Richard White wrote in alt.freemasonry:
Subject: Re: Kansan's mental health
From: "Richard White"
Date: 8/26/2003 7:53 AM Central Daylight Time
Message-id: <bifl9d$8p3vq$1@ID-162217.news.uni-berlin.de>
"Vestan Pance" <f@tchance.com> wrote in message
news:2eimkv8v0h5hfg0gfh9kpp3bntimush046@4ax.com...
On 26 Aug 2003 11:43:44 GMT, this came from
(Kansan1225)
during
our five years in Riyadh, she also became an expert winemaker. She came
up
with all sorts of delicious recipes for Jeddah gin, Riyadh rum, and
Dhahran
daiquiries.
She must be mad as well. Such little respect for local social
requirements. Plus they flog you for doing that.
In theory yes - but from my experience of Saudi, there's more alcohol being
brewed and distilled than anywhere else I've ever been.
So extensive was the "industry", that everyone "lost" a dustbin, in order to
get a nice new clean plastic vat (aka dustbin) in which to brew beer in the
bathroom etc..
There was also an extensive, though as you say illegal, distillation and
distribution nextwork providing "sid" (aka "siddiqui"), the name of the
local 80% alcoholic drink. (That's about twice the strength of whiskey)
"Siddiqi" means "my friend" in Arabic. When someone in Saudi says they
were with "siddiqi" last night, they probably do not mean that they were with
their friend, but that they were drinking.
One guy had his contract terminated, after the company realised that he was
wholesaling sid in the evenings. He even used a company truck on at least
on occasion to transport the stuff, though he was never actually caught
red-handed.
Some people were even sent out of Saudi to dry out!
In Riyadh there is a chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). They hold
their meetings at the American Community Services (ACS) compound, a facility of
the U.S. Embassy.
Once, absolute pandemonium reigned, when a police car (flashing red & blue
etc.) drove into a compound while everone was having a party. The swimming
pool must have become nearly 50% alcohol as everyone disposed of their
drinks. Then it turned out that some bright spark had just driven a newly
imported police car from the storage pound into the residential compound as
a practical joke!!! (The company, among other things, imported police
cars)
Of course, when the local police did take action - things weren't so funny.
A Lebanese employee lost half his fingernails, over a period of a month,
until he confirmed his confession in the local Sharia court that he had
smuggled in some dope for his own use. They gave him 14 years hard labour
in a desert prison camp. I was reliably told by locals that average life
expectancy in those camps is only 6 years, and so it was in effect a death
sentence.
Certainly, when the police then turned up to deport his Danish wife back to
Denmark, they were heard by neighbours telling her that she should forget
she was ever married to the chap, as she would never see him again. At
least they let her pack her bags before taking her to the airport.
Regards,
Richard
[Non-masonic signature applied to posts on topics, in masonic fora,
either not strictly masonic or of an obvious non-masonic nature]
Opinions & Facts/Information expressed in my posts, except where otherwise
stated, are my own personal opinions & understanding of facts/information
respectively: they are not those of, and should not be considered
associated with, any of the masonic Orders of which I am a member.
Saudi Arabia has many strict official regulations, but they are not
administered very severely. Western ex-patriates are treated very kindly
overall and are allowed their own customs within their own housing compounds.
There are even many Christian religious services taking place in the country on
a regular, although unofficial, basis.
Moslems, both Saudis and ex-patriates, are expected to comply with the
restrictions a lot more and get punished a lot worse than a Westerner would be
under the same circumstances. Westerners usually face just deportation as the
worst outcome.
Alcohol traffickers are pursued only if they are true wholesalers. While
I was there, a Sudanese guy (a Moslem) was beheaded because he had set up a
large-scale network in Riyadh, selling to locals. He had been arrested and
punished previously many times and the authorities finally became fed up with
him.
On the other hand, drug traffickers are not tolerated at all and two or
three of them are beheaded just about every Friday. Most of these guys are
Pakistanis and Afghanis who bring the stuff in from Afghanistan. Even so,
there is a drug problem in the country and many Saudis undergo detoxification
in special hospitals.
There was another notorious case during my time there: a Saudi guy
beheaded for practicing witchcraft. His real offense, however, seems to have
been that he was having sex with several Saudi housewives that he was acting as
the "spiritual advisor" for.
In charge of all these weekly public beheadings and amputations is the
Ministry of the Interior, headed by Prince Naif. The name "Naif" is pronounced
the same way as the English word "knife".
In general, Saudi administrators and managers have spent many years in
the West, studying or being trained, and are familiar with Western customs and
tolerant of them.
Each year they, like the ex-patriates, get a great vacation package, at
least one month off with paid tickets for themselves and their families to
travel abroad. Most of them look forward to that time as the best time of the
year and get to spend it in Europe or the U.S. They flock to Euro-Disney near
Paris, or to Disney World in Orlando, etc. They love American culture and
Americans. They just want to be appreciated and recognized a little more.
I think that in a few more years Saudi Arabia will relax its policies a
lot and will become more of a "normal" Arab country. At that time it will
become a great vacation destination. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) next door
are already open to tourists and making a lot of money that way.
.
