consumption of white cloth

Arab News recently carried an essay translated from the local press. The writer, Ali Al-Mosa reports, "Saudis top the entire world in the consumtion of tea and coffee. They also top the world in the consumption of Viagra, spending about SR 150 million on it annually."

It appears, though it is not clearly stated, that the top rank secured by the Saudis is in terms of total, not per capita, consumption. That is really hard to believe. With only some 25 million people, including expatriates, try to imagine how much tea or coffee each Saudi would have to consume to beat, say, the 1.3 billion Chinese. With a large majority of the population under the age of 30 and with so little opportunities/inclination to be promiscuous, it is hard to understand why Saudi men would have such a need for Viagra pills.

But then the title of the story was 'Unreliable consumer statistics', and the 'facts' were cited to drive home the point that consumer statistics published in the local press need to be taken with a grain of salt.

However, if the press reports that the Saudis top the world in consumption of white cloth, I, for one, would be inclined to believe it. Except for the very brief period of the year that can be termed winter, Saudi men are always clad in ankle-length white robes, with white undergarments underneath, and around may be half of them sport a headgear made of a large white scarf-life piece of cloth (the rest wear a red-and-white pattern).

Photo credit: Hassan Ammar/AP

visit visa for family

I wanted to issue a visit visa to bring in my mother-in-law for a short trip. The process to do so, like so many other things here, is shrouded in mystery, at least for an expatriate like me with no connections and no knowledge of Arabic. I tried to learn about it from other people's blogs and experiences. Each had his own version of the process, in particular in relation to the documents that I would need to submit. I decided to believe all of them in order to minimise the risk of my application being turned down, so I went to the relevant government office carrying a big stack of papers including copies of my residence permit, my passport, my wife's passport, my mother-in-law's passport, my educational certificates, my marriage certificate, a letter from my employer etc. I had filled a form on the Internet and was given a number for future reference. When I handed my papers at the designated window, they gave me back everything except for the letter from my employer and the copies of my passport and residence permit.

I was advised to check their Website after 10 days to see if the visa advice is issued. Others waiting in the lounge told me that the process actually takes much less time, typically not more than 3 days. In my case, however, it took almost a month. But better late than never.

back to the kingdom

I returned to the Kingdom yesterday after a two-month long vacation. The flight from home, which was delayed by four hours, took around six hours. The wait at the passport control took about two hours. Some families spent more than four hours there. There were only 2-3 officers working at a time for hundreds of arriving passengers waiting in horrendously long queues. I am tired, but I'll have to spend a good part of the next few days cleaning up our flat. Belated Eid greetings to all!

more thoughts on traffic

I'd been away from blogging for sometime mainly because I was away from the Kingdom. For some time, I was in Thailand. I'd been there on many occasions in the past, but this was my first time since arriving in Saudi Arabia. This made me appreciate the driving habits of Thais more deeply. They are courteous to each other, and to pedestrians. They stop at zebra-crossings to let pedestrians pass. Honking of horns is a rarity.

The public transport system is also very good in Bangkok. There is an extensive network of bus routes. You can find taxis anywhere, and in the central part of the city you can use BTS (SkyTrain) or MRT. There are also boats carrying passengers along the canals, and limited train services. They are testing a newly installed train line from the city centre to the new airport.

In spite of this, there are lots of cars on the roads and traffic jams are increasing, though they are nowhere near the levels seen here decades ago. The infrastructure for surface transport--the multiple levels of elevated roadways, the overpasses, multi-storied car parks, etc.--have created a very unpleasant (visually) urban landscape. It shows that cars should ideally have a very minor role in plans for urban transportation, particularly in big cities.