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Posted by chrisksa Promoted 882 days 1 hour ago 2482 views
editorial
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An introduction from one of the new editorial members based in Saudi Arabia
How do I start? A warm welcome from Saudi Arabia? Do I offer you the traditional Saudi greetings, or simply open up with the rapid torrent of extremism and western hate bashing that most people are used to seeing come from this end of the world?
Lets do none of the above, for the time being anyway…..
I’m as western as most of you are. Whatever we define as western these days I’ve lost track of. I happen to have spent a few years in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring countries and was brought up over here, as my father worked here when I was a young lad.
I also happen to have great connections into the major “Saudi hierarchy”, and have a great understanding of the cultural way of life, and speak a degree of Arabic. What am I doing here? Well, lets just say for the time being, that I’m a consultant, in the technology field…
In contrary to popular belief, we do have access to most things normal here, Satellite TV, Telephones, and believe it or not we have mobiles now too! In fact, it was made legal not too long ago to have a phone with a built in camera.
There is no getting away from the fact that life is most certainly not easy in Saudi Arabia, particularly if you haven’t had the benefit of experiencing some of the “stricter sides” of the Islamic faith. There is also a great deal of misunderstandings about the region, and in particular Muslims, and the same has to be said the other way around.
We have a great way of describing most situations out here, and the views that people have about Saudi Arabia. When I spoke to my friends about coming out here a couple of years ago, I got the standard “Oh no, you must be crazy”, and “Make sure you wear a bullet proof vest when you go out”. We call this the CNN and Sky News outlook on life here in the Kingdom, and it often is a far cry from reality.
My simple objective to you, as the ever growing base of ShoutWire readers, is to provide you with accurate, unbiased, and straight non censored stories straight from the heart of the Kingdom, Riyadh. I have seen bombings happen, people hurriedly arrested and shoved in the backs of cars with blacked out windows, and heard stories first hand that would make the most solid stomach turn.
ShoutWire readers, watch this space….
Related Links:Fuck You, Saudi Arabia