The Commission Does Good May 22, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : Middle East, Saudi Arabia , add a commentIt’s been a while since I posted to the blog - my only excuse has been that I have been really busy at work and not that the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Ministry of Licentiousness and Lasciviousness - the infamous C-Men) have been quiet. They haven’t. As is usual here they have been screwing up peoples lives and getting between people and God in an unholy fashion. Their latest episodes generally involve high-speed car chases and accidents that kill the suspects at the end of the chase (something that they are not allowed under law to do) as well as the usual flaunting of the courts and such.
However, occasionally the C-Men do some good and it seems they managed to recently in Makkah. Seems that yesterday the C-Men in Makkah
closed down … a pharmacy for running a confidence racket. The commission said the man running the shop, a Pakistani national, was offering “black magic” services to customers.
Vice police raided the store, which was disguised as a pharmacy, and confiscated amulets and other tools of the trade. The suspect said people were coming to him asking for magical cures because they were unsatisfied with the services they were receiving at area hospitals.
So, some good from the C-Men. The Arab News also reported that in
an unrelated event, a Saudi man was arrested yesterday for running a similar scam from his home. The man was caught after a woman came to him hoping for a magical cure that would prevent her husband from leaving her. After the young woman’s husband left her, she informed her father that she tried a magical cure; the father then informed the moral police.
I recall a while back that they also removed amulets and things that had been thrown off the coast here and disposed of them. Black Magic seems to be alive and well in this country - even when one of the most popular TV shows is Charmed - must be the Power of Three 
Mind you, being a conman here is a bit risky as
the authorities treat confidence rackets as a religious crime, and suspects are often arrested and charged outright with being sorcerers and witches (rather than shysters) for offering various services to people who believe in magical cures and curses. Penalties for such crimes are often quite stiff, even resulting in the death penalty.
Now where did I hide my four-leaf clover? Oh yes - it’s with the rabbit’s foot.
Thomo’s Gallery May 5, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : General , add a commentIs missing again 
It seems to have been the main casualty from the move to a new hosting service for Thomo’s Hole. The boys are looking for the problem now and we will return it to use as soon as we can.
In the meantime, no pictures for a while. I may have to look for an alternative.
I will, of course, inform you all when it is back.
HMS Maeander May 3, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : Naval , add a comment
A search was made in Thomo’s Hole for HMS Maeander. Of course, I don’t always have information about every ship that sailed however the name of this ship fascinated me.
Maeander is an ancient river in South West Turkey and gave us the term “meander” for the bends in a river.
H.M.S. Mæander on the other hand was a 44 Gun vessel of the British Navy, built in 1840 and weighing 1221 tons. In 1859 she was stationed in Devonport.
The illustration is the Maeander “Shortening Sail for Anchoring” at Rio de Janeiro on 9 June 1851. The illustration was presented to Captain The Honourable Henry Keppel, and the Officers of H.M.S. Mæander. The illustration was presented by Oswald W. Brierly who joined Henry Keppel on H.M.S. Mæander, on his circumnavigation, 1848-1851.
That is about all I know of this vessel - however, it is more than I did before the inquiry was made in the Hole.
Windows Live Writer May 3, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : General , add a commentBeing the lazy fellow that I am, I am always looking for easier and simpler ways to do things. As a result, I thought I’d play with Windows Live Writer and the blog. I know that I can use MS Word and post direct to the blog from a Word document but here I am trying Live Writer as an option.
OK, so this is the first such post. I may do more this way, especially as last week has been another busy week for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Lasciviousness, Licentiousness and C-Men) here in the Kingdom.
In the meantime, this seems to work,
The Commission’s Been At It Again April 30, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : Middle East, Saudi Arabia , add a commentThose evil buffoons, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Ministry of Licentiousness and Lasciviousness, the C-Men) have been at it again. Not content with beating suspects to death at their headquarters and making a mockery of Saudi justice, not content with scaring old men to death who are just trying to support a large family, not content with abusing women in Riyadh, then ignoring the court and not content with pursuing “suspects” so quickly that they have motor accidents and are killed that way, it seems now that the buffoons - the evil Keystone Kops of Saudi society - now go out cruising and looking for a fight like any old football hooligan used to.
The Arab News on 28 April reported on Undercover Officer Complains of Mistreatment by Vice Cops
which detailed some young blokes being slapped around by the C-Men for doing, well, nothing really.
“We were in Thumama at around 3 a.m., Thursday morning, having fun and joking around, when one of us spotted a commission jeep pass by,” the officer, who requested anonymity, told Arab News.
He said he and his four colleagues were just like any other guys going to Thumama to vent out on a weekend night without the intention of harming any families or looking for trouble.
“A colleague said in a loud voice ‘guys, it’s the Haya’a (commission)!’” he continued. “But we were doing nothing wrong. We did not even have soda pop bottles or play any loud music for them to consider that we were doing something wrong.”
According to the officer, the commission members pulled up in a off-road vehicle bearing the commission’s logo. One commission member accused one of the campers of calling them dogs, then picked out the youngest member of the group, Rami Al-Amri, 18, and began slapping him.
“One of the men said: ‘I’ll teach you who the Haya’a is. We are the government’,” Al-Amri told Arab News. The commission members allegedly proceeded to verbally abuse the campers and impugn their character. Al-Amri claimed that the commission member that was being physically abusive threatened to jail him for three months.
Gee - you gotta watch those soda bottles and music! Really - it is time the Kingdom got rid of these buffoons.
Mecca Police Busy April 29, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : Middle East, Saudi Arabia , add a commentThe police in the Saudi city of Makkah have been very busy lately. The Arab News reports that
police patrols in Makkah have dealt with 10,744 cases and made 8,068 arrests between Jan. 10 and April 21 this year, according to figures released by the Makkah police. Of those arrested 6,508 were suspected of being involved in various types of crime, 489 were charged with robbery, 676 were arrested for not carrying valid resident permits or for running away from their sponsors, 250 were drug-peddlers and 126 people were wanted for previous crimes.
Police also confiscated six rifles, 10 revolvers, five machine guns, 457 cartridges of live ammunition, two air guns, 1,825 Captagon pills and 100 kilograms of other types of drugs. They also seized 6,437 vehicles over the period.
This is, of course, the Holy city that Hajj and Umrah pilgrims make their way to. Of course, the statistic I find most interesting is that 6,508 were “suspected of being involved in various types of crime” however only 1,541 were actually charged with anything - just under 20% of those arrested.
Saudi Blogger is Released April 28, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : Middle East, Saudi Arabia , add a commentThe Arab News reported in a piece called “Blogger Case Exaggerated: Prince Ahmed” that Saudi blogger, Fouad Al-Farhan’s case had been exaggerated by the press.
“The issue (of Al-Farhan) was not that important as it represented the mistake committed by a person on himself. A man who commits a mistake should bear its result,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the prince as saying.
Yeah - right! He made a mistake, presumably by saying something that the government didn’t agree with - so it is his own fault that he is detained without charge for four months. Let’s hear it for fairness in Saudi Arabia.
Thomo Misses Out On Knighthood April 24, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : Thomo , 2commentsInternationally known traveller Thomo the Lost appears to have missed out on joining a prestigious British order of knights.
There was some speculation earlier this year that Thomo was in with a chance for an appointment as a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. This particular chivalric order is well known because it is the oldest order of British chivalry. The expectation was that the appointment would come through when Queen Elizabeth II announced new additions today.
Whilst Thomo cannot be described as a staunch monarchist, more of a raunchy one, he had always held that the current system wasn’t broke therefore shouldn’t be fixed. This could be seen as supporting the monarchy.
The Knights of the Garter lost two of their members in the near past, former British prime minister Sir Edward Heath and Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary. There are a maximum of 24 Companion Knights and the Queen today announced that those two vacant places would be filled by Lord Luce, who was Lord Chamberlain from 2000 to 2006, and Sir Thomas Dunne, Lord-Lieutenant of Hereford since 1977 and chairman of the Lord Lieutenants Association.
Informed sources know that Thomo the Lost never sought the prestigious appointment.
New members of the order, established in 1348 by Edward III, are customarily announced on St George’s Day, England’s national day on April 23.
Of course, you may think that this is rather silly, but no sillier than the Sydney Morning Herald publishing Howard misses out on knighthood today. Must be a quiet news day in Australia to manage such folderol.
100,000 Hits April 22, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : General , 2commentsIt slipped past a week ago and I missed it but up to now, Thomo’s Hole has had 102,647 hits. That is since January 2007 so I am quite pleased with the result. 18,274 Unique visitors for 102,647 hits (and that does not count me making changes or the robots). That also means that folks are coming back and reading other stuff here - now I feel guilty for being tardy in updating the Hole recently - I will need to be more organised.
So, pop the champagne corks (or, as I am here in Saudi, mix the Apple Juice and Perrier) and let’s celebrate. I promise not to mention traffic to Thomo’s Hole until 250,000 hits are reached.
Eight Year Old Girl’s Divorce Is Finalised April 18, 2008
Posted by thomo the lost in : Middle East, Yemen , 1 comment so farIn what can only be described as a rare touch of common-sense and good news, the еight-year-old I mentioned on the 14th, Nujood Ali, has had her divorce from her 30 year old husband finalised by the court. An anonymous donor paid about US $250 to her husband to divorce her.
Unfortunately, there are many other girls in Yemen in a similar position and the government does not seem to want to put a minimum age for marriage law in place.
Interestingly, here in Saudi Arabia we often hear of news like an 11 year old married to his 10 year old cousin. However, the good news is that at least Nujood is safe at the moment.
As noted in the Yemen Times
On April 15, with support from her lawyer Shatha Mohammed Nasser and Judge Abud Al-Khaleaq Ghowber, Nojoud paid her way out of marriage with YR 100,000 from an anonymous donor in the Emirates and happily became an 8-year-old divorcee.
“This was the first time a girl came to us for a divorce. We are going to do our best to push the parliament to change the marriage law,” said Judge Ghowber.
“I am so happy to be free and I will go back to school and will never think of getting married again,” Nojoud said joyfully. “It is a good feeling to be rid of my husband and his bad treatment.”
There are many early marriages in Yemen with the International Center for Research on Women noting in their 2007 statistics that Yemen is one of 20 developing countries where early marriage is common.
The Yemen Times notes from those reports:
Most women have their first child immediately after their first menstruation cycle and are likely to have a child every 12 months during their reproductive lifespan. Yemen’s fertility rate is extremely high, with an average 6.3 children per each woman, and the country also has some of the highest mother and infant mortality rates worldwide.
According to research on early marriage in Yemen from Oxfam and the United Nations Population Fund, there are severe physical consequences that result from early marriage and subsequent early childbirth such as nutritional anemia, post-partum hemorrhages, obstetric fistula (a disorder that affects the bladder and causes leaking of urine or faeces), plus mother and infant mortality.
The Yemen Times has been pushing for the setting of a minimum age and has been happy to receive support from anywhere. Really, this is something that we should all help in however we can. You can also see more at the International Center for Research n Women.
