A RECENT incident in the holy month of Ramadan got me thinking of an unholy trend that is beginning to emerge among people, more so among the faithful. I said to myself that I have to write about this incident, which ironically, I mostly encountered (...)
THE recent group match between Saudi Arabia and Australia in the World Cup qualifier was no ordinary game. Australia rallied to stun the Saudis to draw level on points in the group with Saudis, only for both of them to be overhauled by Japan at the (...)
THE month of Ramadan is a special month for Muslims to get closer to Allah by worshipping and exercising extreme self-discipline in all aspects of life. It is, like I said before, a month for reflections on our action, behavior, feel for the poor (...)
LAST week Minister of Health Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah in a surprise announcement canceled an anti-smoking campaign that was to have taken place shortly. The cancelation of the drive was announced through a short video clip that was aired in media. In (...)
THE holy month of Ramadan is here. The month of worship and mercy, the month in which we are supposed to feel for the poor and the needy. It is the month in which we make peace with ourselves and with others, and it is the month in which we are (...)
We all have seen the unfortunate incident, not the first one and most likely not the last, of a group of elementary school students tearing up their school textbooks after the end of the school year and throwing them into the street. In the video (...)
LAST week, I read a story of the arrest of a gang of five people, one Saudi and four Sudanese nationals, accused of stealing over SR250,000 from a person's car. But what was really galling was the fact that the person who was robbed was virtually (...)
ONE may ask what makes the city of Dubai so special for many, especially for Saudi families, and a favorite destination for shopping and tourism — regional and worldwide. This city has a special magic that attracts visitors to come and visit more (...)
LAST week, I came across a shocking video clip on Twitter that was being widely circulated. The clip was of an old mother, who was seen sitting and crying at Al-Shumaisi Hospital in Riyadh. The clip also showed that humanity was not dead as the (...)
EVER since I wrote a series of articles related to expat issues, I have been receiving constant criticism of siding with the expats against my fellow countrymen. Instead of responding to every individual criticism or subtle chiding, I decided to (...)
HOLIDAYS are once again upon us and plans to travel are foremost in nearly every family's mind. At the start of the mid-term vacation two weeks ago, I asked, just out of curiosity, many families on their plans for vacation these holidays and the (...)
LAST month I read in a local daily a unique case of a husband wreaking havoc with his wife's life with an artful act of revenge for divorcing him. The local daily reported that the wife visited the traffic department and complained about her (...)
Recently, a friend of mine forwarded me a disturbing video clip of a dispute between an expat worker and his sponsor. For the record, I would like to state that I cannot verify where or when this altercation took place and how old the clip is. I was (...)
LAST week a video clip of a Turkish TV channel correspondent, who was in Saudi Arabia for Umrah, fulfilled the wish of his fiancée who had asked him to present to her the wedding ring while kneeling in front of the Holy Kaaba inside the Grand Mosque (...)
I HESITATED a lot before deciding to write this article, as I was afraid it would be misunderstood. As the headline suggests it could be misconstrued that I'm condoning an act of cheating. But in reality, am not, but a number of stories from both (...)
THE recent campaign by the Filipino community in Al-Khobar to clean the beach is something that needs to be commended and appreciated. The Filipino community in the Eastern Province city launched a massive cleanup drive of the Al-Khobar Beachside (...)
ON my way to the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah for Friday prayer, I took the way up the escalator from the parking area to the yards outside the Prophet's Mosque, and there I saw a unique sight of an old man just ahead of me greeting every single (...)
LIFE is a tough taskmaster, while also being a benevolent teacher. We experience and encounter many situations in our lives that we should learn from. And this allows for us to be better persons and compassionate human beings. In my opinion, (...)
Many articles, studies and investigations on the danger on smartphone addiction, especially to children, abound. The warnings, of course, include the electronic tablet devices to which children are sadly glued. Despite repeated warnings against the (...)
FOLLOWING my previous article more than two weeks ago titled, "How many expatriates will leave?" in which I questioned how many will be leaving the Kingdom soon, following the imposition of fees on expats from the latter half of this year, I (...)
RECENTLY a statement by an Indonesian Consulate official, published in a local daily, clarified that his country had suspended sending domestic helps to Saudi Arabia because of the myriad problems they faced in the past decades. The same source (...)
I HAVE received many requests from my expat friends to highlight the issue of the fees to be imposed on expats from the first half of this year. Many are worried how the imposition of the fees would impact them and their stay in the Kingdom. Some (...)
THE story of the infant girl Dareen, however shocking, is an eye-opener toward a sensitive, societal issue, which is child abuse. This poor infant was a tool in the hands of the abusive father, who used abusive tactics to pressure the infant's (...)
LAST week, a shocking cartoon was published in a local Saudi daily targeting expatriate workers that sparked anger among many people, mainly expatriates working here in Saudi Arabia. As is my wont of reading local dailies every morning, I was doing (...)
SINCE my last article on the need to abolish the sponsorship system, I have been receiving a variety of messages and emails, every now and then, from workers who are still suffering at the hands of their sponsors. The emails range from the inhuman (...)