Comments on: Saudi Arabian women tracked at the border with system that SMSes their husbands when they leave the country

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 04:44:00 +0000

No, I’m pretty sure that he’s for real. Unfortunately, he’s also 88 years old. There is some furious palace backstabbing going on right now to bypass the next brother in line in favor of getting another reformer on the throne.

By: First Last

First Last — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:52:00 +0000

I’m fairly sure it isn’t that recent – my father had to ‘authorise’ the rest of my family to leave Saudi without him in the 1980s.

By: MarlboroTestMonkey7

MarlboroTestMonkey7 — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 18:48:00 +0000

But if she escapes and later returns, it means forever!

By: invictus

invictus — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Did you mean Harper’s Magazine? If so, here’s a copy of the piece I found elsewhere:
http://www.wesjones.com/oilweeat.htm

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 12:05:00 +0000

So how does this work? Does the SMS originate from the check in at the airport? Does it work on border crossings? Or do they track cellphones? Or something else? If it’s cellphones, I’m sure a state which enforces gender segregation will find more uses for it than just monitoring airports.

By: Steve Abbott

Steve Abbott — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 05:34:00 +0000

Why the uproar?? we are doing this to school kids in Texas. they track their women we track our school kids. whats the difference??

By: Petzl

Petzl — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 04:34:00 +0000

Ever hear of “good cop / bad cop”? (Or perhaps “bad wahhabist / worse wahhabist”?)

By: TNGMug

TNGMug — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 04:03:00 +0000

We eat it, we make everything out of it. These are all reasons to use LESS of it as car fuel, these are NOT reasons that reducing (or eliminating) your automobile fuel consumption is inconsequential.

By: invictus

invictus — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 02:33:00 +0000

Screw plastics — what do you think most agricultural fertilizers are derived from?

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 19:12:00 +0000

Horse/buggy isn’t a bad idea to be honest. Thanks to the Mennonites and Amish there are provisions for that to work. Just. Yea…

*salute*

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Stop that! Fox News say him bad! Not respect America! Not respect Bush!

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:09:00 +0000

At least it’s a renewable resource. I’m not saying that makes it the lesser of two evils.

By: ChesterBushey

ChesterBushey — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 06:58:00 +0000

Regime change? Oh wait. That is used to make countries more like Saudi Arabia. Ooops and paid for by KSA. Never mind.

By: savagejen

savagejen — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 06:23:00 +0000

Does the text say “so long sucker I’m never coming back”?

By: Crashproof

Crashproof — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 05:47:00 +0000

Because this is the internet, and someone always does.

By: Crashproof

Crashproof — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 05:45:00 +0000

I’m pretty sure that, if American vehicles and industry ran on walls, he wouldn’t have done that.

By: Jacob Ewing

Jacob Ewing — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:59:00 +0000

I would take that one step further and say religion is really really bad for humanity.

By: Stewart Berntson

Stewart Berntson — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:21:00 +0000

There’s also a horse and cart — or a particularly large and non-timid gopher… strap a weasel on to each foot… jetpack… there are always alternatives :)
(Also: I grew up in a rural area and can’t drive either; I feel your pain.)

By: Michael Langford

Michael Langford — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 03:53:00 +0000

You’re going to have to buy a plugin hybrid to do that probably, and move closer to work, for reasons other posters already explained.

By: Rock Hardwood

Rock Hardwood — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 02:44:00 +0000

…LoJack for your wife.

You stay classy Saudistan.

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 02:08:00 +0000

Still repellent to my sensabilities but worded that way it seems to be a half-baby-step forward.

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 02:02:00 +0000

Alright fine. As someone who can’t drive and lives rural. How am I supposed to get from A to B without driving?

By: Mitchell Glaser

Mitchell Glaser — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:51:00 +0000

We might not need those bases without the oil dependency.

By: Mitchell Glaser

Mitchell Glaser — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:49:00 +0000

We produce quite a bit of oil ourselves, and I’m guessing that without using it for energy we’d have plenty. Plus, many of these things can be made from other ingredients. And before someone points out possibly increased costs, we’ll just take them out of the trillions we will save on not protecting so-called allies and fighting a few wars.

By: Marc Mielke

Marc Mielke — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:42:00 +0000

“Wahhabism is really, really, really bad for women”
Yeah, it’s a particularly bad one, but you could say the same about ALL the Abrahamic religions.

By: Marc Mielke

Marc Mielke — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:39:00 +0000

Lots of places have no public transportation. I just went carless not by choice and it’s a pain in the ass even WITH decent bus service. Grocery shopping can’t be done efficiently — see how many sales require you to buy in bulk.

By: bloodybl

bloodybl — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:36:00 +0000

Aren’t you also going to suggest that people boycott any product that is shipped using Saudi Oil too? Let’s be realistic perhaps?

By: Guido

Guido — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:20:00 +0000

Indeed, it’s just a very different kind of horrible clusterfuck.

By: theobromacacao

theobromacacao — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:07:00 +0000

It isn’t only women that are being tracked if they try to leave the country, it is all “dependents” (women, children, contracted workers, etc) and they’ve been doing it since 2010. See https://riyadhbureau.com/blog/2012/11/saudi-women-tracking (the author of that blog is Ahmed Al Omran, http://alomran.me/resume/

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:41:00 +0000

I assume we blockaded Saudi oil, OPEC would likely fall in line.

Unlikely that we would piss off the country that gives us a foothold for military bases in the region.