Tag Archives: New Arab

September 25, 2025 · 12:43

Points for consideration

I was frowning when an article from the New Arab crossed my line of sight. The article (at https://www.newarab.com/news/egypt-unhappy-saudi-pakistan-defence-pact) gave me pause for thought. The title nearly demanded it. It was ‘Undermining an ‘Arab NATO’? Egypt is unhappy with the Saudi-Pakistan defence pact’ and I wondered why.

As far as I know, the relationship between the two countries have been really good for decades. And as far as I see, the relationship between Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been good as well. Some say that Egypt and Saudi Arabia share many foreign policy and regional security objectives and have a long and complicated relationship. It’s not like me and Olivia Wilde (I love her, she hates me) ;-).

So I was wondering why that setting is and the article gives us “These debates acquire special relevance after the 16 September Arab-Islamic summit in Doha, Qatar, where Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for the creation of a mechanism for the coordination of security and defence issues among Arab and Islamic nations. “The Kingdom needs to offer a convincing justification for snubbing discussions about an Arab common defence agreement in the Doha summit,” a man wrote on 18 September on Facebook.” So A man wrote this? What man? Which man? Then we get a more settled setting with ““It also needs to mention why it turned down discussions on a unified Arab army, a proposal made by Egypt in 2015,” he added. “Why didn’t the Saudis sign an agreement with Egypt?” another man asked. “Why don’t they form a powerful Saudi army?”” OK, this warrants an explanation. In 2015 there was the stable reliance on America, that America is gone. Whether it is seemingly no longer able to pay its bills, whether the fruits and nuts in American politics (US Congress and the US Senate) have become slightly too flaky for the rest of the world. Your guess is as good as mine, but the stage that America is a shape of balancing peace is gone. If in doubt ask the Ukraine. It seems that America is catering to the Russian Kremlin (say many American voices). That setting is gone and the Arab World needs its own version of NATO. That much is a given from 2024 onwards. This is complemented with “The Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement, formalised on 17 September during a state visit to Riyadh by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, commits Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to treat any aggression against one of them as an aggression against both of them, with the aim of enhancing joint deterrence and military cooperation. The agreement builds on nearly eight decades of ties between the two countries, during which they offered support to each other on numerous occasions, including in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran when Pakistan deployed troops to Saudi Arabia.” And this setting is also hindering Iranian interests (which is basically Iran) and that does not go down nicely (in Iran that is). So if Iran now attacks Saudi Arabia, it might need to deal with Pakistani nuclear powers, although the initial setting to grab the nearest nuclear missile tends to be overkill. The fact that Iran would be facing a war on two fronts is enough to scurry the Ayatollah and his posse to the nearest cave and park themselves at parking level -250 of that cave.

And with the quote “The pact could implicitly extend Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence to Saudi Arabia, a non-nuclear state vulnerable to threats from Iran or other actors.” The new Arab pretty much states that. 

And when we see “Saudi Arabia is wary of over-reliance on Western allies, particularly the US, whose security commitments have been questioned amid the Israel’s war on Gaza and Trump’s record in the White House over the past eight months, the same observers said.” Which pretty much covered what I said and have been saying in the last few months. The Arab News article has a lot more and all of it is clearly top notch. One part that is not covered. When Hamas strikes out towards Saudi Arabia (not entirely impossible) and it is done on the ‘kind’ request of Iran, this setting will change Whatever Gaza is called at that time, it could result the people in Gaza relying on their glow in the dark abilities whilst wearing sunblock 5000. That one setting is not covered and it is a lot more likely than Israel ever attacking Saudi Arabia.

And don’t come with the lecture of Hamas would never do that, because they want to stay in power and they will do anything to do that, even attack Saudi Arabia. I actually fear that at some point Hamas will grow a brain and ‘attack’ one of the Neom projects, optionally instilling bad quality concrete or some other measure that makes the project fail after 10 years. That is actually the biggest fear I have. Now that Saudi Arabia succeeds, but that others want it to fail and I am not sure what measures Saudi Arabia has in place at present. 

But those were the points I had and whilst everyone is shouting on the crimes of Israel, no one is looking towards the crimes of Hamas or what they’ll do next. Isn’t that interesting too? 

Have a great day and remember, Friday is at most a day away (Vancouver has the longest to go to get to that point).

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 3, 2025 · 07:27

Seeking the moon

I was surprised by awn article in the New Arab last night stating ‘Did Saudi Arabia announce the start of Eid al-Fitr a day too early?’ (at https://www.newarab.com/news/did-saudi-arabia-get-eid-al-fitrs-date-wrong). Now there is one little setting that needs vocalizing. I am not a Muslim, so I can hide behind ignorance regarding Muslim matters, but to accuse one of the more conservative nations like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of this seems a little wild. So I had to look up a few matters before regarding the outcome. So let’s get my non Muslim readers a little up to date. We know that Islam is set to five pillars. One of them is Ramadan, the time of fasting. It lasts for a month and that implies no food or drinks between sunrise and sunset. I think there are rules for some, so that they can have water during the day, mainly the old and the sick. The end of fasting is set at a specific date. 

“According to a certain hadith, these festivals were initiated in Medina after the migration of Muhammad from Mecca. Anas ibn Malik, a companion of Muhammad, narrated that when Muhammad arrived in Medina, he found people celebrating two specific days in which they entertained themselves with recreation. Muhammad then remarked that God had fixed two mandatory days of festivity: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.”

Eid al-Fitr begins at sunset on the night of the first sighting of the crescent moon. The night on which the moon is sighted. If the moon is not observed immediately after the 29th day of the previous lunar month (either because clouds block its view or because the western sky is still too bright when the moon sets), then the holiday is celebrated the following day. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated for one to three days, depending on the country. It is forbidden to fast on the Day of Eid, and a specific prayer is nominated for this day. As an obligatory act of charity, money is paid to the poor and the needy (zakat al-Fitr) before performing the ‘Eid prayer’.

That is as far as I got, so the festivities around the end of Ramadan is important and that is the debate, did Saudi Arabia call that mandate too early? And the byline from the New Arab is ‘showing’ “Reports and rumours online said Saudi Arabia got the timing of Eid al-Fitr wrong, but there has been no official statement from the kingdom saying this.” I cannot say that this is the case, but the fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia got this wrong is close to stunning. The Kingdom and its inhabitants live for Islam and such an accusation cannot be ignored, for me personally it seems not a biggie, but for an Islamic? It comes with the added “While some Arab countries announced Eid al-Fitr falls on Sunday, others said it was Monday. Egypt, Jordan, Syria and several other Sunni-majority countries broke with the Saudi announcement and celebrated on Monday. Shia-majority Iran also declared the festivities to begin on Monday, as well as Oman’s Ibadi religious authorities.” It comes with the added “Many astronomers and experts had rejected the idea that Eid al-Fitr could take place on Sunday, saying it was impossible to sight the moon on the preceding Saturday. The Abu Dhabi-based International Astronomical Centre said a Saturday sighting would be have been impossible from the eastern hemisphere using any type of method.

Saudi astronomer Bader al-Omaira also told Gulf News that the sighting of a crescent would have been impossible, largely due to a solar eclipse which took place on Saturday, after which sightings of the moon are not possible for several hours.” And the added setting gives it weight, according to some that the sighting of the moon was not possible for several hours makes it the debate. I for one seem to shrug at the accusation. But in the setting of not being a Muslim, I do not care that much and I am ‘heavily’ opposed to fasting, but then I need to turn every dollar around and sometime like a real accountant, I squeeze a dollar bill until it releases three 50cent coins. Life is hard at times. So I don’t celebrate too much. Yet I do understand the Muslims that have an issue with the setting of stopping their pillar of fasting a day early. Off course I do see the ‘accusation’ of “In 2011, there were reports that Saudi authorities who observe the skies to record the sighting of the moon mistook Saturn for the moon. This reportedly happened again in 2019.” That is the idea that I can see Saturn and mistake it for the pancake that hangs over our heads. I kinda find the idea to funny to ignore. There is the little setting that at the closest setting (we move in eclipses) Saturn is 746,000,000 km away, the moon I mere 360,000 km, as such I want to wonder who looks for the moon?  And that is before I’m ‘entertaining’ a few other parts. 

And here is the surprise I got, there is a difference between Sunni and Shia in Islam.

“As ritual dictates, Sunnis praise God in a loud voice while going to the Eid prayer:
Allāhu Akbar, Allāhu Akbar, Allāhu Akbar. Lā ilāha illà l-Lāh. Allāhu Akbar, Allahu akbar, wa-li-l-Lāh al-ḥamd.
Recitation ceases when they get to the place of Eid or once the Imam commences activities.”

It s the first time that I am made aware that there is a difference between the two versions of Islam. The other part is the detection of the moon, “While some countries use astronomical calculations and technology like telescopes, others insist that it must be seen with the naked eye.” I understand that in the past like pre 1650, we had to rely on the naked eye, and to some degree I am on board that it should be done with the naked eye, but is it a sin to let technology aid us, in these matters? I am merely voicing the question and perhaps there is an Imam giving us a resounding yes to that question, as I said I am not Muslim.

The fact that Saudi Arabia was accused of something so profoundly Muslim startled me to some degree and I am not on anyones side. I merely found the occasion strange and as such I devoted a blog page to the effect.

Have a lovely day and at present I don’t see a moon, the sun got in the way of that at 07:23

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Religion, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 20, 2025 · 17:50

A letter from Hugh

Yup, it happened to me, Hugh Grant send me a letter (a modern message in Email).

You know, the man who was made famous through the movie “Four startups and a Bankruptcy”. And behold, this morning there was a letter in my mailbox, stating:

Dear Lawrence,

For over ten years in opposition the Labour Party promised to implement the Leveson reforms.  These reforms would raise standards in the media and protect the public from intrusions into grief, blatant falsehoods, and other abuses. 

Sir Keir Starmer, meanwhile, talked a big game about ending corruption in politics and putting the public first.
Yet since his election as Prime Minister, Sir Keir has done nothing to keep his party’s promises and end the scandal of press abuse.

In his failure to act, he is protecting the status quo and putting newspaper owners ahead of the public.

We need to remind him: his Government is accountable to the British public, not newspaper owners.  And his Party’s promises – to ordinary people affected by press abuse, and the wider public – must be kept.

And here is the link to write to your MP (at https://www.hackedoff.org/campaign-actions/britains-press-power-without-responsibility-demand-real-press-accountability-now?utm_source=brevo&utm_campaign=Hugh follow-up&utm_medium=email&utm_id=38)

You will get to enter your UK Postcode and as I as a test enter a post code of Birmingham (as a test)  The system replies with 

Dear Shabana Mahmood,

Despite reaching over 70% of the public every month national newspapers are unregulated – allowing them to spread lies, disinformation, and to commit intrusions with impunity.

Every issue facing the country – from human trafficking to climate change to domestic violence – is affected by the ability of newspapers and their websites to cover them inaccurately and unethically.

The Government’s inaction on press regulation is holding Britain back from meeting these challenges – as well as leaving newspapers able to cause extraordinary damage to individuals’ lives through harassment and intrusion into grief.

You merely have to add your Name, Address and Email address details and the letter is ready. Easy, peasy, Chicken easy.

It will be a rough reminder for the Labour Party and his fellow minions to do something about the outstanding promise to set the Leveson papers in action. The media has become too much of a clear and present danger to the people, and many people in the UK have had enough. So this is a rather large remembrance page with the automation for the people to add their details and do something about it.

It gave me pause to think of hat the UK media is facing. It is already facing irrelevancy and a loss of readers on a global scale. No matter what our faith is, papers like New Arab, Arab News, Khaleej Times and several other newspapers are making string insides into the world population. And that is not all that is happening. In support we see that Dubai Media (the first recipient of my film script “How to assassinate a Politician”) is making rather larger visibility moves. Mostly in Bangladesh , Egypt and Indonesia, but it is a start). In this Al Saudiya (part of the SBA) is doing the same, but I am unaware how large their foot print is becoming. Mostly due to my lack of Arabic I cannot see the complete setting of the Saudi Broadcasting Authority. A Saudi TV group meant for 33 million is reaching out to a population of over half a billion (the Dubai Media group (UAE) as well). They are diminishing the channels that were until recently the targets of Reuters, AP News and the BBC. The people are through with these false prophets and are now giving these two a chance. After the track of the late eighties and 90’s that CNN had, they are given a green light by the people in many ways a similar setting.

Western people have had enough of the lies and innuendo that Western media gives us. As such the term sports-washing, meaning “Sportswashing is the use of sport to redirect public attention away from unethical conduct. The intended effect is to improve the reputation of the offending entity, by using the immense popularity of sport to ‘wash’ away poor publicity.” A term as I see it invented by the western media and nearly always used to describe Saudi involvement. But as I see it, the Western media should be using the same term (although not always involving sports) to strengthen their innuendo for digital dollars. They do, but to hide the actions of involved people like Sony (TPP policy 2016) and a few others. It was the first clear setting where I saw media ‘protecting’ big tech. I wrote (rather clumsily) about that in ‘Lessening the consumer?’ On April 27th 2016 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2016/04/27/lessening-the-consumer/) after that I saw the actions by Microsoft and others and the media was holding the hands over the heads of Big Tech (speculatively to score advertisement money) and that was how I started to keep my eyes of the media until now and see how the media today has less value than the average porn magazine, they might reflect on ‘Sex Sells’ but the value of their contribution has lost its value and then some. As media largely goes into the same direction, not giving us news, but referring to out as entertainment and as I see it, the ABC News Channel is the only news channel giving Australia actual news, the rest is flaccid entertainment. This is the same all over the western world hiding behind the term “A news and current affairs show”, where the emphasis is set to ‘current affairs show’ and the ‘insiders’ referring to that being the same. The world is waking up to the setting of being lulled asleep by the media and the Leveson papers was the first stage to getting the people awake. That was the first step for the media to wake up and that so far The Leveson Inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011. A series of public hearings were held throughout 2011 and 2012. The result were 4 documents giving us over 2000 pages of wake up medicine for the media regulations. So far it hasn’t happened, for reference the Lord Of the Rings is a novel a mere 1077 pages, so there is that too, one is fiction , the other is a rude awakening of what the media is up to. The News of the world owned by Rupert Murdoch shut down in 2011 when the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of celebrities, royalty, and public citizens. Murdoch faced police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the US. He got out when he was no longer able to hide the actions of some. But not all is lost, the Arabian versions of the news are now shown all over the world mainly the three I mentioned in the beginning. And now we see the growth of Saudi and UAE media and they now have solid systems that can reach the whole western world too. Now we might not get all the shows the 1st gives us, but that is merely one step away from coming. The fires in California have settles the people in optionally leaving California and the UAE and Saudi stations could give them a new beginning, many to Canada, but with the promise of decent incomes Saudi Arabia and the UAE could collect on the cream of American Script writers. I saw this option opening up and (even though magnificently unsuccessful)  , I decided to attempt to sell my first script in the UAE (Dubai media). There is an inkling of faith that it was merely my lack of skills, and it was my first script, but I have three more on route. As such other (a lot more successful than me) could open the road to more scripts and that is what Hollywood fears, the drain of knowledge. They thought they were on top of the world with their setting, yet as Covid hit, followed by the strikes and the California fires, the Hollywood setting is to some degree now an empty shell and that leaves Canada, the UK, Saudi Arabia and the UAE open to wildly grown in all directions. The Guardian gives us “The entertainment industry is estimated to create $43bn in wages every year for the Californian economy and recent events have not only forced a pause in the short term but also raised concerns over long-term recovery.” These incomes have been impacted from 2020 onwards. We were given “Many blockbusters originally scheduled to be released by mid-March 2020 were postponed or canceled around the world, with film productions also being halted.” Then we got the strikes in 2023 which stopped it all again and the fires on January 7th 2025, the impact has roasted the core of Hollywood with burning down what was left. Consider the setting that the people in Hollywood were given $43 billion annually and that their incomes have been impeded with a near 80% lacking of a total of over $200 billion. The quality of life is setting the massive options for the other nations and as the Hollywood moguls are happy to pay the others as little as possible, they and up having no recourse for themselves. 

And now we get yet again the Leveson inquiry hitting the UK shores. The mess is now near complete and the media will have to surrender market shares to the Arabian nations and see where they end up being, because the events in Saudi Arabia (2030) and the UAE will likely have all the Arabian journalists and very little other ones, especially with vloggers all over the place and YouTube (and TikTok) having the new fields all to themselves and their creators. That is what I see happening al up to late 2027 and that is long before Hollywood becomes a shadow of itself.

That is the reality of exploitation at some point the people give up and seek richer grounds, Hollywood is now becoming largely without cohesion to itself, so where do you go then? You all have a productive day.

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 11, 2025 · 08:49

The Hardship coming

I got hit by an article in the New Arab. The article (at https://www.newarab.com/news/saudi-arabia-prepares-another-hajj-menaced-extreme-heat) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia prepares for another hajj threatened by extreme heat’ and it brought a few thoughts from last year around. In 2024 we were given “at least 1,301 people on the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca died due to extreme heat, with temperatures exceeding 50 °C (122 °F). Extreme heat caused heat stroke and dehydration, leading to the deaths.” As well as “At least 2,764 cases of heat-related illness, like heat stroke, were reported on 16 June alone.” What is abundantly missed is that the bulk (83%) of the fatalities were caused by people who did the tour without the permit, they took the ‘cheap’ tickets and these tour operators never had the permits for these people, I wonder if any of them were ever caught. Anyway, we now get via the New Arab “Saudi Arabia will implement extra precautions to avoid a similar incident to last year where hundreds died due to the extreme heat.” And we are also given “The vast majority of hajj pilgrims come from abroad, and diplomats involved in their countries’ responses to last year’s crisis told AFP at the time that most deaths were heat-related.” It is interesting that there is no mention of the exploitative moves the tour operators made, which caused the deaths of their customers. We are given “Saudi authorities “need to make arrangements not just for registered numbers but also for additional numbers”, particularly cooling and emergency health facilities, he said.” I cannot disagree with that, but how many extra provision does one need to make? 2024 had 1.8 million pilgrims. So how many extra is enough? And for that matter, Saudi Arabia had a decent system, as such pilgrims need a pilgrim pass. That part seems simple enough but what of the tour operators? Those who pushed for an excuse tourist visa and told them that there would be options for them? Those are the real criminals. In a pilgrimage where Saudi Arabia provides for 1.8 million is not the bad partition, they provided as good as possible. The larger issue that the weather was murder last year, with temperatures exceeding 50 °C. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Saudi Arabia was 53 °C (2021). So what will happen this year? Will the Hajj 2025 be burdened by extreme temperatures? 

So now we are given “But even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs spur many to attempt the hajj without a permit, though they risk arrest and deportation if caught.” As such the ‘risk deportation’ seems like small fries when compared to ‘weather assisted suicide’, but that is just me. 

And the one part I never saw answered anywhere was that 83% of the death are survivors that means that means that a little over 200 cases were people with permits, which taken with 1.8 million pilgrims is pretty amazing. Now the part I never saw was how many without permits survived the ordeal, as such there are scores of people who never had permits, used resources and were handed assistance by caretakers. So how much more is enough? Personally on route I would suggest more care tents and the tents should be twice the size. There is only so much anyone can do, but that might be a decent start. There is little more I can think of. The problem is that there are numerous places where problems could arise, the pilgrimage is a long road and there are the stretches and bottlenecks. It is the bottlenecks where I fear many fatalities could occur. Especially when the caretakers need to chose between Hajj permit and non-Hajj permit, it will be the agonizing hardship that any caretaker faces. One glass of water and who to give it to? His instructions might be clear the permit holder gets it and he will comply, but he will be torn inside. Any care taker would. I will be looking into the Hajj this year but not for religious reasons and I wonder how many will watch the event and more important when will something be done about the exploitative tour-operators? Consider the alternative, What if the general tourism visa would not be possible from one month pre Hajj, until one week post Hajj? Would that solve a lot of issues? There is a side in me, always trying to solve problems, solve puzzles. But that is just me. 

Have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Religion

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

October 29, 2024 · 06:03

The telling signs

That is at times the question. What one sees is not seen by all, there is no blame or shame in this. We can’t be looking in all directions, the simplest of reasons is that life is in front of you and we tend to look at life (for most of the time). As such I saw two articles pass by, well one actually (it makes sense soon enough).

The first one was the New Arab (at https://www.newarab.com/news/saudi-arabia-starts-work-huge-gold-kaaba-style-structure) handing us ‘Saudi Arabia starts work on massive gold ‘Kaaba’ style structure despite criticism’, my first setting was the word criticism. The word comes through 5 times including the title and three times it gives us “amid criticism that it resembles the Kaaba holy site in Mecca”, which is incorrect. 

The Kaaba (as the pictures show me) is not an actual cube, I could be wrong as I have never been to Mecca for I am not a Muslim. The second setting is that the dimensions are off by a mile. This building will be 400 by 400 by 400 meters. I will hazard a guess that this structure could be seen from space, one of the few. The other part is that this would be a monumental achievement. As for the critique from social media, I let that be. I didn’t look into it and I reckon it will serve no purpose. The important setting for me (and initial worry) is seen with “The development will have retail, hospitality, leisure and office space facilities and is believed to be big enough to hold 20 Empire State Buildings in it when complete, Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) said.” You see, filling up 20 empire state building takes time and resources. That is beside the infrastructure needed. As my abacus dictates to me, that building alone would need to be fuelled and that takes at least a small nuclear reactor to do so. As I saw it there is an option if the outer walls have a second inner layer comprised of solar panels you will alleviate a lot of power requirements and even fuel more power to the city. I reckon someone looked at this at present, but it is the initial worry I see. That and getting water pumped to +400 meters. There are a few things, but the designers would have worked out these elements long before now. My mind is merely struggling with a building comprised of 64 million cubic metres. What is a fact is the massive achievements that Saudi engineers will make. A true world marvel. The previous achievement from that region was a near 5000 years ago (yes, they were the pyramids). That and the Neom structures will show the world that Saudi Arabia has made its match to anything else that was built on this planet.

I see a few other issues, but I will hold them. Not to sound stupid, but it might sound me anti-achievement and I refuse to be one of those negative people. 

I wonder how spacious it will be on the inside. You see we think in (mostly) western dimensions and from the last 10 years we have seen buildings with a different approach. As such are all floors 18 feet high? There is a lot not known and I to some extent fear knowing to much in advance, but I am still curious. The other thing I wonder about is the impact it will have. Not impact as a social need, but the houses around the Mukaab. Depending on the position of their house, the Mukaab could now shield it from the blazing sun for at least part of the day. I wonder what will happen to these places. For now, we will watch (in awe) and see over the next 5 years how that building comes together.  The other article comes later today.

Have a fun day

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

July 14, 2024 · 07:21

The Iranian ploy

I saw the article (at https://www.newarab.com/news/houthis-threaten-riyadh-aerial-footage-key-airports) stating ‘Yemen’s Houthis threaten Saudi Arabia with aerial footage of key airports’, the New Arab with the text “The video, titled “Just try it”, contained images of King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, King Fahd International Airport in Damman as well as the ports in Ras Tanura, Jizan and Jeddah” is a possible ploy. I do not doubt that the Houthi’s (with generous support from Iran) is adding a ploy of threats to their limited tactics. It is clear that Houthi forces can bring something to the table, but I believe that this is nothing more than a ploy. A ploy that could have teeth, but I do not have the required contacts or information to see how serious this is. We see an additional setting with “The threat to Saudi Arabia by the Houthis comes amid reports that the government and Houthis failed to strike a fresh prisoner exchange deal”, which is fun because this was a deal between Houthis and the legitimate Yemen government. So this is all about posturing, or is it?

You see, a few hours later I was given through Arab News (at https://arab.news/6p5tn) ‘Iran’s new president vows balance with all countries, warns US his country won’t be pressured’ where Iran apparently made the claim “He looks forward to engaging in constructive dialogue with European countries”, so there is the carrot. Iran needs Saudi Arabia in a holding pattern, whilst Iran ‘appeases’ European nations. So as I see it Houthi forces are still the barking dogs of Iran and Iran needs this, because their support of Hamas will have secondary contemplations by any nation thinking that talking with Iran is a good idea. It has not now or yesterday worked and it will not work tomorrow either. 

As Iran is hiding their hands behind terrorist organisations like Hamas or Houthi forces, we need to be weary that stability in the Middle East requires both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, they have the growing economies, the larger setting for tourism and the options of uniting Arab nations. The problem is that Iran is a problem. They are crying like little girls as they are denied a larger seat at the Arab table. The only small friend that Iran can rely on is Qatar and they have growing issues with Hamas. How that plays out is beyond me but in this setting we have Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman and Iraq. They are all playing nice and as I see it, there is not to much love for Iran in this. Qatar is the one successful nation that has been playing a dangerous game, so what happens with them is up in the air. I reckon that the Houthi’s are set to the threat to Saudi Arabia. In this my feelings are that if one attack on a civilian target is done, the might of the Saudi forces will bluntly retaliate against Houthi forces. This has the one complication that Iran has to either commit or desert Houthi forces. This is the ploy as I see it. Iran cries loudly towards Europeans that they are so willing to discuss peace, but they are under the hammer. It will be something like that. So the Iranian ploy is unlikely to work. Europe has enough problems with Russia and Russia could be of little use to Iran. Russia has only one carrier left and they need it in their Ukrainian tactics. But this is about Iran. They are losing ‘useful’ friends a lot faster than they are happy with. It is in that setting that the Houthi threat is (as I personally see it) an Iranian tactic. 

They have to play nice with some people because they are about to learn the lesson Hector Malot taught us with ‘Sans Famille’ and Iran is rightfully worried. You see when the coins come down Iran will have to put up or shut up and they will lose a lot of face in the entire Middle East, sitting at a table where the stabilising points come from Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. That is why (my personal point of view) Iran need Houthi, Hamas and any other player that Iran can place in the field with deniability. It is why I said that whatever Palestine comes through, it will require the eradication of Hamas. Because it will be them who will terrorise the building projects in Saudi Arabia. 

So how can I prove any of this? Well the history of Iran is one. Their actions towards Houthi forces is another and the Iranian actions are right after the threats from Houthi forces. I feel that one ploy is enabling other actions. 

But for the most in this, I am merely speculating. So enjoy this Sunday.

Leave a comment

Filed under Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 9, 2024 · 19:46

Is Israel failing?

That is a serious question. Hamas started all this and it was the straw that broke the camels back. The response was overwhelming. Well over 50% of Gaza has been reduced to rubble. But behind all this is a second tier that needs addressing. It is the UNRWA. We saw the accusations, we saw government pull out funds. I am OK with that, but now the media is starting another track. Australian ABC gives us that politician Penny Wong has questions. That is fair enough. 10 hours ago, the Guardian gives us ‘We don’t have all the facts on UNRWA allegations, Penny Wong admits’, now it is starting to become a problem. 

These are not alone. We see news from Channel 4, CBC and other sources making similar claims. Now, for the most the media has lost pretty much all credibility with me, so I have doubts. Yet in all this Israel has one option. To make this document public knowledge through all the sources it can trust. In the mean time, the new Arab (at https://www.newarab.com/news/no-evidence-israeli-unrwa-claims-six-page-dossier) gives us ‘Channel 4 says ‘no evidence’ for Israel’s UNRWA claims in six-page dossier’, so what gives? 

As I said, Israel’s (pretty much) only option left is to make that dossier public. If it is evidence (clear evidence mind you) the media becomes even less reliable than it already is. And lets not forget the UN Essay that newspapers used to smear the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I poked holes in that one in under an hour. I am pretty sure I can do the same here if it does not hold up to scrutiny. 

So the question remains, is Israel failing here? The fact that the UN sacked a dozen or more workers implied that there was an issue. They weren’t set to zero hours, whilst an investigation was done, They were sacked immediately. This implied something was wrong, something was afoot. But now we get that this so called dossier does not hold evidence. It does not sound like Israel, but that accusation should be investigated as well. We are also given “inconsistencies have since appeared in Israel’s narrative, with documents shared with Sky News by Israel naming 6 rather than 12 staff as allegedly involved in the attacks. No explanation has been provided yet for this.” Now, I get that the other 6 might have intelligence value by not naming them, as such it might have been not documented (might being the operative word). Yet why mention these people at all? There are question marks and I am happy to hand the ace of spades to the media, but too many (some very respectable) are making similar mention. As such Israel needs to do something. Hamas is a blight on all and soon they will become a blight on the Muslim world. As such, should Israel deal with them now, it is fine by me. Later when they play these games to wring power away from Saudi Arabia and the UAE towards themselves and Iran it becomes a whole new mess of destabilisation and these dumb individuals are one trick ponies. They know no other way. Better to deal with them now before they create chaos in Saudi Arabia and the UAE afterwards, then These two will have to deal with them and that is a larger problem. Gaza is almost gone, Hamas will spread via Qatar all over the Arabian peninsula, it will flame all the nations there. It is my view, but I feel that I see this anticipated view correctly. So Israel needs to show the evidence to everyone, so that politicians and media cannot hide behind “I misread that? It was a simple miscommunication”, we need to get ahead of this and I reckon that this dossier once printed in the Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post and Haaretz will be picked up by everyone else. No matter what happens next, time is running short for Israel. They might have created waves, however the media is counter waving them with their own waves and the people are caught in the middle. NONE of them have produced the dossier or used clear quotes on what the dossier says, as such Israel has an option left and I reckon it might decide the fate of the UNRWA. 

I agree that it is my view, but I feel that I am seeing it all correctly. I will let you decide which view is the correct one. I am getting close to Saturday, in Vancouver Friday just started.

Enjoy the day.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 30, 2022 · 03:51

The opposite point of view?

That was the setting I looked t when I saw the article in the New Arab (at https://english.alaraby.co.uk/analysis/saudi-arabias-line-neom-project-too-ambitious) where we see ‘Is Saudi Arabia’s ‘The Line’ NEOM project too ambitious?’ The title gives us a handle and my first question is should that not be the case? Now we take the Empire State Building for granted, but in 1930, people thought the same regarding the Empire State Building. Things need to be too ambitious. The entire setting of Neom and the Line is too ambitious, because this has NEVER been done before. And even if people write it into the ground calling it a ‘gazillion dollar project’ the truth is that they are writing fear, because I personally guarantee you that they would not write that if it was a US project. Two architectural projects and both as in Saudi Arabia. But back to the article. We then get ““In the aftermath of the pandemic, economic rehabilitation is at the forefront of all countries’ political agendas. This is why Saudi Arabia will have no issues in filling any labour gaps with regards to construction and investments in the project itself,” Siddiqa explained.” This is a fair point and every nations has this hurdle, as such I do not see a real problem, a hurdle, not an obstacle. Again a fair point is seen with “NEOM is not without its challenges, some of which Riyadh has addressed and others which remain an obstacle. Financial challenges are the biggest obstacle for mega projects like NEOM and The Line. Research shows that Saudi Arabia has not been able to achieve much success in attracting financial resources and investment from foreign governments and companies.”, what I would like to add is that these companies were eager to invest when oil was their fortune, but investing in something that they at present do not understand is somewhat understandable, greed needs assurances and they have an image (of greed) to uphold. Then the article throws a reality our way. With “While the initial plan was to complete NEOM by 2030 with an allotted $500 billion, some reports claim that the city may not be completed until 2050, which will likely increase costs significantly. For this reason, it is predicted that the entire project, including The Line, will cost the Kingdom $1 trillion.” And here we see the first larger hurdle. With ‘the city may not be completed until 2050’ which is true, but now we also see the essential need to hold onto the larger need for perfection and precision. Any party that cuts corners will become the foundation of failure for the entire project and even if only one phase is ready in 2030, the KSA will show to be a global game changer. And lets fave it, on this day and age that delay is not the biggest one. The line is a city for 9 million people. Rome was not build in a day and that is a fair notion to take. If it helps, I reckon that my IP for Augmented Reality could optionally make an optional larger difference there. But the larger truth is that the Empire State Building took a year to make, the Line is over 200 times larger and as such getting it all ready by 2050 is still an amazing feat, more important it is a building no one else has been able to build as well as a first building to allow nature to restore. That setting is a larger achievement. More important I reckon that the side development in material waste and sewage will have larger repercussions for the internal development of any city and such part have never been this centralised before. A place where pollution stops. Consider London where we would suddenly halt ALL car traffic for a week. The impact of cleaner air would be seeable and sense by all, a city 50% smaller and it has that impact, so what spin will the KSA receive when others offer their version of complexities? Then we are given a part that I found debatable. It is “The financial viability of PIF is highly dependent on the Kingdom’s oil exports, a market that has proven volatile in recent years. In 2020, Riyadh faced a significant fiscal deficit of more than $79 billion. In a country where around 60% of its financial resources came from oil and just 9% from non-oil exports in 2021, the financing of the NEOM project is likely to face financial ups and downs.” So, yes we get ‘In 2020, Riyadh faced a significant fiscal deficit of more than $79 billion’ this is true, but what about 2022? The guardian gave us (months ago) ‘Largest oil and gas producers made close to $100bn in first quarter of 2022’ and two weeks ago we got “Aramco had a 90% year-on-year increase and marks the biggest earnings for the world’s largest energy exporter since its public listing three years ago.” As such the 2020 point of view for a 2022 article makes a lot less sense. And the reference of “around 60% of its financial resources came from oil” might sound fair (or at least correct) but both Neom and the Line show us that this could change, a city with no cars means 4,000,000 less cars creating pollution, needing no gasoline are clear markers in that change. And when the achievement is established other nations will want the same event (especially in Texas where they now start to have energy problems). A stage that could export Saudi skills in other ways too. One significant hurdle is shown with “the biggest technical problem that Saudi Arabia will face in NEOM is the reliance on foreign skilled workers, an issue that is unlikely to be resolved in the short term.” This was true and yes it was a problem, but I illuminated that with “there is now a decent chance that the small hidden engineering texts will be Arabic/Chinese and not Arabic/English. A station that was always likely to happen, but now it seems it is becoming the passing of a fact” a side I saw solved on August 11th 2022, a week before this article was written. I set that in ‘Stirring the soup’, a stage I saw coming a mile away and that too is the larger defeat for the west, especially as China has both the upper echelon and lower echelon of workers, workers Saudi Arabia will need and a job market that is now closing for Europe and America. A longer set of issues that hd been out and open for all to see, now the Silk Road gets the chance to build whilst fuelling itself with oil and revenue, both at the same time. I reckon that Strasbourg never considered that. How interesting that I had done that.

In the end my point of view is that there is no ‘too ambitious’, it comes with the terrain of creating something never done before, as long as the decision makers realise that 2030 is not a static point of completion, they will end up being in a good place. Even completing Phase one by 2030 is an achievement not found anywhere else in the world at present and that completion takes the project crown away from America, not a bad first result. And in all this the redesign of world powers might also be a first, with the chance that China becomes the worlds first power and America? Well they will have to content with the number 6 slot, that is also a consequence of catering to Wall Street, the larger view is lost when the spreadsheet users were all set on next quarter, not next decade. In this I will shown to have been correct yet again. I wonder what else I could see in the near future.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,