A Musical Cure

Music therapy was a common method in Ottoman medicine, which had a holistic approach. The Guardian has published a cool article on the modern example of this technique, being applied in Istanbul now. As a fan of Turkish classical music, I especially liked the way that the Guardian let us listen to the related melodies.

Rediscovering Atatürk

In the past, I had summarized the way I saw Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, with a few posts here:

...A modernising autocrat, who used the justified violence of a revolutionary state to establish a nation with humanist sentiments. In spite of all the efforts by various parties to abuse and capitalize him, he is still loved like a father by millions of Turks, who are not brainwashed idiots, but enlightened masses with sincere feelings...

Austin Bay, who recently published a book called "Atatürk: Lessons in Leadership From the Greatest General of the Ottoman Empire" in the United States, has written an interesting article for the Philadelphia Inquirer, filling most of the gaps in my previous posts about Atatürk.

The article, "Arab Spring demands echo ideals of Ataturk," puts the Turkish leader of 1920s/1930s into a contemporary, international context.

Simply, the article shows that the founder of Turkey is still inspiring for the region, formerly known as the Ottoman Empire, as he was the one to lay grounds for the first democracy of the Middle East.

Everyone in the world, especially in the United States and the Western Europe, should read this article to see that Atatürk is not an idol that should be broken.

For Turkey and the world, he was an idea.

He was the ideal.

Still, he is.

Chilean Camila vs. Turkish Camila

Camila Vallejo is a student in Chile. Her call for better and cheaper education has seen student protests transform into a two-day nationwide shutdown. The 23-year-old spearheads an uprising that shakes the presidency of the billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera. She is being protected by the police anyway, as she is receiving death threats. The beautiful Comandante Camila is a global star now:

Berna Yılmaz is a student in Turkey. 12 months ago, the 20-year-old participated in a protest during a visit by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan where she carried a banner, reading "We want free education." Police immediately arrested Berna and she is still behind bars, spent a full year of her life while waiting for a court decision among murderers and thieves. Almost nobody in Turkey seems like caring about Berna, probably except her parents. This may be why there are no photos of Berna to post here.

Camila is from Chile.

Berna is from Turkey.

On What I Was Wrong and Why I Am Right

Mehmet Arslan, the managing editor of Hurriyet's sports section, has explained me in a newsroom meeting today that I was wrong when accusing UEFA of a double-standard in ousting Fenerbahçe football club from the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League over an ongoing match-fixing probe.

He told me that UEFA's hands were tied when AC Milan were convicted of match-fixing and had still managed to get away with it with an additional title in Champions League. However, the top football body of Europe had modified the regulations right afterwards to keep such a scandal repeat in the future.

This explanation may disprove the double-standard allegation, but there are still important questions to be asked. Mehmet Arslan has given a successful example of sports journalism today, as Hürriyet published UEFA's letter to the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) for the first time. As the Board of Fenerbahçe has pointed out today, the letter shows that TFF has misled the UEFA to think that this match-fixing probe was just about Fenerbahçe, although it was actually targeting almost all Super League clubs.

"But the only arrested president is Fenerbahçe's," some may suggest. Then TFF should have given UEFA more insight about the Turkish judiciary, including the fact that fifty-four percent of criminal cases in Turkey, including the ones that go through prolonged arrests, result with the acquittal of the suspect.

This is why I think that I'm still right in believing that it was wrong to ban Fenerbahçe from Europe, if it wouldn't be relegated from the Turkish Super League immediately. After all, you can't have a club clean enough to play in the top national league, while being not clean enough to play in the top continental league. So if there is a double-standard, it is more of TFF's than of UEFA's.

An UEFA Double-Standard: Invading the Republic of Fenerbahçe

The talk of the day in Turkey is the ouster of Fenerbahçe football club from the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League over an ongoing match-fixing probe.

It is basically an UEFA action:

The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) had previously decided that Fenerbahçe wouldn't be relegated from the Turkish Super League until the criminal investigation would be completed and there would be enough evidence proving the guilt of the club. No evidence is not public yet, as the investigation remains confidential.

However, an UEFA representative visited Istanbul and warned the TFF to send Trabzonspor instead of Fenerbahçe by relying on the media coverage of the match-fixing probe. Although many allegations that were published by the media were already disproved, TFF quickly stepped back and did what UEFA said.

I believe that it is a ridiculous double-standard by UEFA and it is a shameful cowardice by the TFF. There are two reasons:

1) Even if Fenerbahçe is guilty, it is not proven yet. With exactly same conditions in the past, UEFA had let AC Milan and Porto to play in the Champions League, while match-fixing investigations against them were still going on. Moreover, AC Milan won the Champions League in 2002, although it was found guilty in match-fixing scandal and its points in Serie A were taken back in the same year.

2) The second double standard is UEFA's choice to replace Fenerbahçe. It is its rival Trabzonspor, which is also accused in the match-fixing scandal. Moreover, its president is on trial now with a ban on leaving the country. (Update: Abracadabra! A court annulled the ban today, so that he can watch away games, too!)

It seems that UEFA's "zero tolerance" policy against match-fixing is really complicated. They tolerate match-fixing by football giants and football dwarfs, but they can't even wait for an investigation to be concluded when it is a normal football club. The result may be the total collapse of the Turkish football, as Fenerbahçe has just announced that it would apply to be relegated, an action that may lead many Turkish clubs to go bankrupt because of the steep fall in broadcast revenues.

Personal Note: I'm a supporter of Fenerbahçe and I wrote about it in the past, including when I posted about its unique place in Turkish football as more of a republic, than a club.

Running With Sledgehammers

There is an interesting polemic going on:

The Times of London has recently published an article about the Sledgehammer case, the case against the Turkish generals who were accused of plotting a coup. Alexander Christie-Miller, the author of the article, revealed that "doctored evidence" was at the heart of the case.

Then Etyen Mahcupyan, one of the pro-government liberals of Turkey, bashed at The Times and compared Christie-Miller to Norwegian terrorist and mass murderer Anders Breivik in his column in Today’s Zaman.

Apart from his reductio ad Breivikum accusation, Mahcupyan was blaming the Economist, too, which recently published articles to criticize certain actions of the AKP government, like unjustified the arrest of several journalists.

Finally, Alexander Christie-Miller has replied to Mahcupyan's accusations a couple of days ago. "There is clear evidence, from independent sources, that elements of the Sledgehammer coup plot have been doctored. Specifically, the CD containing most of the incriminating evidence in the trial was manipulated, apparently to augment the case against the defendants," he wrote.

The full text of his response can be read here.

Qaddafi's End: Good Outcome, Bad Method

I am happy that the Libyans finally got rid of Moammar Qaddafi. However, I still agree with US Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, who wrote for the Guardian and said:

"The leading donor nations of NATO - the US, France and Great Britain - have been free to prosecute war under the cloak of this faceless, bureaucratic, alphabet security agency, now multinational war machine, which can violate UN resolutions and kill innocent civilians with impunity. War crimes trials are only for losers. The prospective conquerors, the Western powers and their rebel proxies, will then expect to be able to assert control over Libya's vast oil and natural gas reserves."

What even worse will be, in my opinion, the consequential perception of the NATO intervention in Libya, which may set up a wrong example against international law:

Violating a UN Security Council resolution by bombing a particular side of a civil war (7,459 air strikes against Qaddafi targets, including TV stations) and still stating that the Alliance doesn't take sides as it just protects civilians may not be legitimate, but who cares, it works!

Libya is a victory, but it is a victory of arms against the international law. I prefer victories of wit in compliance with the international law.

Somalia Is Not About Politics

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan visited Somalia's capital Mogadishu to draw international attention to the famine sweeping across the Horn of Africa nation, threatening to kill hundreds of thousands of children.

As he unveiled extensive measures to this African country, AFP emphasized in its report that this was the first visit by a major leader in nearly two decades to witness the devastation in the Somali capital.

"Now Istanbul is the most popular name for newborn girls in Somalia," Erdoğan also said.

* * *

It seems that the Turkish opposition is also united in helping Somalia. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party CHP, announced that he would also go to Somalia on August 30, the first day of the Ramadan feast.

Some fringe figures in the opposition may have alleged that the governing AKP tried to manipulate the public opinion to raise money for the party through donations to Somalia. They also claimed that the AKP government's mobilization in Somalia targeted a new market for the Turkish construction sector.

I believe that they may really be right: Some authorities could really steal some of the donations (as it had happened with the Refah government and the aid to Bosnia). Some businessmen who are close to the government can really be even richer soon, thanks to the contracts in Somalia.

But who cares? As long as even one Somali child is saved from death... As long as even one Somali family is fed for one day... Who does care?

This is not a partisan issue. Let's donate to Somalia. Let's show that humanity is above politics.

Istanbul Songs

Apart from politics, one of the main themes of this blog has been Istanbul. So I'm getting back to that theme, which I neglected a bit, with an Istanbul Songs playlist on YouTube, also showcasing the new musical emphasis of the aforementioned website.

I put the list a Turkish song and then a song in another language. Other than this concern, the list is arranged in random order (Of course, it had to start with They Might Be Giants). I hope you'll enjoy:

Bomb The Terrorist TV in Libya, But Protect the One In Denmark

The long-awaited court case against Kurdish satellite TV station Roj TV has started and will determine whether the station can continue broadcasting out of Denmark.

According to the Danish prosecution, Roj TV is acting as a mouthpiece for the separatist group Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) – considered a terrorist organisation by the US, UK, EU and Turkey. Roj TV is being charged under Danish anti-terror legislation for promoting terrorist activities.

Flashback:

The Turkish government has been lobbying Denmark to revoke Roj TV's broadcasting license for several years, with the decision by Denmark to press ahead revealed as being a reward for supporting the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO Secretary General in 2009.

Until his nomination for NATO, Rasmussen had been defending Roj TV by emphasizing press freedom. When Turkey let Rasmussen be the new NATO secretary general after initially vetoed his nomination, the Danish government suddenly changed his stance and started to prosecute Roj TV swiftly.

* * *

Flash-forward to a couple of weeks ago:

NATO bombed the Libyan television headquarters in Tripoli early on July 30. "Three of our colleges were murdered and 15 injured while performing their professional duty as Libyan journalists," Khaled Basilia of Al-Jamahiriya television had said.

Earlier, NATO in Brussels announced it had carried out precision strikes on three Libyan television transmitters to silence "terror broadcasts" by Moamer Kadhafi’s regime.

"A few hours ago, NATO conducted a precision air strike that disabled three ground-based Libyan state TV satellite transmission dishes in Tripoli... with the intent of degrading Kadhafi’s use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them," a statement said.

So Rasmussen's NATO could bomb a Libyan TV, but Rasmussen's Denmark couldn't legally ban PKK's TV, although there are no doubts that both of these stations incite acts of violence, whether you call it terror or not.

Ironically, the Libyan government is still considered as a legitimate entity according to international law, like they were when several European leaders were in line to shake hands with Moamer Kadhafi just a year ago.

The PKK, on the other hand, is a terrorist organisation according to the vast majority of the international public.

* * *

Such stories reveal that political relativity is universal. Freedoms and rights are essential neither in the West, nor the Middle East nor anywhere else in today's world. As British Prime Minister David Cameron's latest suggestion to curb Facebook and other social media platforms has also demonstrated, it depends on conditions:

Any political leader of any modern state can be a tyrant like Moamer Kadhafi, when the conditions are met and when the price is paid. And with similar terms, democratic leaders like Barack Obama or Nicholas Sarkozy may still line up to shake hands with tyrants like Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, the leader of probably the most oppressive, the most brutal internationally-legitimate regime in the world, who may indeed be hanged or prosecuted one day .

So don't fall for their principles and ideals.

Don't fall for the spectacle.

Who Are Financing Turkey? When Will They Stop?

There is something strange with Turkey's economic performance nowadays: It's better than it supposed to be.

I had written in the past that the current AKP government was the product of the 2001 economic crisis. Turkey's political landscape had changed with the first election after that crisis, as all parties in the previous parliament were punished by the voters harshly.

The leaders of AKP, the next generation Islamist party that swept to an election victory, made the best decision then, by agreeing to follow up the recovery recipe formulated by the economists of the previous government, namely, the technocrats around Kemal Derviş, a social democratic former head of the United Nations Development Programme who returned to his native country to "rescue" the Turkish economy.

AKP's non-partisan, pragmatic approach had helped them bear the fruits of the outstanding economic growth in recent years. The fruits were obviously their votes that were continuously increasing with each election.

The program which was created by the team of Derviş has come to its end. Now the new program is up to AKP's own economic team, consisted of officials who are not as half capable as Derviş.

Strangely, though, there are some serious signs of a possible crash, especially about currency, but Turkey's economy is still up and running. It's in better shape than most of the eurozone countries.

How?

Michael Rubin, an American Middle East expert, writes today that the answer is three words: Foreign direct investment. Rubin points out to "billions of dollars from Persian Gulf states and financiers (which) had flooded into Turkey illegally and appeared to be funding the ruling Islamist party and the pet projects of its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan."

I guess that Rubin is right, but as a right-wing opinion-maker in America, he willfully ignores how the transnational finance capital -which was led by the corporate America, hence the White House- has been supporting AKP. There is no indication to convince us that this support had been cut or decreased at any point, including the days of crises between Turkey and Israel.

So my prediction didn't change: AKP didn't face a real challenge yet. In Turkish politics, the one and only challenge is a devastating economic crisis. Such crises have been the only key events to topple governments in the past, excluding military coups.

The day that the transnational finance capital will put a hex on Turkey, AKP's invincible image will be destroyed by up-to-date public surveys. Then, as the hot money flow will also stop, the populist policies that maintain the popular support for AKP will also cease to exist, which will mean a huge drop in the number of votes in the following elections.

To conclude, I must stress out that I may oppose most of AKP's policies, especially the neo-liberal ones, but I don't look forward to the total economic collapse of my country just to get rid of this government. This position can be interpreted as a lesson for the American right, too.

Of course, I have a much more leftist approach, comparing to i.e Tea Party in America, but I do believe that the peoples of the world, the individuals who want to live in a more egalitarian, more democratic, more just, more transparent globe, should unite, whether they are right-wing or left-wing, against the ills of the transnational finance capital which -I believe- drove us to this point: The edge of the cliff that falls down to an abyss.

Those drivers should be held to account.

Our Fellow Americans

It's encouraging to see that the constructive forces in our society are being mobilized as efficiently as the destructive ones. And it seems that America is again way ahead of our Old Continent with its ability to transform itself in a progressive way.

As a recent example, Unity Productions Foundation (UPF) initiated a new campaign, called My Fellow American, to get rid of "the climate of suspicion" towards American Muslims which compromises the great values that America was founded upon. UPF's Elizabeth Potter has just shared the following video with me:

More Turkish Heroes in Britain

The anarchy in the UK is another international news story with Turks at its center, thanks God, under a positive light again.

The Turkish community in London protected their shops and their neighbors by chasing away the looters.

As James Crabtree observed, this should be the redefinition of British Prime Minister David Cameron's Big Society.

On a more abstract level, what's happening in Britain may show how Turks become an indigenous social force in Europe and why the EU desperately needs Turks now: For a better integrated, dynamically enhanced, more secure union with Turkey's full membership. A bigger European society...

Why Nagazaki Was a Bigger Failure of Human Nature Than Hiroshima?

Tomorrow is the 66th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Nagazaki, Japan.

Believing that America's use of nuclear weapons against Japanese civilians was one of the most horrible atrocities ever committed in history, I didn't post about it anything on August 6th, the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.

Not that I think Nagazaki was a more serious crime against humanity -these are equally terrible atrocities , like bombings of Dresden, Hamburg and Tokyo, but I still feel that there was something much more wrong in Nagazaki; that's why I post this now.

What do I mean?

Kurt Vonnegut, my favorite American writer, tells:

"I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better. I fully expected that by the time I was twenty-one, some scientist, maybe my brother, would have taken a color photograph of God Almighty—and sold it to Popular Mechanics magazine. Scientific truth was going to make us so happy and comfortable. What actually happened when I was twenty-one was that we dropped scientific truth on Hiroshima."

I try to understand the political decision to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and I can partly do so. There must have been an excitement for the possibility to end the war by using a weapon that was produced after discovering the ultimate scientific truth. The American political leadership might have thought that more civilians would die if they wouldn't use the nuclear weapon in Hiroshima. And the pilot who flew the bomb was surely unaware of its exact effects, as it has never been used over a city before.

This is why I just can't comprehend the Nagazaki bombing. Although it was almost guaranteed that Japan would surrender after seeing the destruction in Hiroshima, the American leadership still didn't hesitate to use the second bomb on another civilian target. They had all the reconnaissance photos from Hiroshima, so they should have understood the scale of this crime against humanity, but it didn't stop them. The American pilot who dropped the second bomb over Nagazaki should have had the horrible feedback from Hiroshima. Then why? Then how?

What I will never understand is this. And unfortunately, the Nuremberg Tribunals were set to hold the losers of the war to account, not also some winners who also committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Charter establishing the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was signed on August 8, 1945; three months after the German surrender, two days after the first nuclear weapon was used in Hiroshima and one day prior to a nuclear weapon being used on Nagasaki. Today is its 66th anniversary.

An Ottoman Party Song

I don't why but I always listen to a Turkish classical music song especially when it is Ramadan. Actually, it must have been the favorite song of Ottoman party-goers a few centuries ago, so I wanted to share it here.

The name of the song is "Dök Zülfünü Meydane Gel" (Open Up Your Hair, Come to the City Center). It was composed by Tanburi Mustafa Çavuş, an Ottoman musician from the 18th century. The lyrics are written by Asik Hifzi, an Ottoman poet who lived in the 19th century. The maqam of the song is Hisarbuselik. The singer in this video is Eylem Atmaca.

Here is the video and the English translation of the lyrics:

Open up your hair, come to the city center!

Ride your horse, come for wisdom and philosophy!

Bring your instrument, too, come to make music!

Nightingales are yours, the rose garden is yours, oh dear!

I'm in love with you for such a long time

My heart is ready for you, oh dear!

You answered my question by calling me "Mister!"

You burned my bosom with your fire.

If I had a thousand lives, I would have desired you in all of them.

Nightingales are yours, the rose garden is yours, oh dear!

I'm in love with you for such a long time

My heart is ready for you, oh dear!

The Moral of a Fable: Omar's Modest Meal

Exactly four years ago, I had posted an anecdote from one of the greatest Muslims ever lived, Omar ibn al-Khattab, about one's responsibility towards his/her neighbors. In this Ramadan day, it would be a timely deed to mention another anecdote from the life of the same person:

Witnessing the famine in Madina, Omar had ordered his aides to slaughter his camel and distribute the meat to starving people. They did it, but they also saved the best part of the animal for Omar's taste. When Omar saw the meat in his plate, he rebuked at his aides with ultimate anger, saying: "I told you to distribute it to the poor but you saved the best part for me? Take this plate away and distribute ALL to the people who really need it."

Then he returned his modest table, recited basmala and started to eat his regular meal in peace: A piece of barley bread with some olive oil...

Don't Put Breivik Into Arkham Asylum

Reading the 1,500-page manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the Christian-supremacist terrorist from Norway, is a truly shocking experience for anyone who has got a bit of mercy and compassion in his/her heart.

After overcoming this shock, now I read stuff to comprehend the nature of Breivik's psychopathy, just like the Norwegian psychiatrists who will soon give a verdict on his sanity which would be crucial for his trial next year.

Considering his admission that he planned and executed the double-massacre just to advertise his Islamophobic/anti-multicultural ideology in his manifesto, I believe that he was a bit like the Joker in Batman series.

Many people may superficially think that the Joker is just insane, but most scientists disprove this conclusion. Like Breivik, the Joker acts and reacts to events with complete control, hence he's causally and morally responsible from his actions as he commits crime by knowing what's wrong and right in our society. What Breivik and Joker do may be called crazy, but neither of them are legally insane.

In Batman and Philosophy, an expert sounds like he is describing Breivik's motive on Utoya island:

"One example is his attitude toward people: simply put, he often treats them as objects rather than as persons. The Joker didn't blink at shooting Barbara Gordon through her spine and stripping her bare. He wasn't 'out to get her.' He simply had made up his mind that he wanted to prove a point, and she was a useful object to help him make that point, no more or less meaningful to him than the amusement ride he later used for the same purpose. That's a classic psychotic attitude."

Of course, if you had asked Breivik, he would probably answer that he was more like Batman, not the Joker. In Batman and Philosophy again, a psychologist calls Batman a "social fascist" because of his effort to reorder society in his own image. But let's don't be too much post-modern here: Moral relativity must have a limit. We know that it is bad to kill a child and it is good to save him. Like Breivik, the Joker is the killer in such a situation, while Batman is the savior.

Hence, this explanation would probably not satisfy Breivik himself, as his aggression -which is as defensive as the historical Crusades against Muslims in his own terms- should be based on a wounded narcissism. His narcissism is being wounded because of the immigration wave that transforms his indigenous society into a multicultural one where his identity would be facing a more intense competition in social, economic and cultural levels.

Finally, a more in-dept reading about Breivik's repressed libido -as seen in his manifesto-, the double-standards in his perception, his intense anger and rage, his obvious desire to be a celebrity as an ideologue, his narcissistic grandiosity at a similar level with Adolf Hitler, the fact that he is just a representative of a certain kind of group narcissism (extremist conservatism) and his efforts to devalue and demonize the opposing group (Muslims, multiculturalists and Marxists) may be beneficiary.

Erich Fromm's The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness answers most of these questions. Hoping that I don't infringe any copyright laws, I quote a long passage here while I insist: "Don't put Breivik into Arkham Asylum as he will surely remain as dangerous as now when he'll be free again!"

Aggression and Narcissism

Somalia Starves. Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia...

Somalia, a mostly-Muslim country, is the scene of the most horrifying, ongoing tragedy nowadays, as "tens of thousands of people fleeing the world's worst hunger crisis, the result of the worst drought in the region in 60 years."

A few hundred millions of dollars worth food aid may save thousands of lives in Somalia at least until winter, but it seems that the international community doesn't really care about it.

* * *

By the way... It is Ramadan, the holy month of the Islamic calendar which should direct Muslims to even more charity. As Wikipedia notes:

"According to tradition, Ramadan is a particularly blessed time to give in charity, as the reward is 70 times greater than any other time of the year. For that reason, Muslims will spend more in charity (sadaqa), and many will pay their zakat during Ramadan, to receive the blessings (reward). In many Muslim countries, it is not uncommon to see people giving food to the poor and the homeless, and to even see large public areas for the poor to come and break their fast."

* * *

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia took a key step forward in its plan to build the world's tallest tower and outdo Gulf neighbor Dubai, which inaugurated its own record-breaking skyscraper less than two years ago. Kingdom Holding Co., the investment firm headed by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said it signed a 4.2 billion riyal ($1.2 billion) deal with the Saudi Binladen Group to build Kingdom Tower on the outskirts of the Red Sea city of Jiddah. Soaring two-thirds of a mile high, it will have a Four Seasons hotel, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and offices, encompassing, in all, about 5.4 million square.

In greed and pretentiousness, Saudi Arabia and Dubai is not alone in the Muslim world. For instance, many local administrations in Turkey spent millions of dollars to organize large fast-breaking dinners for citizens who mostly don't need free food. Moreover, a Turkish company has just started to build a mosque in Istanbul. Connected to a hotel complex, its English-language name hints that it is a posh commercial center, instead of a humble place to worship: Mega Center Caprice Gold Mosque!

* * *

In Koran, God orders His subjects 'to compete in charity' and stay away from wastefulness and extravagance. The short-lived civilization which was established by Prophet Mohammad, especially under his multicultural, even democratic rule in Madina, was just in this way. If Prophet Mohammad had met the Saudi royalty or the Turkish 'Islamic' businessmen today, he would probably condemn them as munafiqs.

It may be especially true for the Saudis, as they waste away billions as the absolute rulers of their 'Islamic' state during the ongoing tragedy in their neighbor Somalia. Before it's too late, Saudi royalty must stop this wastefulness and remember at least two advices by Prophet Mohammad:

He had said that it was not right for a Muslim to sleep with a full stomach after having had a good meal but let his neighbor starve.

He had also advised his friend Abu Dharr that he would better leave Arabia when they start to have buildings higher than two stories.