Mike's Saudi

 

This week I decided to let husband Mike have a go at writing a blog we were together in Saudi and because of the religion and culture we moved in very different worlds so here’s his take on it.

"I loved my time in Saudi Arabia, I was there for four years before Syb could join me and in that time I got to know many of the locals. People like Ali Badi a Bedouin and the son of the tribes chief, of all the people I have ever known he is the one I would describe as a natural gentleman and I’m pleased to say a good friend of mine. He lived the normal Saudi life so I never met his wife other than when fully covered she brought the in tea to her husband’s lounge and left immediately, at such times it was polite for me to ignore her. This would seem very strange to our western culture but Ali’s wife refused a trip to the US simply because she would have to take her veil off so she was pleased rather than offended that I ignored her.

When I was there it was a case of trying to understand the Saudi culture, after all they had lived with it for many hundreds of years and who’s to say my way would be better for them? Actually their culture which was almost totally based on the Koran had much to recommend it, I don’t need to go into it here and I only understand what brushed off on me but it did seem to work for them. King Fisel who was ruler when I first went out was a very wise man and instituted a lot of rules for the development of his country.

To try to bring Saudi into the modern world, a country with a small population and a strictly non technical background he had to rely on the Western countries to educate his people. Even though the conditions for the expatriates were separated from the population it was inevitable that they would mix, western ideas would spread and it was inevitable that in time there would be clashes of culture and misunderstanding. Why is it that we in the West can’t accept that there are other ways of doing things and keep our noses out of others life styles, religions and cultures? I suspect that if we had done there would be a lot less terrorism in the world.

A lot has changed from when Ali and I used to sit and drink tea together in his lounge."