The Empty Towers of KAFD→

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The Economist reports on the skepticism around the new King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in the Saudi capital Riyadh:

It is unclear how Riyadh’s new district will develop into what it is meant to be: a sober Saudi alternative to Dubai’s exuberant International Financial Centre.

To date just 10% of the district’s office space has been leased; tenants will include the country’s stockmarket regulator, the Capital Markets Authority, and one large local bank, Samba. A further 10% is under negotiation, according to sources close to the developers of the project.

Because Saudis like to do things on a large scale, KAFD will offer three times as much high-end office space as the rest of Riyadh. So “even if every company in the city’s plusher offices moved to the new district it would still be two-thirds empty.” Unlike Dubai, the oil-dependent Saudi economy does not have enough businesses to use all the new extra space. The magazine concludes that the KAFD project will make sense eventually, but it will take time. Due to its vast wealth, the government can afford to take such a long bet.

King Appoints New Governor of Riyadh→

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King Abdullah issued a royal decree appointing Prince Khaled bin Bandar as governor of Riyadh, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Thursday. The King also appointed his son Prince Turki bin Abdullah as deputy governor of Riyadh. The former governor of Riyadh Prince Sattam has passed away earlier this week. Both the new governor of Riyadh and his deputy has a background in the military. Prince Khaled was commander of the Royal Land Forces, and Prince Turki was a fighter jet pilot at the Royal Saudi Air Force.

Women Protesters Arrested in Riyadh and Qassim

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Dozens of women and children have been arrested Saturday in two Saudi cities after staging protests to demand the release of their imprisoned family members. Activists posted photos and videos of women holding placards outside the National Soecity of Human Rights office in Riyadh. Another group of women reportedly held a protest outside the Court of Grievances in the city of Buraidah in the central region of Qassim.

“It has been confirmed that ten women protesters in Riyadh have been physically and verbally assaulted,” activist lawyer Waleed Abualkhair said on Twitter. He added that the women arrested include the wife, daughter and granddaughter of Suleiman al-Rashudi, a political activist who was arrested in December after giving a lecture about the permissibility of protests.

The video below is said to show the women after they were taken into custody and were being transferred at the security forces bus, repeating Allah akbar (God is great):

Another similar video uploaded to YouTube is said to show the women who protested in Qassim with their children in the security forces bus, chanting for the freedom of detainees:

The Struggle to Find Affordable Housing in Riyadh→

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Expatriates in Riyadh are struggling to find housing and when they do find it is prohibitively expensive, reports Angus McDowall for Reuters.

But if housing is a problem for expats in Riyadh then it is a crisis for the locals across the country. It is estimated that only 30% of Saudis own their home. In a special report from 2010 Reuters asked if Saudi Arabia can fix its housing time bomb. A new Ministry of Housing was established in March 2011 to tackle the issue.

David O. Robinson, IMF mission chief to Saudi Arabia, said last year that “the housing issue is being addressed on both the demand and the supply sides,” and that they hope this would helps resolve the issue.

IMF reported earlier this year that the Saudi government allocated almost two-thirds of a combined $110 billion fiscal package to a multi-year project to build 500,000 affordable housing units. The government has also allocated an additional $11 billion to the Real Estate Development Fund to increase the housing loans available to citizens.

Saudi Police Disperse Small Protest in Riyadh

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Saudi police dispersed a small protest today in Riyadh held by the families of prisoners who called for the release of their relatives. Photos posted on Twitter showed a large number of security forces surrounding the small group of protesters who gathered outside the Human Rights Commission, a government-run organization. The organization office is located on King Fahad Road, one of the main traffic arteries in the city. Police reportedly closed a section of the road before arresting protesters, including women and children.

Fuel Truck Explodes in Riyadh

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AP:

A fuel truck exploded in an apparent roadway accident on Thursday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, engulfing buildings and cars in flames and killing at least two people, witnesses and officials said.

At least 22 people were killed and 125 people injured at the explosion, according to Saudi state television.

A spokesman for the Civil Defense in Riyadh told the state news agency that the explosion happened when the fuel truck hit an overpass on Khurais road as the driver attempted to avoid a car accident on his way.

“The gas leak caused great damages due to the blaze and explosion which took place at the time of accident because the air was saturated with gas, which also caused many car accidents at the location and a number of fatalities,” said spokesman Captain Mohammed al-Hobail al-Hammadi.

“I was inside the building when the blast came. Then boom, the building collapsed. Furniture, chairs and cabinets blasted into the room I was in,” survivor Kushnoo Akhtara told Reuters, bleeding and covered in dirt.

“My brother is still inside under the rubble. There are lots of people in there,” the 55-year-old Pakistani worker said.

Pictures and video posted on Twitter showed severe damages to an industrial building that reportedly belongs to Zahid Tractors, the distributor for Caterpillar Equipment in Saudi Arabia.

UPDATES:

Photo: the Glorious Seventies

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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Shopping for rug in a Riyadh market, Claudia Crawford was both excited and worried when her husband, a bank manager, was transferred to Riyadh. Mrs. Crawford studied local language and customs and traveled about the city. ( New York Times photo by Juan de Onis)

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Shopping for rug in a Riyadh market, Claudia Crawford was both excited and worried when her husband, a bank manager, was transferred to Riyadh. Mrs. Crawford studied local language and customs and traveled about the city. (New York Times photo by Juan de Onis)

Mahmoud Sabbagh posted this great photo on his blog. The title of his post reads: “Riyadh in the Seventies: After the oil boom, before Sahwa.” ♦

One Version of History→

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Angus McDowall for Reuters:

It was in Diriyah that the ruling al-Saud family first rose to power, and in memorializing its ruins, the authorities are celebrating a telling of national history that puts the dynasty and its clerical allies front and centre.

Madawi al-Rasheed and Khaled al-Dakheel two very important points at the end of this nice feature: 1) historical sites in other parts of the country were neglected and destroyed, and 2) society has changed a lot since that pact. ♦

‘Change As A Road To Hell’→

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Researching her new book On Saudi Arabia, Karen Elliott House spent some time with a conservative family in Riyadh:

By choice, Lulu rarely leaves home. During the week I spend with her (and on subsequent visits), it is clear that Lulu not only accepts but welcomes the confines of her life. She is the primary caregiver to her seven children and has no household help, as the salary of her professor husband can’t cover maids for both wives and Islam requires that a husband treat his wives equally. And Lulu has no aspirations beyond living a life that pleases Allah and ensures the entry of her and her family into paradise.

House says accommodating conservatives like Lulu and those who want to lead a more liberal life is a challenge that is growing more difficult for the government. But is ‘live and let live’ so difficult to implement? The thing is, the government does not seem really concerned about accommodating both groups. As long as neither group rises to challenge the government, they probably don’t care. ♦

 

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