Business card

I just got my new business cards, in Arabic on the one side and in English on the other side.

And yes, it is 'the' Bin Ladin family!!!. The Bin Ladin family owns one of the biggest construction companies in the Middle East and Thales was awarded this contract in consortium with the Saudi Bin Laden Group. Thales will deploy all signalling, telecommunication, supervision, security and fare collection systems and the Saudi Bin Laden Group is responsible for the civil works of this 2400km of new railway. I like their logo by the way...

As you can see, Arabic writing is from the right to the left, except for the numbers. The numbers go from the left to the right and I'm already able to distinguish them. I can't say the same about the Arabic characters and I'm particularly curious about the translation of my name....

Weekend in Bahrain

Last weekend (the arabic one) I was in Bahrain. The company paid for everything because with our current visa, we are not allowed to stay in Saudi for more than 28 days. This means that one has to leave the country and return in order to get a new stamp in the passport and, in our case, the company normally sends us to spend the weekend either in Dubai or in Bahrain. As a colleague and I were reaching the limit, our last weekend was a bit different.
Bahrain is one of the smaller Gulf states. It's a small island in the Persian Gulf, on the west coast of Saudi Arabia and is linked to the Arabic Peninsula by a 20km long bridge. It rapidly modernized after oil was discovered and it got its independence from Britain in 1971. It's the fastest growing economy in the Middle East and, notoriously, it doesn't rely on oil production only, as it's the fastest growing financial center in the Middle-East as well. It is also one of the freest countries in the Arab World and you can tell...

We had no plan, we just explored the capital and surroundings, walked a lot (and sweat a lot) and spent one afternoon at the beach:) Atop, a picture of a busy road in Manama, the capital and another one of the 'Dual Towers' of the Bahrain Financial Harbor.

DPRK

Tomorrow there is an important World Cup qualifying match in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia is playing against North Korea. It's the last round of the pool and the winner automatically qualifies for the World Cup. Now, guess where the North Korean team is staying? The same hotel as where I am. There they were having breakfeast together, wearing the same T-shirts with DPRK written on their back. That stands for 'Democratic' People Republic of Korea. This dark sense of humor and irony seems to be a common feature of the paraphernalia of all totalitarian regimes...

Arabian Homes

It seems the company finally arranged a house for us in a compound. Finding housing in compounds is very difficult as a result of the goverment's position not to approve contruction of new compounds following the 2003 compound bombings, targeting western expatriates. We were already considering other options, but suddenly a 4 bedroom house became available at Arabian Homes compound, which I'd share with 2 other colleagues. This is great news as this one of the best compounds in Riyadh and not too far from the office. So, yesterday evening we went there to check it out and I liked it. The house is cosy and comfortable, there's a swimming pool at exactly 12 steps from the door and....hmm, I shouldn't be telling more before I have the keys.....but I really hope this is it!!!

Reception at Portuguese Embassador's official residence

Yesterday (June 10), was Portugal's National day and we were invited to a reception at the official residence of the Portuguese embassador. I went kind of infiltrated, my portuguese colleagues got an extra invitation for me. But it turned out there were more locals and nationals from other countries (but no Dutch) than Portuguese. There was good food, music and even alcohol!!! There were no burqas either. Girls arrived wearing the burqa but then the burqas were left at the entrance (women wear normal clothes underneath the burqa, they are required to wear them only in public areas). Finally some feminine beauty:)!!! I leave you some pictures...

Tea-Boy

Those who watched 'Slumdog Millionaire' know the job description of the tea-boy at the call-centre: serving tea to the employees. Well, we have a tea-boy too in our office!

In Saudi, many people live (well) at the cost of the welfare state, which is supported by oil revenues. They seem to believe they don't have to work as the country has got oil. Those who do want to work pick out the good jobs. All other jobs, considered 'inferior', are for unqualified cheap foreign workers from India (most of them), Pakistan, Philipines, Bangladesh, etc. This means that, out of a population of almost 30 million, an estimated 23% is made up of foreigners. This is all to tell how we've got a tea-boy from Bangladesh in our office and why it's a very normal thing here. Well, I confess I had to get used to having someone preparing me tea and coffee and asking me submissively whether I needed anything else. On the one hand it's great, but on the other hand (beside that I don't need it) it doesn't feel right, it emphasizes how unfair this world is and how unqual opportunities people get. I know, it's great for the guy, he has a job, but it just doesn't feel right, if you know what I mean...

Qeblah

Qeblah, or Qiblah is an arabic word for the direction a muslim must face when praying. In other words, Mecca. A muslim must always pray facing Mecca. You can find this sign everywhere, in any hotel room, any public area....even in aircraft!!! When I came here in March, I flew Saudi Airlines from Rome to Saudi and, in the back of the plane, they have a designated 'prayer room', which includes a screen that displays the direction of Meca all the time, regardless of the position of the aircraft!!

Obama in Riyadh

Saudi and US flags on Riyadh light poles today, signalling the first visit of president Obama to the Kingdom. Relations between the Arab World and the US have improved significantly since the end of the Bush Administration, and Obama's visit has many Arabs enthusiastic. Many regard his election as marking a new era in the relations between the US and the Arab world. In a quick research I did on the internet, I found that 45 percent of the Arabs polled in 5 different countries, hold a favourable view of Obama. People are willing to listen to him and there is a big expectation towards the major speech to the Arab World he's delivering in Cairo tomorrow.

Diplomatic Quarter

This morning we had a meeting with SAR (Saudi Railway) in the Diplomatic Quarter. The Diplomatic Quarter is home to all foreign embassies and consulates, international organizations, public company's, as well as residential compounds and malls. It's a city inside a city, a heavily secured cluster occupying an area of 700 hectares, protected by multiple security checkpoints and large concrete barriers at the fortified gate of the main entrance. Not to mention the armored vehicles, machine guns and soldiers, enough to build a small army. I believe I don't have to say I don't have pictures of the security, I don't want diplomatic incidents. But once you are inside you enter a world apart and I took some pictures.

Kingdom Centre

As I said in my previous post, Saudi isn't just about desert, camels, mosques and burqas. The country's economy is experiencing economic growth due to oil revenues and the recent boost in oil prices. And despite current contraction of oil revenues, the economy's still thriving on last year's budget surplus.

The Kingdom Centre's just the ex-libris attesting this recent development. It is the tallest skyscraper in Saudi Arabia with a height of 311 m. The Tower has a total of 99 floors and is situated in the busy King Fahd Road in the growing business district of Olaya. Beside offices, it contains a five-level shopping centre, a luxury hotel and the highest mosque in the world. The skybridge atop the skyscraper contains a public observation deck and a view of the entire city of Riyadh. When I first came here in March, we went up to the skybridge and had this amazing view over the city.

Zara model

You''ll probably have to magnify this picture, otherwise it might not be clear what they did.

This picture was taken today in a shopping centre nearby the office, where we had lunch. Saudi isn't just about desert, camels, mosques and burqas. In Riyadh you can find the most modern shopping centres, featuring the most expensive luxury brands, as well as many other chains and brands from the western world.

However, some of them might be subject to censorship, like in this case where the model's face, arms and legs had been concealed.

Woman in bikini

They greyed out the woman in bikini!!!!! I just had to share this with you.

This picture was taken this afternoon on a local market downtown. You get rapidly used the sight of women wearing burqas but this is just unique.

Many Muslims believe that the Quran requires both men and women to dress and behave modestly in public. However, this requirement has been interpreted in many different ways by Islamic scholars and Muslim communities. In Saudi Ariaba, one of the most strict countries on this issue, wearing burqas is mandatory for women although the burqa is not specifically mentioned in the Quran. It is strictly forbidden for women to show any part of their body whatsoever. The greyed out woman on the box is just the result of such a law.

Weekend in Saudi

For those who don't know, weekend in Saudi is Thursday and Friday. However, if you work in the private sector, you're working Thursday morning too.

That means that this morning weekend hadn't started yet and we had a company presentation at a golf resort, just outside Riyadh (20km North). Riyadh is located in the centre of the Arabian peninsula, in the middle of the desert, which means that when you leave Riyadh you're right in the middle of the desert. It's kind of unreal, this green spot in the middle of this desolate wasteland. I just don't want to know how much water is required to keep it green...not to mention the energy, as most of the water used in Saudi is desalinated. I figure that the second biggest oil-producing country isn't really concerned about that, but I just think it's unsustainable and environmentally irresponsible. Anyway, we didn't play golf, we just used the business centre there.

I spent the afternoon resting and at the swimming pool at the hotel.

First days in office

Well, these weren't exactly my first days in the office here, I spent 2 weeks here in March. Anyway, we've gots lots of nationalities here. People from Thales we have Germans, French, Indians, Portuguese and Dutch (that would be me). Also, from Stesa, a local partner of Thales, we have Saudi's, Egyptians, Philipines, Somalis, Bangladeshi and Palestinians (so far I counted only one). Not everybody has arrived yet, but in total we'll be around 40 people in this office working on this project.

For those who don't know, this project is about the implementation of all the signalling and telecommunications of 2400km of new railway in Saudi.

There are multiple sub-systems and I'm coordinating a team of 5 other guys and we are responsible for the SDH network, the core network over which all other sub-systems are running. Our job is to work out the network architecture, prepare all the technical and project documentation for the customer, prepare the installation plans for the guys in the field who are doing the physical installation, do the logical configuration of the whole network (this is all done remotely) and finally run the acceptance tests.

We'll stay most of the time at the office in Riyadh, except for some surveys we might have to carry out and during the acceptance test phase.

That's it for today, champions league final is about to begin...I'll have to watch it on an arabic channel...

Welcome to my Blog

This is my first post on this blog, which I'm going to keep as long as I stay in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (supposedly 18 months).

It's my second day in Saudi, I arrived yesterday evening. The trip was just fine (stop in Frankfurt), I entertained myself watching a whole season of 'Friends' on my iPod. Troubles came on arrival where I had to wait for 3,5 hours to get through passport control. I had been to Saudi before in March (2 weeks) and it took just 20 minutes. This time it was a complete mess, with the people and the officials messing up with the queues. Afterwards, I was told that this is the rule and that last time was the exception....Anyway, I guess I have to get used to it.

Fortunately, the driver the company sent to pick me up was still there.

I'm staying at the hotel just next to the office, but this is just temporary. As soon as the paperwork is ready we are moving to a compound.

Temperatures are around 45Cº, it really hit you in the face when you step outside the door. This I already came mentally prepared for. What did surprise me was that by night temperatures don't drop significantly. The termometer at the entrance of the hotel marked 38Cº at 21.00. This, taking into consideration that sunset is around 18.30!!! And worse is yet to come. In August temperatures may range between 50 and up to 60Cº.

And this is it for now. Need to get some sleep!!!