NY Times says Saudi Arabia kept its growing AIDS problem hidden for years, and now it begins to face this problem.

Thousands of Saudi students are to leave the country this year to study abroad thanks to a large number of scholarships from the government. Too bad none of this was available when I graduated from high school four years ago. Anyways, for these students College v2 offers some good advice on things you need to pack. A microwave is an awesome idea. How come I never considered getting one for our apartment in Riyadh?

Here is a fascinating news story from the German Spiegel online on the slickness and effectiveness of Israel’s propaganda machine. Once again, Arabs don’t know how to win the PR war. (thx mj)

I read this post by Rayan earlier today, and it got me thinking: I still have two more years to go at KSU, and I can assure you that over the past four years I have had most of what he is talking about if not worse.

Just like him, I’m not the kind of guy who would suck up to anyone in order to get what he wants. After four years, I have learned that the grade you get is not necessarily associated with the effort you put: you can work as hard as you can for a whole semester and get a D, while your below-the-average classmate will get an A+ simply because he is a permanent guest in the teacher’s office. And no, he is not there to ask questions related to the curriculum, as he would shamelessly tell you later that he goes there solely to kiss the teacher’s ass.

Just like him, I went there to the wish of my father (rest his soul), but I don’t blame him. It is true he has put some pressure on me, but it was my decision after all even if it was highly influenced by him. I was young, I was stupid, and now I have to take the consequences of my decision. Now, all I want to do is to get my degree, and then go abroad to study something that I really want.

Following the western media over the past few years, I have come to the conclusion that something would be wrong if a month or two passed without finding a story on how boys in Saudi Arabia hook up with girls. So, reading this piece from the Washington Post was not surprising at all; it was yet another piece of the “oh my god, other people in other parts of the world have different culture and traditions from us, and they behave according to them” kind. What is unusual about this one is that our hero this time has no problem with publishing his photo with his full name, and I think this has much to do with the happy ending of this story.

I want my Arabic MTV. According to Asharq Al Awsat, MTV is looking forward to enter the Middle East market in the coming 24 months, but that “depends on finding the right local partner,” Dean Possenniskie, General Manager of Emerging Markets at MTV Networks Europe, told the newspaper. “When we enter the market, what we will offer will be entirely different from what other channels such as Meldoy and Rotana offer,” he added.

Al Eqtisadiah website has a long interview (Arabic) with Labor Minister Ghazi Al Gosaibi. “In this society, the healthy teenager needs a maid to bring him a glass of water that is exactly 10 meters away,” Reuters quoted him. He says a significant number of house workers are brought for social prestige, which is something I talked about around this time last year.