Brainscrubber

Since most of the Westerners working in KSA don’t speak Arabic, we rely on English language periodicals to provide us with local news and color. One of the primary sources for this, at least in Riyadh, is Arab News, which boasts itself as, “The Middle East’s Leading English Language Daily.”

Certainly, there is bias in the paper, but that’s not unlike any periodical published anywhere – including in the United States. The key is to be aware of the bias and determine if it compromises the value of the information being put forth. In most cases, assuming some discerning intelligence in the reader, it does not.

I happen to have yesterday’s Arab News right here on my desk. So, let’s take a look at what made the paper yesterday, Thursday, April 26, 2007. (This will probably end up being a longer blog entry. I apologize in advance and hope the information proves worthwhile.)

The Front Page:
The banner is composed of two parts: a broad 2″ strip across the top, which contains the periodical name and slogan, an block on the left that announces a special six-page sports section offered each Friday, and an advertisement for the Al-Jawal mobile phone service; below that is a quarter-inch strip with the date, the volume and copy number, page count, URL (http://www.arabnews.com/), the email address (arabnews@arabnews.com), and spot prices on OPEC basket crude, as well as the price of gold. At the bottom is a thin ribbon that shows various currency pricings, though it doesn’t indicate the comparative currency.

The lead story is out of Jeddah, where the Mawaddah Social Center has called for compulsory premarital counseling for all couples getting married in Saudi Arabia. They’re concerned that the divorce rate has risen to 19%. The second lead is about the UN chastising the Iraqi government for underreporting the number of civilian deaths in that country due to the war. There’s a Reuters piece about how the discovery of some fossils in the Arctic point to a change in climate in that region some 55 million years ago.

By far the most interesting story to me is the one concerning the Labor Ministries effort to put a halt to the problem of runaway maids in the Kingdom. Apparently, maids are brought in, mostly from countries in Southern and Southeastern Asia, and a good number of them runaway from their employers seeking relief from abuse or seeking higher wages. The story seems to send a mixed message in that, while the alleged mistreatment should be dealt with, this is costing a lot of Saudi families a lot of money. Some of the maids appear to be kidnapped, as well, and forced into prostitution by unsavory expatriates – the example given being a Bangladeshi cab driver running a prostitution ring in Riyadh with kidnapped maids.

In a related article on page two, there is an article about Sri Lanka’s decision to place restrictions on the recruitment of maids. There’s also an article on how credit card companies are exploiting low-income workers by drawing them into deeper and deeper debt. My favorite on this page, though, is a bit piece titled, Bikers Assault Five Chivalrous Saudis. Turns out that there is an African motorcycle gang in Jeddah, and they were bothering women in cars at a stoplight. Five Saudi men stepped forward to defend the honor of the women and were rewarded by being beaten and having their cars damaged.  The bikers were arrested.  Who knew?

Page three announces that the Japanese PM will be here on Saturday for a 2-day visit, and there was a discussion at the Arab Media Forum in Dubai regarding the concept “…of freedom and journalistic privileges…” on the closing day of that forum. Additionally, there is an editorial attacking Imam University for opening up media courses to women, then making the schedule for lab time such that the women cannot complete their work in a timely fashion.

Page four highlights news from the Middle East, while page five covers South Asia. The big story on page four is a surprisingly balanced story on Israel’s threat to conduct a “tough operation” in Gaza. The news on page five covers news from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Did you know that India expects to host 1/2-billion phone lines by 2010?

Page six and seven are the Op-Ed/Opinion pages. There’s a piece from a Jewish man named Uri Avnery, whose opinion probably is not very popular in Israel (and certainly would not be with Jews in the USA), and a piece by American David Dumke on how Americans need to broaden the scope of their political issues to include issues other than Iraq and the 2008 presidential campaign. There are also letters to the editor covering a broad range of subjects. The letter of the day describes the difficulty non-Arabic speaking residents have in dealing with traffic citations and traffic cops when involved in accidents with Arabic speaking citizens or residents.

Page eight covers news in The Phillipines. One of the more interesting items is the photo of prisoners peering out between bars of an overcrowded jail cell on the hottest day of the year (so far) in Manila.

Page nine starts the eight-page Review section, which covers flower gardens, new books (including the Washington Post bestseller list), a Dave Barry column, recipes, a trend in European fashion called Fusion Muslim Chic, the movie Redline, travel, a crossword puzzle and a kid’s page with a Jumble, a word seek, Slylock Fox and some original artwork.

The news picks up again on page nine with the International section. The big story there is a piece on Kevin Tillman and Jessica Lynch decrying the US Army’s attempts to turn Pat Tillman and Lynch, herself, in to heroes by lying about what actually happened to them. There is also a piece on Boris Yeltsin’s funeral.

Pages eighteen and nineteen cover the economy and business news. Dow 13,000 is big news, as is the takeover of Dutch banking group ABN Amro, despite an accepted bid from Barclays. There’s also a big article on the growing market niche for home and personal care products in the Gulf States.

Page twenty has stock quotes from around the world, while page twenty-one is the Leisure page. The Leisure page has several comic strips such as Dilbert, Hagar, and Peanuts (just a sampling). There’s a sudoku puzzle, another crossword, a science quiz, a wordseek, a crossnumber puzzle called Challenger, and a column on bridge.

Pages twenty-two and twenty-three provide a worldwide sports round-up, including such items as Manchester United’s victory over AC Milan, Australia’s defeat of South Africa in the cricket World Cup, the Chicago Bulls series lead over the Miami Heat, and scores from Major League Baseball.

Page twenty-four highlights entertainment news and miscellaneous pieces. There’s at least one episode of Dancing With The Stars I don’t have to watch, now. And, did you know that Rosie O’Donnel is leaving The View? Or, that a kid got his head stuck in a toilet seat in London? My favorite is the one about the drunk guy in Berlin who parked his horse inside a bank foyer.

Yep, that’s the way it was on Thursday, April 26, 2007 – at least in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  I hope you gained some insight along the way.

Copyright 2007, Greg Hubbard

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A few weeks ago, my sophisticated food palate backslid, and I developed a true hankering for a chili dog. I could have gone to Fuddruckers and bought one with french fries and such, but I decided to make my own. Besides, the taste of Fuddruckers hot dogs is not that appealing. So, on my next trip to Tamimi’s (Safeway – seriously), I pushed my cart to the frozen food aisle and found the hot dogs.

For some reason, all hot dogs and packaged sausages are kept frozen. This alters the taste severely, and I – who am quite picky about hot dog taste to begin with – am really picky here in KSA. Frozen frankfurters do not yield themselves to a pleasurable epicurean experience. To make matters worse, it’s impossible to buy Hebrew National or Nathan’s hot dogs, which are about the best out there. Still, I thought, maybe if I selected a good quality beef hot dog and drowned it in enough canned chili, cheese, onions, and Crystal’s Hot Sauce, I might be able to approximate the flavor I missed and craved so badly.

As I neared the freezer case – one of those flat, open ones with packages stacked a foot deep, painted yellow, with chrome molding capping the front – I spied a Saudi woman in abaya, scarf, and veil. She herself didn’t capture my attention; she was as nameless and personless as most women you come across in public, rather her actions enthralled me. She was scooping package after package of hot dogs into her basket. She really seemed to be enjoying herself. She already had about ten packages in her cart, and she latched onto more. I edged up just enough to see what she was getting, and the green label on the package indicated it was an Eckridge package.

Great, I thought, an American brand that I know. I’d never eaten Eckridge hot dogs, but I’d eaten sausages from Eckridge; I cooked them on the grill quite often, in fact, and I always liked the flavor. Cool. Something with taste potential. The lady turned away to put more of the hot dog packages in her cart, which now numbered up around twenty, and I decided to take my opportunity to snatch a single frozen block of wieners. Just as I lifted them out of the case, my Saudi hot dog mentor turned back to snag some more. We locked gazes, and there was this wonderful, humorous twinkle in the lady’s eyes. I could almost see the smile beneath the veil; I could almost see who she was. “These are so good,” she told me. “They are so good.”

Caught by surprise that she spoke to me in public, I stammered out a few words about looking forward to trying them. I sure hope I smiled back.

The hot dogs? Well, they were not on the same level of a high quality Kosher dog, but she was right. They were good. Heck, by KSA standards, you could say they were so good.

Copyright 2007, Greg Hubbard.

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The first steps out of my apartment building are down about seven stairs to the parking lot. So, when I come outside, I have a bad habit of looking down until I get to the asphalt. Then I look up and see the apartment building across the little street. Depending on where I am going, I may look left to or right to see if there’s anyone coming in a car. Tonight I glanced left only long enough to ascertain that no one was coming from that direction, and I turned right, heading over to the Subway kiosk here on the compound.

No sooner had I turned than I felt grit of some sort in my eyes. I looked up, and sand obscured the minarets on the Imam University campus. Lots of sand. As in moving sand in a sandstorm. Waves of it moved like smoke in front of headlights from cars passing by. I should have realized we were having a sandstorm from the sinus pressure I’d begun to feel about 6pm; but I had been playing (poorly) online poker, and the idea of a storm didn’t cross my mind.

As bad as tonight’s sandstorm is, so far it is nothing compared to the one we had one week ago this past Tuesday. We are talking a sand storm. Not quite Lawrence of Arabia level, but not far below that in intensity. Our compound is on the edge of town, and there is not a lot to break the wind or catch the sand as it blows across the terrain. The wind was pushing 50 to 60 mph, easily – bending palm trees, and blowing fronds from them, across the roads in front of cars. A clear, visible delineation between sandstorm and non-sandstorm crossed the visible landscape like an undulating curtain some 500 yards ahead of me. Coming at evening rush hour, I was glad I was within a very short distance of the compound.

Once behind the wall of sand, visibility decreased to about 25 yards ahead of me. As I said, I was very nearly back to the compound, and I quickly found my exit and the road to the gate. Off to the right, there is a huge building that reminds me of the Arche de Triomphe, only much, much bigger. This building is massive and easily seen from several kilometers/miles away. That afternoon it looked like a wraith in the fog, the scarcest of outlines visible.

Inside my apartment, my cat, Shakira, was happy as she could be that I was home. The sound of the wind bothered her, and she stuck close to me. About an hour later, the sand stopped, and the sky filled with chains of lightning that literally spanned the sky from as far to the left as I could see to as far to the right as I could see. I kept thinking of strings of white Christmas lights hung in the eaves of houses. Bolts began to strike all over, and huge claps of thunder rattled the windows. Shakira didn’t find the storm quite as awe inspiring as I did, but she stayed near me as I stared out the bedroom window. The thunder and lighting storm lasted somewhere between 1 and 2 hours, then exchanged places with heavy rain that pounded the ground for another 2 hours.

The next night, the same thing happen, only not quite as intense. I got some pictures of the trees that night, which I’ll post at some point (as soon as I figure out how to post pictures to the blog). Thursday night saw even more rain.

The Saudis are somewhat freaked about the storms. They, and several longtime expats, say this has never happened before in April. About the only thing to look forward to in April is the increasing heat and lots and lots of sunshine, certainly not rain.

I was wondering if we’d have thunder and lightning tonight, and I hear what sounds like thunder. But, I don’t see any lightning; so, it could be my imagination. We’ll find out soon enough.

I wonder how T.E. Lawrence and his Bedouin companions would weather this night.

Copyright 2007, Greg Hubbard.

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I am alive.

Those who were following my blog through the Fall probably believe I have fallen off the face of the planet, but that is not the case. I am still here. I just haven’t been writing – anything.

I guess I could blame it on the promotion I got in mid-December. My boss promoted me to a senior management position, giving me the responsibility for creating, revising, and implementing business processes throughout the organization. Additionally, I manage a team of technical writers hell bent on bringing the writing of engineers into line with what is considered standard within the software industry – a noble if somewhat Quixotic goal. But, really, the job doesn’t prevent me from writing.

If I was willing, blame might go to the intellectual battle within my brain each day as I try to determine what I want to do come August. My one year contract will be up here in Saudi Arabia, and I’ll face the choice of continuing to work on this current project or returning back to the U.S. to a difficult job market that will almost assuredly take me away from home for extended periods of time. Weighing my alternatives is a taxing effort, but it doesn’t keep me from writing.

Looking for a job might be a good excuse. Unfortunately, I haven’t spent a lot of time doing this. I mean the odd opportunity comes up that requires a response, but most employers want someone who can go to work as soon as possible. For me, it would take a pretty impressive financial opportunity to overcome the costs associated with terminating my current employment early. So, I haven’t put a great deal of effort into job seeking as of yet – though the time for such efforts is approaching swiftly. I didn’t spend that extra time writing, however.

If I was truly seeking a scapegoat for not writing on this blog, or my short stories, or my novels, I suppose it wouldn’t be too far a reach to blame my recent trip back home for occupying so much of my time that I could not write. For two months prior to the trip, I anticipated every move associated with going home. I searched for great ticket deals, configured the best flight path, and worked with my family to ensure I could get the most familial coverage in the most efficient manner. Then, of course, there was the trip itself. Twenty-four hours in flight – both ways – eighteen days of love and food and companionship. Of course, I could have used all that flight time to write, and I did not do so.

Maybe my daily chores could be to blame. Washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking dinner, cleaning out the litter box. That’s a chunk of time out of each evening and from my days off. Not all of it, though. A significant portion of my free time remains unaccounted for as I consider the last several months. Time I could have used for writing.

Nope. I think I have to be honest. I have to blame the Laws of Physics. Inertia. A body at rest tends to remain at rest. It’s just simpler and easier to sit on the couch and watch television or to surf the net in a mindless hypnotic fog. Which leaves me to wonder: Where are the elves who wrote this blog entry?

Copyright 2007, Greg Hubbard.

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