West-Bound and Down

Dear happy readers,

You may have noticed the month's lag and general neglect of this site. I attribute it to many factors, the first of which being sloth.

In truth, I have bee nbusy preparing the next stage of my life. I will be returning to the United States for good on October 15th. I'm moving to Arlington, Virgina, and will be working in the marketing and analytics unit of a VC-funded energy efficiency start-up called OPOWER. It should be a dynamic stretch role in a fast-moving company, and I am very excited about it. I urge you to check out the company here and note that Obama himself has already spoken there on cleantech jobs.

I am back and forth between DC and Dubai for interviews, homecoming and wrapping up my time here at Monitor. I had a good expat year, and great first job, but am ready to return to America to vote on things and express my various rights and sundry liberties.

I will be wrapping up the blog over the course of this next month, posting photos from my trips to Jordan and Nepal, as well as my outlook for the region.

Thank you for reading thus far. If my antics are wild or random enough in Arlington, which I will strive to make happen, look for a similar blog to come. In the meantime, please enjoy this documentary about my new abode.

Jordan I: Dead Sea

A couple weekends ago I did another whirlwind / escape the Gulf trip. I met up with the Monitor team in Amman, Jordan, then a couple of us branched off to the Dead Sea and Petra.

Just being in this area (Jordan, Lebanon) carries Biblical weight. Every exit was something straight out of the Gospels. The exit before the Dead Sea was for Bethany-By-The-Jordan, where Jesus was baptized. Across the dead sea from us lay Palestine and Israel:

I was taken aback when we got out of the car by the blatant warnings about the dangers of the Dead Sea. I knew it was salty, but this sign added an aire of danger to our beachside jaunt:

We were also surrounded by crying children who did not heed the sign. Tip: DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, PUT YOUR HEAD UNDERWATER AT THE DEAD SEA.

The buoyancy throws you off at first. I'm not the best swimmer, so the guarantee of not drowning was good. However, my legs floated a lot more than I used to, so it took me a few tries to regain my center of gravity.

After I mastered floating in the Dead Sea, the only thing left to do, naturally, was coat myself with the think mud at the bottom of the sea. It is supposed to make your skin healthy. It just made me feel dirty...


We then loaded up into our car and made it to Petra by nightfall. What unfolded the next day defies description in the English language. Book your trip to Petra now - I will share my experience tomorrow, insha'allah.

Ramadan Kareem!

Sighting the Moon

By the way, this is how Ramadan is determined:

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/government/uae-moon-sighting-committee-to-meet-on-tuesday-1.666246

A panel of "experts" and religious scholars gather to sight the moon. As the Hijri calendar is lunar, each month begins on the new moon. So if the Moon Sighting Committee doesn't see any moon, Ramadan is proclaimed. If it does, Ramadan is delayed until the next day.

This sighting has dire implications for my dinner tonight. I plan on eating after Maghrebi prayer but before moonrise. They'd best not proclaim Ramadan in the interim...

Ramadan and Its Discontents

Ramadan probably begins on Wednesday. I say probably not because I am too lazy to check the calendar, but rather the ulema must wait to view the moon later this week before they are properly sure than Ramadan is allowed to begin. It's kind of like Groundhog's Day in that regard. But no Bill Murray.

I first moved out to the Gulf in the middle of Ramadan 1430 (This Ramadan we are gonna party like it's 1431 -Hold up, it is-). I spent the first bit of it apartment-searching, and was frustrated by many of the special Ramadan laws:
-No music
-No eating in public
-No drinking (even water) in public
-Most ABC establishments are closed
-Open ABC establishments must keep all lights on
-No loud noises or singing
It was always a pretty restrictive atmosphere during the day. In Saudi Arabia, we confined ourselves to the hotel where we could at least order a room service shwarma if we felt peckish.

But at night in Saudi, everything changed. Upon the sundown call to prayer, everyone would eat the date given them, and proceed to engorge themselves on massive nightly feasts. Eating is tiring. My favorite iftar occurred in a large ballroom in downtown Riyadh. The buffet was probably 100 yards long, and I am only slightly exaggerating, and wound its way around the magnificent centerpiece: 1 whole baby camel, pressure boiled and served with rice.

I can appreciate the theoretical basis for Ramadan. Everyone spends lots of time with their families, spends their days fasting, reading the Quran and in prayer. But in practice, Ramadan is heavily commercialized and focused more around feasting and partying. Most Gulfis becoming essentially nocturnal, waking up late in the afternoon to avoid feeling too hungry. Malls are open til 4am, and have a month of Ramadan sales. In fact, Ramadan is not too different from the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season in the States.

I'm still torn over whether Ramadan should be a more austere, pious month, or if my opinion is too much of a double standard. Either way, for the next month I won't be fasting, but I will be feasting.

US Embassy: One Step Ahead of Terrorists

We get these emails from the Embassy on occassion. Don't worry, I never go to Qassim. That is where they stone women for having two X chromosomes:

WARDEN MESSAGE
August 4, 2010

The Embassy requests that wardens pass the following message in its entirety to members of the American Community:

U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, the Consulate General in Dhahran and the Consulate General in Jeddah advise American citizens in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that we have received credible information that an unidentified extremist(s) in Saudi Arabia may be planning to attack Westerners working and living in al-Qasim, Saudi Arabia. The timing and method of potential attacks are currently unknown. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Consulate General Dhahran and Consulate General Jeddah remind U.S. citizens to exercise prudence and enhanced security awareness at all times.

GCC: Technology to Preserve the State

You may think people in the Middle East would be worried about the rising tensions across the region, particularly the skirmish yesterday between Israel and Lebanon, posturing by Ahmadinejad, and Hassan Nasrallah's upcoming claim that he has proof of Israel's role in Rafiq Hariri's (the namesake of the new Georgetown business school building, among other achievements) assassination. You would be wrong.

What stole headlines this week was the UAE's imminent and KSA's immediate ban on BlackBerry services. KSA shuts off BlackBerry on Friday, the UAE in October. This move is likely sparked by the Gulf's paranoia about destabilizing activity, be it terrorism, assassination, or women's rights.

I, for one, have not made the jump to Smart Phones, but they are a staple in my industry and we are trying to figure out how to cope without BBM or ubiquitous email access. Not the best move for countries trying to attract businesses.

On the other hand, Saudi immigration is using technology to stop another important problem: Women leaving the country without their mahram (male relative): ARTICLE HERE

Travel Bucket List

My time in the Middle East is winding down, so I'm trying to get in as many low-cost trips as possible.

I'm headed to Jordan next weekend to see Petra
I have flights booked to Nepal in mid-August
Other than that I'm trying to hit up Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Syria, Kurdistan? and potentially Cyprus before I head out. Which is going to keep me rather busy. So I booked 9 flights yesterday to get started.

If you've been to any, please email me with travel tips!