Locally...

It is our Monday, here. The weekend is over. Not a lot of anything new and exciting. A good thing - that. Truly you do not want "exciting" over here. Dull and mundane is much better.

First up we have an iman who has kept his "mentally ill brother locked up for three months in a room adjacent to his mosque, depriving him of the most basic of living standards." Is someone investigating this - thoroughly? I mean, is this the way someone who is a member of ANY religious community [no, not just a member, but an individual who is supposed to be setting an example for his followers] treats family?!? Not to say that the brother doesn't have some issues, but to lock him up and deprive him of "the most basic living standards?" The man, who, by the way, is fully identified in the article, is the son of an Afghani family. Doesn't this make his brother the "son of an Afghani family" too? [Yes, I am sure that there are family situations over on this side of the world that are complicated. Perhaps the two men share the same mother, but not the same father. I don't know.] Apparently the problem with admitting the man to a mental hospital has to do with "difficulties revolving around his... identity." Wait a second. So a man from an Afghani family can be an iman, but his brother can't be admitted to a hospital. Does that make any sense? Not to me it doesn't. The iman has admitted that his brother's "loneliness is the reason for the deterioration in his health." Gee. Ya think? Authorities are now, at least, aware of the situation and perhaps someone can do something for the man. I hope so.

Another blackmailing. I am not going to even bother with these anymore unless there is something new and unique. The stories are all the same. Women foolish enough to allow themselves to be photographed in whatever manner and men stupid enough to try to blackmail them. Same old. Same old. No one appears to learn from the mistakes of those before them. The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - which now, all of the sudden, chooses to be referred to as the "Hayy'a" [thank to you a commenter who tells me that hayy'a means "council"] - is always right there on the spot to set up some sort of "sting operation" to catch the blackmailer and the woman gets to take virtually no responsibility for her foolishness. Nope. Unless there is some earth-shattering blackmail case - you know, where someone pretty high up on the food chain is involved or where a gazillion riyals are demanded, just not even going to bother with such trivia.

Ut-oh. Someone's in trouble. "The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, popularly known as the Hayy'a detained a man... after discovering that he had been living with his girlfriend in his house for four months." [See? Didn't I just say that The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is now, all of the sudden - within the last week or so - insisting that they have been "popularly known as the Hayy'a?" A rather curious choice of a word - popular - don't you think? When I contemplate the use of the word "popular" something affable comes to mind. According to Merriam-Webster's on-line, "popular" has the meaning which I would assign to it as the last example of proper usage. My mistake.] So easy to digress... Here's the thing. Just how did the "Hayy'a" receive "information that the man was living with the girl and reportedly engaging in illegal acts of a lewd nature?" Can't people just mind their own dayum business? Who reported the couple? And how did whoever reported the couple know that they were "engaging in illegal acts of a lewd nature?" Did you have a telescope aimed at the couple's bedroom window? [Impossible. No one, here, allows anything to penetrate through their windows - sunlight, cool breeze - nothing. A lot of apartments and houses don't even have windows on the outside walls - only on the inside walls. Yes. It is possible and it is just the way things are.] We don't need to delve further into whatever "illegal acts of a lewd nature" might be. Just being alone with someone of the opposite sex who is unrelated to you is illegal. No matter. The Hayy'a is on the case and "found the couple together at the house and the young man, who now awaits trial... subsequently confessed." I bet he did.

Comedy gold. An expat domestic worker has somehow managed to dupe a Saudi man into believing that he was a lawyer. "To make matters worse, the Saudi victim later discovered that the 58-year-old Yemeni man had previously been convicted for the same offenses." You know what? Sometimes checking references and finding out who you are really dealing with before you hand over SR25,000 might be a good idea. The sob saga of the Saudi national is that "two years ago his brother became entangled in a legal battle. Seeking a lawyer on his brother's behalf, [he] fell upon the offices of the Yemeni. A fee of SR45,000 was agreed between the two, SR25,000 of which [he] gave as a downpayment. Soon, however, the bogus lawyer started to procrastinate on the pretext he was too busy to attend to the case... Following frequent calls from his client, the legal charlatan then switched off his telephone... After a year-and-a-half of trying to make contract, [he] discovered the man had previously been charged with forgery and impersonation and that he had been practicing law illegally." You let this go on for a year-and-a-half and got nowhere with your "legal charlatan?" Dumbass. Your brother would have been much better off just trying to represent himself in whatever "tangled" mess he was in than entrusting you.

And, finally, winding up today's news, another maid has "possibly" been raped. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along...