Tag Archives: jeddah

No Country for Young Men

Ibrahim Ismail Kutbi complains in this article from Arab News that most restaurants and cafes in Jeddah are catering to families only, excluding single men or those unaccompanied by their female relatives. If this complaint is coming from Jeddah, the most liberal city in Saudi Arabia, you can imagine how is the situation in Riyadh and the rest of the country. Abdu Khal wrote something closely related in Okaz last week: “If you count the number of youths who have nowhere to go to because malls, parks and beaches are dedicated to families, then you would be appalled. What will the youth do when they find themselves trapped and discarded?”

Well, they will do other things that you probably will not like.

Nothing Changed

In November 1979, Juhayman al-Otaibi and his fellow zealots occupied the Grand Mosque in Makkah. After a bloody siege that lasted for two weeks, they were eventually captured and shortly beheaded. Following this event, Saudi Arabia experienced a scary rise of conservatism and the social liberalization that had begun in the 60’s and 70’s was halted or even rolled back. Women were no longer allowed on national TV, and restrictions on their employment and participation in public life became so harsh.

It is July 2009, more than 900 suspects were charged with participating in terrorist attacks in the country over the past few years. In landmark trials, more than 330 people in 179 cases had been tried and one given the death sentence. While these trials are still in progress, several restrictions to a freer access to culture and entertainment have been put in place, including a ban on cinema and cancellation of the Jeddah Film Festival.

What a difference 30 years make?

Aramco the Builders

When King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was announced about two years ago, one of the interesting aspects about the project was the way it was planned to be developed and built. From the beginning it was clear that KAUST will be independent and not under the umbrella of the Ministry of Higher Education, and instead of relaying on a real estate or a construction company to build the university, the project was handled by Saudi Aramco, the national oil company.

Choosing an oil company to build a world class university seemed strange to many people, but to me it made some sense. The King’s bold vision meant things must be done differently. There are only two construction companies in the country that can handle a huge project like KAUST: Saudi Oger and Saudi Binladen Group (SBG). Both companies are already developing major megaprojects, and both companies have been linked to corruption allegations related to government contracts before.

To turn the King’s vision into a reality in the short time span that was announced, he needed people who are efficient and trustworthy. Many of those people can be found in Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world. Now that the KAUST development model has been a success, I guess the King wants to use the same model to pull off another megaproject that has been delayed for years.

I previously wrote about King Abdullah Stadium. The Ministry of Finance repeatedly refused to allocate a budget for the project because proposals made by the General Presidency of Youth Welfare seemed so exaggerated and so… fishy. Rumors have been flying during the past few weeks that Aramco will build the new stadium, but honestly I found that hard to believe. I know that they have done an impressive job with building KAUST, which should be ready to receive students this fall, but I thought that was an exception. Well, I was wrong.

Aramco distributed a statement last week saying the Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals have entrusted them to build the new King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah. According to the statement, the project will include a big stadium, an 18-hole golf course, a hospital and a sports academy.

Is it right to hire an oil company to build a university and a sports city? It is probably not the most conventional approach, but from a pragmatic point of view it is effective and working. This way of thinking says that if this is what it takes to get the job done, then we will go for it. I really don’t mind such approach, but I think it should not make us overlook the problems and circumstances that got us here. Also, this makes me remember some questions and concerns that I have about Aramco, but that’s another post for another day.

Ensure Accessibility

I spent most of my last day in Jeddah hanging out with my friend Ibrahim in the old part of the city, aka al-balad. We finished our tour by taking pictures of one of Jeddah’s gates. Later that night we went to Lenuo’s for dinner. While enjoying our pizza, we noticed a group of guys at the restaurant door helping their friend who was on a wheelchair to enter the place.

Though it only took a moment, the brief incident got me and Ibrahim to talk about accessibility for people with special needs and the lack of laws that ensure they can easily get properly served in government buildings as well as those of private businesses. Officials here seem to always talk about how they care about disabled people, but such talk is rarely accompanied by actions. The US has something called the Americans with Disabilities Act, and I have always thought that we need something like that.

So, it was with much delight that I read this piece of news from Arab News on plans to make buildings in the country more disabled-friendly. I really hope that these plans will be put into action very soon.

Quick Note

Jeddah was great, as always, and I had a good time. We were worried that the event won’t attract enough attention, but in the end we had a full house and a large number of people watched the live stream and followed the event on Twitter. As I said earlier, we are happy with how it turned out, but of course there was some problems and mistakes that should be solved and avoided in the future.

Saudi BlogCamp was only the first step, and now we are looking forward to the next Saudi BarCamp event. No concrete plans have been set up yet for what this future event would be about, but most probably it won’t be on blogging. Topics such as information security and charity work have been suggested, but we are open to all ideas.

If there is a topic that you feel strongly about and you think would make a good event, don’t hesitate to contact the guys. They will help you to organize the event by all possible means wherever you are in the Kingdom. Big thanks to everyone for making Saudi BlogCamp a success, and see you all soon.

Related:

Saudi BlogCamp

I will fly to Jeddah tomorrow to give a talk at the first Saudi BlogCamp. The presenters also include friends and fellow bloggers Khaled al-Nasser, Fouad al-Fahran and Essam al-Zamel. Saudi BlogCamp is the first of a series of events for bloggers to share knowledge and exchange experiences on different topics of interest. All bloggers, male and female, are invited to participate in these events and help organizing them. Saudi BlogCamp is part of Saudi BarCamp.

The first Saudi BlogCamp will be held at Andalusiya Cafe in Jeddah this Thursday, July 2, 2009. The registration fee is SR50, including lunch, and everyone is welcome. If you would like to attend you can find more information here and here. I’m certainly looking forward to this, and also looking forward to see you all there. If you can’t make it, you can still follow the event on this page which will offer a live stream from the room, and also through Twitter.