Today's 4...Athletes, retirement, words & judgements

There be will no Saudi female athletes at London 2012

The Guardian reported that former UK Olympics Minister, Tessa Jowell has accused Saudi Arabia for lacking in Olympic spirit by not sending a single female athlete to London for the 2012 Olympic Games. 2 Years ago the Saudi government forbade women for entering gyms. Tessa Jowell comments suggest that she is surprised by Saudi Arabia to keep their female athletes at home. When I was in Riyadh in 2007 it was illegal for women to travel outside the country un-chaperoned, or without the express permission of a close male relative. Taking this into consideration, even if there was female representation on the Saudi Olympic team, the women on the team would be decided not by sporting ability alone. Instead, the level of freedom granted to these women by their male guardians would be a major factor. Sadly, I think this is also not in line with the Olympic spirit. In fact, for Saudi to fully contribute to the fostering of the Olympic values, they would need a complete, bloodless and speedy regime change. I think we can all agree that this is unlikely.

CNN reported that, after returning to Yemen to formerly hand over power to Hadi, Saleh will now leave Sanaa for Ethiopia. Yesterday  I expressed an interest in how long Saleh will stay in Yemen, and it appears the answer is not long. CNN report that the Yemenis themselves are keen for Saleh to leave as they see his presence as a barrier to change. Saleh's departure is a big moment for Arabian Peninsula Focus as I have been talking about his retirement destination almost since the blog's inception. However, the journalists at CNN are preventing me from drawing a complete line under this discussion point as an aid close to Saleh has reportedly said the former President is undecided as to whether to go to Oman or Ethiopia. It seems Addis Ababa is a temporary stopping ground before the final decision is made. As I said before, I don't think Oman's Sultan will be particularly keen to welcome Saleh to Muscat. If I were him, I'd unpack my bags for good in Addis Ababa.

Kuwait News Agency reported that, in a speech to a Special United Nations committee on Syria, Kuwait has called for all possible means to stop the humanitarian disaster in Syria. Kuwait's announcement against Asad's regime is the third  announcement in as many days against the Syrian dictator to come from Arabian Peninsula countries. Sadly, rather just like the two announcements which came before, Kuwait were typically vague about where the "means" to stop Asad will come from. I've said it before and I'll say it again...this rhetoric needs to be enforced with action. Over to you Kuwait.

And finally...

Reuters AltertNet reported that Bahrain should drop trials against "doctors and leaders of last years protest movement". The article states that the trials, which are taking place in civilian courts, are flawed as the judges are too politically motivated to be objective in their verdicts. However, the article does point out that the Bahraini government are taking steps to reset the balance in the police and judicial system. This is a hugely challenging undertaking. On such a small island Kingdom, everyone has been impacted by the last year's demonstrations in some way. I am not criticising the Bahraini government for trying to remove bias from their midst, but I do think it is an unrealistic goal to achieve.