Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

January 9, 2025 · 02:13

When insanity is like desperation

There is always the setting of misjudging ones opponent. That happens of course, but what happens when the opponent is an ally? That is the premise of the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg9gvg3452o) where we are given ‘Europe will not allow attacks, says France, after Trump Greenland threat’. This is not the first setting. It started with the setting that America (President-elect Trump) stated that it was a great idea if Canada became the 51st state of America and we see the news handing us the setting that Kevin O’Leary gives us that it was a great idea if that would happen. Now at that point I had two issues. The first is that O’leary is a Canadian, and no less a multi millionaire to the amount of somewhere in the near half a billion range. He is known to be clever so my hairs in the back of my went up. You see, I am a commonwealthian and handing over land that is ‘ours’ to America is a big no no in my book. 

The issue however went from bad to worse. We now see that Trump has his eyes set on Greenland and the lands around the Panama Canal. As such I am in doubt of what s going on. I refuse to believe that it is the simple ramblings of a madman. I understand that he is merely throwing ideas around, but we are given (in that story) “Asked if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal, Trump said: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two. “But I can say this, we need them for economic security.”” And then an idea hit me in the head (it did hurt). So what if America is so bankrupt that America (President-elect Trump) sees that this could be the final presidency of the United States? There is a lose thought that there is correlation between ‘expansion need’ and economic security. And America has $36.22 trillion debt. Even at a mere 2% that amounts to $722 billion in annual interest (the interest is higher than 2%) and that is the kind of anchor that ends any economy. To set this into other sights, if Greenland and Canada become part of the United States, the look and feel of debt goes down, or in better words, 40 million more taxpayers and the resources of Canada (and Greenland) become American resources. I just bet that Kevin O’Leary has his ideas on how to exploit that setting, no sharks required. 

There is every chance that Trump will voice in two weeks that he was just throwing ideas around, but that is not a given. Now that he realizes that the EU will go to war and the UK, NewZealand and Australia will stand next to the leader of the Canada against Trump that setting becomes dodgy to say the least. We will see an entirely new setting. And in that setting China will see it’s own needed promise of gaining economic strength on the global stage. So as we are given “Trump suggested the island was crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are “all over the place”.” He seemingly forgets that in that instance Europe will invite China for ‘support’ and in that setting the US military will have to vacate all European base settings. The problem is that this could invite Russia to expand to the west, unless China has already been invited and that is a new stage of poker for territory. Is that what will happen? I honestly don’t know. Yet, we also never saw the setting that America would seek expansion into their north and west, so all bets are off as I see it. 

How this plays out is anyones guess and for the most of it all, many see President elect Trump as a clown, so we tend to downplay his rhetoric, but in seriousness, he might be pushed due to the debts and the fact that America has close to no way of paying that debt in the coming three years. So in his presidency America is highly likely to go bankrupt. As I personally see it, that is good news for me, because when that hits all IP will gain value, especially if it is IP outside of America. Still, we need to see what the American administration does when the new president is in office. As I see how this evolves people like Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are giving their view on the ramblings of a elected president and that spells bad news for America. The question becomes how will China react? In other news, there is an upside for Saudi Arabia, as it seemingly is Lockheed Martin would come for sale and Saudi Arabia is willing to pay top dollar, as such the question becomes ‘Did James D. Taiclet consider relocating to Riyadh?’ Not the weirdest question to throw into the rink.

We will know within two weeks whether we will get some ‘Just kidding’ news article or whether we see countries in Europe sharpen their axes to start another conflict. 

Have a great day.

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January 8, 2025 · 00:57

Dens, first name Evie

That is the setting where I am. It was the BBC that gave me (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q78wn9g8zo) where we see ‘US designates Tencent a Chinese military company’ and my first question is “By what evidence?” You see, we can go back to the European tour by Colin Powell, armed with a silver briefcase where he travelled around Europe like a rockstar and that is how we got into the Iraqi war. They had graphics (probably a powerpoint presentation). Then we got the accusations against Huawei. We never got to see any evidence and as I saw it America was afraid to lose the 5G war and they basically still did. Now we get that Tencent is on route to basically throw Microsoft in the dirt and now they are a military complex? To do what? Unite gamers all over the world? And what evidence do we get? The simplistic line “including gaming and social media giant Tencent” Where is the evidence? Then we are given “The list serves as a warning to American companies and organisations about the risks of doing business with Chinese entities. While inclusion does not mean an immediate ban, it can add pressure on the US Treasury Department to sanction the firms.” Funny, Tencent was offered my gaming solution that would bring them 6 billion a year in phase one, after that the numbers become interesting. You see, Amazon had no interest (they never contacted me) and as such the Amazon Luna seems to be out of consideration, Google placed themself outside the scope as they deleted the Google Stadia and I will not let Microsoft near any of my IP (as I personally see them, they are losers that rely on the gods of mediocrity) which leaves Tencent. As I see it, the first stage would get them a nominal annual revenue of up to 6 billion, which is set to 50,000,000 consoles. After that with up to 200 million consoles the ride becomes exciting. I offered it also to Saudi Arabia and Kingdom Holding as they have larger concerns in this and There is a hidden pleasure in me to see Saudi Arabia end up above Microsoft, they are that irrelevant to me. It would also impact Facebook (Meta) revenue, but I cannot say to what extent (lack of numbers and achievable timeline)

A simple setting I saw 3 years ago and no one seemingly caught on. 

As such we see all kinds of wannabe players, but there is no evidence, at least it is not clearly given. And when we get to “In response to the latest announcement Tencent, which owns the messaging app WeChat, said its inclusion on the list was “clearly a mistake.” “We are not a military company or supplier. Unlike sanctions or export controls, this listing has no impact on our business,” a spokesperson for the company told the BBC.” Some might catch on that America is merely trying to to prevent Microsoft to go several steps closer to bankruptcy. So they are setting (in my personal believe) the status for Europe to shun Chinese firms. Yet the larger setting is that they are merely setting up the shop for Tencent to become close to an Arabic and Asian provider to entertainment. So in 2-3 years when Tencent, TikTok and Huawei grow beyond their borders we will see the scared Europeans go overboard and let them into their areas and as I see it Tencent is on the brink of shutting Microsoft out of a population of close to 3 billion people (Asia, India, Arabian nations, Indonesia and Bangladesh) and as such as they get the people on their side Europe with over half a billion people will be joining them as well. Microsoft might be a 3 trillion company but I reckon that in a year with failure after failure, their vaults and coffers will look rather slim-lined. 

And for the people thinking I am bluffing, well, you are allowed to think that, but consider a small setting. Microsoft lost to Nintendo and Sony and all we get all the junk news like that they are working on a handheld computer. The problem is that Nintendo is already there and Tencent is coming as well (exact time unknown to me). So Microsoft is already in third place and it will get worse from there, because you need people in the end and they are somewhere else and now that they are ‘advocating’ cloud gaming with TV’s we need to realise that this require too much bandwidth, as such that ship is sailing fast towards the abyss of failure (as I personally see it). Then we get their Surface pro and the short and sweet is that it is nowhere as useful as what Apple has. I see that as another failure. You see in the 11 years that contraption was around, it did not push Apple from the winning pedestal. No matter how much they spin the story. And when you consider that gaming and tablet as well as the fact that Blizzard and Bethesda were bought for 75 billion. So how much did they make? Nowhere near that much and Starfield was a bust from the beginning. Billions in the Surface pro and that is not paying off either. So how many failures can they survive? And now Tencent is entering gaming with the option to create serious waves. It is the impact of innovation. As I see it, spin gets you nowhere and now the new spin for players like Microsoft is to let the administration deal with the Chinese and with the return president elect Trump Microsoft is cheering as President elect Trump is anti-Chinese. But the trouble isn’t what they have. It is that over 4 billion do not see America as the centre of the universe. Which gives Tencent an option and when (speculative) Tencent will adhere to the stage of Harmony OS, the setting for Microsoft and Google goes down a mot more. You see HarmonyOS joined iOS and Android on the world stage. Yes, it is a mere third place, but every step they make is one that Apple and Google lose and Google has more problems because of the stupidity of the American legal system. They are just slicing pieces of the revenue pie for Huawei to take a bite from and as Huawei grows Google and Apple will lose some market share. And as Huawei and Tencent connect they will both grow stronger. How strong? That is not easy to say, but the small beginning will endure over time and America pushed for this and now it is too late. As the market changes Huawei and Tencent will robustly grow to some effect. Now we get the ‘accusation’ that Tencent is part of the Chinese military companies, which is formally known as the Section 1260H. And that is a nice game, but the others (pretty much all others) want to see evidence as Europe and the Commonwealth will demand evidence. They are seeing what revenue these two players bring and Microsoft merely brought failure after failure. As I see it innovation talks and failure walks alone and when someone will consider the turncoat metrics of Microsoft trying to get whatever they can as their console and tablet fails to do. As for Azure? It is lagging behind AWS (Amazon) by 50%, so don’t get your hope up. Another failure as I see it. So how much revenue is lost over these three parts only? So as the secretary of the Pentagon is not too busy (Miss E Dens) we would like to see the evidence that Tencent is part of the Chinese military. I don’t say it is not, I merely want to see evidence for a change (we never saw the WMD evidence, or the Huawei evidence), just for argument sake.

Have a great day, my Wednesday started 3000 seconds ago.

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January 6, 2025 · 08:26

The reverse effect for some

Today I got some news in Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2585317/saudi-arabia) where we see ‘Saudi project clears 1,151 Houthi mines in Yemen’ We are given “The total included 32 anti-tank mines, 1,115 unexploded ordnances and four explosive devices, according to a recent report” Members of Saudi Arabia’s Project Masam has been active since 2018. In that time they cleared a total of 477,583 mines since its inception. And the western (most likely corrupt media) ignored this for years. The prefer bashing Israel and giving others a clean pass. But the numbers are not to be ignored. If we go by averages, it implies that the placement of 477,583 mines at $50 a pop implies a investment of a little shy of 24 million, a lot more if you consider that jot all are found and those who did explode don’t need clearing. So when did Houthi terrorists have that kind of money? 

They didn’t and this implies that Iran has forwarded them the good and optionally money and other elements too. But the media steers clear of that part don’t they? The other side of the coin is worse, Saudi Arabia had to invest people and somewhere around $1,000,000,000 (one billion) to get rid of this Iranian menace. At present the demining operations took place in Marib, Aden, Jouf, Shabwa, Taiz, Hodeidah, Lahij, Sanaa, Al-Bayda, Al-Dhale and Saada. The problem is that wide spread. But leave it to the media to report on the hardship of those poor poor terrorists. It is time that the media wakes the fuck up and does their actual job, which is reporting the news, not chase digital dollars through flaming the audience.

All this was given more then once (I saw the report in 2021) and the western media gives us nothing, or perhaps whatever flames people the most. The more I notice, the more the western media disgusts me.

Have a great day and try to avoid mines by not walking backwards into one.

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December 29, 2024 · 22:00

At the close of a year

This might be the last article this year (no promises). I have been haunted by a weird dream, but that is not what this is about. You see, the army recognition group gave us yesterday (at https://armyrecognition.com/news/aerospace-news/2024/saudi-arabia-eyes-up-to-100-turkish-kaan-fighter-jets-as-us-made-f-35-remains-inaccessible) ‘Saudi Arabia eyes up to 100 Turkish Kaan fighter jets as US-made F-35 remains inaccessible.’ I know nothing of this plane, so I am not going in that direction. The setting that the US set the inability of the F35 being handed to Saudi hands is worthy of responding to. You see, the pricing of the F35 is set to “$102.1 million for the F-35C.” This means that America lifted their nose at 10 – 25 billion of hard needed income. The planes, the support and engineering surplus and a few other options. I expected that China would ‘swoop’ in to get that money. It is decently plausible that their were more reasons. I am merely setting that this could also mean the end of the Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB), you see, airbases on foreign ground are meant for allies and America has priced them out of that corner. As I see it Anthony Blinken has done away with that option. You see, only two months ago we got “US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday sought to make headway with Saudi Arabia on” whatever ‘his’ administration is ‘worried’ about. You need to have an ally for that and the fact that the F35 has been ‘unavailable’ since 2012. That is over 12 years, so as the F35 faces being optionally phased out by 2030, they lost one of their biggest customers and provisional ally in the Arabic peninsula as I personally see it. 

And America? Well, who needs an ally who is never there? That is the short and sweet part of this all and for Turkey this might be the sweet deal of the century. At some point the UAE and Egypt will also require 5th gen stealth fighters. This will make it harder for America and China to get traction. I never expected that Turkey was on that level, but that shows you what I know of this field.

And this is not the first time America, Europe and China enter behind the fishnet only to end up with nothing. This potential purchase follows Saudi Arabia’s $3.1 billion agreement with Türkiye in 2023 for the acquisition of 60 Baykar AKINCI unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), set for delivery in 2025 and 2026.

So, when was the last time major governments walked away from a potential 15 billion deal? America might shout tariffs and the upcoming said expansion with their 51st state (Canada), but they forget that Canada is part of a Commonwealth and in their views (the Commonwealth) it amounts to a direct assault on the Commonwealth. So when was the last time a nation was engaged with the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and at least two dozen more. If they reject all imports from America, the American economy goes the way of the dodo a lot faster than the dodo did. For China it sounds like a prolonged Christmas. You see, if they get traction with the Commonwealth, a desire they never thought realistic, but going after their largest member Canada might set that deal to nominal.

That as the rejection of billions set a dangerous premise for America and Saudi Arabia can play hard to get in that instance. So the next threat by the president elect Trump will set a minefield around (presumed) Marco Rubio making his job next to impossible. 

But we will see what will happen. In the meantime we should send a congratulatory card to Turkey for this achievement.

And of course the card for the next tenant of the Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB), but that is likely to follow in 2025/2026. As I see it, the next two years are close to essential for the next administration to avoid a governmental garage sale. But what do I know?

Still, in retrospect the dream still bugs me. The dream was a job at ADNOC, in Abu Dhabi. They had an AS400 running SPSS 6.1.3 and it had been gathering dust. It wasn’t working and the people at IBM said it was the fault of ADNOC. In the dream I merely had to remove 2 lines (reading ASCII data), two variables Alphanumeric were making a mess of things and removing the two lines solved 96% of the issue. 96% was fixed in the first hour (well for one job). I needed two additional hours to align the alphanumeric fields. And that took two hours to work out, I used Excel for that (the one Microsoft program Microsoft got right). And with that the first month was back on track. A weird setting, as I know next to nothing of ADNOC, I know that they are in oil, and that is all. I haven’t thought of that program in over 2 decades, so what gives? Well, in part technical support at SPSS was perhaps one of the most fulfilling jobs. But the powers that be didn’t see me as IBM material. O well, such is life. 

Time to head to the end of the year and see what 2025 will bring. 

Have a great day and the optional conclusion of a great year.

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December 16, 2024 · 18:57

The statistics are against me

Yup, that happens and I don’t believe it is a worrying issue. You see, it started a little over a year ago and I created my first (sort of) script. It is called ‘How to assassinate a politician’ which I later ‘reset’ to ‘Essay’. MY first script was meant specifically for an islamic audience which could have graced the walls of the UAE or the Saudi media bosses. I saw the story and it was my response to an Islamophobe population. And how to better serve it than to assassinate the biggest European islamophobic of all Geert Wilders (now PM of the Netherlands). I thought it was an excellent idea (a pure personal thought). Yet now I am confronted with ‘How the creative economy drives growth in the Middle East’ (at https://economymiddleeast.com/news/how-creative-economy-drives-growth-middle-east/). Here I see “In the UAE, a global creative hub, Dubai Media City is home to a talent pool of over 40,500 creative professionals”, so what was I thinking? Well, the short of this is that I write to feed the creative beast in me. I was unaware of just how large the Media City population was, and if you go by that setting you will never get anything done.

And whilst you are mulling over “The UN Trade and Development Creative Economy Outlook 2024 highlights the crucial role of creative industries in global trade and economic growth. According to the UNCTAD survey, the creative economy contributes between 0.5 percent and 7.3 percent of GDP and employs 0.5 percent to 12.5 percent of the workforce in various countries. “The creative economy has the right forces pushing its sails. This is not just art. It is an economic powerhouse that we must harness together, leaving no one behind,” stated Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of UNCTAD.”” You see, it is nice to hide behind numbers at one setting, but the source of the numbers matter a well. I find a little worrying setting behind the statement “The creative economy has the right forces pushing its sails. This is not just art. It is an economic powerhouse that we must harness together, leaving no one behind” my issue is in one direction “leaving no one behind”, which is nice, but that is a political statement and Grynspan was in the past Grynspan was a professor and researcher at the Economic Science Research Institute at the University of Costa Rica. This is not some anti statement. I always wonder and become ‘skeptical’ when a politician makes a “leaving no one behind” in their setting. Because that tends to rally towards “We were however forced to make choices” and that always goes at the expense of Art, especially when dollar numbers are involved. That and the setting of “employs 0.5 percent to 12.5 percent of the workforce in various countries”, which is quite the distribution. So where is it 12.5%? Hollywood with its 153,859 villagers? Some other consideration would be ‘the UNCTAD survey’, which I am not attacking now, as I have never read it. But the stage of a survey calls with me the setting of data. What data? What was filtered? How was it collected? What nations participated? Indonesia has around 277.5 million people, how many does its media (online and other) have? Simple questions really. 

When we dig into the matter, we see “Middle Eastern countries recognise the potential of the creative economy. In the region, the intersection of the digital and creative industries, in particular — encompassing the use of artificial intelligence (AI), Web3, and virtual reality — is driving innovation and economic diversification.” I still shiver at the notion that AI does not yet exist, no matter how many players boom the bubble of the AI vibe, it does not yet exist and we need to take notice of this. It might be fuelling the desire for it to be here, but it isn’t and when the world starts wondering the simple equation of “LLM’s vs AI” and true data parsing, its verification process and programmers with its algorithms the statement “According to a white paper by Dubai Design District and Dubai Media City, the global digital creative economy could grow by 11 percent annually, reaching a staggering AED27 trillion by 2030.” I fear for the fallout it precedes. And like the other papers the question of population, collection and reading the data will get a much higher priority. I winder how certain power players will address and respond to “a staggering AED27 trillion by 2030”, you see, joy of a revenue is nice, but the fear of it falling short in 5 years will be on the forefront of nearly every mind who depended on this fuelling stage. 

There is a side I fully agree with. It is seen in “In November, Dubai Media City underscored the essential role of multicultural creativity at this year’s Global Media Congress held in ADNEC Center Abu Dhabi.” I believe that true creativity can only be seen in a multicultural setting as such the UAE has a jump on all other nations as I personally see it and even as I shiver at the 40,500 setting (I am not debating or attacking it) I understand that my script had very little chance to begin with. I am still proud I wrote it and there are three more coming (not with Islamic values in mind), but that is the state of the world. Creativity is where our thoughts take us. And we respond as we would or as we can. The first one was islamic in nature, but that doesn’t mean all will be and multicultural is the first step of being truly creative. What matters to me are a few things and the stage of the numbers is one, articles rarely spell that out and as such it becomes my setting that I wish I knew more of UNCTAD and their numbers, because it is at the heart of the matter here. And here is the spiller (or killer). You see, the UN Trade and Development has a UNCTADstat Data centre. I took a look (at https://unctadstat.unctad.org/datacentre/) where I found “International trade in creative services: estimates for individual economies” an experimental part that has data from 2010 to 2018 and shows us Saudi Arabia, but not the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as such I wonder where the numbers are coming from. The article does not give us that part. I saw the Creative Economy Outlook 2024. The word ‘Statistics’ is given to us 23 times, and always with references like {Key Statistics and Trends in Trade Policy 2022. UNCTAD/DITC/TAB/2023/2. Geneva.} Yet the report gives us no real numbers (like raw data) or the reference to raw data has exactly 0 hits. As such I tend to have a more skeptical view on such a presentation. As such when ‘confirming’ the survey, I see another ‘hitch’ the fact that the phrase ‘in countries where data is available’ is missing from the article. It happens, but as I see it, it is kinda sloppy. With the rather large setting shown (in the UN pdf) that we see “inputs received through the 2024 UNCTAD Survey on the Creative Economy from the following countries: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Benin, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Montenegro, Mozambique, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Seychelles, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Uzbekistan and Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.” And here we get the other shoe dropped. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are not mentioned at all. This is not on these countries, but as I see it The editorial of the Middle East economy has a little explaining to do (as I personally see it), it might be merely semantics, but that is at times how I roll.

And there is more on the graphics, one pie chart merely shows Saudi Arabia and the UAE as part of the EMEA region, as such I wonder which part of the 21% is Europe, because that sets a much larger premise of advertisement per region and population. There is no real way that Saudi Arabia and the UAE can compete in advertising against a population of 742 million europeans. As such I start to develop questions (as I would).

Well that was it for now, I’ll add the United Nations PDF at the bottom, it took me less than 10 minutes to scope out the questions you see here and if I took a little more time I will find a lot more. But that is the setting of a political brief (as I see it), I also didn’t see (I might have missed that) on the definition of the media and what sources are set to what medium. You see, there is a chart on Global video games revenues, and predictively set (based on data) this is always an upward spiral because there are no sources (or data) available for the Playstation 6, the Nintendo Switch 2, or the Tencent handheld. They are the tomorrow systems and there is no data on any of that a present. But the larger audiences are already looking into these parts. So what gives on the data?

A mere simple question that has no easy answer, I get that, because presumption is always on what is known, but take the simple setting in 2012 the PS4 was released. It got more than 50 million consoles out and obliterated the Microsoft product. In 2016 Microsoft merely gave us all Xbox live numbers. So when we see that, what numbers does UNCTAD have to set the Total video games revenue from 225 to 312 billion and Video games advertising from 75 to 137 billion between 2023 and 2027? A lot higher than Traditional games which went from 55 to 62 billion? The numbers do not reflect each other. As you might guess that sets gaming in a dead drop against advertisement, a bad business practice as I personally see it. And I could go on but when you see it was a forecast based on PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2023-2027 (so based on what numbers?) This is merely what I found in under an hour. As such question all numbers that have no accompanying response setting (aka N). 

Also when we get the Countries with the most significant art markets by value of sales in 2023 and we see USA, France, UK, China and other with France at 7% and other at 15%, where do the UAE and Saudi Arabia end up? Consider that a place with 40,500 members do not surpass France and are part of the 15% What is the setting for them? I wonder if the Middle East Economy had those questions in mind when they released that story. As I see it a simple question really.

1416030-ENDownload

Have a great Monday.

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December 11, 2024 · 16:59

Out of bounds

Is the setting we should enable. You see, there are. Few sides and many of them come from an unreliable media (which includes nearly ALL media). We are given ‘Jamal Khashoggi’s widow urges Starmer to raise husband’s murder at Saudi meeting’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/09/jamal-khashoggis-widow-urges-starmer-to-raise-husbands-at-saudi-meeting). You see, my issue (since the very beginning) has been that the data is unsubstantiated, lacks reliability and a few other settings. 

In the very first is that there is not now, nor has there been ever a body. Forensic evidence has been lacking since day one and in the clear setting (based on law) we can say that Jamal Khashoggi has been missing, but that is all. The media has been rife with all kinds of speculations based on grainy pictures. Pictures that could have been taken in the White House for all we know. Ever since it was on my radar, going back to 2020, I started the stages in ‘Demanding Dismissal’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/07/04/demanding-dismissal/) where I gave a report on the stages that I had an issue with. The larger debatable presented truths was debated by me in “[92] Turkish Intelligence assessed that he may have been dead within ten minutes after entering the Consulate. Here we are treated to ‘he may have been dead’, ‘may’ refers to speculation, not fact, the footnote gives us “The ten minutes reference is based on the fact that after ten minutes, Mr. Khashoggi voice was not heard”, this implies that Turkish Intelligence has 100% of the embassy bugged and wired, that is extremely doubtful on several levels.” I debate the issues set in the UN document and basically attack the UN for doing such a hatchet job on an attack against a monarchy that was seen in the document which I will attach at the bottom. As such the Guardian giving us “Jamal Khashoggi’s widow has urged Keir Starmer to raise her husband’s murder at his meeting with the Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.” Get’s my response of ‘What murder? What evidence can you present?’ You think I am joking, but I am not. More important, the document (from the United Nations under essay writer Agnes Calamard) gives the much larger setting (made by me) of “The report mentions ‘interrogation’ 4 times, yet these so called tapes on the torture/interrogation of Jamal Khashoggi. Who heard them? How were they forensically tested and who tested and seconded any report of these findings and optional facts?” The tapes which spiralled the non-logical media into flame driven and digital currency driven idiots. Up to now, 4 years later I have yet to see any report on the settings of the ‘interrogation tapes’ none of this was ever presented and the Turkish media (who flamed things out of proportions all by themself) has yet to present any kind of intelligence or mere forensic evidence of this media. 

As such I have an issue with that. I have less of an issue with “We look here to your country, to the UK and to the US and most western countries, with respect because you have justice and you care for democratic and human rights. Forgetting Jamal’s case does not align with the values of justice and democratic and human rights in your country.” It is her view on the matter. The setting that the so called transgressions happened in a foreign location in a foreign country, neither of them United Kingdom or United States makes it a nice statement, but that is all it is. Oh and by the way, should Keir Starmer open his mouth in that case, I will demand loudly that he also raises his voice for all the Turkish Journalists that have died in Turkish captivity. Not one but dozens of them. I get why Hanan Elatr Khashoggi raises the issue, but al far as I know at least one source stated that Jamal was with a 19 year old (now 25 year old) mistress on a location in Bora Bora. I cannot vouch for the quality of that intelligence, but there you have it and as far as I was able to tell, none of the media looked into that matter, either to debunk or verify that ‘setting’. As such, I can tell that the attacks should be seen as merely anti-Saudi rhetoric. 

As such as we see “The government said the project aimed to generate £250m of investment and was expected to create more than 1,000 skilled jobs in Greater Manchester.” And as I (personally) see it. 1000 skilled jobs versus one journalist no one cares about, the journalist loses. Is it that bland a situation? Yes, it is. Mainly because no valid evidence has ever been produced. The CIA report gave us “please explain to me how the United States has any actual evidence regarding the events in a foreign nation on a consulate that is another nations grounds? How was this evidence collected? Creating a mountain of non-substantial evidence is not really evidence, even as circumstantial evidence that is founded on probability will not hold water, even if the statement “officials have said they have high confidence“, they lost the credibility they had with a silver briefcase holding evidence on WMD in Iraq, you do remember that part, don’t you? (It was roughly 16 years ago)” If it was actual evidence, the CIA would not hand us “officials have said they have high confidence” it blands the taste of spices and merely gives us the burger with the taste of a drip-mat. And it is always nice that the Guardian (not the most reliable source on Saudi intel) is wrecking up the past with an article like this. I countered their (and other sources) forms of ‘evidence’ within an hour. And the UN essay involved helped immensely. It came from statements in the document like “officials have said they have high confidence”, “he may have been dead” as well as “Mr. Khashoggi had been injected with something, passed out, and taken alive from the Consulate in some box or container” shows massive levels of speculation. I can do that as I was on the other side of the Indian Ocean, they (as I see it) cannot. And should Keir Starmer put 4,000 British jobs valued at a quarter of a billion at risk for something that is highly speculative and placed out of the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom from day one, he should be regarded as more stupid than anyone would hazard a guess on. Just my point of view and I get why Hanan Elatr Khashoggi takes that stage, but no one else will put their livelihood on the line. With the exception of those wanting the limelight for a useless cause (those people do exist), as such I see this article as one that should be out of bounds from the very start.

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It is what it is. Have a great day.

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December 9, 2024 · 18:47

To box office, or not to box office

That is the question and the question is valid as the movies opened up in 2018 with a revenue of $2.6m, seems little but in the few years that passed, annual revenue went up to a quarter of a billion, as such screen daily kept an eye on the Saudi market (at https://www.screendaily.com/features/is-saudi-arabias-box-office-boom-over-or-set-to-rise-again/5199910.article) in that same setting I created the script ‘How to assassinate a politician’ about the assassination of Islamophobe Geert Wilders (the current prime minister of the Netherlands) the alternative title was ‘Essay’ (I came up with that later). I aimed it for the Arabic (Saudi Arabia/UAE) market. I contacted 2-3 player, but I never heard back from them. I thought that through streaming they could also get to the Egyptian market (as well as the Indonesian markets) The ‘bad vibe’ feelings in Indonesian markets might be well received. A Dutch politician getting the Sukarno treatment might keep Indonesian people on their couch watching the demise of the Prime Minister five times over. Anyway, those were my thoughts and it seems that they didn’t agree with me. Still the setting remains. As we get “At least one of the major exhibitor groups operating in Saudi is said to be exploring a possible sale amid high debt levels incurred during its rapid expansion. Last year, AMC Entertainment Holdings, the world’s biggest cinema chain, exited the Saudi market in the face of intense competition, selling to Saudi Entertainment Ventures (Seven), which is operated by the government’s Public Investment Fund.” The intense competition was why I tried the streamers as a possible interested party. We can think box office all we want, but in the end, the people need to be entertained at home. The last time I went to the cinema, it was $19 for the movie and popcorn and a soda set me back another tenner. That’s three months of Netflix. I reckon we need to consider the home office and for a lot of Saudi’s (as well as Indonesians, Egyptians and people in the UAE) the same setting is looming. It is not that streaming is better, it is merely more affordable. Now that Apple is getting more into Saudi Arabia, it will be soon that Apple TV is coming too (or already there). And with the setting of “Bidding wars for titles from major US sellers were common, but less so now. Minimum guarantees have dropped as a result, reflecting the reality of a market that has levelled out. “When Saudi opened up, almost any film would work. But now audiences are a lot more selective,” says the executive.” Makes me feel that there is still a chance of my script making it to the screens of people. The movie plays part in the Netherlands and part in Dammam (no real reason why I chose it) and one scene in Iran. The setting of a movie that deals with islamophobia was appealing to me, because it is something nearly any Islamic person is exposed to (especially in Europe) and as such I created an idea with my copy of Final Draft (given to me for that reason) and a stronger view is given with “One bright spot is the market for Arabic-language content, particularly from Egypt. The figures underline the executive’s point: the top five box-office films of the year so far include two Egyptian titles (action drama Sons Of Rizk 3 and romantic comedy Gawaza Toxic) and one Saudi comedy (Shabab El-Bomb). According to Comscore, Egyptian titles now account for an impressive 25% of the Saudi market, while local Saudi features have a 7% share. US films, by comparison, take 53% of box office in the country.” My movie is not in Arabic, but it was designed with the stage of an Arabic version in mind. I merely lack the language skills to make it directly in Arabic. Now I see that this setting is given with “Egyptian titles now account for an impressive 25%” gives me hope that my final curtain call is not here yet. Yes, it is hope because I had never written a script before this and as I look at the tally where beside ‘How to assassinate a politician’ I am working on ‘Kenos Diastima’ (a TV series in the making), ‘Engonos’ (TV series in the making) and ‘Residuam Vitam’ (mini series in the making). I created these series partly to keep my writing skills up and it wasn’t until ‘How to assassinate a politician’ had formed more completely in my mind that I decided to make it in a script (in Final Draft) and when I started pushing that title did I start to set the blackboard for ‘Residuam Vitam’ which is still forming. 

And as we see this we also need to take notice of Adon Quinn, CEO of Saudi exhibitor Muvi Cinemas, believes that Arabic content can help drive future growth. I am willing to agree, but that is really in my favour. You see it is nice that things go to cinema (happy to help), but I reckon that the streamers in the UAE (Dubai Media) and Saudi Arabia (Aloula) will make the larger difference. The need for Egypt and Indonesia seem clear and Indonesia with a population of 277 million potential viewers should not be underestimated. As Quinn tells us “He points out the wider Saudi box-office slowdown echoes what has happened in markets around the world this year. Its main cause, he says, is the depleted supply of content caused by Covid and last year’s Holly­wood actors and writers strikes. “The strikes had a big impact on the first half of 2024,” he observes. “We’ve seen when the right content is there, the audience is there.”” But he also exposes a problem. The depleted supply is seemingly due to Hollywood. Still tapping the Canadian, Swedish and western European markets might not be a bad idea. Especially as California is about to get a few additional issues and they are not yet polarised into tinseltown (Hollywood). 

There are definitely options for the Arabic market, but I reckon that the streamers will have a much better time they do not need a movie distribution system and they can get a lot of traction roping in a potential viewing group of well over 400,000,000 people. You can fish in a barrel, but the same barrel holding either 400 million or a mere 35 million, that is the setting as I see it and as I have noticed Dubai Media is ready to get on board with that setting (I saw it was ‘proclaimed’ by certain individuals on LinkedIn). 

The market is where you cater to it and I thought it was a good idea to cater to the Arabic markets. Have a great day.

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December 7, 2024 · 01:24

The shame of neighbours

That is a little bit awkward. You see, you are you in your own eyes, but your neighbours might disagree. I know for a fact that in the past my neighbours thought of me as someone running in the light of insanity (as they saw it). I never saw it that way, but that is me. As such I looked at the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp837p125ywo) with the headline ‘Muslim couple forced to sell house after protests by Hindu neighbours’ with a slightly tilted head. I reckon the Mahatma would be ashamed of this event. So as we see “A Muslim couple in India have been hounded out of their newly-purchased home by their Hindu neighbours who said they would not allow them to live there because of their religion.” It comes with the additional text “Hindu residents of the posh TDI City – an upscale residential bloc in the northern city of Moradabad – began protesting on Tuesday night after news of the sale became public.” So remember, when it comes to prejudice, there is no better place then Moradabad. And that is not all. Consider that you would consider barring the neighbours you have for the simple fact that they believe something different. And it is not out of this world. Consider that in America being Democrat (or Republican) might get you socially barred in places. They might not protest you living there, but the neighbours will ignore you ever after. And it is not because you did something really wrong (like chasing children) but because you have an altered faith. We have all seen the issues in the past. Being a protestant in Ireland might not get you the high fives, being an atheist in Vatican City might equally be wrongly viewed by the Catholics around you. And there has been a near forever issue between Hindi and Muslims people. On the other hand Muhammad Ali Jinnah solved this issue by creating Pakistan. As such it took me a little back. I had not expected that this issue was still major in India. And we are given “The backlash to the sale of the house, he said, “has come out of nowhere” as there are other Muslim families already living in the colony and that “we had always had a good rapport with our neighbours”.” With the more important part “Our intention was not to create any kind of unrest with this transaction,” he said, adding that “there is no law” against this transaction.” As such there was not a legality issue, it was merely discrimination. And we can see that in more than one way. There is a reason why there are no churches in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is completely Muslim, so I get it. But in India with its 14.2% Islam population, this news seems odd to say the least and I reckon that there are Mosques housing the 202,865,128 souls. So it is not a singular setting. It is my personal view that the area of TDI City are seeking a segregated life. I don’t know how to feel about that. On one side it is deplorable, on the other side this religious issue has existed in India for well over 90 years. So I cannot see why, how or what regarding this issue. It comes across as a blockage in my mind. The stupidity of certain values. Perhaps I was raised on the wrong standards in life and that is why I cannot see this blockage for what it is. 

Have a great weekend, Saturday started an hour ago for me.

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December 5, 2024 · 17:07

The price of debt.

That is what I am looking at, the price of debt. You see, they are all hailing that the US economy is strong. One voice (Goldman Sachs), the one that lost it all in 2007 told the world that America would be strong at 2.5% (somewhere I read it). To all it sounds nice and I like nice, but I also query a system that is to my (non-economic view) is rigged. As we see images all over the place on how good things are supposed to be, consider:

We see the setting as tax collected. For 2023 is was “The US government collected nearly $4.7 trillion in gross taxes during the 2023 fiscal year, which is a 15.5% decrease from 2022. The IRS collected taxes from a variety of sources”, now for some it is a little more then milk money. And that sounds nice, but the other side has “As of October 2024, the United States government’s monthly interest rate on its debt is 3.3%. The average interest rate for 2024 is 3.32%, and the total debt is $35.46 trillion.” Consider the simple setting of 3.32% of $35.46 trillion. This gives us $1,170,180,000,000 dollar annually. Which would be ‘liveable’ were it not for the simple fact that this is ONLY interest. The debt remains. And now we have a problem. You see the interest is is a simple 24.89% of the entire taxable revenue and it was 15.5% less from 2022. Do you now see the problem? 25% of all taxable revenue goes to the banks that carry the debt. The federal government spent $6.75 trillion in FY 2022. This means that they spend over 30% to much, more than they had and if there was no debt we could argue, but at this setting we are faced with the simple fact that $6.75 trillion was spent over an available amount of $3.5 trillion, which is getting worse and worse. As such we could surmise that the debt will increase with a little over 3 trillion over spending over last year alone. As I see it America is done for. And the setting worsens with the optional crushing of Google in 2025 (by breaking up that firm) which give Huawei their first global win. Then the defence industry is losing more and more revenue to China and this sets a larger premise. In that setting we see on one hand “The A&D industry generated $425 billion in economic value, representing 1.6 percent of the 2023 nominal GDP in the U.S.”, yet in this we already seeing revenue shifting to China in this year alone and more revenue goes to Europe. For Saudi Arabia alone this sets the bar at “In 2024, the Saudi Arabian defense budget is worth $71.7 billion and will grow at a CAGR of more than 8% during 2025-2029.” Yet other sources give us that “Saudi Arabia estimates military spending will be 15 percent lower than budgeted this year” as such we could surmise that this implies that Saudi Arabia by itself would spend $10 billion less. Not a biggie you say, but the other side is that China now has a little over 10% on that slice of delicious gunpowder baked pie. Making the loss for America more. As such we see an annual loss of $16 billion in one year alone from one customer. As such, what would be the books on India, Japan, Taiwan, Pakistan and Indonesia? If we see these picture, we see a dangerous escalation towards some fictive nil revenue for America. Fictive because that will never happen, but as the largest players seek economic stability they will spend less and take other jobs ‘in-house’ as the expression goes and America has been too reluctant to appease to that state of mind. And now China will step in to offer just that. As I see it, the question on the dollar setting was wrong. We are given “As of March 2024, over half (52.9%) of Chinese payments were settled in RMB while 42.8% were settled in USD” against the tariffs threat by president elect Trump. The actual question would become “How long could the US Dollar keep standing?” You see, as the debt becomes a millstone around the neck of the US administration, we need to consider that some nations will seek shelter from the fallout that this setting. In 2017, on March 17th I wrote ‘The finality of French freedom’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2017/03/17/the-finality-of-french-freedom/), I set the comparison of the Euro like a barge kept in balance by 4 strong economies. UK, France, Germany and a combined economic anchor. The UK was lost and there was a setting when the French anchor would be lost too. The Euro could not survive a setting with two anchors. A simple equation. Now with the Dollar under attack the Euro could face near certain scuttling. As such the Dollar has an influence there. China seemingly doesn’t care, but the other players who make up a combined anchor might switch sides when they merely look at their own currency. And the debt? They will not care. And as such the dollar faces a lot more than the bully tactics of choice. They will need to up the game by a lot, because when one goes, so will the other and that puts the livelihood and liveability of 784 million people at the markers. 100,000 of them will do fine, but that represents a simple 0.01275348% of people who are likely to make it (outside of the EU and USA), so when were that good statistics? 

The price of debt was always there, but the media has been eager and willing to hide those facts through BS and spin and soon when the people catch on (the other 99.987% of people), the live of playing the media courtesan will be one of the most dangerous of them all. People remember. And it was a simple equation for the media. “You can fool all the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all of the time but you can never fool all of the people all of the time” A simple setting I knew to be true as early as the early 80’s. So how long did they have at most? Some are already falling in the bad light and when the people realise that they weren’t eating potatoes, but turnips. They will become massively enraged. 

A simple setting I have known to become reality at some point. So when are we given the goods? When the interest of the debt of America is shown as a setting against the budget and at this time it is around 25%, Americans need to realise that budgets need to diminish by at least 30%, so at what point do the people realise that the simplicity of the matter is that their money is about to be gone?

Have a lovely day.

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December 4, 2024 · 20:11

The premise was already set

There were some ‘noises’ on what I wrote yesterday and the ‘ludicrous’ setting of Huawei. Well, lets have a look then. The Corner (at https://thecorner.eu/news-spain/the-government-authorizes-saudi-stc-to-purchase-9-9-of-telefonica/117825/) gave us a few days ago ‘Government Authorises Saudi STC To Purchase 9.9% Of Telefonica’ It does not sound like much, but in that setting together with Egypt (as I reported in 2023) the Saudi Telecom Company was already aligning with Egypt and now as it is settling in Spain, Saudi Arabia has now a direct line of communications with the larger part of Europe. They already had Portugal and optionally also have parts of the United Group (details are not known to me).

Then when we see merely a day ago we get (at https://www.rcrwireless.com/20241202/featured/stc-huawei-5g-saudi-arabia) ‘stc, Huawei to enhance 5G connectivity in Saudi Arabia’ and now we get “Stc noted that this solution boosts operational speed by 200% compared to earlier models. Saudi telco stc and Huawei have announced the commercial rollout of SuperLink, a digital solution designed to enhance 5G connectivity across remote areas in Saudi Arabia.” So whilst we get the softer message from Nokia on 5G and we should forget 5G, because their 6G will be da bomb (slight personal tweaking). Yes, always look at the horizon whilst Huawei is upgrading 5G to something that resembles 5G+. Another fine mess the makers of yesterday’s technology bring us. There is however no timeline for 6G and whilst we hear all the wild stories, I have to argue that the organisations that remained in the dark for the longest of time, now has da bomb? I call that a dead mans bluff. Like what they had done before and nothing came from it. Now that China and Saudi Arabia are setting the new marker we see the setting I warned about in ‘The question remains’ on the 21st of December 2022, two years ago I warned of this setting and Now suddenly we get the Nokia news? (OK it has been out for some time), but we haven’t seen anything out in the open with tests and so forth. In that same time Huawei set the proof all over the place and with HarmonyOS they can go to town, especially if Google is forced to break itself up. And as others are forcing Huawei out, we merely see other telecom companies taking the Huawei lead and offering it to customers. We can see all the ‘bigger’ telecom brands heeding the words from the US and so far it lacked any evidence. New the stage will be set that Saudi Arabia could offer a cheaper solution to people in Europe, the Middle East and Asia a solution with Huawei. Now, we get the setting that the larger Telecom companies will have to compete for the same customers. And in that setting 33 million in Saudi Arabia, a slice of 115 million in Egypt and slices from Portugal and Spain giving them slices of 60 million people. And that is before we consider the fallout all over Europe. You see, in the end these other players need people to fuel part of their profits. The anti-China rhetoric from Trump with the added anti-Huawei rhetoric will fall flat. In the near future they have the numbers and now others are in trouble. I reckon that soon Saudi Arabia will make a play for other Vodafone areas. I have no idea how far they get, but any Telecom company that starts not making their numbers will jump on that churn bandwagon. All this whilst Huawei is breaking new boundaries. So whilst someone reported the great success Nokia is making others make mention that the new setting is coming in 2027 (a presumptuous setting as I haven’t see the full papers). So what of 2025 and 2026? A two year bluff sounds nice, but Huawei is giving us “Stc noted that this solution boosts operational speed by 200% compared to earlier models and significantly extends 5G reach without requiring extensive infrastructure, making it ideal for connecting remote regions efficiently. The solution also improves deployment efficiency by reducing antenna requirements by 67% compared to traditional single-band parallel link methods, lowering tower rental costs.” A more than normal cost efficient solution and it is being rolled out in Saudi Arabia. I reckon that the UAE will follow soon thereafter and in that setting Egypt, Portugal and Spain are likely next. This gives them slices of a multiple times the Saudi population and in that setting with Egypt in their banner the Saudi 5G solution will turn heads and put the other players to shame. It would be a world first that Saudi solutions are cheaper and outperforming other telecom companies for at least 2 years. And that is until the people figure out that the Nokia solutions becomes too expensive. The rot in an economy also implies that the people need cheaper solutions and Nokia is less likely to deliver at that time. As I see it all Saudi Arabia needs to do is to figure out how to add France and Germany to that pool and the Huawei battle will be decided in favour of Huawei. Oh, and whilst you are brooding on that. Consider “Huawei technology must be removed from the UK’s 5G public networks by the end of 2027 under legal documents handed to broadband and mobile operators today” I have NEVER ever seen ample documentation that Huawei was an actual danger. It was proxy tantrums from an American administration trying to bully others to hate Huawei too. Now that the stage changes and when it does (no if it does), Germany will have to turn the rudder in their decisions. I reckon that France will immediately follow suit (a speculation, I have no evidence). All that and now it comes with a directive from Saudi Arabia, who owns a stake in several telecom corporations all over Europe and Africa.

Do you still think I was wrong (or talking shit). The evidence has been out in the open since 2020. It is the tail-side of having no economy left at present. And as I see it, the telecom companies will go for each others throats and in the meantime the STC will keep on buying stakes in the other companies. So take that setting and introduce some unaffordable 6G future solution from Nokia. Are things adding up yet? And don’t forget, 6G might be actually da bomb but it is well over 2 years away, so how are your finances holding up in 2 years? Mine won’t survive, I reckon a lot of others will have a similar problem soon enough.

This gets me to the final push. It was seen in Satellite Pro Me (at https://satelliteprome.com/news/stcs-job-attachment-program-surges-by-72/) where we see ‘STC’s ‘Job Attachment Program’ surges by 72%’ that is even better then the bulk of telecom companies had 20 years ago. As I see it, Saudi Arabia will need a massive staff expansion and retrenching of current staff as we are given “The programme offers STC employees the opportunity to gain hands-on experience, explore career paths, and develop professional skills.” As I speculate to see it, is that the STC is going places and needs staff to do so. The countries I mentioned will need extensive upgrading and a much better service and call centre setting and that is just for starters. As I see it the STC is the largest Telecom employer before the end of 2025. Oh, and that is before we even see where France and Italy are in that setting. This could be the larger push into Europe and I reckon that this is fight that Huawei is happy to see Saudi Arabia do at present. I hope I haven’t oversimplified it for you too much.

Have a great day and good morning to Vancouver where it is now 01:10.

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