Category Politics

Wine from Saudi Govt among Blair Gifts

Alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia, but according to this AP piece in the Washington Post, the government don’t seem to have a problem giving away a few bottles of fine wine as a gift to someone who earned it. Other notable gifts include an iPod from California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (cool!) and a tea set from Sri Lanka’s president (boring!) as well as a foal from French legislators which he donated to a local family.

Gold Digger

Despite their frustration with our role in Iraq, the Bush administration seems more than willing to sell us $20 billion worth of advanced weapons. While the Congress is expected to oppose the deal when notified about it this fall, and some lawmakers have already said they plan to stop it, everything seem rather quiet around here.

rice_drinking

I don’t have much more to say about this than what Mahmood said, but it is really sad that no one here seems to give two shits about this. Why no one is objecting to spending this huge amount of money on weapons which we can’t use when we better invest in our younger generations, the future of this country?

Muslim US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia?

Carol Fleming asks some interesting questions:

if you look at the trends, many of the US ambassadors posted to Israel have been Jewish. Yet by comparison, when has there been a muslim ambassador posted to Saudi Arabia? The US says it strives for understanding and always fostering furthering good relations yet it surprises me that I am not aware of any muslim US ambassador being posted to Saudi Arabia.

Influence of Informal Institutions

Saudi Arabia is usually referred to as an absolute monarchy. Therefore, you would think that King Abdullah is an absolute king with absolute powers. However, anyone familiar with things in this country would tell you this actually is not the case. Rather, the country is ruled through a consensus among the King, the royal family, tribal leaders as well as the religious establishment. Now being non-tribal, I’m not sure if tribal leaders still play a big role in this consensus, but the other two institutions are obviously very much involved in decision-making in the top level. No mention of the people here, of course, but that’s another post.

Steven A. Cook, writing for Slate, says this is “one of the least understood but critically important factors that influence politics: informal institutions.” He continues:

It’s hard for outsiders—even those who live in Saudi Arabia—to see how this process works, because it is rooted in past practices around which certain norms and uncodified rules have developed. The unwritten exigency of consultation with the king’s disparate, and at times implicitly hostile, constituencies tends to constrain Abdallah’s policy options. Nevertheless, this is a tradeoff that Abdallah and other Saudi leaders are willing to make. According to Saudis, without this consultation, the cohesion and stability of the kingdom would be in jeopardy, raising the specter of a return to tribal conflict in the Arabian Peninsula. From this perspective, Saudi foot-dragging looks more like a measure of pragmatism.

Quickies

Just some short commentary on some stories from Arab News today:

5 Women and Two Men Held in Buraidah
Saudi security forces on Thursday detained five women and two men in an incident that officials linked to weapons possession but which an activist said followed a sit-in by the women.

My friend Rasheed writes about the story that has been making the headlines in the blogosphere in the past few days. Unfortunately, they don’t offer much more than what we already know. Many people here are very disappointed with the way the government chose to deal with this issue. It is sad that none of the Arabic newspaper here has reported the story.

The Hospitality of Justice
I conclude this article with a request to my dear brothers and sisters. You must visit the general court in Jeddah to see for yourselves the truth of what’s happening there. And I’m sure that will only increase your trust in the judicial system and induce you to join me in my prayers for them to live long and remain always alert, concerned about people’s rights and making sure they are not denied justice. Amen.

When I read this column by Amr al-Faisal when it appeared first in al-Watan a few days ago, I immediately recalled my own suffering when I had to do some work at the court here two years ago. It was exactly the way he described it, if not worse. We have been saying for a long time that the whole legal system is in desperate need to be reformed. The new code that was released few months ago was a good, though small, step in the right direction, but we are yet to see a real change.

Citizens Complain About Poor DSL Services
A number of citizens are calling on Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and various service-providing companies to provide better DSL services. “We pay a lot of money but we get poor service and technical problems,” said one Saudi quoted in a report recently in Al-Watan daily whose name was not given.

They have been complaining about it for a long time and I’m afraid they will be for until other companies enter the market to end STC monopoly. As far as I can recall, the new telcos to operate in the kingdom soon will be allowed to build their own cable networks. So till then, I think STC will continue to cut their prices, and that’s as much as they can do because looking back at their history they have never been interested in improving their services.

TV Told Not to Promote Regionalism
Abdullah Al-Jasser, undersecretary at the Ministry of Culture and Information, has criticized Saudi owners of satellite channels for promoting regionalism in a recent press statement. He charged them with promoting narrow-minded regionalism.

This is not the first time Abdullah al-Jasser says something absurd, and most probably won’t be the last time. This is the same guy who described electronic media as “dangerous” and was very excited to take part in some Arab meeting to monitor the internet. The man seems irritated about the appearance of some local TV channels without his ministry’s permission, and irritated even more about the fact that he can’t ban them.