New media and Labor regulations mixed feelings

The Saudi government recently announced new regulations on Media coverage -- criticism of official religious figures is forbidden. We suppose this applies to criticism from any direction -- from those who say the official imam is too liberal, and from those who criticize the official stance as too conservative. However, our American bias toward openness is uncomfortable with such a directive, and we worry about the consequences of stifling debate. There are several dimensions to such debates here: regarding basic interpretations of Islam, regarding attitudes toward different Islamic sects, regarding women's role in society, and the very role of religion in society, all particularly complicated when the society is clearly established as an Islamic state (they finesse the point of what sort of sectarian state it is, claiming simple hegemony over the holy sites: we are constantly reminded that the King's primary title is Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques)

Another recent development is more heartening. We all know about the summer heat -- every day from June to September the high temperature exceeds 100degrees fahrenheit. The Ministry of Labor confirms that henceforth that no laborers can work outside between 12noon and 3pm in the months of July and August. Similar rulings have long been in effect in the neighboring Gulf states. Saudi Arabia is slowly adapting to international standards.

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String Quartet Broken String

We attended a marvelous concert last night, at the Porto Museum of Casa do Infante , a beautifully-renovated 1325 building near the river. At one point it served as a customs house. The government sponsors Portuguese musicians to return from other European orchestras to perform in their homeland. We heard and saw this group play a traditional piece – Haydn string quartet Opus 20 #2. Then the modern Benjamin Britten's Three Divertimenti – the stunning last movement of which they performed as an encore. They performed (and I recorded) the Shostakovich Quartet #9, during which the first-violinist broke a string (it features several strongly-plucked chords!) and had to retreat&repeat!

EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico . There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver. Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government. As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time. I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government? And what will it take to recover from the damage? Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever? Only ni...

Música Tunas e Boémia

We attended an unusual concert last night: Música Tunas e Boémia (bands and parties) University student folk-music groups — big groups of 40 and more each! put on a great show of singing, playing, flag-twirling, tambourine-swinging, all at the major (private) concert hall. The most unusual thing about it was that nobody used any electronic device (except for microphone amplification)—no electric guitar or keyboard, no big drum set…every instrument and prop was hand-held. The singing was quite good, given the effort to synchronize 40 voices.

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