Asharq Al Awsat interviews Andrew Hammond, Reuters news agency’s Saudi correspondent and author of Pop Culture Arab World!

Where did the yellow legal pad come from?

Nzingha: “I think Saudi National Day is a good idea, even better that people are allowed to celebrate it.” Extra: adorable kids pictures!

I want to thank King Abdullah, again, for his decision to make the national day a public holiday. Would this increase the national spirit of Saudis in a positive way? Since it is just the second time we live this occasion, it is still early to tell, but hopefully it will. Was this decision prompted by terrorist attacks, thinking that patriotism would discourage the so-called “misguided group”? Maybe, but this by all means is no excuse for not enjoying the day off.

During the long weekend, I had the chance to meet a fellow Kuwaiti blogger. It was around 11 pm, and we were stuck in the congested Olaya St. Next to us, there were a few young men waving Saudi flags cheerfully inside their car. Few minutes later, a police car appeared and blocked off the road of the flag wavers. They forced them to break out of the stream to a side street. I followed them, partly out of curiosity, but mainly to get rid of the tension of driving very slowly in a crowded street. There they were, the officer was questioning the boys, while I was trying to imagine what kind of conversation they were having. “These boys are struggling to express their patriotism,” I told my friend, who was rather amused and entertained by the previous scene.

For years, Islamists have opposed celebrating the national day, because according to them “Muslims have only two occasions to celebrate: Eid Al Adha and Eid Al Fitr.” They also use the same lame excuse to ban celebrating any occasion related to dates such as birthdays and anniversaries. However, two years ago they surrendered to a middle ground solution: it is permissible to celebrate the National Day provided you won’t call it “National Eid,” which was totally fine with the rest of us, because if a play on words is all what it takes to make these stubborns change their wicked minds, then be it.

The National Day is a time of pride and joy, but it is also a time to read our history and think about the future. Abdul Aziz was an extraordinary man, and unifying this huge country was a tremendous achievement; this is something we all agree on. That was 74 years ago, and we have gone a long way since then. However, we need to admit that some mistakes were made, and turning a blind eye to these mistakes did not, and will never, do us any good. The domination of a certain extreme mindset on many life aspects here has delivered many problems, including terrorism, which we saw first exported to different parts of the world, and later we found it hitting us in the heart of our homeland.

Many people would disagree, and that’s alright. We would be much, much better off if we can disagree, but still respect each other regardless of our differences. And no matter how hard the disagreement can get, no one should be allowed to question the loyalty of the rest of his countrymen. As I said before, Saudi Arabia is huge country, where people come from different origins and backgrounds, therefor, diversity is inevitable. No one should be denied the right to maintain his heritage, and no one should be allowed to force others to his own agenda. In this case, our differences does not matter, because I believe we have one much more important thing in common after all: we love this country.

Looking forward to the future, I wonder: do we dare to dream? I, for one, do. I dare. And I don’t have only one dream; I have many dreams actually: I want to live to see the day when this country becomes a real democracy with a fully elected parliament; when freedom of expression is guaranteed to all, and no one is afraid to speak his mind no more; when women have their full rights and stand on equal foot with men. This was to name a few. Call me a dreamer. Maybe I am. I know one thing for sure, however: change is coming. This country is changing, not as quickly as I wish maybe, but it is changing nevertheless. Probably I’m just a young lad who can’t wait for this to happen, but who can blame me? If it wasn’t for the young to push change then who would?

My friend and I went to Java Cafe on King Abdul Aziz Rd., and on the other side of the road, we could see the building of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. He was amazed by how big and stylish this coffeehouse was. “Revolution is coming to Saudi Arabia,” my friend said. I was startled by the word revolution. The increase and popularity of coffee shops means that people want to talk, he explained, and this is how the French Revolution was started, one cup of coffee at a time. It was getting late, so I dropped my friend at the hotel. Meanwhile, my head was turning between the ideas of revolution and my mentioned above dreams.

I will be leaving to Riyadh in the coming few hours. I have been there for a couple of days earlier this week to work on my timetable for the new semester, or to put it more accurately, to try reducing damages caused by KSU’s dysfunctional automatic registration system to a level where I can keep some sanity when the semester ends few months from now. The actual classes start tomorrow, so from that day on there won’t be much posting, not even close to half the frequency of posting during the summer. The posts would be few and far between, probably on weekends most of the time.

This will be due to the fact of absence of much free time in my hands (reminder: Saudi Jeans is my full-time job only when I’m on vacation from school), and the lack of internet connection in my building (does anyone know someone from STC who could solve the internet connection delimma? It’s been almost one year now since they told me they would install it, but nothing has been done so far). Ironically, the greedy owner is demanding a 15% increase in rent, regardless of the sorry state of his crappy building. We are fighting to stop that, but in the absence of any indication of common sense, it seems that we are losing.

The beginnig of a new semester is not exactly the prefect time to start complaining, but apparently that is all what can be done when things cannot be fixed. I do realize this is not a very cheerful post, so I guess I’m already hit by the back-to-school blues, but that should not affect those of you excited about the end of summer and getting back to the work routine. Later, kids (and adults).

This photo, which shows five people on the Brooklyn waterfront, engaged in conversation while the smoke from the fallen towers billows over Manhattan behind them, is making mixed feelings among people, especially Americans. Like David Plotz, I would really like to hear from these five people. In the mean time, while Bush spent the day exploiting the memory of those lost five years ago, the U.S. overlooked a grim milestone: More Americans have now died in Iraq than died on 9/11.

No one really knows if there is a ban on sheesha in Jeddah or not. Arab News investigates and finds… almost nothing. There is so much confusion, and as usual, the government body in question, the Jeddah municipality this time, has shown a very poor form of communication with customers, owners, and the media.