about their rights according to the Law of Criminal Procedures, which is a good step, but they also need to work with law enforcement officials to ensure that police officers know citizen’s rights and respect them.

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 Glorious Eighties

My brother Hasan has been asking me to change the header picture. I was hesitant to change it because I loved the “legs in jeans” header. But since many people were positively surprised by my new Facebook profile picture, I thought I would use it here too.

two_headers

This picture of me is unusual because I’m wearing thobe and ghotra instead of the usual jeans and t-shirt. The other thing is that I’m not wearing glasses; I was wearing contact lenses for the first time. The picture was taken by my brother Abdullah during my cousin’s wedding last summer.

Pictures can bring nostalgia, and nostalgia can bring more pictures. I took the chance of being home for the weekend and asked my mother to show me some photos from my childhood. I’m glad and thankful that my early years have been relatively well documented photographically by my parents.

I’ve posted one picture from when I was a kid here, and I thought I’d share a couple more of these old pics with you today:

This pictures was taken when I was probably 9 months old, some time around the winter of 1985. Apparently I was trying to eat what looks like a fork instead of the vegetables my mom allegedly cooked for me :-)

Here, I’m standing in front of the flamingo lake in Riyadh Zoo, summer 1987. Guess what? The absurd arrangement for having separate days for men and women at the zoo has been in place since the ’80s and still going!

Vote for Ahsa!

My beloved hometown of Ahsa (aka Hassa) has entered the race of candidates for the New 7 Wonders of Nature Nominees. This is the second campaign for the New7Wonders Foundation after their first campaign to choose the New 7 Wonders of the World.

Jordan’s rose-red city of Petra has won in the first campaign, and they are also present in the new list with Wadi Rum. Now I don’t think Ahsa will make it to the final nominees (it’s in the 47th place right now), but hey, please do me a favor and go vote. It will cost you nothing and you will make me happy :-)

Seriously?!

This was the first thing I saw when I entered my college building this morning:

Few hours later, someone decided to give them a piece of his mind:

P.S. I’m not in the mood to translate but if you can read this and want to volunteer to translate, please do in the comments.

UPDATE: I guess someone didn’t like what the first someone did:

Day at the Beach

Spent the day at Ogair beach with my family. Weather was really nice and the kids had lots of fun. Here’s some pictures:

brownbook-ed

It is flattering and humbling to see Saudi Jeans featured in a full page of the latest issue of brownbook magazine:

Many thanks to Rashid bin Shabib and the rest of the brownbook team for choosing my blog and for this beautifully produced magazine, content and design wise.