Saudis and Oil Consumption

Usually when I tell somebody that in Saudi Arabia (as in the other GCC countries, too, for that matter) most of the electricity is generated simply by burning oil, people tend to be really surprised. I mean, for many people living e.g. in Europe or in the United States this sounds like a simply ridiculous idea. Oil is considered to be so expensive and rapidly disappearing global resource that all attempts should be made to limit its consumption.

Then consider this: Arabian Business published an article in May stating that this year in March alone Saudis burned 377,000 barrels of oil per day to keep their power stations and water-treatment plants^(* running. The peak daily rate during the summer months is easily double. For comparison, e.g. in Denmark the whole daily oil consumption has been on average 140,900 barrels in the recent years, including also consumption of traffic and so forth.

^*) Surely many of you know that e.g. most of the drinking water in Saudi Arabia is produced by desalination, a very energy consuming process.

Sailing Through Time: Jewel of Muscat

The most recent issue of Saudi Aramco World has a beautiful article about a reconstruction of a ninth-century ce Arab ship and her 138-day journey from Muscat to Singapore. Highly recommend reading: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201203/sailing.through.time.jewel.of.muscat.htm

Kuwait women beach volleyball team?

I didn't really except that there really is such thing as a national Kuwait women beach volleyball team, but apparently there is: http://248am.com/mark/kuwait/kuwait-women-beach-volleyball-team-heads-to-china/ Wondering if Saudi's have a team, too? :-)

Chaos As Students Run Free

The following quotes are from an article published in Arab News two days ago:

"We pour sugar in the car’s tank because this would cause the teacher to change the whole engine of the car"
"We sometimes throw eggs on the car so it would damage the paint"
"Another way is to pour vinegar on the glass and wait for 10 minutes and then throw rocks on it and it would completely break"

Apparently this is the way Saudi youngsters celebrate their "freedom" after the school year ends... Makes me think how lucky I am not being a teacher in a Saudi school.

Haram

Haram is a very important word here in the Middle East. Haram can be (we are told) loosely translated as “forbidden”. There are a lot of things that are haram in Saudi Arabia. You have the obvious haram things like alcohol and nudity. But there’s also haram stuff that people don’t usually know about. Like for example, people don’t usually know that Mecca is off limits (haram) to non-Moslems. We heard at one party that a Chinese construction firm had actually asked their construction workers to convert to Islam when the company received a contract in Mecca.

Hubster and I recently visited the “second Petra” of Saudi Arabia. It’s basically the same as Petra in Jordan without any tourists. On our way there, we flew to Madinah. Madinah is the second holy city in Saudi Arabia. The airport itself is not haram for non-Moslems, but it was interesting how there were huge concrete arches on both sides of the road leading away from the airport with haram signs. Our driver/guide decided to take the risk and try to get us through the haram area (safely tucked away in the backseat of the SUV) to save about 100km of driving. As he put it about the checkpoint guards: “Hamdullah, he is busy talking to his friend” and we passed through the checkpoint and haram area without any incident.

Here's a picture of one of the concrete arches that were on both sides of the road in Makkah (picture stolen from the internet)

Compounds

Been meaning to write about compounds for almost a year now...

Most westerners in Saudi live in compounds. We are no exception to that. Inside the compounds life goes on much as it goes on anywhere in the western world. There is no need to wear an abaya, or cover your hair. In some compounds it’s actually forbidden to wear anything but western clothes. That’s the category that our compound also falls into.

Compounds are like mini cities. Most come with their own restaurant, grocery store, video rental store, hair dresser, swimming pool, tennis courts and gym. There’s one compound in Riyadh that even has its own golf course. Some also have small hotels for visiting relatives. The size of a compound varies a lot. We heard that the biggest compound in Riyadh has approx. 3000 houses. Some of the smallest ones have around 15 houses. Our compound has about 300 apartments of all sizes. The smallest units are studio apartments and the biggest are villas with their own private swimming pools.

Compounds that have western residents need to take extra security measures because of a few bombing incidents in 2003 that specifically targeted western compounds. In practice, that means the Saudi National Guard is at the gate 24/7. They have big mean looking guns too. When you enter a compound you first go through a security check at the first gate. This is where they check your car, that you are not carrying anything suspicious in your trunk etc. After the first gate you often have to drive to the second gate, and only then you enter the compound itself. In some cases there is also a third gate. Yes, they take security very seriously around here.

All compounds require you inform the gate of any visitors you are expecting and will not let them in unless they present a valid ID at the gate. Many compounds will also not let you drive your car inside unless you’re a resident. If you have a guy coming to repair your threadmill or whatever, you’ll need to let the security know about it too, or he won’t be allowed to enter.

Oh and in case you were wondering, the muttawa are not allowed to enter compounds.

Kubbar Island Beach Clean-up Drive

Littering is a serious problem all over the Middle East. Too many people just throw their trash on the streets - e.g. you see people opening their car windows / doors at traffic lights and simply emptying everything on the road.

Luckily, more and more people are starting show some initiative towards protecting and conserving the nature. This short video is from Kuwait were the beach of the beautiful Kubbar island was cleaned recently as a part of the Earth Day 2012.

Time to Start Learning Some Arabic?

According to Arabian Business, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior has recently decided to ban the use of "Western calendar" in all official dealings in favor of the Hijri calendar traditionally used in the Arab world.

Hijri has always been the offical calendar for any governmental dealings (e.g. visas) but now they try enforce private companies to follow the same. It will be interesting to see how this works out e.g. for Saudi Airlines and flight bookings.

The more interesting part of the same news is the demand for any front of house staff (e.g. company switchboard operators, hotel reception staff etc.) to stop answering the phone in English.

As I am getting a significant number of business calls to my mobile each day, I guess it is finally time for me to start learning Arabic... Or then, the more likely outcome is that these decisions are forgotten as suddenly as they were announced and the life in the Magic Kingdom just goes on.

Saudization Has Claimed Us

We haven’t updated this blog much lately. K has a hypothesis that this is mainly due to two reasons:
1) An insane amount of university work on K’s table (which as now let up, hence this post).
2) Because we have become Saudiaized.

Saudiazation is a program run by the government that tries to tackle unemployment and other problems in Saudi Arabia by employing Saudis, granting cheap mortgages etc. Basically it’s a let’s-try-to-keep-our-citizens-happy-by-giving-them-cheap-loans-nice-jobs-and-benefits. Expats usually refer to it with humor by saying someone has become Saudiaized when he’s picked up Saudi habits. An example of a Saudi habit is driving on reverse on a three-lane highway when realizing the you’ve just missed your exit by a kilometer.

You know you’ve become Saudiaized when you:

…have been boxed in and think nothing of it. “Boxed in” means you’ve parked your car in a legal spot and while you were gone for 5 min cars has been parked illegally in front, left, right and behind your car so that you can’t move.

…start boxing cars in yourself.

…automatically search for a parking spot where it would be hard for other cars to box you in.

…think it’s daring to reveal your shoulders in public.

…think of schwarma as a proper meal.

…the sight of driving females shocks you for a split second when your outside of the kingdom. 

…don’t wake up at 3.30AM when the closest mosque starts the morning prayers and they are LOUD.

…stop hearing the prayer calls altogether and attribute them to background noise.

…always pack a scarf with you no matter where you go.

…don’t even think of going out without checking the prayer schedule first.

…start disregarding the “Men Only” signs. Someone will come and tell you if they really don’t want you in there.

…think that the biggest car has right of way no matter the situation. Especially in a roundabout.

…you completely understand when a fellow non-Moslem expat says “hamdullah” (thanks to Allah) to you and nod in agreement before realizing he was being sarcastic.

…don’t think twice about being the only female in sight whose face is uncovered.

…don’t bat an eyelash when you see a car reversing or driving against traffic on a 120km/h highway in the dark without lights on. The only thing that comes to you mind is “It’s ok”.

…automatically think of the muttawa first when you see a white SUV with an official looking logo on the side.

…think it's completely normal for there to be three different spellings for a road or city name.


What we mean is, when you start taking all these things for granted there just don’t seem to be that many things to write about in Saudi Arabia.

Slightly Sinful

Last weekend (remember in Saudi it’s Wed-Thu) we had the opportunity to attend a social gathering at a certain European country’s embassy in Riyadh. It felt a bit strange to be walking to the embassy on the street in DQ (Diplomatic Quarter = where all the embassies are) in nothing but a spaghetti strap dress… Strangeness turned into a feeling of doing something outright sinful when we rounded the corner and there were three Saudi soldiers in the middle of evening prayers on the ground.

What a strange moment with them taking care of their daily religious responsibilities on the ground and us going to a social gathering where let’s admit it, we didn’t drink lemon juice all night. These are the very soldiers who man the guns if someone decides to attack the embassy with us inside. It really felt like there was some kind of an unspoken conflict of interest there.

Staying Healthy in the Kingdom

A few more words about Saudi hospitals.

Luckily we have been able to steer clear of Saudi hospitals mostly. Prior to the ear infection episode we had only really visited the hospital for iqama (residence permit) routine check-ups and some minor throat aches. Overall the experiences have been pretty positive. Usually the doctors speak English well enough and there is plenty of staff around to guide you from one room to the next.

A few curiosities… 

1. The other hospital we’ve been to has a separate waiting area for men and women.

2. The Saudi staff (female) is covered in black from head to toe. They work behind the counter, not as nurses.

3. Doctors seem to be non-Saudi, but from Arabic speaking countries. All male so far.

4. They will prescribe a lot of pills… antibiotics seem to be the magical cure for everything. It’s up to you if you actually take any of the prescribed pills.

5. As for the abaya… it stays on in the hospital. K almost caused a heart attack in one Philipina nurse when trying to take it off when the doctor wanted to listen to her lungs for the routine iqama check-up. He just listened through all the clothes... wonder what he heard, if anything.

6. Blood pressure is also taken through the abaya.

Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country

Yesterday BBC published a very interesting opinion piece from Princess Basma Bint Saud Bin Abdulaziz - the youngest daughter of the Saudi Arabia's second king and niece to its current ruler: Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country Definitively worth a read!

More Inshallahs...

Our recent trip to a scuba diving paradise resulted in an ear infection for K. Back in Riyadh, K had a chance to go see no less than three doctors because of the infection. What an interesting experience… all doctors were men and had Philipina nurses doing all the practical work for them. Every diagnosis ended with “inshallah” so it was something along the lines of “in a few days it should get better, inshallah”. When the ear did get better it was of course “the infection has cleared up, hamdullah”.

Inshallah and Hamdullah

The above are the two phrases you can’t avoid hearing quite often here in the Arabic speaking world. If you want to sound like an Arab just start using them all the time in any context. We are told that inshallah can be loosely translated as “if god is willing” and hamdullah as “thanks to god”.

Not sure how to use these phrases? No worries, it’s easy. Just throw in inshallah when ever you want… and especially when you are making a promise that you have no intention to keep. Some examples: “Yes boss, inshallah I will make it to the nine o’clock meeting” or “we will be able to meet the project deadline inshallah” or “I will call you in a few hours inshallah”. Also, it’s useful for anything that you feel is out of you immediate control when it actually isn’t, like “this plane will land in Riyadh at 8PM inshallah” (that gets to you every time the captain announces it) or “inshallah she will do very well in this week’s spelling test” (it’s not like her practicing for the test will do anything to help, right?).

As for hamdullah… you can throw it in whenever you want. Some examples: “hamdullah she has learnt to read” (yeah it’s not like practicing had anything to do with it) or “hamdullah we have landed at Riyadh airport”.

Until next time… inshallah.

Muttawa – Winds of Change

Throughout our stay here in the Magic Kindom K has been disappointed by the lack of encounters with the muttawa, aka religious police. So far, K in a year of coming and going between Riyadh other places has been asked to cover her hair once. And even then it was done in a very polite manner. It seems that the good old times when foreigners were beaten with sticks for revealing too much ankle are in the past. The new boss of the muttawa has according to some random reports gone as far as banning the muttawa from entering shopping malls. So it seems to be getting harder and harder to see any muttawa around.

However, last weekend we went abaya shopping and after that decided to go and check out Tahlia Street, which is a street very close to city center where people like to spend time during weekends. It’s almost like a normal shopping street anywhere else in the world where there are plenty of small cafes and people sit outside chatting and walking around. We found a nice little café right before prayer time and managed to get drinks at the family section and sat outside enjoying the weather. Then prayer time started, so the café closed and we starting making our way back to our car. We were in luck… all of a sudden from the other side of the street we stared hearing “haram, haram” (forbidden) and “salat, salat” (prayer). K was thrilled to see that it was no other than the muttawa themselves yelling at people sitting on the closed cafes’ terraces. Ha! We walked alongside (on the other side of the street) the patrol car and it was quite interesting to see how people all of sudden disappeared when the muttawa approached. We also witnessed some really cool motorcycle guys running away from them a little bit later.

Together Against Corruption

It is a widely accepted fact that in Saudi Arabia (and for that matter, in the other Gulf countries, too) bribery and other forms of corruption have long been the primary mean of pursuing one's matters in government offices and also in private companies. But the attitudes seem to be changing.

For instance, over the past 1-2 years Saudi media has given much more attention to debate about corruption, uncovered abuse of public funds and so forth. Here is a recent article from Arab News: Man caught taking bribe red-handed

Still, I was somewhat amazed when I saw the below advertisement in a major local newspaper some time ago:

A new governmental body, The National Anti-Corruption Commission, was set up by a royal order last March. Apparently they are at least trying to fulfill their mission of combating corruption.

Family Only

Some of you might have heard in the news that Saudi Arabia has now started implementing a new policy that lingerie shops selling women’s underwear will have to start hiring women shop assistants. This is a law that was actually passed several years ago but is only being implemented now. It’s been exciting to see that shops really have started putting this law into practice. On women’s lingerie shop doors, we’ve seen new signs appear with the text “Family Only”. For those of you unfamiliar with the family vs. singles jargon here, it means that only women, couples and families are allowed to enter. Single males cannot enter these shops because that would mean that the female shop assistants would have to come into contact with men and who knows what the end result of that would be. Here’s a picture of one of the signs. I even managed to get the shop assistant’s head in the same picture. Shop assistants are naturally covered in black from head to toe.

Social Gatherings

There are no parties in Saudi, only social gatherings. Embassies arrange social gatherings, as do some private people. We can’t disclose any details, but here is a picture of a water dispenser at one of the social gatherings we attended about half a year ago. This was at someone's private residence. The water must have been contaminated with something to give it such an unhealthy color… rusty pipes or something... some guests also reported an odd headache and dizziness the next morning. Some had even suffered memory lapses.

Note to self: from now on do not drink water that doesn't taste or smell like water even if it comes from a water dispenser.

Wadi Hanifa

For the most short-term visitors, Riyadh appears as a dry (scorchingly hot during the summer months) and dull car-oriented mega city. Too many ten lane highways, too many people with "only me" attitude, chaotic driving habits, awful traffic jams... you name it.

From this perspective it might be a bit odd to hear that Riyadh literally means "gardens" in Arabic. But as in any good Thousand and One Nights story, Riyadh is a city of hidden treasures. One such treasure is Wadi Hanifa, a some 120 km long valley cutting through the city from north to south.

The January/February 2012 issue of Saudi Aramco World (a periodical published by Saudi Aramco - the world's largest oil company) includes a very interesting article about Wadi Hanifa, its history as a Riyadh's collective garbage dump and sewer and a 10-year-long restoration project with a budget of around $1 billion.

Definitively worth the read!

Where have all the muttawa gone, long time passing? (sing to the tune of Where Have All the Flowers Gone?)

Wanted to share this picture taken in Riyadh a few weeks back when we went muttawa hunting. We (well K mostly) wanted to see some angry muttawa telling people to go pray, so we on purpose timed our arrival at an expensive shopping mall just as the evening prayer was starting. Shops were closing and shop assistants were gently asking customers to leave because of the prayers. We hovered around the main entrance the entire 25 min in hopes that we’d see some muttawa come in. We have been told that they love this particular shopping mall and that there might sometimes be two patrols in this mall at the same time making sure that nothing sinful happens. To our disappointment they never showed up. But we managed to snatch a picture of people sitting around waiting for the shops to open up again…



And a picture of some ladies praying in front of a shoe shop…

Hashing

Hashing is a very popular pastime here in Riyadh. Contrary to what you might suspect based on the name it actually has nothing to do with hashis. Hashing is a term for a random bunch of foreigners who get together in the middle of the desert and do some running/walking together in the nice dry Saudi scenery. There is usually a run/walk leader called “hare” who leads the way. Hashing is a nice way to spend one of the 360 sunny afternoons of the year. It’s a good place to meet people and friends and spend some time together. Today’s hash took us to place called End of the World. Check out the pictures. I overheard some Americans actually saying that it looks a lot like the Grand Canyon. 

Kuwait Under The Clouds

A beautiful time lapse film of Kuwait City:

(via 2:48AM)

Good Deed of the Day

I, T, have been frequenting the same Turkish barber shop close to our compound for months. In the evenings, the shop often gets very crowded but rarely one needs to wait for more than five minutes. Only exception is if you accidentally show up just before or during Salat, i.e. obligatory prayer.

The other night I somehow miscalculated the correct ending time for the day's last prayer. When I got to the barber shop, my "standard guy" was sipping coffee (Turkish, I presume) with his friends outside. I assumed that the prayer would be over in few minutes but actually it was only halfway through.

Suddenly, out of the dust appeared a Haia SUV (see the bottom part of this page for some photos of their cruisers), the religious police of Saudi Arabia which mission is to prevent vice and promote virtue. At the same time, all the Turkish guys began to flee.

You see, one of most visible duties performed by Haia is to ensure nobody forgets the obligatory prayers. If you are a Muslim or muttawas, the religious policemen, think you are, there rarely are excuses for not praying. This unfortunate Saher employee making roads of Madinah safer learned that the hard way.

My "standard guy" who apparently is not religious at all decided to hide behind of some cars parked next to the barber shop instead of calmly walking away with his colleagues. As a westerner non-Muslim I was just standing there and following the scene amazed. Soon the guy changed his mind and started to whisper to me "Where is your car? Where is your car?"

Luckily my car was parked only few meters away from the spot. We both hopped in and talked about many things for some 10 minutes until the prayer was over and muttawas had left. I guess offering the asylum was my good deed of that day.