Fears over fate of free services ahead of Saudi privatisation push - Riyadh Bureau
One thing that marked the rise of Dubai from a small port to a major commerce and tourism hub has been the utter obsession with breaking records: the tallest tower, the biggest mall, the largest fountain, the longest 22-karat handmade gold chain and the largest dish of mango sticky rice.
People may think that getting into the Guinness Book of World Records is a major feat that requires ingenuity and innovation to come up with something that has not been done before, but actually that’s not the case. All you need to do is pay Guinness a consulting fee and its marketing department would work with you to plan a record-breaking event.
As Saudi Arabia began following Dubai’s model for economic diversification, officials in the kingdom appear to have caught the unfortunate Guinness bug from our neighbours in the UAE. Turki al-Alsheikh, the head of the General Entertainment Authority, boasted last December that the GEA has received four certificates from Guinness and that three more are on the way.
The entertainment industry is still a nascent sector in Saudi Arabia, so seeking such records to draw more attention to it is somewhat understandable and can arguably be seen as part of the “fun and games” culture that GEA is trying to promote. But I was nonplussed that far more serious government entities are also getting in on this game.
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