As much oil as Saudi Arabia has, it has even more solar energy available to it. This is something the Saudis have understood for at least the past 20 years as they’ve devoted resources to solar research. Now, partnered with a Japanese oil company, Showa Shell, Saudi ARAMCO is working to introduce facilities to provide 1-2 megawatts of power to Saudi villages too remote to economically tie into the Saudi power grid.
This Reuters piece, run in Asharq Alawsat, unfortunately does not provide any information about the cost of the project or the individual facilities. That information would be useful to know as it would help us see whether this sort and scale of project is economic, or is just a solution that can be provided by money, no matter the efficiency.
Showa Shell, Saudi Aramco Plan Solar Power Project
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese oil refiner Showa Shell Sekiyu KK said on Wednesday it will start a solar power project in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Aramco to build small-scale facilities to supply electricity to local communities.
Showa Shell, Japan’s fifth-biggest oil company, is ramping up investment in solar cells as it tries to become a major player in the alternative energy.
It hopes to generate new revenue streams besides gasoline and other oil products that are subject to market volatility.
Showa Shell said it and state oil company Saudi Aramco will build a pilot plant next year to conduct studies on the project, in which it plans to build facilities with generating capacity of 1-2 megawatts in Saudi Arabia serving communities without access to power grids.
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Well, it may not be a major social revolution, but the fact that a Saudi university is going to offer a course in drama is pretty remarkable. This Asharq Alawsat report on King Saud University’s initiative states that the course will be offered to both male and female students; I’m assuming the course will not be co-ed, as that really would be revolutionary (and something that King Abdullah University for Science & Technology will be the first to offer in September). But teaching drama, a course much loathed by religious conservatives, is worth noting. What role it will play for the future of Saudi cinema will remain to be seen, of course, but there’s a lot of potential.
Drama to be Taught in Saudi Arabia for the First Time
man al KhaddafDammam, Asharq Al-Awsat- In a step considered the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, the King Saud University in Riyadh will launch a drama course next year.
It will be the first Saudi university to offer such a specialized course, which will teach male and female students about the dramatic arts. The course will be launched in the academic year of 2009/2010, an official university source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The source underlined that the Drama course will work in favour of young Saudi cinematic production and said that ‘through the course, we will support cinema.’
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A new campaign for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, calling for a top-to-bottom revision in the way women are treated, has just been launched, reports Arab News. The campaign, Stolen Rights, looks for changes in everything from pensions for female workers to permitting women to sell lingerie, from women’s driving to equal pay to and end to harassment on the streets or the workplace.
Right now, the campaign is looking for Saudis to sign its online petition, providing ID numbers to verify Saudi citizenship. If you’re Saudi and believe in the goals, it might be worth your while.
Stolen Rights fights for women’s rights
Laura Bashraheel | Arab NewsJEDDAH: Kholoud Al-Fahad, 32, believes women’s rights are God-given — but they have been lost or stolen and need to be regained.
She is talking about a woman’s inheritance right, and the right to see justice against those who take it away. She seeks public libraries, gyms and cultural clubs for women. She wants adequate housing units for widows and poor or abused women. She wants strong sexual harassment laws to protect workingwomen from chauvinists and perverts.
To this end, Al-Fahad, a blogger and former journalist, and others have organized a public opinion campaign called Stolen Rights.
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The Saudi Minister of Labor, Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, is noted for his frank remarks. He’s also known for being a very smart guy. Here, as reported in Arab News, he puts his finger directly on the issue of Saudis and work: there are only two kinds of work, that which is forbidden and that which is permitted. As the former category is considered criminal activity, that leaves only permitted work. All permitted work, the Minister says, is equal.
This runs against a ‘tradition’ in Saudi Arabia that only respects managerial jobs that require no physical labor. The ‘tradition’ has to go, Gosaibi essentially said at the opening of a technical school in Jeddah.
Gosaibi: There are only two jobs – haram and halal
Mohammed Al-KinaniJEDDAH – About 10,000 Saudi students currently studying in non-profit institutes will be employed within the next five years, Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, Minister of Labor, has said.
Al-Gosaibi, who is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC), said during the launch of the Saudi Retail and Marketing Institute in Jeddah Wednesday that there were about 20 non-profit institutes involved in the strategic partnership between businessmen and the TVTC.
The strategic cooperation between the Savola Group and the TVTC aims to train Saudi youth and prepare them for work in retail trade.
In his unscheduled speech, Al-Gosaibi implored media figures to “stop describing these jobs as inferior.”
“A vegetable seller can possibly be better than any chairman of the board of a big company. These workers are the hope of the whole nation and the media should support them instead of frustrating them,” the minister said.
In response to a question on the social stigma attached to some jobs, Al-Gosaibi said: “I know only two kinds of jobs: halal and haram. That’s it.”
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The New York Times runs this piece from the Associated Press reporting that Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Governor of the Mecca region, is publicly supporting women’s participation in sports and athletics. The Prince acknowledges that the action will have to be taken in coordination with the Ministry of Education and would have to comport with Saudi attitudes about modesty. No surprise there.
Senior Saudi Prince Supports Women’s Sports
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Appealing to a powerful Saudi prince, an 8-year-old girl asked why she was not allowed to play sports in school like boys. She got an unexpected response: The prince said he hoped government schools for girls would allow playing fields.
The stand taken by Prince Khaled al-Faisal, governor of the holy city of Mecca and one of the most senior second-generation members of the royal family, on the controversial issue is the strongest official endorsement so far of women’s sports and a sign the government may be tilting toward opening up on that front.
Physical education classes are banned in state-run girls schools in conservative Saudi Arabia. Saudi female athletes are not allowed to participate in the Olympics. Women’s games and marathons have been canceled when the powerful clergy get wind of them. And some clerics even argue that running and jumping can damage a woman’s hymen and ruin her chances of getting married.
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The piece does have an unanswerable question for those clerics who fear for the hymens of girls taking part in sports. Al-Watan columnist Haleema Muthafar writes: ”I’d like to ask the sheikh, ”If in his opinion the hymen is the reason why girls should not engage in sports, what about married women? What’s to stop them?”
The headline of this story from The New York Times promises more than the story delivers, unfortunately. Most of the material discussed dates back to the 1990s and has been thoroughly aired in courts and the media. The new-ish part pertains to the mysterious 28-pages redacted from the ’9/11 Report’ by Pres. Bush, though the Saudi government wanted it to remain public, and some 55 classified documents ‘anonymously slipped’ to the law firms representing the families and insurers.
The US Supreme Court is expected to decide in the next few days whether to hear the case of Federal Insurance Company, et al., v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, et al. If the court denies a writ of certiorari, that’s the end of this line of legal challenge. If it decides to take the case, oral arguments will be made sometime during the court’s next term, starting in October.
Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists
ERIC LICHTBLAUWASHINGTON — Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims provide new evidence of extensive financial support for Al Qaeda and other extremist groups by members of the Saudi royal family, but the material may never find its way into court because of legal and diplomatic obstacles.
The case has put the Obama administration in the middle of a political and legal dispute, with the Justice Department siding with the Saudis in court last month in seeking to kill further legal action. Adding to the intrigue, classified American intelligence documents related to Saudi finances were leaked anonymously to lawyers for the families. The Justice Department had the lawyers’ copies destroyed and now wants to prevent a judge from even looking at the material.
The Saudis and their defenders in Washington have long denied links to terrorists, and they have mounted an aggressive and, so far, successful campaign to beat back the allegations in federal court based on a claim of sovereign immunity.
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A dog with a microchip implanted in Saudi Arabia has been picked up as a stray in California. I think it’s pretty clear that the dog is likely the property of someone who worked for the US government in Riyadh, though not necessarily the military; a variety of State Dept. employees and other USG contractors were able to make use of USMTM veterinary services.
The dog, a Saluki, is one of those strange anomalies in Arab culture: a dog accorded honor. I suppose it’s sort of like Queen Elizabeth being ‘officially’ considered a man during her first visit to the Kingdom, where practicality takes over where custom fails.
Dog in Calif. came—somehow—from Saudi Arabia
CARLSBAD, Calif. — A “sweetheart” of a dog now in a California shelter may be really, really far from home. His microchip says the knee-high, light tan Saluki came from Saudi Arabia.
The neutered male dog brought to a Carlsbad animal shelter last week has an implanted microchip that was sold to the U.S. Military Training Mission, headquartered in Riyadh, said Lt. Dan DeSousa of San Diego County’s Animal Services Department.
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A combination of new cases arriving from abroad and a slow spread of swine flu (A/H1N1) among the population has pushed the number of cases in Saudi Arabia to 45. Saudi Gazette carries this story from the Saudi Press Agency:
Six new swine flu cases registered
RIYADH – The Ministry of Health announced Tuesday six new cases of swine flu in the Kingdom.
The first new case was detected in a 28-year-old Saudi male in Jeddah returning from Delhi, India, on Saudi Airlines flight 763 to King Abdul Aziz Airport on Monday, June 22.
Further cases, all of which were registered in Riyadh, are of a six-month-old Saudi girl, a 21-year-old Saudi male, and a one-year-old female, all of whom had been in contact with infected people.
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Arab News‘s coverage also notes that authorities are checking Haj facilities in Jeddah to ensure that they’re prepared to deal with a combination of large numbers of pilgrims and the possibility of an outbreak.
Passenger from New Delhi diagnosed with swine flu
toll hits 45
Arab News reports that continuing earthquake activity is causing Saudi authorities to be cautious about letting the residents of the Al-Ais region return to their homes. The Saudi seismic monitoring service notes a 4.5 earthquake in the last 24 hours, though the USGS doesn’t reflect that in its latest reports.
The earthquake activity is related to dormant volcanoes in the region which saw a great deal of seismic activity during early May. While things have seemingly quieted, no one is ready to say the action is all over.
Return of Al-Ais dwellers delayed
Muhammad Al-Sheikh | Arab NewsMADINAH: The Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) has advised indefinite postponement of the return of evacuees from Al-Ais and surrounding villages following tremors of varying degrees in the area over the past few days.
“There was a general agreement among members of the task force who include representatives of SGS, the General Directorate of the Civil Defense and earthquake experts on delaying the return of residents evacuated from Al-Ais and villages close to Harrah Al-Shaqah,” Zuhair Nawab, chief of SGS, said in a statement.
The decision follows the relatively high intensity of tremors registered over the past two days, he said. According to an SGS bulletin issued yesterday, the National Network for Seismic Monitoring, a subsidiary of SGS, registered two tremors measuring 4.55 and 3.2 on the Richter scale in addition to several lesser tremors during the 24 hours ending noon yesterday.
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Unrelated to the Saudi activity, but interesting anyway, take a look at this photo of the Sarychev volcano in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska Kiril Island archipelago in Russia. The photo was taken from the International Space Station a few days ago. The volcano is interrupting trans-Pacific air travel due to the tremendous height of its ash plume. It is also injecting huge amounts of Sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere that should affect sunsets globally. [HT: Eruptions blog]
The UAE’s The National runs this interesting—and amusing—piece by Caryle Murphy on how the Jaguar car company is adjusting its methods to make their cars more appealing to Saudi women. Whether they’re buying the cars for themselves or influencing decisions at home, Jaguar has that certain something that makes it attractive. Enhanced salesroom techniques seem to help, too. Of course, were I buying a car that costs between $42,000 and $99,000, I’d expect some superlative service as well.
Of note is the difference in buying patterns between women in Riyadh and Jeddah. Too, Murphy is sanguine that Saudi women will be driving in the near future. Tooling around the city in their new Jags will be a treat, I’m sure!
Your car is in the lift, Madam
Caryle MurphyRIYADH // A couple of years ago, it dawned on the men who sell Jaguars in Saudi Arabia that they were not paying enough attention to an important part of their clientele: women.
“We started to listen and we found out that your typical Jaguar buyer tends to be a lady or [someone] influenced by a lady in one way or the other,” said Alan Whaley, general manager of Al Saif Motors, exclusive importer of Jaguars and Land Rovers for Saudi Arabia.
“We thought: ‘What do we do to cater for lady buyers?’”
The answer is located on a chic boulevard in downtown Riyadh: a female-only showroom built above the regular showroom.
Spacious and sunlit, it is large enough for three or four cars, and has cozy corners for coffee-sipping and brochure-browsing.
The luxury vehicles that are for sale are brought up to the second-floor space by a hydraulic lift in the corner of the ground-floor showroom.
Customers arrive by stairs located behind a side door kept locked from the outside.
This is a routine procedure for businesses that cater to women to comply with rules of the religious police.
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It’s not surprising that families of those killed on 9/11 are unhappy with the stance of the US government regarding a suit against a handful of Saudi princes. Their desires and the governments view of law differ.
The Washington Times picks up the story in this article. Comments to the article are rather of the Saudi-bashing style, short on logic or fact, but long on opinion.
In any event, the US Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to hear the case in an Order to be issued later this week.
Obama Saudi suit stance irks 9/11 families
Tony LoBiancoFamily members of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks say they have been blindsided by the Obama administration’s opposition to their lawsuit seeking damages from top members of the Saudi Arabian government over suspected financial links to the 9/11 attackers.
A series of closed-door meetings between the relatives’ groups and Justice Department officials, arranged as an update on Mr. Obama’s plan to close the detention facility at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, turned instead into a sharp clash over the Saudi legal action, The Washington Times has learned.
“Physically, President Obama has done what previous presidents have done for a long time, which is bow down,” said Debra Burlingame, co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America.
The relatives of the victims have signed onto a lawsuit seeking damages from four Saudi princes, saying they have been financing al Qaeda and thus are responsible in large part for the attacks that killed their loved ones.
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The ‘recovery’ industry, also known as ‘repossession’ or ‘repo’, is based on the law of contracts where a company which holds a loan or lien on a piece of property takes possession of that property when a consumer defaults on payments. It’s the fodder of a rather repulsive ‘reality TV’ show in the US, Operation Repo, (Video clips which involves a great deal of re-enactment), but is also a sad if necessary undertaking to protect companies. Laws governing repossession differ somewhat from what people normally expect. Laws against trespassing, for instance, don’t apply to repossession agents.
I haven’t a clue what laws govern repossession in Saudi Arabia. It’s a fact, though, that if you don’t pay for something, you don’t really have much in the way of rights toward it. Car companies aren’t in the business of giving away their vehicles—if they’re in business at all.
Vehicle owners want authorities to oversee repo
Muhammad Humaidan I Arab NewsJEDDAH: People who use installment scheme to purchase vehicles have complained their cars get damaged when they get repossessed. Some are calling on authorities to oversee the “repo” process and ensure vehicles are properly stored until the owners can catch up on their payments.
Murad Mahmoud said he recently had his car repossessed. When he went to pay the money due, he discovered the car had been damaged either by the tow-truck agent or at the garage where the car was stored.
“I went to reclaim the car and I found it had suffered some damages,” said Mahmoud. “A mechanic told me the insurance company would not cover the repair cost.”
The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) claims the entire system of vehicle financing needs to be reformed to increase consumer protections. The JCCI claims that financing companies are choosing to sell vehicles after a number of late payments even after buyers catch up.
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