Meant to Warn Everyone?

All these notices of punishments being printed in the papers lately. I wonder if they are not being reported to serve as a deterrent to others. People who have been here for a long time will tell you that they used to be able to leave their wallet and keys in their car and both would still be there when they returned. Supposedly the gold shops used to just close a curtain when the shop-keeper left for prayer and when he returned everything was still there. Now? Let down your guard for just a brief second and your pocket-book will be ripped right off your arm, or your mobile snatched right out of your hand. I wouldn't leave my doors unlocked to either our house or the truck to run the quickest errand. No way.

Jail - two years, and lashes - 1,000 of them, for stealing "a handbag." The man who did it was caught "in a shopping center." Saudi Gazette identifies his nationality! And he is a Saudi. Not that it needs to identify him, because I think we're all pretty good at the "guess the nationality" game, at this point. We know that if someone is from somewhere else that it must be reported and that if they are from the Sandbox it goes unreported insofar as identification by nationality. The man said he did what he did "after being unable to find work." Calling BS on that. There are plenty of jobs here. They just are not all upper management and CEO positions. Man up. Take your punishment. Just because you cannot find a job does not give you the right to steal handbags!

This kind of thing... I don't even know the right snark for it. An African man has been arrested after being "accused of practicing magic and sorcery which enabled him to gain full control of a Saudi family for two years." Two years! My gosh the man only cast a spell on you. Apparently he took your balls, too: The Saudi man said "that he and his family of a wife and daughter had been under a spell the suspect cast on them... and that he [the African man] had turned them into his servants." Whatever.

The "Saudi Casanova" says he was "set up." He has been identified by name - and there is a picture of him - although you can only see his balding head, he is covering his face. Now that he has been caught, he is using "the victim card." I know that there is a YouTube of him from the show he appeared on - but I am not going to link to it, and I have not watched it. A friend has. Wonder what her take is on this, now? I'm going to go ahead with my own take on this - and that is that he is upset about this whole thing now, only after he's been caught. Some 200 people have complained about him at this point. The man says he went on the show, "Red Line," after a "presenter contacted him asking him to discuss xesual relations in a marital context on air." Who knew we had a version of the Jerry Springer show on this side of the world? I don't know all what was said on the show so I can't comment on that aspect of it. At this point, he is telling a different story, though, and says that "The channel took only about five percent of the interview we did and got rid of the other 95." Umm hmm. Sure. So now it is all the fault of the show. Abdul Jawad says he was "lied to" and has retained a lawyer to take the television channel to court. We'll just have to wait and see what happens as this continues to unfold.

In related news, there is a "campaign calling for a boycott" of the show. Is a boycott really necessary? How about switching the channel? Or turning the television off! The Lebanese television channel, LBC, has "announced it would discontinue the programme." Did viewers not have a clue as to what was going to be shown? And now, they are all in a tizzy about it because someone had the audacity to go on the show and boast of what may or may not have been a man's xesual conquests? The "campaign, entitled 'Isolation would make it good-mannered' [wherever that means?!], found fault with the channel for exploiting the gullibility of some young Saudi men and women and thus inflicting irreparable damage to the image of Saudi Arabia." [Emphasis, mine.] Sooo. That's what this is all about. Got it.