Speechless
Some images leave me speechless. The one below - I have no idea what to say. This is beyond words, I think.
And yes, this is an actual sport in Saudi Arabia! Camel racing led by robot jockeys. You don't believe me? Search Google's images for camels and robots and just watch the images, or click here.
And yes, this is an actual sport in Saudi Arabia! Camel racing led by robot jockeys. You don't believe me? Search Google's images for camels and robots and just watch the images, or click here.Labels: Expanding my horizons
posted at
12/08/2006 09:38:00 PM
2 Comments:
Those crazy Saudis! I guess this is what happens when you have too much money.
By
Mike, at 11:33 AM, December 09, 2006
Unofficial history of Camel racing 101:
Yeah most of the Gulf states in the middle east have a strong camel-racing tradition, and because camels don't perform very well with hefty adults riding them (even if they are the likes of Frankie Dettori). Uptil very recently camel jockeys had to be children below the age of 10 and since non of the local rich Arab's would let their own children participate in such a sport they'd 'import' these kiddies from the Indian subcontinent and Africa, namely Pakistan, India and Bangladesh and a few from Sudan and Somalia.
Yes this does constitute effective child-slavery but these Arab countries didn't stop this inhumane use of children albeit from the developing world until Western countries and their media put this under the international spotlight.
So in a long-winded way THIS is why they now use robots to do what poor 3rd world children used to do.
On a side note, I saw this documentary of an American woman from Seattle who married a man from the UAE and settled down in dubai and she runs an adhoc shelter for child jockeys that still slip through the net as there is no formal social protection system over there.
By
The Hard-working Slacker, at 7:15 PM, December 18, 2006
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