Busy Day in The Sandbox

With much of the same. The big news [well, not to me, but to some, probably] is that the jeja landed in Riyadh yesterday. We will have to wait for commenter Linda - who was going to be at the airport yesterday, as well - to get her report. I asked her to take pictures for us.

The first case of swine flu in The Sandbox has been confirmed. Had nothing to do with "the other white meat." But good that officials are being so diligent and not allowing "the other white meat" to enter the country. A Filipino [as always, it is very important to have the nationality reported!] nurse who lives here and has just returned from the Philippines has tested positive for the H1N1 virus. "The nurse has been quarantined" and is getting medical attention. Her family, who is also here - her husband and their three children, "will be under observation for the next 72 hours." Thermal cameras are monitoring passengers with special attention being given to "passengers coming from Mexico, the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Australia." Who knew there were so many tourists coming for summer vacation?! According to this report, "Among the first such cases in the region, 18 US soldiers were diagnosed with the H1N1 virus in Kuwait on May 24." I missed that - did anyone else catch it in the news? And on Tuesday, "Egypt announced its first case in a 12-year-old American girl of Egyptian origin." American girl of Egyptian origin? Someone explain to me what that even means...

Two quick blurbs on the Hail rapist that has been sentenced to death. I blogged on it sometime ago - a man who was abducting and raping little boys. One of the children, a three-year-old, died after the rapist abandoned him in the desert. Why was it necessary to print the little boy's name but make absolutely no mention in either report of the rapist's identity?

Women being allowed to drive in The Sandbox is in the news. Again. It is a topic that has been debated and debated and debated - for as long as we've been here - and it will, no doubt, continue to be debated and debated and debated for many long years to come. Personally, my life would probably be easier if I could just jump in our truck and run downtown to do my errands. On the other hand, driving here is so dangerous because NO ONE has to follow traffic rules and the traffic police are not allowed to do their job that I am not sure I am willing to take the risk of driving myself. DH, over the years, has gotten quite good at what I call "defensive driving," because that is just how it is done - you must always be aware and driving on the streets and roads here, off our compound, requires that you constantly be on ready for PCRC to occur. The other issue - which no one wants to address - with regard to women driving, is that their faces are covered. No. You cannot let women get behind the wheel of a car in this part of the world - where road conditions are chaotic, at best - if they are going to be obstructing their vision. That is nothing more than an glaring invitation for catastrophic PCRC. A former Minister of Information, Dr. Mohammed Abdo Yamani says "that women should be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia." He wants for the issue to be resolved to "relieve Saudi women of this injustice," and says, "What is best? That we let women drive cars in safety or that we sit them next to male foreign drivers who might harm them?" How is the safety issue going to be addressed? Are you going to allow them to drive with their faces uncoverd? And, just for the sake of argument, why do you think that "male foreign drivers" are going to cause them harm? The mindset, here... That all men have only ONE thing on their minds...

An unidentified man will be punished "for shining a laser beam at an airplane taking off from King Abdul Aziz International Airport." He is going to be given 30 lashes for this misdeed. Good. He deserves to be punished. Give him some jail time, too.

In case anyone was wondering, "refrigerating mothers' milk in hospitals to feed unrelated infants is impermissible... Other children might be fed the same milk, making them brothers without their knowledge." There. Now we know.

A 40-year-old man has divorced his wife because she answered her phone when a man misdialed and called the wrong number. You've got caller I.D. on your mobile, don't you? Who doesn't? And you answered the phone when an unknown number called? Your fault. The woman deserves to be divorced and sent home to her family. [Sarcasm, off.] Sounds to me like one heck of an immature and insecure husband for taking such drastic measures over an unknown man calling a wrong number. File under: Only in The Sandbox.