King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, now on a three-day visit to the UK, has brought along with him a handful of wives along with an impressive array of advisers as a part of his entourage…More here…
“The King was also believed to have brought a handful of wives – he has been married more than 30 times – and 100 servants to attend to his personal needs. And as the octogenarian monarch has had heart problems, he was also thought to have in attendance what has been called a ‘travelling clinic’.”
Meanwhile Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah will meet with Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday in the first encounter between a Saudi monarch and a Roman Catholic pontiff, the Vatican said Wednesday, reports IHT.
The meeting, during Abdullah’s European tour, underlines Benedict’s efforts to increase dialogue between Catholics and Muslims.The 83-year-old Saudi monarch is on a five-country tour of Europe.
There is another interesting article on Saudi king’s visit to the UK titled “They’re like camels – uncongenial, but trustworthy…It’s absurd to treat the Saudi royals as moral outcasts”. Read on…
“To be sure, Saudi Arabia is not likely to become a Western-style democracy any time soon. And there is no evidence that a majority of Saudis would want such a system. But the fact remains that the kingdom can and must be pressed to do away with those aspects of its social structure that King Abdullah himself describes as outdated.
“As the Arab proverb has it: the camel is not the most congenial of travel companions, but it is the most trustworthy.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.