Eid Al-Fitr festivities in the capital are set for a big boost with the green signal given by Riyadh Gov. Prince Sattam to 40 locations for the celebrations in the capital. Accordingly, festivals will be organized within the Riyadh municipal limits to enable citizens and expatriates to enjoy their Eid holidays for three days beginning Sunday, said Riyadh Mayor Abdullah Al-Moqbel, yesterday.
Eid Al-Fitr’s main feature is feasting at family get-togethers in compounds or restaurants on the outskirts of the city. The Riyadh Municipality has lined up 200 events to mark the festival including artistic, heritage, drama, sport and folk programs, at 40 locations covering all districts in the city. They include open squares, parks, educational and sports facilities and cultural and social centers.
Some of the cultural and recreational programs will be held only for women and children under the supervision of women officials in Riyadh. Meanwhile, expatriates from the subcontinent are ready to mark the occasion mostly by holding dinner parties at home, in the compounds or restaurants, which are booked well in advance. However, the escalating prices have cast a shadow on this year’s festivities. They find it convenient to visit parks, recreation centers or shopping complexes in Al-Batha and Dira Souk as well as hypermarkets like Lulu, where the price range is affordable.
Some expatriates have planned to visit the coastal city of Dammam, while many will go out in the desert for picnic. “The whole family will be leaving for Dammam during the holidays,” said Arif Kalim Siddiqui, a Pakistani banker, whose mother and father have also joined the family during Eid this year. He said that the family has booked a small resort on the seashore in Dammam, where they will be staying for two nights.
Salim Memon, a sales manager at a local company, has organized a get-together of some 50 families on the occasion in Riyadh. All these families will gather on the second day of Eid at an istaraha (rest house) on the outskirts of Riyadh. A number of children’s competitions and games will be organized on this occasion, said Memon, while giving details of the program.
But it will be difficult for families and children to get inexpensive fireworks this year. “Fireworks, which had hit their peak during last year’s Eid Al-Fitr celebrations, are a low-key affair this time around following a massive crackdown on the illegal firecracker market,” said an official source.
Up to four tons of firecrackers were confiscated in Riyadh during raids by the police and the Civil Defense personnel at the advent of Ramadan this year. The raids, described as preventive measures, were conducted to round up firecracker dealers organizing clandestine sale in the bird market in southern Riyadh. The officials confiscated a large consignment of firecrackers from makeshift stalls run by illegal expats. They have been handed over to deportation offices.
Some private companies have also organized trips for their employees and families as part of their corporate social responsibilities. But these programs are meant for the middle-cadre employees who enjoy their outings on farms or estates belonging to the companies’ executives.
As the countdown to the Eid Al-Fitr festivities had begun, south Asian expatriates in the capital had loosened their purses and become footloose in malls for Eid-related purchases.
The tendency to ‘shop till you drop’ was triggered by promotional campaigns with discounts galore on various items — clothing, perfumery, food items, giftware etc — that are much sought after during the festival. Jumping on the bandwagon, Indian retail giant, Brandzone, launched this month its SR 10 million multibrand retail store that deals with a slew of products ranging from garments, electronics to home appliances and leather accessories.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had received more than 4,000 complaints from consumers about the sale of substandard goods and arbitrary price hike at some shopping centers during Ramadan. “Reports from citizens and expatriates about violations of market regulations this Ramadan account for a 200 percent increase compared to last year,” an official source at the ministry said. He attributed the surge in the volume of complaints to the prompt response from the ministry.
“The complaints, which came to the ministry from all parts of the Kingdom, are mainly about counterfeit goods, high prices, expiry of validity date, contract disputes and refusal to replace goods sold,” the source said. The complaints covered all types of goods including food items. Some 70 percent of them were received on the hotline allocated by the ministry, while 5 percent came on mobile phones. He added that photos of the price hike of various items relayed via cell phone were helpful in investigations. Other complaints were tweeted.
The official appreciated the role of citizens in serving as the “eyes” of the ministry in monitoring the market. “Complaints about imitation, price hiking and goods with expired dates are instantly forwarded to the Prosecutions and Investigations Commission (PIC),” he said. Besides shopping, expatriates also visit nearby places like Al-Kharj with their families for enjoying barbecue parties in a group. Others will drive down to Dammam and further to the King Fahd Causeway en route to Bahrain. Asir has also been a favorite haunt of domestic tourists every year.
Although visitors say this year’s summer tourist attractions in the region were better than before, the quality of infrastructure services leaves much to be desired. The problem is also compounded by the menace of beggars and an insufficient number of parks, according to those who had visited the places before. Those who opt to stay here find amusements parks or the green lungs of Riyadh refreshing enough to relax and enjoy.
As for expatriates from Yemen, Egypt and Syria, they have been handicapped by the political developments in their countries. Unable to return home for Eid festivities, they have no other option but to stay back. In the process, road transport services from the Kingdom to those destinations have been greatly affected.
According to a report, the road transport sector in the Kingdom lost approximately SR 2 billion, while the market volume of travel between the Kingdom and neighboring countries was estimated at SR 5 billion.
Before the Arab Spring in Yemen and Syria, expatriates used to travel by road in large numbers to their countries and to Jordan. These numbers have down sharply. Deputy Chairman Saeed Al-Bassami of the Transport Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) said some 60,000 trucks used to ply normally between the Kingdom and those countries in the past. He hoped that the railways would compliment the road transport services and offset the losses due to circumstances beyond their control.
