Charles, over at Little Green Footballs, has been having some fun with the news editor of the Saudi English language paper, Arab News. Said editor, one John R. Bradley, has been inflating his credentials a bit and Josh Trevino had sort of, well, called him on it and then Charles had picked it up and, well, then things started to get interesting. A feisty exchange (which I'll paraphrase somewhat) ensued on LGF’s comments board, including some incisive questions posted by Joe Katzman, some of which were adroitly dodged and the rest of which were pointedly ignored by Mr. Bradley.
In the meantime, Bradley complained that Charles was blocking posts from Saudi critics. It’s not that I’m worried about critics, responded Charles, it’s just that this is what I get when I don’t block general access from SA. But..but..but, whined Bradley, why can’t you just block the accounts that are offensive. Well, responded Charles, since you live in SA and know everything there is to know about it, I surely don’t need to tell you this, but
...you see, unfortunately the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has implemented proxy servers on all public Internet accounts that use their ISU, in order to watch what their subjects are doing on the Net. Here in the USA, we call this "invasion of privacy." You might have a different name for it.
OK, said Bradley, “point taken re your reasons for blocking everyone.â€
But after being called a few nasty names by other participants in the melee, Mr. Bradley pouted, collected his marbles and headed for the fabulous, crime-free Jeddah Corniche to clear his head. “I’m not in the habit of hanging out with white trash,†he declared, and then went off to cover the Monster Truck Show at the Abha Shopping Festival.
P.S. Whatever point Mr. Bradley “took†obviously wasn’t the point that Charles was making. Almost before the Monster Truck Show was over, JRB was complaining to his readers about the big bad bullies at LGF:
...a hate-mail oriented, extreme right-wing website that acts as a kind of magnet for Arab-haters…. largely devoted these days to launching personal attacks on me, since I am what the posters seem unable to comprehend: A Westerner who lives in Saudi Arabia, has Saudi friends, and genuinely likes the life here. The posters appear particularly to loathe everything Saudi Arabian, although none of them have ever been here. Almost needless to say, the hate site itself has oh-so-conveniently blocked all access to those surfing the Net in Saudi Arabia….
Point not taken, John.
