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Are Geeks in Saudi Arabia Just Like Us?
Robin 'Roblimo' Miller (of NewsForge and sometimes Slashdot) spent five days in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, meeting with local Linux advocates and users, and wrote five articles while he was there. The article titles are Saudi Arabia: Linux advocates in white robes, Saudi Space Institute techies love their new Linux computer, Meet Saudi Arabia's most famous computer expert, Saudi open source conference opens minds, and Linux and open source opportunities in the Mideast. This is the first in-depth look ever at open source (and programming in general) in a conservative Islamic country. Roblimo concludes that under the robes, Saudi geeks are much like geeks everywhere, but from comments on the stories it looks like a lot of people don't agree.
First post ?
And when they read real english sentences and they're not too good at it, does it translate to an equivalent of all your base are belong to us?
I suspect that under the robes they are just us. It's just that in the public square this country is a real shithole with the complete segregation of the sexes and bullshit sharia law. It would be like if we ever let losers like Jerry Falwell make the law and run the government. The people are great, its their government that has to go.
Do you mean conservative, self-important, and quick to put others down?
(That's the stereotype I have, anyway).
While it's true that it's hard for Saudi women to get the freedom to work, this has nothing to do with the field.
The main reason why women are rare in the field is because technological subjects are boring to most women, not because of prejudice.
It's an old lie to suggest that male/female participation in different fields is caused by external pressure, discrimination, and social bias. The reason is simply that people choose different fields because they are not blank slates to be molded by whatever pressures society applies.
Saudi geeks are predominately male for the same reason Stateside geeks are.
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When you are talking about the oppression of half of the population, including your mother, grandmother, aunts and sisters how can you be motivated NOT effect change?
They probably look over at the US, see how the US attacks other countries, kills people in Iraq, etc. (that's their perception - regardless of the facts) and conclude that US geeks are majorly fucked up too.
Mmmm.. Donuts
Nice theory. Tell that to the "Mother" of two who blew herself up at the Erez crossing point last week. She killed 4 Israelis and left about 6000 Palistianians out of work for the near future.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
Atheistic? Sure. Libertarian? I don't think so. Most Slashdot commenters these days seem to be avowed members of the antiamerican, antisemitic, antiwar left (and rather shrill ones at that). If you don't believe me, try arguing that maybe, just maybe, deposing a brutal dictator that has been steadily murdering his own people for decades (and who, by the way, was a Soviet client long before he recieved any American support) wasn't such a bad idea after all. Or pointing out that Clinton himself was convinced up to the very end that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This is the age of "Those neocon Jews are pulling the strings behind the scenes", "Bush lied" and "It's all about oil". It's the age of Nazis, Greens and Marxists-Leninists marching together against "globalization", "corporate dominance", "evil Amerikkan administration" and, of course, "the international Jewish conspiracy". It is the age of nonstop idiotarian moonbatism. Welcome to Slashdot, circa 2004.
When you think trying to keep guns out of school is the same as locking little girls in a burning building, you are in a majorly fucked up society. Something else to think about.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
Well, this is Roblimo writing, so that he overlooks this fact isn't exactly suprising. Read this article to find out more about this condescending, chauvinistic, closet misogynist.
I quote:
A woman just like you wouldn't be there for you when you wanted a hug. She'd be obsessively coding or posting on Slashdot herself, and would brush you off when you needed her. What you really want is a woman who will be there for you when you get tired of staring at your monitor and need some loving, but will leave you alone and not demand your attention when you're busy. You don't want a Geek Girl. You want a woman who is willing and able to meet a geek's needs, which is not the same thing at all.
Men involved in activities that demand long periods of intense concentration (programmers, artists, writers, musicians, etc.) need women who will respect what they do and help them do it well, not women who compete with them.
We need what are now called "old fashioned girls" who don't mind cooking our meals, rubbing our sore shoulders, and running our bath water for us. There are plenty of these women out there.
Apparently being locked up in servitude of me is what many women want, so then the Saudi's are doing them a favor...
Of course they do, your vile American imperialist filth spam infects all the world.
That was classic intercourse!
Ahh! So the Israeli settlers are righting the wrongs of ancient history by committing new ones. Glad we've got that one reasoned out! Presumably it would be OK by you for the various native American tribes to start killing white, black and yellow Americans and bulldozing their houses?
That was classic intercourse!
Arabians != fundamentalism. Saudi Arabia is a modern country, rich from petrol that you americans try to steal from others arabian countries like Iraq and Kuwait. The fundamentalism is in countries like Palestina, where it was Israel. Then the Jews took their houses and put them to live in a similar way they did in Nazi's champs. I think their rage is not so strange, but anyway is OT, just as is OT talking of fundamentalism in saudi arabia. that's Afghanistan! Sure they are Islamic, but no matter. They are person. Dont criticize other cultures/populations when you dont really know them, and especially when you have so much shit to clean in your beloved country of warlover presidents and companies so powerful that they can keep many countries of the third world underdeveloped so that theyll always be cheap..especially childs. Now i stop this just cause i have to think of the shit Berlusconi is making in my country..