1/7/2006: Robot camel jockey

This one has sat in my IotD queue for literally months. But it's IotD-worthy so I'm not sure why - I just overlooked it for a while. :P Anyway --

Most countries have horse racing; some have dog racing; and here, in Qatar, they have camel racing.

Like horse racing, the camels bearing lighter jockeys have an advantage, and so they have always used young boys for the job. But there is controversy over the horrible trafficking of such children in Qatar. (Note that Michael Jackson has now moved to Bahrain, not Qatar...)

And so, since they are as rich as rich can be, they are simply switching over to using robots as jockeys.

That can't touch a Predator with hellfire missles.

But if the robot wins, it can't warm the Sultan's bed for the night as well as the boy.

I don't think this will catch on, I really don't.

Who knew the racial slur really existed? Next up: automatic cheese-eating frogs.

According to this the robots may help free child slaves.

If the robots do replace the children, they will most likely still use child slaves to shovel the camel shit. Maybe they already have robots to do this...... dunno....

And it's no wonder they traffic in little boys...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapc...stan.honor.ap/

"MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Nazir Ahmed appears calm and unrepentant as he recounts how he slit the throats of his three young daughters and their 25-year old stepsister to salvage his family's "honor"..."

These people are nuckin futs.
Not the nation as a whole, but THESE PEOPLE...I'm just saying.