Category Archives: Saudi Arabia

All About Saudi Arabia

Riyadh Flood: Jeddah You’re Not Alone!

Posted on by
6

King Fahad Road

It was a lovely morning, May the 3rd of 2010 partially cloudy and little breezy to the extent that you would consider striking a plan for camping on that day.

However, part of the plan, you will check the weather advisory by local official authorities (Department of Civil Defense for example) whether or not proceeding with the plan would be safe!

Just similarly to what happened in Jeddah last year, neither Saudi Department of Civil Defense or PME (Saudi Meteorology & Environment Authority) had announced any advisory to local people in Riyadh alerting them about a potential heavy rain!

Again, some would argue that it is not quite suitable that they will announce this immediately.

Yet, my argument would be, it is not logical that Riyadh never expected such a heavy rain, and I would be looking at www.weather.com all the time!

I have been always very appreciable to technology, so I checked www.accuweather.com for weather forecast and found possible striking of thunderstorm.  Therefore, I seriously advise our Civil Defense & PME (Saudi Meteorology & Environment Authority) to stay in touch with AccuWeather for any free climate update!

Saudi Meteorology Authority

Anyhow, It has been such a busy period lately, however, the tons of images that I have receive and still being received up to now led me crack my fingers like Continue reading →

Saudis Outrage over STC

Posted on by
Reply

Bloody!

As STC continues frustrating their costumers, an obscure TV channel named Al-Dana TV has aired a show to speak out loud for these people who were literally severally financially affected by STC’s failure to provide such a decent service by internal problem within their own inventory system.

The TV channel hosted a gentleman who believed to be an obscure lawyer named Omar Al-Zamil (I am not quite sure of the last name) which I never heard of.

Initially, I thought I was alone, complaining about being forced to pay different amounts of money!

Interestingly, I came to know that more people are in such a worse situations! The show starts with a brief reportage interviewing citizens and residents somewhere in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

However, first gentleman tells his pain by being billed with over SAR 30000 (which means $8000. unbelievable!).”If I file for a claim they would inform me that the system has a problem?!  Pay & start negotiating!” He continued.

The reportage continues on the crowds, “they will not help unless I pay the total amount due and sometimes without refund, who should I approach?” a gentleman with a pitiful tone tells the reporter. Continue reading →

How STC makes profits!

Posted on by
1

STC sucks your blood out!

2 years ago, I ordered a DSL line to enjoy using internet on my home. Pending on the waiting list for weeks then the mercy has came and received a call by STC to arrange the time to install and setup the service.

Eventually, the service is ready now so I started enjoying the internet for exactly three months with some minimal interruption but suddenly the situation has changed.

Two weeks of service interruption and frustration made me called the customers service free toll number to complain about this matter. As usual, the CS employee had advised that the service is up and running and STC is one of the greatest on the telecommunication regime on human kind history as their slogan indicates (Easier Life)!!. No wonder, we are considered as a third world country.

I gave up on that matter and surrendered to the interruptions. I even started reading about NLP to rehabilitate Continue reading →

Saudi Press Trends 2008

Posted on by
Reply

WAN Logo

WAN is World Association of Newspapers non-profit organization found in 1948. The organization has several objectives such as defending and promoting press freedom globally, contribute to the development of print and digital news publishing, and promote co-operation between its members worldwide (according to their official website).

WAN conducts the World Press Trends report annually and sell it to the news agencies worldwide which explains why I failed to obtain the new report for 2009 because I am not willing to pay for.

Luckily, I found part of this report which talks about Saudi Arabia with multiple facts which I find these interesting to be exposed and worth buying it for the concerned organizations.

The part starts with the general economics situation Continue reading →

Public Park, but Families Only!

Posted on by
Reply

Families Only!

I am grateful to witness the Saudi giant projects during King Abdullah‘s era which made me really proud to belong to this country.

The upcoming project, is King Abdullah park in Malaz at Riyadh but still not certain if this park is part of the King Abdullah International Gardens as a phase or just another park.

The concern stone will be set next month ( I assume by King Abdullah), “The old equestrian field in Malaz area will be turned into a public park but the access will be limited to families only and the prince Fahad Al-Farhan’s park (which is much smaller) will be limited to the singles only after re-innovating it to occupy it with facilities that serve the sports activities.” Ibrahim Dujain, GM of Gardens and Environment constructions said according to the Riyadh newspaper.

What made this article to be brought up here, is the continuous  negligence toward these young generation by the planners and developers in term of finding facilities for them to exhaust their energies! Continue reading →

Saudi Shia/Shitte & Bloody Ashoura!

Posted on by
1

Looks Painful!

Every year Shia in Saudi Arabia celebrate the tenth day of the first month (Muharram) of the Hijiri year (The Islamic Calendar).

Mainly, Shia gather in the Eastern side of Saudi, specifically, in Al-Ahsa, and some scattered in Najran, Madina, and Riyadh cities.

It is ironic that I was not able to find any official source that I can rely on to understand the real percentage of the Shitte population on Saudi Arabia.

However, I found couple of sources indicate that the Shitte create about  3.3% of Saudis. Again, the lack of the official resources made so many websites speculate the real percentage.

Public Broadcasting Service mentioned on Pilgrimage to Karbala episode the Shitte population is about %5.

Again, today is Ashura where all Shia Continue reading →

A Billion Dollar for Kabsa!

Posted on by
1

Kabsa Dish by Riyadh Newspaper

Kabsa is a famous traditional rice dish can be served with meat or chicken that most Saudis eat everyday at the lunch meal mostly. Also, it can be served as a dinner mostly on weekend for any gathering.

It has some economical side since it is rice and meat or chicken which can be suitable to serve more people with less money.

Other people in the GCC countries (Gulf Cooperation Council) favor this dish and retain same meaning but with another slang like (Makboos or Majboos) which means pressured.

Kabsa has a similar popularity of burger on the western culture while it comes in a different ways of preparation.

I was stunned today by a news article published on a Saudi newspaper (Al-Riyadh Newspaper).

Saudis spend not less than 4 billion SR (1 USD = 3.75 SR) yearly to eat Kabsa which is the popular food meal in Saudi Arabia and GCC countries.

The article indicated that unknown Continue reading →