lionheart

What on earth are they thinking? A Lebanese TV presenter is sentenced to death for witchcraft.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091124/...c-3fd0ae9.html

Spugsy

'A court in the city condemned him as a witch on November 9.' - Holy shit man, I mean this is why I will never go, the country is thousands of years behind civilization.

Nic1

So, no comments on what the weather will be like tomorrow than ? Crazy people!

N

spart

Therein lies the problem. No-one is really thinking. Barbarians.

Bijilo123

..well maybe he was a witch.

Meow

The mere fact that they must believe that witchcraft exists to have such a sentence demonstrates the utter stupidity of the situation.

I'm with Spugsy in that I would never go to such a primitive place. Despite that we have posters here that still think it's a lovely place to live.

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spart

I'm absolutely with you on that one. Could not pay me enough..

Alexa

Well, Saudi per se is NOT a lovely place to live, but if look at it as a black bubble with pink lining, it is really fun.
You have to ignore the outside as much as you can and simply enjoy all the good that is offered on a silver patter.
Granted, that is not for everybody.

Many people look down on those who enjoy Saudi, because they think it is stupid to ignore all that is going on. I don't think so.....what difference does it make NOT to ignore it ?
WE can't reform those people, change has to come from the inside, IMHO

So, why not go , make money and take what is on offer?

lionheart

Sorry Alexa but, despite your undoubted loyalty to the Saudi regime, I think you are batting on a very sticky wicket.

Victor Meldrew

No she's not.

UK has many extreme problems, many of which include extreme violence which is NOT punished appropriately, if at all. (OK not beheading, or flogging or hand chopping, but read the papers, theres lots of nasty stuff going on - regularly). UK citizens (obviously) still choose to live there.

I don't think Alexa is loyal to the Saudi regime, she just tries to put forward a viewpoint to explain why people still find it an OK place to live and work.

benzonar

The witchcraft act was only repealed in the UK in 1951.

When you have uneducated people who are brainwashed into believing in fairies then its not too much of a leap to believe in witchcraft,

Alexa

Naa, I don't care too much about the regime...although, King Abdullah has made steps, pretty big ones for Saudi, in the right direction. You see, there is a big divide in the house of Saud...and therefore the hardliners need to be appeased at times, otherwise they will have a coup and things will get even worse than they are. It is all very complicated and would take too much time and space to explain here. And by explaining I do not mean making excuses.

But as I said, to work and live for Western or westernized Expats it is not too bad of a place. If you don't mind living in a bubble , that is.
And I would not EVER live anywhere else than in a Western compound in Saudi.

Btw lionheart, did you know that King Abdullah has started the first co-ed university in Jeddah?
Now THAT is really big for Saudi.

Alexa

My maid swore on her life that witches and sorcerers exist .
In fact, she knew where to get jujus.

The Dean

Orange jujus or grapefruit jujus?

Massachusetts was still convicting people of witchcraft in the early years of the 20th century.

By the way, surely witchcraft depends on the believer/non-believer as much as it depends on the purveyor.

And Alexa's right - you can't change things, but why not take the(ir) money and run............?

Spugsy

my mate just got back from Oman with his Arab girlfriend and apparently black magic is really big over there.