sandstorms's Xanga

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:50:07 GMT

Krispy Kreme hits the Middle East

Tonight the city sleeps in a sweet glazed comatose. Tonight I went to Krispy Kreme in Saudi Arabia for the first time. There are two branches located in malls in the capital city. The first one in the Middle East was in Kuwait, and now Saudi Arabia has jumped on the doughnut board. I snapped a photo because I had to prove it to you, but most people don’t take kindly to public photos so it was taken quickly, and from a distance. The place was swarming with black abayas and white thobes pointing to doughnut selections. The abaya is the veils the women wear, and thobes, are the outfit that the men wear. So there you have it, America in its purest, sweetest and least harmful format, other than raising cholesterol levels, has hit the Middle East. They could use a few of these in Baghdad; it might just ease the tensions.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:36:59 GMT

Melkam Addis Amet, or to those unfamiliar with Aramaic, the original language of the Semitic people, Happy New Year. The Coptic Christians, as well as the Jewish, whose New Year begins at sundown today, will bring in a new year. New beginnings have also begun for Muslims with the onset of the holy month of Ramadan today, when it is said the Quran was revealed to the prophet Mohammed. Divided in conflict but similar in beliefs, tonight approximately 14.6 million Jews and 1.5 billion Muslims observe their holidays in spiritual continuity. The more I learn, I see that we share so much more in common than not. Ironically, the more I travel, the more I fall in love with humankind, our history and our traditions, but the less I can relate to one religion. I have to wonder, just like Aramaic links languages in the Middle East linguistically, was there ever one faith that managed to do the same?

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 15:02:42 GMT

A cat and a cow falling head over heals for eachother - who can be the judge of true love? My cat has watched been watching this too by the way.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:05:20 GMT

Saudi kids, and the young men in particular, seem to be bored enough to put their lives at stake by “surfing” on the roads as you will see in this video.They are wearing leather slip on sandals, which have a flat leather bottom, so they can slide down the rode.The interesting thing is they clearly planned to make this video, as they are being followed and recorded by someone in a nearby car.Then they created this video, added music, and seem to be enjoying the fame and popularity aspect of all of this.Have the media, and the shared media like You Tube taken over their lives?

Youth in Saudi Arabia don’t have movie theaters to go to, since they are illegal in the country, and single young men are not even admitted into shopping malls, so I often wonder how they manage to entertain themselves.Unfortunately, this type of thrill seeking seems to be one of the ways, and I have seem more and more dangerous, and sometimes humiliating videos being circulated on Bluetooth phone devices, and more recently on You Tube.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tue, 15 May 2007 16:02:04 GMT

One Camel's Song and Dance is Not the Same as Anothers'.

Camels dance too; seriously, I have been to the desert on several occasions now and every time there is a new camel dance to witness. What I mean is we drive so far into the desert that all you see are people herding sheep and camel farms. The first time I saw a camel dancing was when he heard hip hop coming from our rolled down windows, and he or she, I guess was transfixed and swaying in harmony. The next time, it was a beautiful white fluffy haired camel, and yes some are much more beautiful than others. We drove right up to him with the windows and sun roof down on the Landcruiser, and Andre Bocelli was belting out a beautiful Italian line that I cant understand yet I appreciate, and this white camel was bouncing up and down, swaying back and forth. It was clear he was enjoying the music, and that it took him to the opera in his mind. This last time we came upon a group of camels, Snoop dog was playing on the radio, and I happened to catch it on my camera phone. This is my evidence that camels like song and dance. The sound quality isnt very good, if it was you would see that he was even dancing to the beat.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:49:31 GMT

Edit: Tuesday April 24th, my students decided they wanted to write about the topic and they all went in different directions, including why dont people feel badly and reach out to students killed in the Middle East. On the other hand, some students came up with a logo and a black ribbon that they are wearing and passing on to others around the campus to show their condolences to the victims' families. The point it they are thiking, gathering and collecting their thoughts for social change, and its exciting to watch their ideas blossom in an environment that hasnt always encouraged them to do so.

Apologies, enemies and such…

I found it interesting that a group of students came to me today, and asked if I would help them send a letter from them to Virginia Tech, where a gunman from South Korea shot and killed over 30 people this week. I raised the topic with others in the class, and the feelings were mixed. Some people felt that they had nothing to apologize for, and that by reaching out, they were saying they were somehow related to the incident. That they would be saying that they are not their enemies, contrary to what they may think. I can see their point of view, why should they bend over backwards to make Saudi Arabia look good. To make them look like good citizens of the planet who care, and apologize for everything. Yet, on the other hand why shouldn’t we reach out more to each other as humans? I mean they are college students too, and they can imagine what would might feel like.

The situation demonstrated to me that Saudis are aware of the bad image they have in the world, since 9/11 in particular, and that they are willing to go beyond the normal methods to show that they are good people. Some of them feel they have to, and that they want to prove to the world that they are good people, who do not condone violence. Yet others feel very strongly that they have nothing extra to apologize for, and they have enough pride to say hey that was bad, but when those things happen to us in Saudi, they dont reach out to us, so why should we be the ones to make the effort?

There is some psychological pressure it seems they are feeling in Saudi Arabia as a result of the terrorism that has sprouted from this country. While some people want to change that image, others think they arent any different than any other nation, which has criminals and people who cant be controlled. I think both have a valid point. Should people from Saudi Arabia reach out more to educate others about them, especially after 9/11 and all the bad press that the nation has recieved since then?

Friday, April 06, 2007

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:15:24 GMT

To Drive or Not to Drive?

Women in Saudi Arabia cannot drive, by the law, and nor do they want to, based on my informal polls. I have worked in two Universities in Saudi Arabia, and I have found that most Saudi women of college age, do not see the need, and do not have the desire to drive. They all have drivers, who often do running around for them, like governmental errands or to pay the bills, and they simply see no need to drive. Many have said they prefer to kick back in the back seat and have time to make phone calls, do homework or read a magazine. According to them, it’s not a big deal to drive a car. I have had to remind them that not all women in Saudi Arabia can afford to have a driver, as the costs are in excess of two thousand dollars a year. They simply nod. I see apathy in their eyes, or may be a little resentment at the fact that the media, the Western media, keeps asking Saudi Arabia, why women can’t drive.

I know of one older Saudi woman, who is in her 60s and said she used to ride a donkey to get around in her village. Her husband and son have both died, and she needs to see her doctor regularly to care for her unstable case of diabetes. She cannot afford to hire a taxi whenever she needs to see her doctor, so she has to arrange with various members of her family, which is embarrassing and annoying for her. In have jest, she asked if it would be okay if she rode a donkey to the hospital. The irony is that the hospital is so new and shiny that it looks more like a skyscraper, but the customs are oddly backwards thinking.

To me, it’s a no-brainer. Women need to be able to drive for emergencies, for the sake of getting to and fro by yourself, and whenever you please, for the sake of saving money, for the sake of reducing the risks of bad driving, and lack of communication between you and your Indian or Bengali driver who speaks no Arabic and no English. Is it just me, or is it strange that many Saudi women are not concerned with driving? Is it because they have never been able to drive, so they don’t “get” the value of it? Is ignorance bliss?

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:52:02 GMT

Cultural Relativism.

A friend and I were talking about how we both find the nikab, or the face veil that women in Saudi Arabia, among others, a barrier in communications. Jack Straw said the same thing, and got slammed for it, when told the media in England that He stated that "wearing the full veil was bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult,” in the Lancashire Telegraph column he writes.

I guess the two of us feel more comfortable stating virtually the same thing, since we are both Muslim women. However, we got to talking about how it may be important for women to wear the nikab in their own context and country, but perhaps not in others. We wondered if we were being harsh in judging them? We recollected the bombing in Riyadh 4 years ago when the terrorists dressed up as women, and covered their hairy faces with the nokab, went in, and bombed the place. I reminded her that at the American University of Cairo, where I went to college for a year, they made it illegal back in 2000 to wear the nikab on campus, for the same security reasons. The women were also made to show their faces on ID cards, and they were all very upset and offended at having to do this. The adminsitration also surrounded the University with tanks and machine guns to stay up to date with security, and I think we were all grateful for their attention to our safety, no matter how unnerving it was at first sight.

Are we being overly critical of women who wear nikab? Or is it correct to say that it’s a security threat as well as a barrier in communications and it should be removed in public places such as Universities, government building and all areas where security is a concern – in the Middle East and beyond?

Culture Shock

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:57:03 GMT

Culture Shock

We have all heard this term, but how many of us have experienced it? I certainly have, on the street of Bangkok I had a major panic attack when we were lost, couldn’t speak the language, and had the police badgering us to pay a ridiculous fine for smoking in public. Apparently it’s illegal to smoke in public and to deposit your cigarette butt on the ground in Thailand. We promptly went back to our hotel and stayed in a safe environment after paying off the police with what seemed to be a bribe, and didn’t exit the Novotel for another 24 hours on a 3 day visit to Bangkok.

I have also been through culture shock when moving to Saudi Arabia to work as an ESL teacher a few years ago. All the women are dressed in black veils, and all the men wear white thobes, which is the long white dress that the men wear. It’s an assault on the eyes to only see two colors out and about on the streets. There is a feeling of mindless adherence to culture here that indicated by the fact that they all dress alike in public. These are public uniforms of sorts that indicate class and formality for Saudis. The people who dress any differently are in the minority and are foreigners to the kingdom. It’s bizarre and takes a while to get used to. I also had to get used to the fact that I couldn’t drive and had to adjust, or I am still adjusting to the fact that I have to rely on drivers to get around. This means I have to plan when I leave, and where I go to, and I can’t do things spontaneously anymore. This still bothers me, especially as I have always loved cars and considers myself to be a classic car owner without the antique Jaguar, yet.

However some of my colleagues seem to be going through a much more severe culture shock. They come here sporting American foreign policy and a love of George Bush into the classroom and into the general populous, and they are shocked when they re met with disdain! I mean this doesn’t go over well in the US these days, much less in Saudi Arabia. Many Iraqis have fled outside of Iraq since the invasion, and they come to the richer Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia to work, or to beg, whichever their personal condition is suited towards. In addition, the media in every country has a slant. It has been argued and I tend to agree that the European media is the most objective and less biased than that of the US or the Middle East. In the Middle East, the media shows all the blood and gore, and interviews all the women and prisoners that have been raped, tortured and abused, not to mention demoralized, unemployed, starving and diseased due to the chaos created in their nation as result of the invasion. So, the US isn’t really popular in the Middle East right now. What the future holds for the perception of the US in the general mind’s eye of the Middle Eastern person nobody knows. In my humble opinion, it is up to the Iraqis to decide all of this, but I think they are so distraught and divided themselves, that again, it’s up to time to settle things for them.

Anyway, back to my colleagues, almost every single woman I have met that moves here and the numbers are around 10 that I have met by now, hate it here. I cannot help to wonder, why they came. I mean this is Saudi Arabia, a highly conservative Muslim country, and they are also one of the richest Monarchies in the region, so they are highly traveled, highly opinioned and rather snobby about their status and their wealth, as a whole. They certainly dont feel grateful or indebted to America or the West, and they certainly don’t want to be like us. They just want to learn English, as it is quickly becoming the world’s language of business and commerce. Is that any big shock?

Perhaps I should feel sorry for these women, and I kind of do because it is hard to adjust to being dependant on others for rides and so on, but I also think they chose to come here for the money and tax-free lifestyle. Yet, they obviously had no idea what they were getting into, and this is nobody's fault but their own. They didn’t pick up a book or even read a few articles about the country, and they clearly didn’t see any CNN clips about the country. Is it the country’s fault, they hate it here? Is it the students’ fault? Is it the fault of other, well adjusted teachers? These ladies are going off about the country, about the spoiled rich kids they teach, and about their “anti-American” policy sentiment to the students and to other colleagues! Is it me or is this incredibly unprofessional and arrogant? I mean I have opinions too, but at work, and in this country, I know enough to keep them to myself, except when in the company of similar minded people that I can debate and discuss these issues with in friendly social settings. Come to think of it, regardless of the country, this is just standard work etiquette isn’t it?

Marriage, For love or for Money?

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:39:36 GMT

Marriage is done for one of two reasons, love or money. In the West, the majority of people marry for love. There are certain families, especially those with money that encourage their kids to marry into a family of similar financial and social stature, yet I think families that have such expectations are in the minority. I think the idea of a romantic love, one that is personal and by ones own choice is important to most Americans and Europeans in particular. Teenagers date, often under parental supervision and gain insight into romantic intrigues at a very early age. Little girls dream of a hunky knight in shining amour, and little boys imagine a dreamy pin up poster girl look alike that cooks.

In Saudi Arabia, and perhaps most of the Middle East, girls prefer money over romance. This may be due in great part to the fact that women couldn’t work in public positions until recently. This is still a concern for most Saudi families who view public service jobs such as nursing, waiting tables and anything that requires customer service as a low level job. In addition, many people prefer that their daughters and or wives do not engage in conversations with men. In addition, in Saudi Arabia, money has become a tremendous factor in ones social standing. People with money travel more, are more educated and generally more “liberal” than those that don’t.

Saudi Arabia has led an insular and isolated culture for decades. The isolation of Saudi Arabia is due in part to its being the center of Islamic pilgrimage. As the Muslim Vatican that houses the two holy shrines where all Muslims are obligated to of to once in their lifetimes, Saudi Arabia has an obligation to the 90 billion and growing Muslims of the world. Riyadh is the capital of Saudi Arabia, and it’s located in the Najd province, where most of the country's Islamic scholars reside and are educated. This isolation from other cultures, viewpoints and peoples has created intolerance for any kind of change. This intolerance isn’t just about embracing modernity and changing old ways, and I am not a person who believes that newer is necessarily better. Traditions are beautiful and interesting, as long as they are not used to control people and fear them into resisting fresh ideas. Modernity also requires moderation.

My students in Saudi Arabia have expressed to me in shocking numbers that their mothers advise them to marry a man with money; otherwise, their marriage may fall apart. The idea of making money together and working towards buying a house, a car and other things is foreign to them. They expect to have all of that provided for them upon marriage. Perhaps I should explain, my students grew up dressing like Paris Hilton, and they wear Chanel and Gucci on a daily basis. Money has always been there for them and they have never had to ask for much of anything, even their freedom to drive has been paid off. They have new Hummers, Mercedes and Lexus, and an Indian, Philipino or Pakistani man to drive them around in it. Having a driver is something my entire student population has become accustomed to, and they live privileged lives, for the most part. However, there are those that don’t, and the women who do suffer in Saudi Arabia have little recourse.