Black ride home

The journey back to the compound last night was rather longer than usual.  Actually it was much longer than usual.  About 10 minutes before I finished in the office the electricity failed.  Avoiding the elevator (which I normally do to get some exercise) I went down to the lobby and waited for Ghalib who was at prayers.

I've now download an 'App' from the internet which tells me when it's prayer time.  I'm not sure how accurate it is and I don't particularly want a system reminder that it's prayer time "now".  I want to know 10 minutes in advance so I can take some avoidance action.  It's quite frustrating deciding to do some shopping only to discover you've decided to go just as prayers start and everything shuts for 20-30 minutes.

Anyway, back to my journey home last night.  We headed towards the compound in darkness, surrounded by hundreds of other drivers attempting to make their own way home.  The usual queue at the first set of traffic lights was significantly larger.  The lights weren’t working and the locals were attempting to weave their way through the intersection.  It would have gone OK except that they are all so damned impatient and aggressive.  The four lanes of traffic turned to the usual six and then nine lanes wide as drivers attempted to circumvent the queue by mounting the footpath and the median strip.  Picture it – we now have nine lanes of traffic attempting to cross an intersection with vehicles coming from four other directions, all of which are also nine lanes wide.  There was a policeman at the intersection but he was either being pragmatic or lazy and stayed in his car parked on the median strip watching the chaos unfold before him.  It took us 40 minutes to get across the first intersection and there were a further three to traverse before we reached a part of the city where the electricity and traffic lights were not affected.

I’ve been attempting to establish some of the ‘laws’ that government the country.  It appears there aren’t any.  The country is governed by Sharia Law.  My understanding of the situation is something like this.  The Prophet Mohammed was illiterate.  He had revelations from God which he passed on to his followers.  Obviously he didn’t write them.  However some of his followers started to write down these revelations and they were subsequently collated into the Koran.  The Koran doesn’t actually contain any ‘Laws’.  It was some years after the death of Mohammed that some eminent scholars got together to study the Koran and develop the Sharia Laws.  As they are based on the word of God there can be no other ‘laws’.  Saudi Arabia isn’t a democracy; it’s a monarchy.  The king authorizes regulations and royal decrees.  However they are subordinate to Sharia Law.

Another interesting fact is the judges rely on their personal interpretation of Sharia Law when considering cases.  They do not have to rely on precedence or common law.  So similar cases can have different outcomes based upon the judge’s interpretation.  Additionally a man’s evidence carries twice the weight of a woman’s.  It isn’t all that difficult for a man to divorce his wife; although there will likely be a long legal case to achieve a mutually satisfactory financial separation.  The wife divorcing the husband is more complex.  The problem for the ex-wife is she is now ‘used goods’ and it’s most unlikely she will ever be able to remarry.  Interestingly, the Prophet Mohammed’s first wife was a widow and significantly older than him.  As the husband is the breadwinner he usually become the custodian of the children.  The judge will decide he is the one most able to look after them.  Divorce does occur, but less so than in the west.  Families go to great lengths to carefully select partners for their children.  These ties may bind extended families and business interests together.  Marriage and divorce isn’t just about two people!  One of the nurses mentioned the diet, lack of physical exercise, and close intermarriage of families was having a significant adverse effect on the health of the general population.  Diabetes is on the rise, and there is also a higher than normal rate of birth defects caused by the smaller gene pool.