Job Discussion Forums

[johnslat]

Dear 007,

" . . .because there is a hidden war between Uncle Bandar and the General of the Muttaweens concerning this issue! "

Hidden? From whom? That "war" is about as hidden as. say, the fact that George W is a dolt.
And my bet is that women will be allowed to drive (with "restrictions") within a year's time.

Dear Mia Xanthi,

" She will not have to cover her head . . ."

That, I think, would depend a lot on where she goes. In Riyadh, for example, unless things have changed considerably, Western women going to, say, Batha or the vegetable souk wear shawls to cover their hair. At least all the Western women I ever saw in those place did. But perhaps now, almost 5 years later (I left in 2003) it's different.

[007]

[lall]

Ya 007,
Thou truly speakest in riddles! Blacks and Greens? Maybe, to use an Americanism, "I'm dumb".

[johnslat]

I'm going to hazard a guess:

Blacks - the matawaa, the Wahhabis

Greens - the Royal Family

Of course, these are not always mutually exclusive circles.

Regards,
John

[Imdramayu]

Baztec, is it OK if I temporarily hijack this thread? It's for a good cause!

Mia, thanks for your thoughts. It's just that dw (darling wife) and I have lived in KSA before (in Riyadh in 2003) and dw had a horrible experience there. Things are diffferent now: dw's not pregnant anymore (as she was then so she felt horrible) but now has a preschool-aged child, she's used to and feels more confident living in ME, and we're more ready to make the move and adjust. I hope the car thing happens as that'll make dw happy. She's an Asian-educated RN so she hopes to find work there.

Everyone: let's hope the greens win the war! It'll make headlines all over the world. Almost as big of a splash as North Korea opening a church in Pyongyang!

[Mia Xanthi]

[Imdramayu]

Well, Mia, having the greens win would mean increasing freedom. Maybe in the East Province first -- then trickle down to the other areas. It would be best of the two options. For the time being, it would make a lot of wives happy (and husbands even happier!). I think if the Greens win, then other things may liberalize. Hopefully not too far in the immoral direction -- like some parts of Dubai and Bahrain have headed.

[scot47]

"increasing freedom" For whom ? The few thousand women who would drive. I say a greater increase in freedom would be achieved by introducing a proper public transport system ! Let's see a decent bus or tram or monorail system in all Saudi urban areas !

In fact Jeddah has a reasonable SAPTCO bus network. This is NOT the case in Eastern Region. Not sure about Riyadh.

[007]

[scot47]

My dear Numerical Friend
I lived in Jeddah for a long time and often used the SAPTCO buses. One needs patience.

[johnslat]

Hey, the SAPTCO bus system in Riyadh wasn't (isn't?) bad, either. I used it on many occasions.
And, in the Magic Kingdom, one needs patience for almost everything.
Regards,
John

[Stephen Jones]

SAPTCO long distance buses are fine. Buses within the city are pretty awful; in Riyadh they all seem to radiate out of Batha, so their coverage is pretty crap as well.

Where I did find the bus service quite good was Kuwait City.

[sheikh radlinrol]

[scot47]

"........we have cars". Similar sentiments would be expressed by chavs in the Yookay.

[veiledsentiments]

... and everyone who has an American passport who isn't from NYC or Chicago... the only 2 US cities with a decent mass transit system.

VS