Category Archives: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Bans Energy Drinks Advertising – What Now Happens To Social Media

Posted on by
Reply

The Kingdom’s Government took the drastic step yesterday of introducing a raft of measures aimed at restricting the sale, promotion and consumption of energy drinks. The move, which was not expected, will mean that as of now energy drinks companies will no longer be able to advertise or carry out promotion campaigns through ‘electronic or print media or any other means’.

It doesn’t end there. The Saudi Cabinet banned the free distribution of energy drinks to consumers belonging to all age groups. Energy drinks have also been banned in restaurants and canteens at government establishments, as well as educational and health institutions, public and private sports clubs and halls.

To quote from the report on the Al-Arabiya news-site, the full list of measures includes:

1 – To prohibit advertising of any energy drink or do advertising or promotional campaigns for any energy drink via any readable, audible or visible media organ, or by any other means.”

2 – To prohibit energy drinks companies, their agents, distributors and marketing associations from sponsoring any sporting, social or cultural event, or taking any procedure leading to promotion.

3 – To prohibit the free distribution of energy drinks to consumers of all age groups.

4 – To prohibit the sale of energy drinks in restaurants and canteens in government facilities; education and health facilities; halls and public and private sports clubs.

5 – Upon the decision, factory owners and importers of energy drinks shall be committing to writing a text on the tin of any energy drink in Arabic and English languages – warning of the harmful effects of energy drinks.”

In a market that has been constantly growing for the energy drinks sector (you can find Red Bull, Bison, Power Horse and other popular energy drinks brands everywhere), this is going to be a major blow for the business. Red Bull has already put out statements defending its position, including its availability in 165 countries worldwide and a lack of evidence to show that it is harmful (you can read the statement in full here). Red Bull and other brands are major event sponsors, and it’s uncertain where the shortfall in funding will come from.

However, the one area which has yet to be clarified is social media. Red Bull has its Saudi Twitter feed (@RedBullSaudi) and Facebook pages for its events. Red Bull did put out a tweet today from its Saudi feed. How is social media classified? Is it advertising or is social media more subtle? And how do the authorities class social media? It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, both in the real world as well as on social media.

Saudi women raising the bar – Somayya Jabarti becomes the first female newspaper editor in the Gulf

Posted on by
3

Somayya Jabarti has become the first female editor-in-chief in the Gulf region. She’ll be leading the Saudi-based Saudi Gazette following Khaled Almaeena’s departure (image source: metrotvnews.com)

Saudi Arabia often gets a bad wrap when it comes to how it treats its women. However, for those of us who have lived in the Kingdom, we know of the strength and abilities of Saudi women. They’re tenacious, eloquent, hard working and, in my view, a wonderful bunch. The latest media announcement coming out of the Kingdom has made headlines the world over.

On Sunday, the English-language newspaper Saudi Gazette announced that its editor-in-chief Khaled Almaeena would be stepping down from his role with immediate effect. Almaeena, who joined the Saudi Gazette in October 2011, penned his own farewell letter which was published on the newspaper’s front page. It’s a wonderful read and spells out Almaeena’s views on how a newspaper should be run and why editors should be pushing the boundaries when it comes to reporting contentious issues.

Unarguably the most important announcement made by Khaled and the Saudi Gazette that morning was the promotion of Somayya Jabarti to the top editorial position in the newspaper. I’m going to quote directly from Khaled’s piece:

Today I proudly leave my nominee, a female journalist — Somayya Jabarti — who will take the helm of the paper. She has been associated with me for almost 13 years, and I’ve had the goal almost as long of wanting to see a Saudi woman enter the male-dominated bastion of editors-in-chief. It was not a question of gender but of merit that decided and earned her this opportunity. I am proud to have played a role in her career. She is determined and dedicated, and I can assure her and the team that I will be there to assist and advise, so that Saudi Gazette further advances as a media unit in a highly competitive and digital age.

I’ve known of Somayya for many years and I’ve interacted with her on a number of occasions. She’s tenacious, independent and determined that she and her team cover the news without self-censoring the editorial (this is still a common trend in the Gulf). I’d go further however, and say that Somayya is representative of today’s Saudi women. Saudi women are often viewed from outside the Kingdom as oppressed, as in need of help and support.

However, my own experiences have often shown the opposite to be true. If anything, Saudi women are the most independent in the Gulf when it comes to wanting a career and earning a living. If anything, Somayya is proof of what Saudi women are capable of and how the Kingdom is changing. For me, what’s most telling is that this first didn’t happen in other Gulf states which often tout how they’re advancing women’s rights, but in Saudi. I often feel that the pressures Saudi women face mold them, make them become stronger and more focused. Saudi women have learned to fight and they’re no longer willing to wait for change or to accept what they’re being given with platitudes.

In the Kingdom all top editorial positions at the country’s newspapers are approved by the Ministry of Information and Culture and so Somayya’s appointment would have been given the government’s blessing. I’ll leave the last word to the lady herself, for an interview she gave with Al-Arabiya. I’m sure she’ll do her fellow Saudi women proud!

“There’s a crack that has been made in the glass ceiling. And I’m hoping it will be made into a door. This is a first for a Saudi daily… A mold has been broken where editors-in-chief of Saudi daily newspapers are concerned. Being the first Saudi woman [newspaper editor] is going to be double the responsibility… One’s actions will reflect upon my fellow Saudi women.”

Make a New Year’s Resolution for your company and go volunteer in 2014

Posted on by
Reply
Volunteering will benefit you, your employees and your business more than you may imagine (image source - www.zmetravel.com)

Volunteering will benefit you, your employees and your business more than you may imagine (image source – http://www.zmetravel.com)

You’re finished with the festive period, the time of year when we have a tendency to overindulge. Now, having seen in the new year, most of us will have made a number of resolutions for our own betterment. But if you’re thinking of a way to make a difference in 2014, why not take a step forward and make a resolution for your company and community?

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining a foothold among businesses across the region and one method that all businesses, both large and small, can adopt is to volunteer their time to support local charitable organisations.

There’s a misconception among business owners that volunteering or other forms of CSR is the preserve of large corporations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Giving back by donating your time and expertise to your community can be beneficial to you, your staff and business for many reasons. Not only can volunteering help your community and create a shared sense of achievement among your employees, but giving back can even help your business grow in way that you may not expect. Here’s how:

Volunteering can broaden your experience

Volunteering provides an opportunity to work on something different, with new people in a new place for a new cause. The experiences are not only personally rewarding, but you may and your staff will develop new skills and thinking from the not-for-profit sector that may benefit your own business. When you volunteer for the right reasons to give back to the community, you’ll not only develop new perspectives but you’ll also become more of an empathetic, well-rounded leader and be able to bring these skills and experiences back to bear on your own goals and those of your business.

Your employee morale will improve

Giving to the community has significant benefits for employee satisfaction. Studies by London in 2010 found that 94 per cent of companies had found that volunteering positively impacted employee morale. Volunteering allows your staff to give back to their communities, learn new skills and participate in causes that many of them may passionately believe in, such as the environment, good health and childcare. Volunteering has been found to boost employee health as well as their morale.

Doing well is good for your business reputation too

As a business owner, no one will know better than you that your actions impact your business reputation. Giving back to the local community will have positive effect on your brand. The more that you become part of your local community, the faster your reputation as a business that cares will grow. Volunteering helps your company show that you are empathetic and that you do understand the needs and concerns of local communities.

Develop new relationships and strengthen existing ones

There’s no better way to develop and maintain good relationships than working together with others for a good cause. Getting out there and volunteering will enable you to meet new people who you may not otherwise meet. Even if these relationships don’t initially seem relevant to you and your business, the power of networking will mean that you’ll have a group of individuals outside of your usual business circles to consult with and give you different perspectives.

If you haven’t ever volunteered before and don’t know where to start, there are a number of organisations and bodies that can advise you. For companies based in Dubai, the best place to start is the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and its Engage team that already has a strong connection with most of Dubai’s charitable organisations. The Engage team may be able to point you and your business in the right direction as to how and where to start. The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and the Engage team can be reached at responsiblebusiness@dubaichamber.com.

For companies in Abu Dhabi, the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group is a governmental organisation that promotes sustainability best practises and would be best placed to provide similar advice as to where to start in the UAE’s capital. You can contact them at contact@adsg.ae.

For business owners in Saudi Arabia, your best resource may be the Ministry of Social Affairs, which has a database of all locally registered charities in the kingdom. The ministry has offices in most of the kingdom’s cities, so do check out its website at http://www.mosa.gov.sa.

Volunteering doesn’t have to take a tremendous amount of time or energy and yet giving back can be one of the most rewarding things you do over 2014 for yourself and your employees. Get started today and make a difference not only to yourself, but to your local community as well.

This piece was first published on the Kipp Report.

The Gulf, social media and its self-deprecating humour

Posted on by
1

The Gulf is known for many things but a sense of humour hasn’t traditionally been on the list, even less so self-deprecating humour. With the advent of social media, in particular YouTube, both the Gulf’s residents and nationals have started to develop content like there’s no tomorrow. The best is currently coming from Saudi Arabia. One example is La Yekthar, one of the most popular comedy shows on the net. The team regularly tackles and takes on stereotypes of Saudis, and one of their latest clips was a fantastic set-up of how Saudis are often perceived by foreigners. The video, which is below, also sends a not-so-subtle message to Saudis that this type of image, of arrogance and violence, isn’t the right thing to do.

Bahrain has also followed suit with a number of send-ups of the typical Bahraini stereotypes. The clips, which are common on the video-sharing site Keek, focus on a variety of stereotypes which are mainly based on geography (for example, Al-Riffa and Muharraq). I’m going to have to search for these but I’m going to upload as soon as I can.

Even Qatar is getting in on the act. The only local Qatari comedian I know, Hamad Al-Amari, routinely does stand-up routines poking fun at Qatari stereotypes before switching effortlessly into an Irish accent (he spent part of his childhood in Ireland). Have a look at one of his sets below.

And then there’s the UAE. While there are a number of local comedians here including the likes of Ali Al Sayed the country has arrested those, even nationals, who have poked fun at the country’s stereotypes. Emirati Salim Dahman and a group of young males who made a spoof YouTube video named the ‘The Deadly Satwa Gs’ were arrested after uploading the clip. No reason seems to have been given for their arrest, but the assumption would be that they’ve been detained for insulting national sensitivities.

To quote from 7Days, which featured the story yesterday, ‘The Deadly Satwa Gs’ video is a spoof of young people who try to act tough. At the martial arts school, the recruits learn how to throw a shoe and call for back-up on their mobile phones. When they graduate from the school, they are all given Barcelona football jerseys, supposedly matching a style worn by young men in Dubai.

The video, which is still available online, is hardly groundbreaking satire and is fairly tame when compared to the content coming out of the Magic Kingdom. However, comedy isn’t always a laughing matter depending on where you are in the Gulf.

PS If you want to know why I haven’t mentioned Kuwait ask any Gulf Arab about Kuwaitis and humour.

The importance of the mobile web for Gulf-based businesses

Posted on by
1

Remember the good old days, when mobiles were there only for making or receiving calls? Forget them, and start thinking mobile web sites and more business (image source: tandemdigital.co.uk)

It’s official! The UAE is again a world leader, but this time in smartphone penetration. Seventy four percent of UAE residents carry a big, bad smartphone in their hands (some of us have two of them on the go at a time). Saudi Arabia is third, with seventy three percent of people carrying mobile devices according to research conducted by Google for its ‘Our Global Planet’ project.

The good people at UAE-based PR agency Spot On PR have summarized the findings for the UAE and you can do the same by going to Google’s website and customizing your query. What’s most striking is local behaviours. Have a look below.

Have a look at the frequency of local searches and look at the growth from 2012 to 2013

Have a look at the frequency of local searches and look at the growth from 2012 to 2013

Actions taken after Local Search in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and 2013 across all age ranges and gender types

Actions taken after Local Search in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and 2013 across all age ranges and gender types

What is strikingly obvious from both of the graphs above is that local search is now essential to local businesses. And yet, we’re still pretty awful when it comes to developing websites for mobile browsers.

So how do you change this? The first piece of news is pretty obvious. Go and get a website (it’s amazing how many businesses still don’t have sites in this part of the world). Secondly, if you’re not sure about how mobile-friendly your website is then test it using a tool such as W3C’s Mobile Ok Checker. These will be able to tell you what you’re doing right and what you’re getting wrong when it comes to rendering or displaying your site on a mobile browser.

If you’re stuck on how to develop a website that renders well on mobile browsers why don’t you consider using a content management system such as WordPress. WordPress has website styles that automatically adapt or respond to different browser types. WordPress is free and you don’t need to even pay hosting fees if you use WordPress’ own servers.

Even if you have a mobile-friendly website remember to use back-end analytics programmes from Google or other providers to better understand what your customers are doing on your website and what you can do to improve their experience. If you’re looking for more advice on what you should be doing to generate business from mobile have a look at this crib sheet for mobile e-marketing by local developer Saad Bhatti or get in touch with the good people at Spot On. But the general message is, do more on mobile!

One place you don’t want to be for Eid – Stuck at Riyadh Airport with @BritishAirways

Video

Reply

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6kT9UBxrvM&feature=youtu.be

Where do you want to be on your first day of Eid/vacation? It’s not the most pleasant experience being stuck at any airport in the world, but this story does break my heart. The above video was posted today after what appears to be a nightmare experience. The below text is from one of the passengers on BA262 which was supposed to leave on the 7th of August from Riyadh to London Heathrow but arrived three flights and a day later than scheduled. And while safety is of paramount importance and these things do happen I have to ask, why didn’t BA do better in terms of its customer service?

On checking into the airport the flight BA262 on 7th Aug 2013 from Riyadh to London was delayed by 20 minutes. This was extended to nearly 4 hours with statements every hour. The air conditioning within the airport was not working and the status updates very vague and not helpful. No refreshments were made available and the passengers left to fend for themselves. Finally we did board the aircraft and took off from Riyadh, however approx 30 minutes into the flight we started circling Riyadh and did not go anywhere. We were then told that there was an issue with the main wing flaps jamming and had to eject 20 tonnes of fuel and return to Riyadh.

The emergency landing was fast and hard but fortunately the pilot was good and we made a safe landing.

Passengers disembarked and went through a living nightmare from start to finish and ended up leaving the airport with no support from BA what so ever!!!!

The aircraft, we were told was fixed and we were to return the next day to take off at 0700hrs. We ended up taking off close to 0900hrs 8 Aug, again we climbed and again the same issue occurred about 30 minutes into the flight. The main wing flaps jammed again. we then went through the same scenario of dumping the fuel and then another emergency landing back at Riyadh airport. This time there was screaming and crying within the aircraft and again blue lights chasing us up the runway. On coming to a stand still there was a person who was took ill and passed out and the para medics were dispatched to attend the aircraft to treat the person.

BA you have en-dangered peoples lives, you have not been there when needed, you are a disgrace!!!!

Social media and diplomacy – @IsraelintheGCC, Israel’s virtual embassy in the Gulf

Posted on by
Reply
The launch of the @IsraelintheGCC twitter account is a cheap but potentially effective media channel for the Israeli government

The launch of the @IsraelintheGCC twitter account is a cheap but potentially effective media channel for the Israeli government

No matter your political persuasion, you have to admit that the Israelis are an ingenious bunch. Their latest idea is a simple concept, a virtual embassy for a part of the world where there’s little/no Israeli State presence, the Gulf. Israel, which doesn’t enjoy official diplomatic relations with any of the Gulf states, has launched a ‘virtual embassy in the Gulf’ through Twitter. The account, which is named @IsraelintheGCC, aims to “open lines of dialogue” with people living in the Gulf according to a report by the UAE-based English-language daily Gulf News. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the person behind the idea is Yoram Morad, Director of the Department of Digital Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel.

Not unsurprisingly, Israel has always faced challenges when trying to communicate its point of view to its Arab neighbours. However, that hasn’t stopped the State from engaging various mediums to argue for its policies. Israel launched an Arabic-language television channel in 1994 following the announcement of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The establishment of the @IsraelintheGCC twitter account follows news of a potential re-engagement between the Israelis and Palestinians as well as mounting pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment programme.

It could be argued that Israel has been much more active than the Arab states in terms of communicating its key messages – there were plans to launch a Hebrew-language channel in Egypt as of last year according to the Christian Science Monitor, but I haven’t heard much in the way of an actual launch.

The messaging employed by @IsraelintheGCC, which is being run by the Twitter account of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, would appear to be aimed at propagating a more diplomatic tone than that of Israel’s internal politics. The account, which has tweeted 21 times to date, has only quoted the country’s Prime Minister twice (its fair to say that Bibi Netanyahu wouldn’t win many popularity contests in the Gulf), but it has talked about social media in the Arab world, sustainability issues, and wished followers a Ramadan Kareem. The one time Netanyahu has been quoted was in relation to European sanctions on the Lebanese organization Hizbollah which isn’t well liked in the Gulf due to its pro-Iranian stance. There are tweets in Arabic too. Have a look at some of the posts below.

Over the past couple of years social media has allowed companies, politicians and celebrities to directly bypass the media and reach out directly to anyone that wants to listen. Now the same can be said of social media for States who, for diplomatic reasons, cannot establish a physical presence. I’ll be following the account, and am looking forward to seeing how long this project lasts, how much dialogue it generates and how successful it becomes for the Israeli government.

Why do Middle East executives not blog and five reasons for starting a corporate blog today

Posted on by
1

Is this question even relevant any more? Middle East execs, what are you waiting for? (image source: http://www.homeschoolblogging.com)

There’s no doubt about it, blogging is huge. But don’t take my word for it, let’s look at the numbers. On blogging platform WordPress there are almost seventy million blogs, which are read by 360 million people each month. There’s even more blogs on the Tumblr (over 100 million as of April 2013) and Livejournal platforms (approximately 62 million blog sites as of April 2013). While blogging may not hug the headlines as much as social media, the online writing format continues to grow. By the end of 2011, NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company, was tracking over 181 million blogs worldwide, compared to only 36 million in 2006.

Similarly, blogging has become one of the most popular tools among corporations in a number of geographies. Research by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts has pointed to growth across both the Fortune 500 and the Inc. 500 in 2012. Forty-four percent of Inc. 500 companies, the fastest publicly-firms in America, were blogging, while twenty-eight percent of America’s largest publicly-listed firms had a corporate blog. The most interesting statistic was that sixty-three percent of CEOs of companies who did blog contributed personally to content.

These statistics from the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth underline how popular blogging is with corporations in the US (image source: http://www.umassd.edu)

It’s fair to say that the Middle East corporate world, and the Gulf in particular, doesn’t share this same level of enthusiasm for blogging. Few publicly-listed companies have a blog – we’re literally talking a handful – and even those blogs that are online are rarely updated.

While it’s hard to speculate on the reasons why so few CEOs blog here, the one assumption that I’d make is either they don’t feel a need to communicate with their stakeholders or they don’t want to reveal information through a medium such as a blog (this subject does need more research, but the lack of blogging here maybe reflects a wider lack of understanding of digital communications).

For a pastime that was once considered on the fringe of journalism, blogging is a pivotal online media channel for breaking news, sharing content and developing an audience. Blogs are often quoted in the media and it allows a corporation to control the message and yet promote a healthy dialogue with its internal and external stakeholders.

There are many reasons for starting a corporate blog, but we’re going to focus on the five basics which should underline to your chief executive officer the value in having a blog for your company and including blogging as part of our communications strategy.

1) It’s all about transparency

We all want and sometimes need more information, and yet corporations often keep too much of a lid on what external stakeholders see and know. A blog allows you to let others look inside the company and give them a better understanding of any and every issue you care to tackle, from sustainability to product development and customer relations.

The benefit of transparency is increased trust. Your (potential) customer base should better understand why you do what you do. Customers and investors will feel much better informed and they may be more willing to buy your product and invest in your company.

However, don’t take transparency to mean republishing your press releases in a different format. Some of the most successful corporate blogs are those that take a nuanced approach, that tackle the good and the bad. The less biased you are, the more likely you are to be trusted when publishing a blog.

2) Bringing some humanity to the Corporation

Corporations are often seen as soul-less, grey worlds. And the same can often be said for a corporation’s communications approach; the bland press releases, the staid web-site which rarely seems to be updated. As people we all thrive on interaction and dialogue and that’s why blogs are so successful. They’re your corporation’s personal voice, a voice that need not use corporate-speak and jargon but instead adopt a tone that is more informal and conversational.

Your blog will need a face. It could be the CEO or another senior person. But a blog doesn’t need to be written by an executive. Some of the most insightful blogs are written by product managers, researchers and others who are passionate enough to make what they are saying interesting.

The beauty of blogging is that you don’t need to stay on message all the time. You can write about diverse topics which don’t need to be about the company. Customers will see through marketing pitches so step away from the self-promotion. Instead, offer human insights into recent events, industry news and other related information. Let your customers know more about you than just your product line-up and they’ll begin to become more loyal to your brand.

3) Starting a dialogue

Unlike many other forms of communication, blogs are there to receive feedback as well as to be a voice for the company. When you engage readers and respond to dialogue – both positive and negative – you’ll be doing much more than just promoting your company.

Blogs are a great way to test the water, to understand your customers’ perception on certain issues. And even if the comments are negative, at least you’ll know what your customers are thinking and be able to respond and bring them back on board. Get talking on a blog and even those stakeholders who may not agree with your company’s strategy will appreciate your efforts to talk with and about these issues in a forum that allows for and encourages debate.

4) Drive that web traffic!

Want a business reason for blogging that your sales team can measure? How about the web traffic that a blog will drive to your site. Many web engines such as Google rank sites based on content, on relevance and popularity. A blog that is updated regularly, that has content that is popular and that links to other sites you’ll find your own corporate site being ranked much higher by search engines such as Google. Once your own blogging site has become established you’ll find others linking to you, which will further propel your blog to the top of the search rankings and towards the nirvana of a first page listing.

5) Measure your blogging success

The beauty of communicating on your own site is that you can analyze your visitor statistics, to understand where your visitors are coming from, what they’re doing on your blog, what they’re using to read your blog (are they viewing your blog on a PC, a tablet or a mobile?) and how they’re reaching your site. The beauty of web analytics is that the more you have, the better you can make your blog and improve your visitor numbers. From there you can start defining your blog’s goals and measure your goal conversion, review how you’re promoting your blog and understand which topics and keywords are the most successful in driving traffic to your site.

Unlike traditional public relations metrics, online measurement tools are instant and can give you a full picture of what you’re doing right and how you can improve your blogging outreach. Blogging technologies are evolving but don’t feel daunted by the technological challenge. Blogging can be simple enough to begin with, and most blogging platforms have their own in-built analytics to help you out.

Another Youtube Shocker – KFC and its Al-Ahsa Outlet’s Hygiene Standards

Posted on by
Reply

It seems no-one is safe from Youtube. After a video was uploaded to the world’s largest video-sharing site showing what purported to be an alleged road-rage incident in Dubai another video has been uploaded to the site but this time from Saudi Arabia. The video, which was uploaded on the 17th of July has been viewed 175,000 times in three days.

The video, featured below, allegedly shows what is described to be a scene in a kitchen of Kentucky Fried Chicken in the Saudi city of Al-Ahsa, in Othaim Mall. The person who took the video was apparently an employee who was fired after the video was taken. I’m not going to describe the video; rather, do watch the video itself which is two minutes long.

Social media crises for food chains aren’t new; anyone remember the infamous Youtube clip on Domino’s Pizza that went viral in 2009? However, while these issues aren’t new to US and European audiences and most food chains there have social media crisis plans how many local, Middle East franchises are ready for the same thing here? It’ll be interesting to see if or how KFC does respond to the allegation. In the meantime, as it’s Ramadan I’m enjoying home cooking.

A modern Arab voice – Ahmad Al Shugairi

Posted on by
2

Ahmad AlShugairi is one Arab voice who talks a lot of sense. We need more like him (image credit: http://www.andriodpit.com

There’s few independent thinkers on the airwaves in this region. The Middle East is a region where most media are government-owned. One of the exceptions and an amazing personality is Ahmad Al Shugairi. A Saudi national from Jeddah, Ahmad hosts a month-long program during Ramadan called Khawater, which literally translates as thoughts. Ahmad has been hosting Khawater for nine years and it’s become a firm favourite during Ramadan on MBC.

Ahmad is also not afraid of rocking the boat. One of his episodes this season has focused on the issue of Syrian refugees and indirectly on their lack of access to the Gulf region. Another has talked about food waste, particularly during Ramadan. And a third has looked at the concept of innovation when it comes to pot holes (yes, pot holes). The best one was an issue discussing religious tolerance, between Sunni and Shia Muslims and Christians and Muslims in the Middle East.

Ahmad is a man who is positive, and yet who recognizes that we Arabs can and should be behaving and thinking in a more communal, altruistic manner. He’s a voice for sense and humanity in a region where we often don’t speak in moderate tones and with little common sense. I’ll try and find videos subtitled into English, but in the meantime, please do watch the below (the first is on religious tolerance and the second is on the issue of Syrian refugees). Ahmad, we need you throughout the whole year!