An enormous irony is that the ulemaa who benefit from all this corruption in the land thereby facilitated the introduction of melamine — which was described in some news accounts as being produced from swine — into children’s diets.

Yes, it’s possible that somebody ‘authorized’ a shipment without recording it, in return for a bribe. I think it more likely that the products have been smuggled in and are likely counterfeits of the Nestle brand. It’s a lot cheaper to pay off a Customs agent than a Ministry official, after all.

Or, Customs might have just been sloppy… nothing new there. A Customs agent might have just been lazy on the day that the bad products came over the border from the UAE or somewhere else.

There’s a saying that goes something like, ‘First discount stupidity, then look for malice.’ I find that a useful way to look at the world while keeping blood pressure under control.

There are so few checks on the Saudi government that it feels free to make patently false statements with impunity. Declaring that there are no Chinese milk products in the Saudi market when clearly there are (as anyone can verify) is a symptom of a system that feels like it can declare anything and not be held accountable to the public.

I mean, seriously, why Jeddawis haven’t marched on the Baladiyyah with pitchforks and torches for such egregious neglects as not having installed a city-wide sewerage system in a city of 2.5 million people IN THE YEAR 2008 is beyond me. It’s complete impunity that makes them feel comfortable making such ridiculous declarations that there is no Chinese milk in the Saudi market in September, and the two months later the same agencies that made the “no Chinese milk here” claim issue warnings about Chinese milk in the Saudi market containing melamine. People here have become so desensitizes to these incongruities that they aren’t even affected by them anymore.