Swine what?

As the number of swine flu affected patients in Saudi Arabia increases, people are panicking more and more. So what does the government do about it to calm the people down? It releases newspaper reports such as this and that telling us what measures they are taking to prevent its entry into the Kingdom and how all entry points into Saudi Arabia are being watched.

Well, guess what? I landed in King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah on Friday night on a flight that was full of passengers from UK and Switzerland and no one in the flight was even stopped by the Ministry of Health, let alone checked/given vaccines.

Swine flu doesn’t have any physical symptoms. So they cannot randomly choose someone from the crowd and be tested. Coming from UK where there is more than a 1000 cases of swine flu,  I was really amazed how everyone here is so concerned about it wheras I was least bothered about it during my stay over there.

Oops, did I just say that aloud? According to a fatwa issued by a Saudi Mufti, I and all other passengers were banned from traveling in/out of swine flu affected countries, in the first place!

Pictures/Cartoons: Saudi Gazette

FormulaOne to derive a new formula?

That sound of revving Red Bull Renault F1 engine that I experienced in Tahlia Street in Jeddah in March, 2008 still rings a bell in my mind.

The adrenaline that rushed inside me on that day, still flows within me and I have always thought about going to a race within the next 2 years.

And while I was out for my morning run today, I witnessed another one of my FormulaOne desires come true. The BrawnGP FormulaOne Car that won 6 out of 7 races this year was on display in Liverpool One (Formula One in Liverpool One, ). They were busy polishing it to the finest before the swarm of people flock-in to catch a glimpse of the car. I was lucky enough to capture a photo of that “electronic gadget”:

Earlier today, I woke up to the news that Formula One might be splitting up from next year over cost-cutting issues. It seems that the “big teams” like Ferrari, McLaren, BrawnGP, Toyota, Renault, BMW Sauber, Red Bull and Torro Rosso, yes, thats pretty much all the teams that we have this year except the smaller ones like Force India. It seems that the association of the eight teams, FOTA, mentioned above are planning to set up a rival championship for the 2010 season.

All this because these teams did not agree to the budget cap set up by the governing body, FIA. Its probably the only adrenaline-filling sport and to see such a sport shattered into pieces is equally disappointing.

Poli-tricks

 

• The “racist, violent and xenophobic” British National Party (BNP) has made it finally into the European Parliament with 2 MEPs. I have a bad feeling that they can build up their support as a purely fascist party from there.
• Labour party in the UK suffers its worst defeat in the post-war era. Thanks to the very infamous saga over MPs expenses revealed and still being revealed by the Daily Telegraph. At least the people were so fed up with their MPs use of their tax money that I think they ended up voting for the Conservatives, UKIP and the BNP.
• Another similar result in Netherlands, where Geert Wilders‘ anti-Islamic party won 4 out of 25 seats to the EU parliament.
• And the Pirate Party (supporters of The Pirate Bay) winning 1 out of 18 seats representing Sweden at the EU.

 

This year has witnessed a series of unexpected political changes in both, democratic and non-democratic countries. This includes the Indian Congress party continuing their reign for the next five years in spite of all the down-turns. In Lebanon, the Pro West-Saudi led coalition wins majority over Hezbollah and Syrian/Iranian coalition.

After all this, I wouldn’t be surprised if people expect POTUS Obama to straighten everything up.

What’s Obama upto in Riyadh?

Well, yeah, I know, its here, there and everywhere. The whole thing about Obama’s visit to the Kingdom. Some of the preps in Riyadh before his visit:

 

I was wondering, what he really is up to for a few hours in Riyadh before he leaves for Cairo for his keynote speech to the Islamic world. If you are looking for what he really is up to, then I’d suggest you to look at the articles here.

 

 

Dear President Obama,

Welcome to Riyadh, the capital of “Kingdom” of Saudi Arabia, where the temperature is currently around 45degrees Celsius. We hope you can cope with the temperature even though the peak summer of 60 degrees is expected in the following months.

Also you might notice how Saudi Arabia is a big, and I mean BIG, market for General Motors. Yes, the same General Motors that you and your administration tried to save by turning it into a Government Motors. You can also notice how big the market for Hummer is in Saudi. The same brand that you sold to the Chinese a few days back. At least you could have delayed that till after your trip so that you wont have to face the grumpy faces of the people who own Hummer in Riyadh. On June 01, 2009 – They own an American gas-guzzling-mean-machine. Come 2nd June, they own a Chinese vehicle. How worse can it be!

Hope you have a nice few hours drinking the Arabic coffee and enjoying good conversation with the translators.

Yours truly,
A motor enthusiast (duh!)

I am back…

By HishMaj

Its been a long time since my last post on the blog and I sooo missed it. I was terribly busy with my year-end exams and its all over. Now there is no excuse for me not to blog for the next ~4 months.

The new theme looks cool too. Thanks to my sister.