Want to know how summer looks like in Saudi Arabia? Read this article be Abeer Mishkhas. All you have to do is to replace the word “Jeddah” with the name of any other city in the kingdom and here you go.

It is summer in Jeddah, and for those who do not know what summer in Jeddah means here is a brief description. You wake up drenched in sweat even if your AC is on all night. You leave your room but you hurry back in until you have got all the ACs in the surrounding area going. You take a cold shower a la Jeddah, which means hot to very hot water — the only way to get cold water is to take it from the water heater when it has been switched off for few days.

Having finished eating your breakfast it is time to go to work. That is a hard one, I tell you. When you step out of your door the heat slaps your face in a not very gentle salute. Then you head for your car, and the first thing you do is reach for the door handle, which is so hot that you scorch your hand. Inside the car, it is like an oven. By the time the car AC works, you have already reached your destination, so it is time to face the elements again and get out of the car.

This a brief everyday scenario for just the beginning of the day. So those who want to enjoy their summer vacation either travel abroad or, if they cannot afford it, stay in Jeddah. And Jeddah is a beautiful city; just keep out of any open-air areas. Activities have to be kept inside all the time.

This service will be available in Saudi Arabia in 2084 ;)

(via Rebecca’s Pocket)

Here is a picture for the Saudi Olympic team during opening ceremonies of the Athens Games.

The Olympic Games opening last night was great. Enough said.

What I was really looking for is the entry of the participating teams. I was waiting to see the Saudi team, particularly. With 201 countries (a new record), I had to wait so long before the Saudis showed up. It was OK, as I had the chance to watch many, many other countries.

The Americans, who were afraid of the audience roars, had a really good reception. The opposite happened to the Iranians. Most of the audience kept silent, while some of them decided to roar. I don’t know; is there something wrong with the Iranians? Are they the most hated country in the world? They had the worst reception last night.

The whole stadium cheered the Iraqis, who won their first match in football competition against Portugal. The Egyptians looked awful in their pale yellow uniform. The 16-year-old girl from Kuwait looked terrific in a traditional dress. But I don’t think Kuwaitis were happy to watch a tattooed man wearing nothing but a mini-skirt following their team :)

When the Saudis came in, I was surprised to see Husein Al-Sebaa holding the Saudi flag instead of the Sydney 400mh silver-medalist Hadi Sou’an. I hope Sou’an is OK, as he is well qualified to win another medal for our country. I was surprise not because I could not see Sou’an, but also because the SAOC let a Shiite sportsman holds the flag. In a country that consider Shi’ites as second-class citizens, that was really surprising.

Fareed Zakaria wrote about the Saudi Trap in Newsweek.

(via Zaydoun)

When telecommunications companies offered mobile phones for the first time in Saudi Arabia, it was difficult for Saudis to remember the numbers that Nokia give to their phones. Therefore, the Saudis distributors decided to give every model of Nokia phones a nickname. For instance, Nokia 8210 called “The little bird, while Nokia 7210 called “The Kingdom.”

Couple of years after that, Nokia and their rivals started to produce the camera phones. The Saudi authorities banned all that kind of phones. That decision was so stupid because you can see these mobiles wherever you go in the state. It is available everywhere and all you have to do is to ask for it, and the salesperson will bring it immediately as it is usually hidden under the table.

That was just to give you a general idea about the whole thing, as what I want to talk about related to this somehow.

The Saudis called Nokia 6600 “The Banda,” but the fundamentalists decided to give it some different names. The Monster, The Evil, or The Criminal. Why? Because some people took photos to some unveiled women and then distributed them using Bluetooht. It is just crazy! If some people are abusing a certain technology, you take action against those people, but you don’t ban the technology.

This is not the way to deal with that kind of stuff here. It is useless anyway. Satellite receivers were banned in the beginning, and now even the homeless people got them. Wait a little bit, and every mobile phone in the market will include an embedded camera. What are they gonna do? Advise the people to keep their old phones forever?!

Everyone knows how to maintain his privacy. Nobody needs to the government to protect him from what others consider as The Evil. People who take photos of others without their permission are “immature and irresponsible” said Dr. Fawzia Ashmakh to Asharq Al-Awsat. And I may add that they are sick people in need of psychological therapy.

However, the Forces of Dark cannot understand that it is about people not technology. They started a special campaign using a website to warn people of “The Banda” or what they would like to call “The Evil.”

“Finally, there is no such thing that cannot be abused. If we banned all the new innovations we will live the way people lived in the Middle Ages,” Dr. Ashmakh added. But it seems that there are some people wants us to live that way, at least that what AlHamedy thinks.

The Angry Arab is releasing his book tomorrow: The Battle for Saudi Arabia. I am absolutely convinced that it won’t see the light of day in any of the Gulf countries so we can’t critique it. But hope to pick up a copy and make it my holiday reading!

(via Mahmood’s Den)