Reservation Won’t Solve Unemployment
Saudis, Expats React to Ban on Job Transfers for 22 Professions
Shahid Ali Khan

RIYADH: MAKING certain professions available to Saudis only and laying down specific labor laws as a way to achieve Saudization could adversely affect the recruitment process and hinder the country’s economic development, according to some businessmen.
Saudi businessmen were reacting to the Labor Ministry’s recent announcement banning the transfer of sponsorship for 22 professions reserved for Saudis.

Omar Al-Hamdy, Chairman and CEO of the Nesco Group, said Saudi businessmen are already facing problems in getting visas for foreign workers from the Labor Ministry. “Then come the restrictions on the transfer of sponsorship,” he added.

Al-Hamdy said his group has been engaged in development projects like telecommunications, water treatment and infrastructure. But finding the right Saudi candidate for a job is already a problem in the labor market, he said.

“First, it is difficult to find the right person with experience and secondly even if a Saudi is recruited, the big problem is his conduct toward work,” he said.

Saudis have a tendency to leave their jobs if they find something in the public sector or if they are offered better salaries in other companies. They do this without even giving any notice, he said.

The Nesco head said the right path for achieving proper Saudization, as recently announced by Labor Minister Gazi Al-Gosaibi, is the introduction of effective training programs in all types of skills.

Implementing Saudization by merely stipulating laws would not help in solving unemployment among Saudis, he said. However, the huge economic cities opened by King Abdullah will create thousands of employment opportunities for Saudis as well as foreign workers.

The Saudi labor market will fall short of manpower supplies to the five economic cities, he said.

Al-Hamdy said imposing restrictions like the sponsorship transfers will only hinder the private sector from recruiting skilled foreign workers, who are already available in the Kingdom’s labor market.

Salah Ali described the Labor Ministry’s decisions as “terrible news.” He said the new laws would work against the private sector interest.

“The Saudi workforce is trained in certain skills, but still not enough to meet the huge requirement of the labor market,” he said.

But Dr. Ahmed Abdullah Wannan, Chairman of Tech Factory for Plastic and Polystyrene Products, welcomed the measures taken by the Labor Ministry to speed up the process of Saudization.

“Any move that keeps jobs for Saudis is a good one,” he said. He added his company has already achieved around 50 percent Saudization.

This piece, appearing in Saudi Gazette, shows that the road to getting young Saudis into jobs is not a smooth one. The article covers different viewpoints held by various employers—as well as some expats who would be pushed out of their current jobs. All in all, it does seem as though better technical education will be needed to get Saudis into jobs. A more realistic sense of the world of work would help, as well as lowering some of the legal bars to firing incompetent Saudi employees.

Plane Prayers
When are airline officials being too cautious?

A US AIRWAYS CREW invited controversy — and a bevy of unanswered questions — last week when it kicked six Muslim imams off a flight. That decision led to, among other things, a “pray-in” protest at Reagan National Airport on Monday. There’s a disturbing possibility that innocent passengers were removed from their flight, handcuffed, detained and denied the opportunity to purchase another ticket home just because of a preflight expression of faith.

Many facts of the case are still the subject of debate, but we know this much: Last week, six imams heading home from a conference in Minnesota unrolled rugs before boarding a US Airways flight to Arizona and said their evening prayers. When they boarded, they sat in different sections of the aircraft. Another passenger passed a note to a flight attendant expressing discomfort that Arabic men were moving around the airplane. The captain threw them off, and the local police and the FBI detained them for questioning. The imams were later cleared for flying.

The Washington Post editorializes on the issue of the six imams thrown off a US Airways flight in Minneapolis last week. I can’t disagree much with their position.

If the imams acted as they were reported to have done [See earlier posts here], then they should have been thrown off. If those allegations are not factual, though, then a different issue comes to the fore. There certainly have been cases of overzealous airlines and passengers who have decided that particular passengers represented unacceptable risk. That the vast majority of these cases have been the result of ignorance or general bias against Arab or Asian looking passengers only adds to the indignity and unfairness.

The UK’s Independent on Sunday published an article last month about a passenger who was throttled by other passengers, to the approbation of other passengers. His crime? “Looking Arab.” His religion? Jewish. His nationality? American.

There have been other cases as well when passengers have overreacted to innocent behavior. Most of these have been the result of overactive imaginations and fear. A distressingly large number of these incidents, however, get excused on the grounds that the person of interest ‘could be doing a dry run for a terrorist attack.’ How does one refute that charge?

Based on the reports of this most recent incident, though, I find the imams’ behavior to have been intentionally provocative, if the allegations are indeed factual. If they are not, then I have to split the blame. The other passengers get their share for being ignorant and overly suspicious; the imams for behaving as though it were still 9/10.

Need for Educational Reform Stressed
Samir Al-Saadi, Arab News

SAKAKA, 29 November 2006 — A debate on the prominence of religious education and materials in the Kingdom’s schools was the focus of yesterday’s kick-off of Saudi Arabia’s Sixth National Dialogue, a regular forum that began in 2003 aimed at bringing together Saudis from all walks of life to discuss their respective visions for the present and future of the country.

Some of the participants calling for a reform to the Kingdom’s education system argued that religious teaching, even in science classes, is playing a hegemonic role, marginalizing the core curriculums required to learn and succeed.

Others defended the prominence of religious teaching in public schools, saying that outsiders are trying to change Saudis. But both sides agreed that the current system requires some reform in order to address the needs of the Kingdom in terms of skilled workers.

The National Dialogues, started by then Crown Prince Abdullah in 2003, have addressed issues critical to reform in Saudi Arabia. They have discussed issues such as women’s role in the workplace and Saudi attitudes toward ‘the other’, that is, those who are not typical Sunni Muslim Saudis. As the government has become more comfortable with the format, the different sessions have become more open to the public, with the Fifth Dialogue being carried in part on national TV.

This session is about reforming education, a need nearly all Saudis—religious conservatives or not—agree is critical. But where to draw the line between mandatory religious education and other subject matter is an issue of vigorous debate. The school day and the school year have only a finite number of hours. Many Saudis complain that there’s simply too much religious education at the expense of other, critical subject matter. Others argue that religious content is reduced at the expense of souls.

There should be much more reporting about this National Dialogue over the coming days. I’ll be posting on it.

Saudi Arabia Intends to Sue Tobacco Companies, Says Al-Manie
Raid Qusti, Arab News

RIYADH, 29 November 2006 — Minister of Health Dr. Hamad Al-Manie said here yesterday that the country intends to sue American and European tobacco companies that sell their products in the Kingdom, for the deaths and diseases caused by smoking.

The minister, who inaugurated the 12th Gulf Symposium Against Smoking in Riyadh attended by delegates from the Gulf region and the World Health Organization, said that there have been attempts to settle disputes out of court.

“I have met with representatives from tobacco companies in the Kingdom at my office before,” said Al-Manie. “And I informed them of the ministry’s plan to file a lawsuit against their companies.”

The minister said he was pressing ahead with the lawsuit unless the tobacco companies paid the full amount of compensation. The minister did not divulge how much the Kingdom is asking for in settlement.

Arab News runs this story about smoking in the KSA. Saudis do tend to be among the world’s heavier smokers; the article says they’re ranked 23rd overall. But there are still a number of hurdles that need to be passed before entering a law suit. First, of course, is in what jurisdiction the suit would take place. I assume it would be in Saudi Arabia, but perhaps elsewhere. If in Saudi Arabia, I don’t doubt that the government could win, but what would it collect? I suspect that the tobacco companies would simply close up shop in the KSA. That would leave other tobacco exporting countries—France, Italy, Turkey, etc.—to pick up the slack. Or the black market, of course.

Or, the Saudi government could simply outlaw tobacco products and forgo the duties the government collects on the imports. I’m not sure that such a move would work markedly better than the total ban on alcohol, however. And we know that thousands of gallons of alcohol make their way illegally into the country.

Saudi Arabia More Open About AIDS
DONNA ABU-NASR

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The 35-year-old mother of six flinched when asked if she has told her children that she and her husband were diagnosed with AIDS four months ago.

She never will, she said. “Can you imagine what their reaction will be? We’ll be treated like pariahs,” said Umm Muhammad, a Jiddah resident who declined to use her full name to protect her privacy.

audi Arabia’s government has become more open about AIDS in recent years, publishing statistics about the number of infected Saudis, providing them with free medical care and urging compassion.

But in this deeply conservative kingdom, social stigma is still attached to the disease _ which most people link, correctly or not, to acts forbidden by their religion and sometimes punishable by death: premarital or gay sex and adultery.

In her list of forbidden acts, Abu-Nasr forgets drugs, also a serious problem in parts of Saudi Arabia. But her point is taken. There remains terrific social pressure to deny the existence of—and particularly the contracting of—AIDS. Attitudes are changing as more information becomes available and as more Saudi NGOs reach out to both victims and their families. But, as almost everywhere else in the world, AIDS frightens people.

Training centre to help young Saudis meet market demands
Habib Shaikh

JEDDAH — The General Organisation for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT) has launched a new centre to train Saudis.

GOTEVOT has been entrusted the responsibility of realising the kingdom’s goal of Saudisation, according to Dr Nadia Baeshen, the organisation’s consultant for girls’ technical training.

Talking to Khaleej Times before the official launch of the development and training centre for that specific purpose at a function held at Westin Hotel in Jeddah on Saturday, Baeshen explained that there have been complaints from the private sector that Saudisation is hampered because Saudis are not well trained and qualified to meet and satisfy the needs of the market…

“GOTEVOT will bridge the gap between the private sector’s complaints and needs and requirements of the market,” she said. She added that technical colleges for both men and women are being established and for the first time such courses as computers, fashion designing, physiotherapy, nutrition, photography, food technology, maintenance technology (electricians, carpenters, and plumbers), and jewellery designing have been introduced. “A wide range of opportunities have been opened up for women,” Baeshen said.

She said that a lot of work, research, and evaluation had gone in planning, developing the curriculum and system for the new colleges and in shouldering the Saudisation responsibility.

According to Baeshen, by the end of the Eighth Development Plan, 34 technical colleges for women in the remote areas of the kingdom, such as Qassim, Hail, Najran, Jizan and Tabuk, will come up. “The objective is balanced development of the country,” she said. She said that by the end of the plan period, 30,000 women and 50,000 men “will be put in the market”.

This isn’t the first time the Saudi government has tried to get young Saudis into technical vocations. Perhaps now, though, the plan will succeed. I’m confident that the women taking part in the programs will benefit. Whether young males will, however, is a matter of attitude. I am also confident that there will be more success coming from the outlying regions before there is in the major cities. There seems to be an entirely different attitude toward work in the more rural areas, where hyper-development didn’t turn things upside down in the 1970s.

Saudis suspend Eurofighter negotiations: report

LONDON (AFP) – Saudi Arabia has suspended negotiations with Britain over the its purchase of 72 new Eurofighter aircraft from British firm BAE Systems because of a row over an investigation into an alleged slush fund, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

“We cannot speak on behalf of the two governments. But I do know we are not currently moving forward on finalising the Typhoon contract,” Mike Turner, chief executive of BAE Systems, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The Eurofighter deal is initially for 10 billion pounds (19.4 billion dollars, 14.8 billion euros), but the value of the agreement could rise to as much as 40 billion pounds for BAE through maintenance and upgrades.

The row has flared over a three-year investigation by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into claims that BAE established a 60-million pound slush fund for some members of the Saudi royal family, which allegedly provided perks including luxury cars to ensure that they kept doing business with BAE.

BAE Systems has sealed a series of lucrative deals with Saudi Arabia since 1985.

Saudi Arabia threatened to suspend diplomatic links with Britain over the affair after SFO lawyers persuaded a Swiss magistrate to force disclosure of details about confidential Swiss bank accounts, this week’s Sunday Times reported.

“We have done nothing wrong … We don’t want to interfere with the judicial process, and politicians clearly cannot do that, but we do want to see a resolution of the SFO investigation,” Turner said.

The financial wires are burning with this story and variations upon it.

Saudi play causes brawl as Islamists storm stage

RIYADH (Reuters) – A play criticising religious hardliners in conservative Saudi Arabia descended into a brawl when angry Islamists stormed onto the stage, Saudi newspapers and Web sites reported on Tuesday.

As the play ‘Wasati Bila Wasatiya’ (A Moderate without Moderation) began, a group of men surged forward to stop the performance at a cultural festival in the Yamama College in Riyadh on Monday, Al Hayat newspaper and Web site Elaph said.

Police fired shots into the air to break up violence which ensued, as the Islamists, students and actors threw chairs and attacked each other with sticks.

Al Hayat published some pictures of the clashes.

Elaph said 17 men were arrested. An Interior Ministry spokesman was not available for comment.

There are no public theatre houses or cinemas in Saudi Arabia.

Islamist hardliners fear that liberals are gaining the upper hand in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter which rules by strict Islamic law, after King Abdullah came to power last year supporting a reform agenda.

Khaleej Times carries this wire story. I cannot locate the stories published in Al Hayat or on Elaph, but will keep looking for them.

How the imams terrorized an airliner
Audrey Hudson

Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials.

Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted “Allah” when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix.

“I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud,” the gate agent told the Minneapolis Police Department.

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks — two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.

“That would alarm me,” said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. “They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane.”

A pilot from another airline said: “That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry.”

But the imams who were escorted off the flight in handcuffs say they were merely praying before the 6:30 p.m. flight on Nov. 20, and yesterday led a protest by prayer with other religious leaders at the airline’s ticket counter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

As I noted in a post last week, this situation seemed to be an exercise in manufactured outrage. The imams in question were ‘just exercising their rights’, they claim. Well, they do have a right to behave stupidly, and they certainly did exercise that right.

As this article from The Washington Times makes clear, these imams are not foreigners who might not—five years after 9/11—understand how sensitive American airlines and airline passengers are to unusual behavior. They are all Americans and should know that without a doubt. The behavior they exhibited would have raised suspicion no matter their religion or lack of religion. By seeking to create a sensation, it appears they hoped to don the cloak of ‘victim’, if not ‘martyr’.

This does not seem at all to be a case of religious profiling as it was based purely on the behavior of the six. Peculiar behavior should attract attention, particularly when that behavior is so closely related to the behavior of the 9/11 hijackers. In fact, one could suspect that this group intentionally modeled their behavior to match.

SAUDI ARABIA: CLINIC FOR RAPE VICTIMS OPENS

Riyadh, 28 Nov. (AKI) – In apparent recognition of rising rates of sexual violence in the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia has opened a specialised clinic to carry out tests on rape victims, Gulf News reports. The establishment of the clinic comes after a teenage gang rape case that has triggered debate. The Girl of Qatif, as she has been dubbed by the Saudi media, was sentenced to more lashes than one of her alleged rapists received, under a system which gives judges wide discretion. Doctor Saeed Gharamullah Al Gamdi, supervisor of the centre, said the clinic would also help dispell mysteries regarding cases of sexual assault.

“The clinic will undertake whole body check-ups to find out minute details of sexual harassment, including the type of internal and external injuries, if any, and even the psychological effect caused to the victim, especially minors,” he told Gulf News, noting that medical tests of rape victims will be carried out only with the prior approval from a judge.

“The tests will also focus on the extensive damage caused to female victims, such as deflowering and destroying their virginity and the physical and mental trauma,” he said, adding that the tests will address several problems likely to be raised during the trial proceedings of the accused in court.

Dr Al Gamdi urged that all the cases involving sexual assault or physical harassment should be referred immediately to the clinic to expedite legal procedures as delays could lead to losing key evidence.

This piece from the Italian news agency Adnkronos International notes something important. It’s taken rather a long time for the Saudi government to get there, but we should be grateful that it has.

There’s no question that by making rape a matter of forensic science, not just a socio-religious issue, this move will lead to more transparent justice in the courts. A solitary center in Riyadh, though, can only be a first step. Clinics like this need to be created in every major city throughout the country. Rather than waiting for public clamor for them, though, the government could be proactive in realizing that the problem is likely to be found nationwide, not just in the capital city.

The Dangers of Verbal Terrorism
Ahmed Al-Rabei

We have laws that allow for the arrest, imprisonment and even execution of those who carry out acts of terror, however, there seems to be a different kind of terrorism that nobody discusses which finds its audience in the Arab street, Arab satellite channels, mosques and in the press – namely, verbal terrorism.

Heated dialogue between Lebanese politicians launched accusations of mass destruction: this one is an American Zionist, that one is a Syrian agent, and the other is accused of being implicated in the assassination of one leader or another. In Iraq, sectarian leaders accuse some of being disbelievers, ostracizing them from the creed, while making their accusations by committing crimes such as burning homes and places of worship without any evidence to support their claims. Such allegations sow the seed of hatred amongst the people of one nation.

In Egypt, representatives of the ruling party in parliament competed with their counterparts from the Muslim Brotherhood in what seemed to be a competition of insults at the expense of the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni who was accused of renouncing Islam, deviance, and of becoming excessively ‘westernized’, assisting the enemy with his plans etc. It is a harsh and brutal language regardless of whom it addresses, or of the nature of the issue at hand.

In Kuwaiti Parliament, two representatives exchanged insults about one another’s tribal affiliation in an attempt to undermine the value and dignity of elected representatives. Such words would be condemned if used on the streets let alone in the respected halls of parliament! There exist those who oversimplify and diminish the danger of verbal terrorism and the ideology behind it, forgetting that incitement, treacherous allegations, and accusations related to faith are the starting point of physical and moral terrorism and murder. What would stop a young man from killing someone that a religious leader has already deemed an infidel or somebody who has renounced his religion? What would stop an overzealous nationalist from killing somebody who national leaders have branded a traitor to the state and who is part of a wider American Zionist plot?

Writing in Asharq Alawsat, Ahmed Al-Rabei offers this insight. Words can and do have effect. Sometimes it’s a matter of rational argument; sometimes it’s a matter of reaching for an emotional reaction. Al-Rabei might have taken his thoughts a step further, though, in noting that a school system—curriculum, textbooks, teachers’ practice—that demonizes groups on the basis of their religion or ethnicity lessen the barriers between words and violence. Millions become dehumanized, as ‘apes and pigs’, making any offense against them not only not an offense, but almost a duty. It starts fires that are difficult to control because they become part of an emotional, not rational reaction. Here is to be found one of the roots of terrorism. And these fires are extremely hard to extinguish.

Power Supply to Every City, Village By 2010
Joe Avanceña

DAMMAM: THE Kingdom will achieve full electrification of all its cities and villages by 2010, pushing further its social and economic development goals, an official of the Ministry of Water and Electricity said.

“Within three years from now, by 2010, all of Saudi Arabia’s cities and villages will be enjoying full electrification, a milestone in the developmental thrust,” said Dr. Saleh H. Al-Awaji, Deputy Minister for Electricity, Ministry of Water and Electricity.
He delivered the main address at the Third Saudi International Water and E-Power Forum and Exhibition which opened Monday at the Dhahran International Exhibition Center.

“While full electrification will be at hand by 2010, further development of the country’s power generation and transmission lines will continue during the next 10 years to meet the new challenges outlined in the development goals. The investment requirement for these sectors within this time frame is SR150 billion,” Al-Awaji told The Saudi Gazette.

There are still hundreds of small towns and villages in Saudi Arabia without electricity. They are, of course, rural, far off the major roadways. The fact that it will take US $40 billion should give an indication of the scope of the task.