The long-dormant Nabro volcano in Eritrea has erupted for the first time in recorded history. Shooting ash clouds kilometers into the air, it is affecting flights in and out of the region. Arab News reports that Saudi Arabian Airlines is having to cancel certain flights into East Africa at the moment. Predictions show the ash cloud—currently moving in a northwest direction—getting caught up in the westerly jet stream and circling back to the east. It is expected to hit Saudi airspace and perhaps reach the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Whether the clouds will be dissipated by then is uncertain and depends on the further activities of the volcano. We’ll have to stay tuned for that update.
There’s no immediate linkage between this volcanic eruption and the signs of a pending eruption in Al-Ais, northwestern Saudi Arabia in 2009/10. Both, however, are on the edges of the Red Sea rift valley. Whether this is an indication that the rift is becoming more active or is just a coincidence is up in the air at present.
Ash cloud affects flights from Kingdom
GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN | ARAB NEWSRIYADH: Several flights from Saudi Arabia to different destinations in the Horn of Africa, including Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti, have been canceled or rescheduled after a massive ash cloud entered the skies of Eritrea following a volcanic eruption, said Abdullah Al-Azhar, a spokesman of Saudi Arabian Airlines, here on Monday.
He said that the local flights operating to Tabuk and a few other destinations in the Kingdom will also be affected. In fact, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are likely to be affected by the ash. He said that the airline was awaiting an updated advisory about the status of the movement of the ash cloud.
“The ash cloud is likely to reach Saudi Arabia by Monday late night or Tuesday early morning,” warned an African airline official, citing predictions by the France-based Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VACC), here Monday. The VACC advisory said that “the ash plume will spread toward the Middle East Monday night and by 6 a.m. on Tuesday. The ash is expected to get caught in a west-to-east jet stream and spread to the skies over parts of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Israel, Jordan, Yemen and Iraq.”
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Early reports misidentified the Eritrean eruption as taking place at the nearby Dubbi volcano. That confusion was cleared up as weather satellite photos clearly showed which volcano has gone off. If this had happened even 50 years ago, the news would have taken days to reach the world and its identity would still be a question.
Interesting commentary by Asharq Alawsat‘s Assistant Editor-in-Chief, Salman Aldossary. He notes how Saudi Arabia has changed—for the worse—over the past 40 years. Social interactions that were considered normal then are now considered dangerous and fraught with peril. Things like women working…
There is certainly a point to valuing tradition, but tradition cannot alone drive a society. Aldossary aptly quotes Ibn Khaldoun, the great (15th C. CE/9th C. AH) Arab historian: “Following traditions does not mean that the dead are living, but rather that the living are dead.” Times change, that is simply a fact. Societies must change as well lest they petrify in place. The hands of the past, of the dead, cannot be allowed to drive society into the future because those hands cannot manage the task. Efforts to let them remain in control can only result in failure and misery for the people condemned to the chains of tradition.
A European woman working as a salesperson in Saudi Arabia
Salman AldossaryListen to this story: A Saudi Arabian man marries a German woman. The husband owns a store which he personally runs with his wife’s help, however slowly over a period of time the wife becomes more and more involved in running the store allowing her husband to focus on his other business interests. This German woman would sit behind her desk at work and conduct business all day long, whilst her store’s clients came from all walks of life and social background; men, women, and children. This woman ran her business for a long period of time without anybody interfering, whether this is members of society or other bodies. The surprising thing here is not that this is a true story or that it took place in the Saudi Arabian city of Khobar, but rather that this happened around 40 years ago. Imagine!
Perhaps the strangest thing about the story of this working European woman is that she was not condemned or criticized by anybody for running a business, even though she did this whilst not garbed in the traditional abaya. Everybody accepted a business woman running her own store and interacting with customers. Imagine if people in Saudi Arabia woke up tomorrow to the news that there was a saleswoman working at a store, and dealing with customers in this manner. What would happen? Things would not go as smoothly as they did 40 years ago, when the people of Saudi Arabia woke to find a European woman performing the kind of work that until then was only done by men in Saudi Arabia Why was this accepted by Saudi Arabia than, but not today?
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The Saudi government seems to be taking its anti-corruption drive seriously. Arab News reports that over 5,000 state employees are facing criminal charges ranging from bribery and forgery to misuse of funds. As the government is the largest employer, the number reflects a relatively small part of the workforce, but is not insignificant. These cases have not yet gone to trial, apparently, so those who are actually found guilty may be a much smaller number. The government’s intention, however, is clear.
5,534 govt officials face criminal charges
GALAL FAKKAR | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: As many as 5,848 government employees were accused of administrative corruption last year, the Control and Investigation Board said in a report.
It added that criminal charges were leveled against 5,534 while disciplinary action was taken against the remaining 314.
The report said the employees were accused of taking bribes, committing forgery, circulating fake currency, abusing power and misappropriating public funds. It said the cases were detected during the last Hijrah year from 1/1/1431 to 1/1/1432.
The board said its branch offices in all parts of the country monitored the administrative and financial performance of government departments in their areas. “Our officials carried out a total of 7,998 field trips to implement a number of programs in ministries and other government agencies,” the report said.
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Saudi Gazette/Okaz report that UNESCO has rejected the Saudi application to have Old Jeddah named as a World Heritage Site. The reason, according to the Kingdom’s UNESCO representative, is that the district has been neglected. Neglect is certainly the major factor, I believe. The area, mostly in private ownership, consists of building constructed with old materials and old techniques. Using the trunks of palm trees as structural support, walls were made of blocks of coral, held together with mortar made of burnt-coral limestone.
This construction technology is old and relatively inexpensive, making use of readily available materials. The Red Sea coastline near Jeddah is, in fact, an immense coral reef. It was easy—though laborious—to ‘mine’ the reefs for the blocks and to burn pieces of it to make limestone. Date palm trees are endemic to the area. But the climate is harsh. Jeddah tends to be hot and humid, even in the winter, and that leads to the requirement that building be constantly maintained. Whether that’s resurfacing walls with fresh limestone—sometimes colored, but usually white—or replacing the palm beams, these buildings took work and money. Every twenty or so years, walls would have to be torn open to access and replace structural supports. The houses were constantly under (re-)construction throughout their hundred-or-so year lifespans.
Old Jeddah (also called Balad) was, and still is, urban. Architectural plans differed greatly from those used in the Saudi interior. Because the structures were built within the walls of the city, they built up rather than outward. Typically, the ground floor would be used for storage and, often, animal stalls. The next floor up would hold the majlis or (men’s) reception room. Above that would be bedrooms and family rooms. Even higher, there’d be the kitchen—heat rises, after all, and it was obvious that you didn’t need to heat family quarters with the cooking. On the roofs, there were usually outdoor sitting and dining areas, taking advantage of what breezes there were as well as the view.
Credit: Desert Diaries blog
The major problem to preservation, as I see it, is that the buildings are mostly privately owned. The owners rarely live in the houses because the structures really are antique. There’s no indoor plumbing; there’s only hodgepodge electrical wiring. The streets are narrow and there’s no parking. In fact, the area is responsive to 18th or 19th C. urban needs, not much different from those of the 10th C. Because the owners don’t live in them, they rent them out—Saudis are business oriented, no matter who they are. But because the buildings are substandard to today’s needs and demands, the owners can’t get much in the way of rent. So, they don’t spend much, if anything, on the needed maintenance. It’s not at all rare to read the Jeddah-based newspapers and read of fires or building collapses in Old Jeddah. The buildings are a burden on owners. Had they the permission and the money, I don’t doubt that most owners would tear them down and replace them with modern constructions. The photo below shows exactly that, with an older house to the left and a newer one on the right.
Credit: Khaled Kashkari
I fear that if Old Jeddah is to become a World Heritage Site, someone—the government or an assembly of benefactors—is going to have to buy up all the properties, eject the current residents, and rehabilitate the buildings using traditional methods. While being rehabbed, rebuilt actually, it may be possible to alter the interiors to accommodate electricity, phones, plumbing, and sewage correctly, rather than in the current and dangerous slap-dash manner. The new owners might be able to rent out the buildings, but that’s not assured.
The government does own and maintain the Naseef House as a museum and cultural center. Just how many museums does the city need, though? With careful planning, it’s possible for the buildings of Old Jeddah to be repurposed, but that’s a lengthy, expensive, and contentious issue in itself.
It very well may be that Old Jeddah, as a historic site, is simply going to be temporary. As the buildings individually give up the ghost, they’ll be replaced by new buildings and Old Jeddah will become a memory, recalled through photographs and websites. I do think the area worth preserving, but I’m not the one with the hundreds of millions of dollars it will take to do so.
UNESCO rejects Old Jeddah as world heritage site
ABDULLAH AL-AHMARIPARIS: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has rejected an application by the Kingdom to have the Jeddah historical district declared a world heritage site.
UNESCO based its decision on a recommendation from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) which excluded the Jeddah application from the agenda of the International Heritage Conference which is scheduled to take place in Bahrain in July.
According to the UNESCO nomination process a country must first take an inventory of its significant cultural and natural properties. This is called the Tentative List, and is important because a country may not nominate properties that have already been included on the Tentative List. Next, it can select a property from this list to place into a Nomination File.
At this point, the file is evaluated by ICOMOS and the World Conservation Union. There are 10 selection criteria and a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list.
Dr. Ziyyad Al-Derais, the Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO, said the rejection was based on a purely technical reason. This is largely due to the site being neglected in the Kingdom.
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While Yemen was once known as ‘Arabia Felix’, ‘Favorable Arabia’, Saudi Arabia was ‘Arabia Deserta’, ‘Arabia of Deserts’. Always inhospitable, in summer it can be even worse. Arab News reports that temperatures in Al-Hasa, the major city of the Al-Ahsa region of the Eastern Province, are now reaching 50°C (122°F). Worse, due to the fact that Al-Hasa is in the middle of an oasis and only 60km (37mi) from the Gulf, humidity is very high. Cars are overheating; air conditioning can’t keep up with the mercury. About the only things benefiting from the weather are the massive date plantations.
This is the time of year when everyone who can decides to go somewhere else. For those who are stuck there, it’s just putting up with a few months of misery. Since Al-Hasa has been populated for thousands of years—all pre-air conditioning—it can be done, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not miserable.
Al-Hasa slows down as mercury heads north
SIRAJ WAHAB | ARAB NEWSEmployees advised to take precautions against heat
AL-HASA: Searing heat in Al-Hasa has thrust mercury around the 50-degree Celsius mark and slowing construction, business and tourism in the historic city.
“June, July and August are always a disaster,” said retired Commodore Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, a popular writer and columnist.
“Al-Hasa is an oasis that lies in the middle of nowhere. Since Al-Hasa lies somewhat in the middle of Riyadh and Dammam, it has taken the harshness of Riyadh weather and the humidity of Dammam region. It is a very difficult combination.”
Business establishments and construction companies have asked their employees to take adequate precautions in the face of blistering heat and many have reduced work hours to help workers cope.
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Writing in Arab News, Tariq Al-Maeena politely calls BS on the Chairman of the Shoura Council for his obfuscating the issue of debate on women’s driving in Saudi Arabia. He quotes the Chairman as saying that the issue has just not come up for discussion. He reminds the Chairman that the issue, in fact, has come up, repeatedly, from all the legally correct quarters, but has been shouted down by a loud claque. That group, it appears, would rather suffer social, economic, and reputational damages than budge from their view that any and all change must be bad and therefore must be forbidden.
Al-Maeena suggests that the Chairman accept facts as facts and not let the social and political views of one group interfere with reality.
Transparency must be the order of the day
Tariq Al-Maeena — Arab NewsGOVERNMENT or civic officials today must realize that with the advent of the Internet and social media outlets, information, past or present, is readily accessible and transparency in public affairs becomes essential to preserve the credibility of their organizations.
So when Chairman of the Saudi Shoura Council Abdullah Al-Asheikh stated recently that the council was ready to discuss the issue of women driving if it was asked to, he surprised a lot of people. His claim that “the issue has not so far been tabled with the council for discussion,” was met with incredulity in some quarters.
The right of a woman to drive has become the subject of wide public debate following the arrest and detention, for ten days, of Saudi woman Manal Al-Sharif for driving a car openly in the Eastern Province of the country.
Al-Asheikh, elaborating on the process of tabling issues before the council, stated that a proposal must either come from the government, or at least one member of the council or when the council itself expressed a desire to deliberate a certain issue.
Noted Saudi thinker and activist Abdullah Al-Alami, who is widely acknowledged for his contributions to social causes countered Al-Asheikh’s statements by saying that the council was formally asked to discuss the issue in a letter sent by express mail to the council back in February of this year. The request was endorsed by a former ambassador, a former undersecretary to the UN secretary-general, and included a sizable number of academics, literary figures, media professionals, businessmen and women, housewives, students and government employees.
According to Al-Alami, the Shoura Council had set up a committee meeting with a delegation from the petitioners for March 15 of this year, but the meeting was canceled hours prior to the event without any explanation.
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Saudi women are becoming more forceful in their demand to be permitted to drive in the Kingdom. Arab News runs this Reuters report on the detention of six women in Riyadh on Thursday. I suspect the fact that this is the Saudi weekend resulted in there being no local reporting; hopefully, that will be amended come Saturday.
Six women detained in Riyadh for driving
JASON BENHAM | REUTERSRIYADH: Authorities detained six women on Thursday for driving cars in the capital in defiance of laws allowing only male motorists on the kingdom’s roads.
Rasha Al-Duwaisi, one of those detained on Thursday, put the ages of the group at between 21 and 30 and said they had met in a district of Riyadh late in the afternoon to teach each other how to drive using three cars.
They were quickly taken to a police station and instructed to summon their male guardians (mahram) to collect them from custody.
“It’s not the first time we have done this,” Duwaisi told Reuters by telephone from the station.
“It’s my right to drive and my right to know how to drive. I suffer because I can’t drive because I have to rely on a driver that I share with four others.”
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The high rate of divorce and the constrained condition of married women is having an effect in Saudi Arabia. While young girls may still be dreaming of their prince arriving on a white horse, their older sisters are becoming a bit more realistic. They’re deciding, this Arab News story reports, on becoming self-sufficient before they enter a dependent relationship with a spouse. And when they do decide to marry, they’re insisting that the marriage contracts include clauses to permit them to continue their studies and to work. Marriage certainly provides (as it has always provided) a way to escape from the family and the pressures they put on young adults. Some Saudi women, though, are deciding that it’s smarter to look before you leap, and to make sure there’s a safety net below in case things go badly.
In a society where marriages are made less as a matter of love than as a matter of familial contract, I can’t say I blame them. I don’t think their approach is untoward for love matches, either, for that matter. ‘And they all lived happily ever after’ is a worthwhile goal for a couple, but it’s still guaranteed only in fairy tales.
Defying dependence!
JOUD AL-AMRI | ARAB NEWSWomen seek to secure their future before getting married
JEDDAH: In the past, a woman’s life was secured from the moment she got married. That is, she would enjoy security and financial support from her husband and start a new life. However, this situation has changed now. For many women, marriage is not enough to secure their future anymore. This trend is not surprising keeping in view the sharp rise in divorce cases.
These days women secure their future with an educational degree and a job. They no longer want to rely on a man. Family life has also changed, as many families do no longer force their daughters into marriage. Women have abandoned the idea of waiting for Mr. Right to start a future. They now make themselves capable of supporting themselves and their families without a partner. To many women, securing a degree and a perfect job are more important than getting married.
Hatoon Ahmad, a 28-year-old Saudi woman, does not need a man to live a happy, normal life. She graduated from King Abdulaziz University and started working even before graduation. At first, she was “dreaming of the perfect husband coming on a white horse like any other girl of my age at that time.” However, her ideas changed when she saw the rise in the number of divorced women. “They opened my eyes to the reality that happiness and security are not necessarily linked to a husband.”
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Saudi assistant professor Amal Al-Hazani—earlier this year named to the position of Vice President of Educational and Academic Affairs Assistant for Student affairs at King Saud University—writes a long-overdue piece on the corruption of Egyptian journalist/historian Mohammed Heikal. Heikal played on his connections with the former ruling party to promote particular views of the Middle East, its history, and its development. Those views won him undeserved popularity and reward when he was only a sycophant. In her piece, she points out how Heikal, as former US Sen. Joseph McCarthy, always had a personal trove of documents to support his assertions, particularly about his enemies or those of the regime. Now, however, he is being asked to produce those documents and he cannot.
I’m glad to see that his mendacity is being exposed. I think he had done a great deal of mischief and harm to the politics of the Middle East and to its analysis by both Arabs and non-Arabs who took him at his word. It’s going to take a long time to flush his debris from the Arab mind, however. He had an ill-deserved importance, but an importance nonetheless.
Heikal: A witness who saw nothing
Dr. Amal Al-HazzaniThose who chose to champion the Egyptian revolution, and bore the slogans of impartiality, transparency and justice, should abide by them and not hesitate to implement them. Yet everyone must equally adhere to such principles so that their sins are weighed with the same balance, otherwise the revolution will only serve to enact personal revenge, rather than adopting the inspiring rhetoric written on the banners.
If those who seek change in Egypt wish to have a country based on impartial law, then they should test themselves using the same legal standards with which Mubarak’s family and associates have been prosecuted, in order to call to account those have who emerged after the revolution, whether beneficiaries, intruders or propagandists.
Mohamed Hasanain Heikal has narrated precise details about modern Arab history, offering as evidence either witnesses who have died, or documents which he claims to be in his possession of and offers to present in public, something which we are sure will never happen. Recently, during the commotion surrounding the Egyptian revolution, Heikal raised his voice narrating his usual tales, but this time about the Egyptian President’s wealth, citing specific figures.
In the developed world, there are two reasons to make us more cautious when speaking of people’s honor, integrity or personal secrets; the fear of law and a moral obligation.
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Asharq Alawsat runs this Reuters report saying that Saudi Arabia will unilaterally increase its oil produce by half a million barrels per day, starting this month. The Saudis see current prices as too high, damaging world and Saudi economies. OPEC is due to meet tomorrow to discuss oil production quotas, established two years ago. Those quotas are being ignored, however, with member states producing 1.4 million barrels above it.
The article notes that price-hawks Iran and Venezuela (Libya is out of the picture for the moment) are against increasing the quota, thus the supply, because they want the higher prices and need the higher income. Regardless of what OPEC decides, though, the Kingdom will carry through its increase. The article also points out that not all of this oil will be for the international market. Summertime demand increases in Saudi Arabia—primarily for electricity production—will soak up a significant portion.
Saudi plans big oil output increase as OPEC meets
VIENNA (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is planning to lift oil output sharply in June, whatever policy OPEC adopts this week, in an effort to rein in high fuel prices.
Riyadh expects to lift production by more than 500,000 barrels a day in June to its highest for three years, a senior Gulf industry official familiar with Saudi oil policy told Reuters.
Worried about the impact on economic growth of inflated energy costs, Saudi is prepared to act alone to keep a lid on prices now at $114 a barrel for benchmark Brent crude.
Saudi Arabia is pushing the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to revise its formal output limits at a meeting on Wednesday but, so far, only has the support of its Gulf Arab allies Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates among the 12-member cartel.
“We have to look beyond the second quarter, the market will be tight,” said UAE Oil Minister Dhaen al-Hamli.
The Gulf official said Saudi production was likely to average 9.5-9.7 million bpd in June. A Reuters estimate put output at 8.95 million bpd in May.
Saudi output was last as high in the middle of 2008 after oil prices set a record $147 a barrel, shortly before recession sent prices crashing.
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The Saudi Shoura Council has recommended—unanimously—that women be given the franchise. Not for this year’s elections, but definitely for the next ones, in five or so years’ time. Arab News‘s report emphasizes that this is a recommendation only and that it has no bearing on current elections.
Shoura favors women voting
MD RASOOLDEEN | ARAB NEWSRIYADH: The Shoura Council recommended to the government on Monday that it take necessary measures to allow Saudi women to vote in municipal elections under Islamic law.
The decision was taken unanimously by members of the council, which also discussed the annual report of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs during its 38th regular session, chaired by the Shoura Chairman Abdullah Al-Asheikh in Riyadh on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters, Shoura Council Secretary-General Muhammad Al-Ghamdi said the house took the decision when the council’s committee on housing, water and public services tabled its comments on the report, which covered the fiscal year 1427/1428 AH.
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Arab News also reports, though, that the Fatwa Committee has come out with a hardline policy that men and women cannot ‘mix’ in the workplace. Whether it’s offices, schools, or restaurants; private offices or factories, nary the twain shall meet. While it may seem so, the words ‘fatuous’ and ‘fatwa’ are not related, except in this case they very much are.
Fatwa body bans mingling of sexes
MUHAMMAD AL-SULAMI | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: The permanent committee for issuing religious edicts, chaired by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, has banned the mingling of men and women at offices and educational institutions.
“Women are not allowed to work with men. For example, they cannot work as secretaries for men or at receptions, production lines or accounting sections in a commercial center, pharmacy or restaurant where men are also present,” the ruling said.
The committee, which made this comment while answering a question from a Saudi, warned that the mingling of sexes would have a negative effect on the family and society.
“Women’s work and education should be done without mingling with men. They should work in women-only workplaces, as Islamic teachings ban the mingling of sexes,” the committee said, quoting a verse from the Holy Qur’an: When you ask them (wives of the Prophet) for any goods, ask them from behind a curtain. This is purer for your hearts and for theirs — verse 53, Chapter Al-Ahzab.
The committee said the verse applied to all Muslim women until the Day of Judgment.
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Interestingly, today’s Saudi Gazette reports that women in the Eastern Province have been told that they may return to work as cashiers at a shopping center. Whether this is a matter of one hand not knowing what the other is doing or a direct challenge is unknown. If I had to bet, though, it’d be on the former.
AL-KHOBAR: Fifteen Saudi women have begun working as checkout girls at a well-known shopping center in Al-Khobar, months after the move was halted and the Ministry of Labor announced that it would only be permitted once regulations governing the work were produced.
A source at the supermarket told Al-Hayat Arabic daily that the Labor Office in the Eastern Province had informed them by telephone that they could employ women as cashiers from the beginning of the current Hijri month of Rajab. When contacted by the newspaper, head of the Labor Office Ahmad Al-Abid said only: “No comment on the issue of checkout women.”
The women themselves said they began working at the supermarket last Saturday.
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In other news on the quest for women’s rights…
King Abdullah orders the government to find 70,000 jobs for women.
The Ministry of Justice complies with a promise of 1,000 jobs by the end of next year.
Following the royal order that only women should staff Saudi lingerie shops, the women are asking for implementation immediately>
The sell-by date has come—and continues to come—to a variety of leaders during this ‘Arab Spring’. What to do with them is not an easy question to answer, though. Writing in The Washington Post, Jackson Diehl discusses some of the issues that arise when leaders are suddenly disposed, starting with the question of how to deal with them. The question is acute now that Yemeni President Saleh is in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment for the wounds he received in an attack over the weekend. Does he stay in the KSA or does he try to return to Yemen? I think the only certain thing is that if he decides (and is permitted) to stay, he will have to disengage himself from Yemeni politics; that is an absolute demand placed by Saudis on exiles.
As the Post piece makes clear, though, there is no single, ideal solution to the problem.
After the dictators fall .?.?.
Jackson DiehlWhat to do with a washed-up dictator? Like revolutionaries before them, the protagonists of the Arab Spring are discovering that there are no good options for disposing of the corrupt strongmen they are pushing out of office.
So far four solutions have been tried. There is exile: Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the ousted ruler of Tunisia, has taken refuge in Saudi Arabia, possibly with a hoard of gold. There is amnesty: Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen was offered immunity in exchange for his resignation; he accepted and then reneged at the last minute. There is swift domestic prosecution: Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak is scheduled to go on trial Aug. 3 . And there is international justice: Moammar Gaddafi faces an imminent arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.
It might look like the Tunisians have it worst, lacking any way to punish the man who oppressed them for 23 years, while the Libyans can rest assured that Gaddafi will sooner or later either die or stand trial. The Egyptians, who can’t feel sure that sympathetic generals and judges won’t eventually let Mubarak retire to his seaside villa, are somewhere in between.
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