Tag Archives: Alarabiya

Where the coins are

Yup, there it is, I said it. The article (at https://ara.tv/4eecj) gives us ‘US, Saudi Arabia hold high-level defense meeting at the Pentagon’ and right of the bat, we are ‘fed’ a lie (as I see it). We are given “The Pentagon’s top policy chief called Saudi Arabia a “critical, longstanding defense partner” working to become more capable and self-reliant.” Why is it a lie? Well, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been waiting for inclusion into the F-35 program. So, even as Belgium is included into that program, they are still awaiting delivery. Belgium a European nation that was overrun by the German army in 18 days (it took so long as most German soldiers were on foot or on bicycle) that country is more prestigious than Saudi Arabia? #JustSaying

I reckon it is the reason that China is making massive headways into the Arabic nations. And there it is, the additional quote ““The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a critical, longstanding defense partner for the United States that seeks to grow more capable and self-reliant in its defense. We are working hard to partner with Saudi Arabia to enable it to do so,” Colby said in a post on X.” I wonder when the defense department relies on X instead of the world wide news to disperse that information. It is a hard thing to comprehend.

I reckon that America is so desperate for cash (now that they damaged their tourism industry) that they can only turn to China and Saudi Arabia for additional funds. As Saudi Arabia has a lot more oil, the UAE was overlooked. But the setting is here America needs coins and as such I would have thought that someone in the Pentagon (it is rumored that this is managed by people at 1690 Air Force Pentagon, Washington, DC 20330-1670)

That being said, someone should have whispered to them to include Saudi Arabia to the F-35 list, but who am I saying this? I am still happy to get a nice bonus from the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) (at No. 88, Weiyi Road, Huang Tianba, Qingyang District, Chengdu City, Sichuan, China, postal code 610091) If you can’t beat them, join them I say. And I was always happy to get a nice (optionally fat) check. The new apartment will set me back $7M and there is the need to get some cash to the UAE (my optional Yas Island retirement location), as such bringing a customer the size of Saudi Arabia might get me my dream retirement.

As such you might wonder why this byline? That is easy as we are given “Colby welcomed Saudi efforts to build up its self-defense capabilities and “to make greater contributions toward achieving shared regional objectives,” Parnell added. The meeting came amid a series of recent US arms sales to the Kingdom. Earlier this year, the Trump administration approved a $3.5 billion weapons deal that included 1,000 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and 50 AIM-120C-8 guidance sections.” I say that either Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby has a doofus (aka dodo) as a personal assistant, or he has been missing briefs for years. Saudi Arabia steered to self reliance in several fields (including defense) even before 2019, so the response you read before might be seen as nothing less than a joke. As for the ‘funds’ already spend, as I see it, Chan is just as willing to receive such payment for its abilities for Saudi Arabia to defend itself. I get that there is one stronger and one weaker. But I do not know who that is between these two. As such it might be anyones guess. I suggest you ask someone at Raytheon who has the better equipment and why.

So it is nice to see this article and there is no blame on AlArabiya, but until it refers to America seeing Saudi Arabia as a full fledged partner in global defense by selling them the F-35, these stories come across like that moment in Oliver Twist asking for some more. Charles Dickens wrote about that little orphan in 1838, so it might have been a while. Still the setting of America bothers me, not the meeting with Saudi Arabia, but the building of not-so-good moments in several areas in America going from tariffs to tourism. America is bleeding and through their own actions they are bleeding allies just as quickly as anything else. Not even the penguins on McDonald Island are happy to see President Trump.

So as we are given the final quote ““Both leaders recognized US-Saudi defense cooperation as a force multiplier for regional security, and reviewed opportunities to deepen cooperation,” said Parnell, the Pentagon spokesman.” Well, as a non-Pentagon source might I suggest including Saudi Arabia as another party for the F-35? That should deepen cooperation by a lot. #JustSaying

It is moments like these that I wholly embrace the old saying “Sarcasm is great, when it backfires it become irony” and that is important too, so just in case AlArabiya is hungry for more stories, the address of the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation can be found in the story. 

Have a great day this Tuesday, it’s still Monday in Vancouver, so they get this article in about 14 hours.

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Profit in the upright position

Yup, that is as good as it gets. You see, we have heard all the airlines whine about losses and loss of revenue, all whilst they added over 41,000 daily flights over the last 15 years. So whilst we see the stupid people (the Guardian journalists) have a go at people with a private jet, they are merely losing the plot by actually looking into airlines. So it was an interesting sight to see ‘Air Arabia delivers record 2022 net profit of $327 mln, up 70 pct’ (at https://ara.tv/y756m). This led me to the thought what if all those airlines are working with the wrong business model? Alarabiya News gives us “Air Arabia, the first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC) operator in the Middle East and North Africa, announced historic financial results for the full year ending December 31, 2022, almost doubling the profit and passengers’ numbers of the previous year, as the airline continued with its growth plans, delivering remarkable financial and operational performance”, when I see ‘low-cost carrier (LCC)’ on that side and we get “the Japanese domestic operator was Y3.4 billion ($25.8 million) in the black for the nine months to 31 December 2022”, I do understand that this is domestic, but at a mere 7% of what Air Arabia is doing. Now, don’t get me wrong. I do get that I am (to some extent) comparing apples to oranges, but I bet you dollars for donuts that some of these airlines need a business overhaul. As I see it, the 90’s model of just adding flights does doesn’t do it. And the environment is getting hurt in the process which the Guardian wasn’t properly reporting on, but that is my personal view. 

So what can be done? What must be done? We see very little but the numbers are out in force and I wonder who is looking at the options there. Perhaps it is all ‘saved’ by accountant abracadabra, who can tell and that is the problem, no one is actually looking into it and now I have questions. Perhaps my questions aren’t entirely up to the mark and there are factors that matter, but that still warrants my view of their business plan overhaul. So to speak, when the accountants tell them to put their profits in the upright position someone better listen, because as I see it Air Arabia is showing them how (at present) it could be done. As I see it, they have 327 million identifiers that they are on the right flight trajectory. Even more so when we see that their profits are reported to be 70% up, that is not some trivial matter. That is something airlines need to take a closer look at and If I am the first one to mention it, you get to wonder why others are asleep at the wheel, because as I personally see it, that is what it amounts to.

 

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