Earlier this year I wrote about religious tourism …

Earlier this year I wrote about religious tourism opportunities in Saudi Arabia. Next month, an international forum on tourism in Islamic countries will take place in Jeddah.

Subscribers to Al Jawal mobile service can now che…

Subscribers to Al Jawal mobile service can now check if they have traffic tickets or fines via SMS. Just send your ID or Iqama number to 88993, and you will receive a text message whether or not you have tickets.

The Saudi Gazette reports that Riyadh is finally t…

The Saudi Gazette reports that Riyadh is finally to get electric trams. There is not much to talk about here as we have been reading similar news for the past few months and the news item mentioned here doesn’t tell anything on when these trams will start working. Now the question is: how many Saudis are willing to use the new mass transit system? The public buses John writes about are mostly used by foreign workers, while Saudis prefer to drive their private cars and only use taxis when there is no other option. I, for one, am willing to use such system, especially for going to places such as football stadiums. I only hope it would be usable enough.

According to Havocscope, which is a disruption tra…

According to Havocscope, which is a disruption tracking service that captures the uncertainty of disruptions around the world, Saudi Arabia counterfeit US$ 10m worth of books. I wonder about the accuracy of this number. I’m no expert on this, but I know for sure that reading is not such a favorite pastime in this part of the world, and therefore I find this number hard to believe. (thx b)

"In Saudi Arabia, every one is watching you," a yo…

“In Saudi Arabia, every one is watching you,” a young female reporter told Reuters in a recent interview. The story takes on the hurdles Saudi women journalists have to overcome to prove themselves and make their voice heard.

The Saudi Gazette has a story on a girl who made A…

The Saudi Gazette has a story on a girl who made America cry. Al-Anoud Al-Eidi, a Saudi teenager studying in a summer school in Boston, directed a brief documentary about the war in Lebanon. According to the newspaper, the “film made a huge impact,” but not everyone was happy about it, as some students with an Israeli origin thought her documentary was biased and unfair to Israel and threatened her. (via xa)

Rayan has a post on what’s going on between Al Jaz…

Rayan has a post on what’s going on between Al Jazeera and Saudi Arabia. “Instead of trying to create discriminative calls, this is a time for us all Arabs to stand side by side in the face of this animalistic cruelty played by Bush and his strategic burden, Israel,” he says.