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Saudi Arabia: "Bluetooth Nation"

From "Bluetooth Nation" by Khaled Al-Sulaiman, Middle East/North Africa Financial Network News, 7 February:

"During my trips to Europe, South Asia and some Gulf countries, I attempted to activate the Bluetooth device on my mobile phone. The only place where my device was able to receive a connection via Bluetooth was inside a shopping mall in Bahrain. Appropriately, the shopping center was crowded with Saudi shoppers. Elsewhere, the Bluetooth wireless connection was quiet.

"The zeitgeist characteristics of the technology has come and passed in many parts of the globe, but not with Saudis. They love their Bluetooth. They only turn off their devices when they switch off their other sensory radars: at bedtime.

"...This continuous obsession with Bluetooth is confusing. It's not just a youthful fad. It has extended to the elderly as well. The Bluetooth wireless connection is considered an essential medium for easy acquaintance, digital harassment and other less seemly audiovisual exchanges..."

[Bluetooth: 7 February 2006]

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