I already have a sleeve for my MacBook that is also hand-made, although it’s not as fancy and cool as the creations of Nouf and her sister. Last year I found this DYI on Lifehacker, so I gave an old T-shirt to my mother and she sewed the thing to fit my laptop. I was going to put a picture of my sleeve but it looks exactly like the picture below because somehow I ended up not just following the instructions but also using a very similar color.
After this, one can’t say he could not see that coming:
The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have asked the Municipality of Medina to segregate women from men in a sidewalk in the area behind the maternity hospital. The Commission have noticed mixing of sexes on the location and suggested making another sidewalk for men away from women’s sidewalk, Eng. Mohammed Al Ali, deputy GS of the municipality, told Okaz.
Oh and btw, news agencies have already picked up the news and it’s flying all over the civilized world now. Nice going, lunatics.
For Saudi students who would like to pursue education in the United States, the US Embassy in Riyadh offer you a chance for a web chat with Council Kathleen Riley to talk about the visa application process. According to the Embassy website, she will discuss how to schedule an appointment for a visa interview, the documents that students should bring for their interviews, and the entry and registration requirements for Saudi students studying in the U.S. The discussion will take place on September 9th at 15:30, and you can join in here, but you need first to login using the address: student_visa@state.gov. No password is needed.
The government announced earlier this week its plan to establish a new firm that is expected to play a major role in the health care sector in Saudi Arabia. The newly formed National Company for Unified Purchase of Medicines and Medical Appliances will have a capital of SR 2 bn, and will sell 30 percent of its shares in an IPO three years later.
It is an interesting move by the government to change the game in the medicine market this way. The market is currently dominated by 10 companies which have captured 50 percent of a market estimated to be worth more than SR 5 bn. Of course these companies are not happy about the creation of the new firm, claiming it would drive them out of business. Let’s wait and see.
However, there is one more thing I would liked to add here. It is common knowledge that the Ministry of Health is one of the largest areas in the government where corruption is very prevalent, and a large part of this corruption is related to the medicine market. I really hope that the newly formed company would be managed in a professional and transparent manner in order to cut back on the corruption that has been flourishing in MOH for the past few (many?) years. I mean one can hope, can’t one?
Following the statement issued about ten days ago asking the Human Rights Commission to act regarding the reformists who were detained last February, another group of activists who call for an Islamic constitution and civil society have issued another statement that they plan to send to King Abdullah on September 13th.
The statement has repeated the call to release the reformists or grant them a public trial. It also detailed the justifications for the call, saying these reformists have been involved in peaceful civil action for more than 15 years, which challenges the allegations behind their detention earlier this year.
Moreover, the statement has included some very harsh criticism to the ministry of interior and its approach of dealing with the case. “If MOI possess of evidence that they [the jailed activists] were supporting and financing violence, why do they hesitate to present them for a fair public trial?” the statement asked.
More than 30 persons have signed the statement so far, and and it is now circulating in the hope that more people will sign it before they send it to the King. The current list of signatories included many well-known reformists such as Abdullah al-Hamid, Matruk al-Faleh and Khlaid al-Umrair. Fellow blogger Khalid al-Nassir, one of the signatories, has more on his blog (Arabic).
In short: No. Just because three universities in the Kingdom, two of them private, have decent student councils does not mean such thing has become a trend. Just take a look at the country’s oldest university: except for the occasional lame religious activities, student councils in KSU are either inactive or nonexistent. The rise of Sahwa in the ’80s and ’90s have brought most, if not all, non-religious activities on the campus to a nearly complete halt.
Of course most people outside don’t know anything about this because, unfortunately, my university is a locked box. And after studying here for four years, I can tell you for sure that the atmosphere and culture of KSU does not encourage its students (and staff) to think outside the box.
When I was interviewed by Naif Abu-Saida on Orbit few months ago, I asked: “Do we, in Saudi Arabia, really have a civil society? There is no system or law regulating the functioning of civil society organizations.” Naif disagreed with me and insisted that there are such organizations and it was simply ignorant on my part to deny their existence.
The interview was mainly about blogging, but civil society got a mention during a call by fellow blogger Hadeel al-Hodhaif who touched on the issue. Since then, I’ve been meaning to write about this but never got around to do it and I finally decided to give it shot, so here it goes.
What Naif meant when he was talking about civil society organizations is mainly charities and philanthropic bodies. It is true that charities are usually included when citing examples for civil society institutions, but most literature on the subject is focused on the political element of these organizations, which aims to “facilitates better awareness and a more informed citizenry, who make better voting choices, participate in politics, and hold government more accountable as a result.”
Needless to say, such political element is clearly absent in this part of the world. Of course this has much to do with the fact that we don’t live in a democratic system because the civil society concept is closely linked to democracy and representation. As far as I know, Shoura Council have been discussing a new law for regulating civil society organizations that is expected to be voted on soon.
Until we find out what our esteemed Shoura members have been up to, my question for now is: considering our circumstances, can we here in Saudi Arabia actually call the many charities and philanthropic bodies functioning in the country civil society organizations?
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