Cuban Cigar Sales on the Rise Again

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Production of Cuban cigars are once again on the rise after falling victim to smoking bans and the international financial crisis.

The dexterous fingers of Cuba's cigar makers rolled out 81.5 million of the much sought-after smokes last year, compared with 75.4 million in 2009, according to a report released by the National Statistics Office on its Web page.

Cuba's finest tobacco leaf is grown and cured in westernmost Pinar del Rio province where the just-concluded harvest produced 25.4 million leaves, according to local radio reports, compared with the previous year's 22.4 million leaves.

While the figures are up, they are still well below 2008 when Cuba produced more than 100 million cigars for export and Pinar del Rio's tobacco harvest totalled 26 million leaves.

The partial recovery is due largely to growing demand in Asia – particularly China – where the new rich are keen for the largest and most expensive cigars, said Gonzalo Fernandez, deputy director of marketing at Habanos S.A., the worldwide distributor of Cuban cigars.

China has climbed into third place, behind Spain and France, among the largest markets for Cuban cigars.

Cigars are one of Cuba's top exports. » | Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Saudi Women Trained to Sell Bras for First Time
THE TELEGRAPH: Using colourful bras donated by employees at Victoria's Secret, a group of 26 mostly Saudi women completed the first course of its kind to be offered in the kingdom – how to fit, stock and sell underwear.

The training organisers hope will help boost a campaign to lift the ban on women selling underwear in the kingdom.

The graduates held a small ceremony at a college in the western seaport of Jiddah this week, capping 40 hours of instruction during which they learned to overcome their embarrassment at doing bra fittings, deal with customer complaints and display the stock in an appealing manner.

"It was a beautiful experience," said Faten Abdo, a 32-year-old coordinator in the offices of a lingerie company.

"The most shocking thing for me was the bra sizes," she added. "We didn't know how to get proper measurements before."

The 10-day course comes three months after a group of Saudi women launched a campaign to boycott lingerie stores until they employ women. Almost all the stores in the kingdom are staffed by men. The only exceptions are a few women-only boutiques, some of them inside popular shopping centres. >>> | Thursday, June 25, 2009

Saudi Lingerie Trade in a Twist
Photo courtesy of Google Images
BBC: It would be bizarre in any country to find that its lingerie shops are staffed entirely by men.

But in Saudi Arabia - an ultra-conservative nation where unmarried men and women cannot even be alone in a room together if they are not related - it is strange in the extreme.

Women, forced to negotiate their most intimate of purchases with male strangers, call the situation appalling and are demanding the system be changed.

"The way that underwear is being sold in Saudi Arabia is simply not acceptable to any population living anywhere in the modern world," says Reem Asaad, a finance lecturer at Dar al-Hikma Women's College in Jeddah, who is leading a campaign to get women working in lingerie shops rather than men.

"This is a sensitive part of women's bodies," adds Ms Asaad. "You need to have some discussions regarding size, colour and attractive choices and you definitely don't want to get into such a discussion with a stranger, let alone a male stranger. I mean this is something I wouldn't even talk to my friends about."

In theory, it should be easy enough to get women to staff lingerie shops, but parts of Saudi society are still very traditional and don't like the idea of women working - even if it's just to sell underwear to each other. >>> By Stephanie Hancock, BBC News, Jeddah | Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>