Lip service. My invitation? Lost in the mail.

Yeah. Imagine that. Who would have guessed I wouldn't be invited to speak at the conference where more than "350 security professionals from military, police, public security systems and in private sector [sic] and directors of petroleum and industrial companies, academics, students and various government departments will discuss the new traffic system" that will be held on November 25th. I could have saved everyone involved a whole lot of planning and time and expense if someone would have just asked me. No one ever does...

You want to eliminate road carnage and population control on the roads, streets and highways in the Sandbox? Quit talking about it and actually do something, then.

For starters, have the police - or traffic police - or whatever entity is charged with the responsibility of enforcing road rules - actually STOP the perpetrators. You know who they are - the perpetrators - we know who they are and they know who they are. Oh. And, by the way, they are NOT all expats! Issue tickets. Make the point system work. Institute a system of heavy fines. Throw the repeat offenders in jail and confiscate their cars. Trust me. By doing this you'll increase this country's revenues tenfold. Maybe you don't need the money now, but if oil ships continue to be hi-jacked and $10,000,000 ransoms are going to be paid, you're going to need the money eventually.

Next, eliminate once and for all the system where if someone gets stopped then they call someone who can get them out of their predicament. What's it called? Wasta??? When someone is stopped for speeding or running a red-light or whatever their traffic offense might be, issue the ticket right then and there. If they want to call on someone else later on to get them out of the "alleged" offense, let it happen at the same time they appear in Court. Just a suggestion. But don't you think that if someone is calling someone to get out of something that that just proves and oozes guilt?

Give the traffic patrolmen vehicles equipped for their jobs. The traffic patrol cars are the only vehicles in the Sandbox that are twenty-something years old. Everyone - and I do mean almost everyone - else is driving a car that was manufactured in the last six months. Install video cameras in the traffic patrol cars. Give those officers the authority to actually do the job which they have been employed to do.

If you actually adhered to all of the rules and regulations and laws that are implemented, instead of spending time talking about them over tea, coffee and crumpets, the roads here would be much, much safer for ALL of us!

There. Wasn't that helpful? No need for a conference. You're welcome. All you had to do was ask me...

UPDATE: Angry in Oman has generously posted "Driving Lessons" at her site. Of course, her version applies only to Omani drivers. If you are going to be a "highway superstar" here in the Sandbox, you have to do everything she lists but do twice as recklessly and at least three times faster!

Burning Bras

Way, way back... I wasn't even wearing a bra when women were burning them. I was a child. When did that all take place? The sixties? The seventies? I know it was before cable television. According to Snopes, a single bra was thrown into a "freedom trash can," but there was no actual fire... So these women didn't actually burn their bras. But they made an impact and statement in another way. They DROVE CARS. In Riyadh. Forty-seven of them piled into cars and drove for an hour before being arrested. It happened eighteen years ago. And nothing has changed, since. Women still are not allowed to drive in the Sandbox. Is it the ONLY country in the entire world where women are not allowed to drive? Does it make an iota of sense that they cannot? No! It does not...

EU Calls for Driving Ban on Saudi Men

Oh. My. Gosh. This is GREAT! Read it. Read it again!

I had coffee yesterday with a very dear friend here, a “local” woman [read: Saudi] and she was telling me that she got an e-mail at work that said that a few Members of the European Parliament had were sponsoring a campaign to BAN SAUDI MEN FROM DRIVING IN ALL EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES! She said she would share the e-mail with me but it was in Arabic, although she did print it out and gave it to her [American] husband and told him to get one of his [Saudi] co-workers to read it to him.

[Hey, I took that one Arabic reading/writing course – I’m almost an expert, now! And since the article is relatively short, I’m pretty sure that I would be able to translate it. Of course it would require every waking moment for the next three or four weeks…]

On a whim, I did a quick little Google search and found the article – it’s been posted over and over and over so HOW is it that I’ve NEVER seen it?!? I’ve seen it now, and I’m ALL for this [you might have “clicked” above, but I just can’t resist] gem of Roger Helmer’s:

In a remarkable move today, four MEPs, including East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer and Anna Zaborska, Chairman of the European Parliament's influential Women's Committee, have launched a campaign to ban Saudi Arabian men from driving in all EU countries.

They have done so to highlight the continuing ban on Saudi women driving in their own country, which the MEPs claim is a blatant example of discrimination, an attack on women's rights, and totally at odds with civilised [sic] values. They argue that a move to ban male Saudi nationals from driving in the EU would help the Saudi authorities to understand the very strong condemnation evoked in Europe by the Saudi ban on women drivers.

The MEPs have sponsored a "Written Declaration" in the European parliament in Brussels, a motion which is available for all MEPs to sign, and which becomes a formal resolution of the parliament if at least half of all MEPs (316) sign up to it.

The sponsors of the Declaration are Anna Zaborska (Christian Democrat, Slovakia), Roger Helmer (Conservative, East Midlands); Ashley Mote (Independent, South East); and Jim Allister (Democratic Unionist, Northern Ireland).

Speaking at the launch of the declaration, Mr. Helmer said "The nationals of authoritarian countries assume that they can come to the West and enjoy our freedoms, while maintaining discrimination and denying basic human rights at home. This initiative should help to convince them that freedom is a two-way street and that their own people are also entitled to basic human rights".

What’s that old saying? Something like… “What goes around comes around.” Yeah, that’s it.