Remember a few months ago a group of 10th and 11th grade American students visited Saudi Arabia? I first read about it at Cross Roads Arabia.
By searching for Jeddah on Vimeo, I found this video that they made:
I was searching for Jeddah because I hope to go there during the holidays and hoping to make a video like Philip Bloom’s (his latest Vince’s People was nice, but I liked the Dublin’s People video a lot more) and was hoping that no one beat me to it… a lot of hope as you see… but where would we be without hope?
I did find this video for Jeddah City Tourism… and I hope you enjoy it
P.S. for the lack of a better title, I will just call this post Jeddah
An old highschool mate of mine is working on making movies now, I know that thanks to Facebook, he left his job at the bank to do that… I knew that by chance since Facebook suggested him to me… as Facebook does.
The movies or documentaries are interesting, to me to say the least, and to say I am envious… well that’s an understatement, but it’s the good kind of envy, the one where you still wish that person success, but wish you can do it also… if you know what I mean.
One of the documentaries is called “rehab for terrorist” (my wife suggested it should’ve been called rehab for erhab*) and it has the famous writer Robert Lacey as the host, he has written “The Kingdom” and the sequel to it. The 23 minute movie is available online for your viewing.
Now how good rehab for anything is, is up to debate, whether it is drugs or alcohol or ideology…many have relapsed if that is he correct word and went back to their old ways… and they are taking about that and other things as well… I am sure many were told to go to rehab and they said “no, no, no“
I have mentioned before that I hate terrorists, life has changed because of them and this documentary highlights many of those changes that have personally touched out lives in Saudi… I highly recommend watching it
They also have another production coming out soon, which I can’t wait to see called “Saudi youth“
Yep, that is p0rn1 spelt with a zero and a one, to represent the digital age which made it easier for everyone no matter where they are to access massive amounts of p0rn, and due to that, almost everyone tried to copy Hugh Hefner and Larry Flint, I have not seen playboy mansions popping up anywhere, so I assume none were that successful, or maybe no one is that ostentatious anymore, who knows, but I saw this expose a while ago, and young women are making a lot of money working the webcams from their bedrooms.
TeenagersMen love to look at women, and p0rn in its variations from soft to hard is a multibillion dollar industry worldwide, the figures are huge and increasing according to family safe media.
The internet, well, you know, if the internet were a street or a real place… this is what it would look like, Dave Chappelle made a funny sketch about it, watch this. Basically p0rn comes to you, you do not even have to go to it.
Now when people say Saudi’s or other guys have p0rn on their phones… well, you cannot go to a gas station in Saudi to get the latest issue of triple-x or to the nearest video store and get the latest release from triple-x productions… so… what is a man to do? Not even car magazines have scantly clad girls standing next to a low rider on the cover for guys to look at on the magazine rack in the supermarket checkout line while waiting their turn and probably getting poked by their significant others in the side for not moving when the line moved because they failed to notice, while they swear they were looking at the men’s fitness magazine not the low rider magazine because it had an article on how to please her in ways she never experienced before… yeah I’ve seen it happen before, you guys know who you are… shame on you.
I am not making excuses for anyone, just an explanation. Other than that I will plead the fifth, I know I am not an American citizen and I am not living in the United States of American, but I will still plead the fifth
At the end of this post, I would like us all to hold hands or put them on our keyboards and say a prayer with this little girl.
I’ve came across an article about a lady, which I should call super lady here, named Mrs Ferial Masry, a woman born to BaitAlmal family in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and is now running for the California State Assembly, and I am sure has bigger dreams and grand plans in politics. Now if that is not part of the American Dream I do not know what is.
I do not know much about her more than what I’ve read online, she has written a book which my wife and I plan on getting our hands on soon called “Running for All the Right Reasons“
Woke up this Monday morning with a mild case of the Monday Blues, only to be pushed into what I would describe as Monday Navies since it got really dark inside… The amplification of my case was caused by not one, nor two, not even three like the old Raid commercial but four posts about guns being sold legaly in Saudi… and the number of posts are increasing.
Not that people didn’t have guns in the first place. Firearms are not sold in Saudi, not even pellet guns where sold until a few years ago, but those with keen observation skills like SGIME noticed the sale of holsters and all that that goes with it.
Many of the people I’ve known in Saudi own a firearm, except for a few like me, but I’ve considered it many times. I am against guns and violence.
It used to be, someone wants a gun, someone somewhere knows somebody that can get the gun for you for 10 times it’s price, you go and get a license for it from whatever government agency does it, they ask you where you got it and you say I inherited it, even if it were brand spanking new, and they register it under your name… Or so I’ve heard.
I have not seen guns being sold here in Australia at K-Mart as I’ve seen in the USA, but the latest reports say 365 guns go missing every year in Australia which end up in black markets.
The selling of firearms or the lack of, has been and will always be a matter of debate… Do we sell it so everyone has it or has access to it? Or should we ban it so only the outlaws will? I am sure they are doing this to cut down on illigal smuggling of firearms in the country… And maybe for a little bit of this.
But what intensified my Monday blues is, most of the posts and the comments had this feeling of “the end is near” and we are all going to go postal on each other… Guns were already there as I said, we didn’t do it then, we won’t do it now… I hope…
Ashraf said in twitter, and I translate it (without permission) “Cinema NO, Elections NO, Women driving NO, not closing during prayers NO, coed universities NO, then they go and allow selling guns”
I was flipping through the channels last night when I came across the new NCIS with LL Cool J playing one of the agents… so I let it be… I’ve been an LL fan since I saw the movie Krush groove back when I was still not in high school and LL needed a radio inside his hand… I’ve seen that movie on betamax so many times, I memorized all the songs.
But this is not what I am writing about. See I came across the scene where they bust into an apartment, no one is there, then LL looks at a computer screen with what looks like an Arabic website, it was too fast to determine for a native Arabic speaker non the less those who do not know… and he determined it was a jehadi website.
Next thing I know, they are running after this guy, catch him, punch him, he puts his hand in his “man bag” they tell him no… LL starts reciting a verse from the Quran to show the terrorist he understands and “this is not the way of Allah” but then the terrorist clicks something inside his bag… and they start running and boom.
My wife, was not looking at that moment, asked me what language was that? she is also a native Arabic speaker… I told her that’s something like gangsta Arabic or maybe it was Arabonics since LL is not a gangsta… LL, sorry, but your pronunciation needs to be worked on… good effort though., it is way better than George Clooney’s Arabic in Syriana (which was a good movie IMHO)
The good thing is, they are now showing the good with the bad in Hollywood, I am not sure what and how much sticks in peoples minds.
I’ve been wanting to kitesurf for years now, ever since I first saw someone kitesurf at least six or seven years ago. I searched for locations near Saudi when I was still living there, I tried to find somewhere in Egypt which is a country I’ve never been to, since they have Hurghada and SharmElsheikh for a qualified International kiteboarding association, and did find one in one of them at the time… But for some reason or the other… It fell back to the back burner and remained a wish that was yet to see the light.
I finally decided that it was time, went to a store, talked to the people, bought a trainer kite and have been practising. Summer is around the corner, or has already arrived in the 30+ degree weather we are having now, so I needed to get ready for it.
There is an annual kite festival at a place called Coolum on the Sunshine Coast, about and hour and a half drive from where we are, and we decided to check it out… It was wonderful… We made a video of our trip, and I will let it do the talking.
It is, however… Not as good as this professional video, but mine is personal/blog.. His is professional… So please don’t compare… I already was not going to post it… but my lovely supporting encouraging wife convinced me that it was not that bad… Thanks honey
After debating, and reading reviews, and readjusting my budget to find a little bit here and there… I got my first prime lens, a little nifty fifty as they call it, a Canon 50mm f1.8.
These pictures were taken in the city right after I bought it, I am so surprised at the quality of the pictures in low light, not that I’ve had much experience, but I know what my stock 18-55mm lens can do in low light, which is not much.
In reading different posts here and there about KAUST, I read some very encouraging and supportive comments, but I also read some very derogatory and belittling comments… a few which got me riled up was in line of something like “it will educate the natives”… or “set an example for other universities”… or “the graduates coming out of schools are not up to the university standards”… ok, let me put in my two cents.
I am a product of 12 years of Saudi public education, when I went to the States for university, my friends and I, most of which were also products of Saudi public education and one or two were in a private school, all of us were placed in high levels of math (maths if you will), I remember meeting an American student who told me that he was a junior… studying math… I was a freshman in the same math class as he was… nuff said.
KAUST is a research facility… something absolutely new to the region… not that other universities do not get research grants… it was just… not enough. A lot of people in my family are/were educators… when you get a grant of less that $10,000 dollars for research to produce five technical papers… well… it is just not worth it… especially that you had to jump up and down and go through all the bureaucratic hoops to get the grant in the first place… that grant was not enough, some even give it to you in the form of airline tickets so you can go to the library of congress if you want, but they will not cover your expenses… you are on your own after that.
What I hope for KAUST and the rest of the universities is partnerships with wealthy businessmen and big corporations willing to invest in research… and venture capitalists willing to cash in on the next best product or thing.
Education falls more on the shoulders of the parents, that make sure the homework is done and who rectify any problem before it gets out of hand…. I am not even going to link to any statistics… anyone who has been through school and is or was a parent knows what I’m talking about.
When I created this blog, it was so I can talk about music, movies, art, computers, gadgets, and some comedy… But somehow this blog took on a life of its own.
I have not set rules as to what I will and will not touch, and I will keep it flowing freely, afterall, it is a personal blog.
So in talking about music, I would like to write about an aboriginal musician with a voice that takes me to another world. Music has this hold over people, it talks to us at a primitive level, no little child can resist a rhythm unless something was not right… And it is at tha level that music is able to touch us, even when we do not understand the words.
I came across Geoffrey a little over a year ago, I am always on the lookout for new music, and my iPod is full, which means I have to delete songs anytime I need to add new tracks. I think it was during the time SBS had a show called the First Australians, which was a great show.
Indigenous people in Australia, America, Africa were treated badly, and genocides were carried out against them, those practices were carried out to a certain extent in the middle east (by Saddam against Kurds, and by Israel against Palestinians) China against Tibet, the list goes on and on, and segregation was and still is carried out. I have no doubt in my mind that had oil been discovered before the area was stable enough, we… “the indigenous people of the area” would’ve probably been living in designated areas not much different than the reservations in America for Native Americans. Many of the older generation in Aramco remember the whites only drinking water, and the old shacks that the local workers lived in, which were somewhat similar to those in India and South Africa… Back to music.
Geoffrey was blind since birth, and he plays the guitar in a similar way to Seal and Babyface, right-handed guitar played upside down. His voice is so sweet, and the music is easy listening. He sings in the language of Yolngu, and his lyrics are mostly about creation as understood by Aboriginals.
It is fascinating to me how aboriginals explained the world around them, and reading some of the lyrics is very eye opening, since I knew nothing about the nations that once roamed these lands.
I do believe that music is a bridge between people, between the here and now, and that which once was, and that which one day will be, and I am disappointed at the efforts of many countries, including my own, that have not tried to preserve the old for the next generations.
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