Every now and then an innocuous news item lingers on terminally in my mind sending those little gray cells into overdrive with questions of the “how’s”, the “why’s” and “when’s”, “what ifs” and so on.
In the past few days a selection of such snippets in the news has managed to do just that.
The first that comes to mind is the one about a judge who punished himself by sacrificing a sheep. His crime? He was driving and a pigeon happened to fly by right in front of his vehicle. Needless to say, the pigeon is no longer flying or with us. The judge, acting as jury and executioner as well, decided that a sacrifice was due in order to pardon this unintentional act.
But then again, my gray cells wonder. Would other judges who unintentionally do not show up for work on time follow suit and penalize themselves with a sacrificial lamb? Or would those who unintentionally delay pending cases and workload for whatever reason find it in their conscience to drag domesticated food fodder to the nearest butcher? If that would be the case, then we would with no trouble cater to the annual food needs of a country like Rwanda with such unintentional acts. And Rwandans in turn will shower them with loads of blessings.
Another item has to do with those members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice accusing a judge of various infractions after he admonished them for being liars. It seems the case is still pending as the accused commission members refuse to show up in court to present their case.
Accusations have been flying from both sides but no resolution is predicted in the near future. Unlike the idiom of bringing the horse to water, but cannot get him to drink, in this case, the horse is defiantly not giving any inclination of moving toward the water, let alone taking a drink from it.
Then there was a brief report about the first feature length film with an all-Saudi cast being produced by the Kingdom Holding Company. It is to be shot in Dubai, and would take a witty look on being a Saudi today. While I commend the Kingdom Holding Company for venturing into such previously tabooed areas, I still wonder. Once the film is actually made, where in Saudi Arabia would they find an audience? Remember, we do not have any movie theaters here. Does that mean we have to add the cost of an airplane ticket to the movie admission charges to go view it in neighboring countries?
The Saudi Electric Company has been often criticized for its policy on “pay now and complain about your bill later” stance toward customers who have been erroneously overcharged for usage on their electric bills. In some reported cases, the bills were substantial. Is this the same company whose stock market shares have more than doubled in the past few months? Could some of this “unintentional” overcharge have been behind the surge in the company’s stock recently?
The traffic department recently announced that a total of 17,480 citations were issued against motorists in this region for the month of February. What disturbs me is that not too long ago, someone had shown me a little video clip taken indiscreetly of a traffic cop who was filling up his citations pad by indiscriminately entering license plate numbers as vehicles passed by.
I wonder how many of the 17,480 tickets did this enterprising cop contribute to?
Perhaps it was to fill his quota for the day, but the unwary motorist would be the last to know. And borrowing a page from the electric company, you pay now and complain later, and often to no avail.
Jeddah’s cemeteries are full, and the municipality is currently studying various proposals for their expansion. Isn’t death a reality, and shouldn’t the municipality have been studying and allocating areas for burial several years ago? Say, some 20 years back, armed with published statistics on a thriving population growth? But then again, that would defy the very essence of a bureaucracy, wouldn’t it?
And finally, once again our Virtue and Vice Commission members were in the news. They were apparently in full force at the Riyadh International Book Fair recently admonishing women authors to cover their faces and not to converse with potential male customers. Now this covering of the face is becoming a law unto itself. While Islam is very clear on the issue, interpretations are often left to such men of virtue, who base their judgment and actions on their own understanding.
The government has made it mandatory for women to apply for identity cards and with photos exposing their faces. Are some of the commission members becoming a law unto themselves?
Oh well, time to look forward to next week’s snippets. Who knows, they may turn out to be just as absorbing.
