Month: July 2020

MAKKAH: A scaled-down Hajj with only just 1,000 pilgrims due to the COVID-19 pandemic will begin on Wednesday for the first time in modern history.

Up to 1,000 people residing in the kingdom will participate in the Muslim ritual, a tiny fraction of the 2.5 million that attended last year, after what many saw as an opaque selection process that left a wave of applicants rejected.

The foreign press are barred from this year’s Hajj, usually a huge global media event, as the government tightens access to the holy city of Mecca and puts in place strict health restrictions to prevent a virus outbreak during the five-day pilgrimage — a key pillar of Islam.

Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 260,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, while the number of declared global infections exceeded 16 million on Sunday.

Mask-clad pilgrims began trickling into Makkah over the weekend and were subject to temperature checks and placed in quarantine, authorities said.

They were given elaborate amenity kits that include sterilised pebbles for a stoning ritual, disinfectants, masks, a prayer rug and the ihram, a seamless white garment worn by pilgrims, according to a Hajj ministry programme document.

Pilgrims are required to be tested for coronavirus before arriving in Makkah and will also have to quarantine after the pilgrimage.

The ministry said it has set up multiple health facilities, mobile clinics and ambulances to cater to the pilgrims, who will be required to observe social distancing.

‘Golden ticket’

Saudi authorities initially said only around 1,000 pilgrims residing in the kingdom would be permitted for Hajj but local media reports say as many as 10,000 will be allowed.

The Hajj ministry has fielded a deluge of anguished queries on Twitter from rejected applicants.

But Hajj Minister Mohammad Benten insisted the process was transparent, telling the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television that “health determinants” formed the basis of selection.

The ministry said non-Saudi residents of the kingdom from around 160 countries competed in the online selection process.

It said foreign residents would make up 70% of all selected pilgrims.

But it did not explain how many applied, and some disappointed pilgrims have complained that the government-run lottery was not clearly outlined and say no reason was given for their rejection.

Among the chosen few is Nasser, a Riyadh-based Nigerian expatriate, euphoric at winning what he called the “golden ticket” to Hajj.

“This feeling cannot be described,” he told AFP before his arrival in Makkah.

The ministry has said the Saudi pilgrims were selected from a pool of health practitioners and military personnel who have recovered from COVID-19.

To be among the chosen ones adds an aura of religious prestige to this year’s pilgrimage, applicants say.

Despite the pandemic, many pilgrims consider it is safer to participate in this year’s ritual without the usual colossal crowds cramming into tiny religious sites, which make it a logistical nightmare and a health hazard.

Even in a regular year, the Hajj leaves pilgrims exposed to a host of viral illnesses.

‘Substantial cost’

The government scaled back the pilgrimage as it could be a major source of contagion, but the move will deepen the kingdom´s economic slump, analysts say.

It comes as Saudi Arabia faces a sharp downturn in oil prices due to a collapse in global demand driven by national lockdowns, which triggered austerity measures including the tripling of a value added tax and cuts to civil servants’ allowances.

The virus has also battered pilgrimage-reliant businesses that support hundreds of thousands of jobs in Makkah, from travel agents to street barbers and souvenir shops.

Many have reported sweeping layoffs, pay cuts or delayed salaries.

Makka has seen a construction boom in recent years that added shopping malls, apartments and luxury hotels, some offering spectacular views of the sacred Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure in the Grand Mosque towards which Muslims around the world pray.

But most premises have lain empty since the pandemic reached the kingdom.

Saudi authorities had already in March suspended the umrah pilgrimage, which can be performed at any time.

The pilgrimages together rake in some $12 billion (10.3 billion euros) annually, keeping the economy humming in Makkah.

“Limiting this year’s Hajj to Saudi residents comes at a substantial but surmountable cost to the economy,” the Eurasia Group´s Sofia Meranto told AFP.

“Against the backdrop of daily infection rates still (remaining) high, the government is prioritising healthcare… over short-term economic costs, hoping to recoup lost revenue by next hajj season or by resuming umrah earlier.”

The traditional Nobel banquet held in December each year has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Nobel Foundation announced on Tuesday.

This is the first time since 1956 that the lavish banquet has been cancelled, according to the foundation.

The event traditionally marks the end of the so-called Nobel Week, when the year’s prize-winners are invited to Swedish capital Stockholm for talks and the award ceremony.

“The Nobel Week will not be as it usually is due to the current pandemic. This is a very special year when everyone needs to make sacrifices and adapt to completely new circumstances,” Lars Heikensten, director of the Nobel Foundation, said in a statement.

Heikensten added that the laureates and their work would be highlighted in “different ways”, hinting that prize winners would receive their awards in their home countries or at embassies.

Traditionally, the prize-winners join the Swedish royal family and some 1,300 guests for the banquet at Stockholm’s City Hall after the award ceremony — held on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the prizes´ founder Alfred Nobel.

The winners, except Peace Prize laureates who are honoured in Oslo, also usually give speeches during the dinner.

Many of the events would be held under new arrangements because of the uncertainty around large gatherings and international travel, the foundation said.

The announcement of the prizes (Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace and Economics) would still be held scheduled between 5 and 12 October, the Foundation said.

The Nobel Banquet was last cancelled in 1956 to avoid inviting the Soviet ambassador because of the repression of the Hungarian Revolution, Rebecka Oxelstrom, Head of Press at Nobel Foundation, told AFP.

“An unofficial dinner was nevertheless organised, without the ambassador, in another room,” she said.

The banquet was also cancelled during the two world wars and in 1907 and 1924.

While no prizes were awarded during World War II, they were during World War I — although the ceremonies were postponed, Nobel expert Gustav Kallstrand told AFP.

“A cermony and dinner, without royals, was held in the summer of 1920 when they handed out the awards for previous years,” Kallstrand said.

The wearing of face masks is causing a cacophony of human argument around the world. Here, a selection of voices from the global debate:

“To the best of my knowledge, the face mask has spread faster and wider than any other item in the history of dress.” — Valerie Steele, chief museum curator at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

“My own grandmother died from the new coronavirus, and some members of my family also caught it but they survived. I try to wear a face mask so that at least I won’t catch it and also to avoid causing trouble for others.” — Reyhane Rajaei, a tattoo artist in Tehran.