Think-Israel

THINK-ISRAEL

LAND OF SINBAD THE SAILOR

by Boris Zubry

Saudi Arabia is a desert country located about one thousand miles from the middle of nowhere, but still is in the Middle East. That is where Islam was born and came from. That should tell us a lot already, but it does not tell the whole story. It is a hot, badly situated (not considering oil and the Red Sea) country, with people strangely dressed in white robes and towels on their heads. This country is rich with oil and sand, but poor with brains and initiative. Saudi Arabia is the country of mentally disturbed religious fanatics lying to the whole world and also often to themselves. Religion runs the country and the lives of the people who populate it, visiting and working there. Everything is done in accordance with an understanding of religion, or the total lack of it. Of course, if one knows and understands the system, one can work it quite well. But no one from the outside really can work the system, not for one hundred percent, not even for seventy five percent. You are an outsider and an infidel. Food, clothes, work, laws, ethics, customs, lack of art, attitude, and everything else are dictated by the royal family, people around it, religion and religious leaders. Suppression of everything and preservation of the ruling class proved to be very comfortable for the country leaders. This is what they enforce always, every day, day in and day out.

It is difficult to say whether Saudis like the lifestyle they lead or not. Maybe they just have to lead it that way because of the strict control of the power-holders? All I can say that as soon as any Saudi, man or a woman, leaves the religious pillar of the Islamic world called Saudi Arabia, they break the holy rules. And, they break them all at once. I have seen it; many people have seen it. A sudden change from the strict follower of Mohammed to easy-going playboy starts in the plane leaving Saudi Arabia and ends in the plane coming home to Saudi Arabia. A born again, strict follower of Mohammed will enter the country and stay as such until the next trip overseas. Everything changes in Saudis on the plane; clothes, attitude and even alcoholic drinks are ordered. Saudis act like mellow people overcharged with energy and ready to explode at the moment notice or without one. They are slow and lay back when it comes to work or decision-making (bureaucracy in action) but, when they are out of the country, they become unusually active and party hard. Alcohol, drugs, women, homosexuality and anything else, forbidden by the Koran and Mullahs, they enjoy it all.

Saudi students of the American and European educational institutions are known for bad scores, lack of initiative and wild parties well beyond the average student means. The main goal for them when they go abroad is not the education, but finding the way to stay there. They want to remain Muslims, but in the West where one does not have to be as stern as back home where everyone is a center of attention for the watching eyes of neighbors and religious police. Western life is much more comfortable. They find naive native (Western) girls, flash some money and exotic accent, make them pregnant real fast and, then, marry them against the family will. That is the common way for anyone from the Middle East, and, especially, Saudis, to establish a foothold in the West. Marriage to a girl, any girl. A large percentage of these marriages end up with divorces based on abuse, differences in backgrounds and religions, but men get to stay in the country of their choice. They are citizens by the time of the divorce and also have children in that country. No one is going to ask them to leave and go home. They are home. Now they are free to do whatever they want and to lead the lifestyle they desire.

The eastern and western outer regions of Saudi Arabia are somewhat more civilized and liberated than the central part of the country. In Riyadh and Jeddah, for instance, foreign women may walk around with faces not covered by an ugly black cloth, but the rest of the body has to be covered with a black robe. Saudi women can not deviate from these regulations at all. They are covered completely. Even their eyes are hidden from the stranger. There are numerous beautiful and fashionable stores, hotels and restaurants which might be compared with the best places in New York, Rome, Paris or London, but they look empty and useless. There are boutiques offering women's clothes produced by the famous designers, and there are no women inside. Men buy the expensive clothes for women to wear at home solely for the husband's pleasure. Husbands, who does not understand much and do not care anyway, make those decisions. Other women may see it as well, but no other men are allowed.

I was told on many occasions that Saudi children have to remember the shoes mothers wear today when they leave their homes. Otherwise, how could one, so small, find his mother in the sea of faceless, shapeless black robes? Looking like an ugly huge penguin is a fifteen hundred years old traditional fashion of Saudi Arabian women. But men do not look much better. White formless robes, a piece of cloth on the head and sandals on bare, dirty feet, do not make them very attractive either. I am not sure whether they have any underwear on. The majority of them probably don't. They appear strange, at least.

But Saudi women have no choice in the matter. They are not in the market for Western men. Probably they are not even going to meet any Western men at all, maybe not even in a lifetime. Western men will never see them, and therefore, a chance for a Western type of a romance is slim. Little girls grow full of dreams, but dreams shatter with a blood of the first period. Menstruation brings womanhood, black robes and covered faces. The dreams get buried so deep that they can not surface even in the most private surroundings in their lives. They become fanatically religious in order to defend themselves from reality and to escape insanity. They blame God, complain to him and pray, asking for forgiveness and a change.

Why do Saudi men force their women to behave like that? Some Saudi men say that women want it and like it that way. Some people say that religion calls for such behavior. In both cases it is literally a crock of you know what. No one in her right mind would like to be in the shoes of the Saudi women. They are people too, and they have been exposed to the other life through TV, books, magazines, foreigners in the country and some trips overseas. They have or had, at one time, dreams and desires. Do you think they dream of a Bedouin or a smelly camel driver (the most popular profession for Saudis, like a car mechanic for Americans) for a husband and five wild children? Do you think they dream of being thrown out of the husband's house whenever he wants to marry a younger woman and does not want to support the older wife? They are sent back to their families with no money, and their children stay with the husband. Divorced women will remain with their families, but on the bottom of the social ladder, until they die or until someone marries them again. But who would marry an older, divorced and moneyless woman unless he is so desperate and out of style and circulation for so long that no one will have him? That is a possibility, but not really an escape. I believe there is no escaping their fate. Saudi women must simply accept it.

Religion does not call for all that, but religious men do. They drive the Saudi women to the state of ugliness and stupidity so that they do not revolt and attract another man. Saudis do not trust each other. They hide and control their women completely. I believe that Arabs used to steal each others properties including women and children for thousands of years without any hesitation or looking back. They did it in the Middle East, Africa and Europe as well. Let us not forget that Arabs and no one else sold black slaves regularly to Europeans and Americans. They were Muslims, who purchased black slaves from their own leaders or plainly kidnapped them from their villages. Kidnapping and stealing was very popular between the Arabs for many centuries until very recently. For this reason alone, Arabs cover and control their women. No one can see what is in there, what is under the ugly robe. If one can not see the goods, maybe one would not steal the goods. There is some logic to that, I have to say. Don't you think so? I do not know if it really works, but they sure try it so hard.

I was really impressed by the quality of some restaurants in Jeddah, Riyadh and other places. Good design, excellent food, top service, but very few people enjoy it. Saudis usually do not patronize restaurants serving anything but local style rice and chicken. Foreigners? Well, there are not too many people from the States and Europe over there to begin with. Other foreigners have no money to spend, and no taste for the French and Italian cuisine. Caviar, smoked fish and other exceptional delicacies are available and offered in a number of places, but only a few Europeans eat them. Americans, not being accustomed to such cuisine, usually pass it for something more down to earth like a hamburger and fries. Tennis courts, golf courses and swimming pools are there too, and in large quantity, but no one besides foreigners is using them either. All the large cities in Saudi Arabia appear as if from a very expensive movie set designed to look like the West. But no Westerners are allowed, and Saudis do not want to come either. Travel is so restricted that one can obtain a visa only by invitation, which is usually business related. One goes over there to sell something or to be employed by someone, which is also selling. Employment is selling of brains, hands and services. There is no general welcome feeling when you come over to Saudi Arabia. There is tolerance and sometimes patronizing that you can see and feel almost on every corner. Religious tourism, if I can call it that, is a different story. Muslims from all over the world come en masse to visit Mecca and Medina. They are treated with a special respect reserved for one of your own, maybe a little low, or close to that. Well, I have not experienced that so I cannot tell you much on the subject. Mecca and Medina are forbidden for infidels, and I am one of them, as they say.

I came to Saudi Arabia for employment. Otherwise, I would never have visited this country, Saudi Arabia is a country which is as old as history itself, or even older. There was a pharmaceutical plant located in the middle of the country. It was well removed from the desirable locations of big cities. But I had no idea what was good in Saudi Arabia and what was not, and where that good was. The British built the plant for more than four hundred million dollars. It was a good plant, but for this kind of money it could have been at least twice as big. The British made their money and left. Only a few of them, semi-professionals, training human resources, and the such, had been left behind for another year or so. Now, Saudis wanted the Americans to bring it up to speed and show them how to make it prosperous. It was a difficult task considering the circumstances. The Saudis did not need that plant at all.

Arabs officially played all leading roles. Americans had to play the secondary, but the load bearing, roles. We had to work and not to talk. That was fine. We could not speak Arabic anyway. So, the Saudis created a lot of noise about Americans coming, but all they had were four Americans, including yours truly, one Norwegian, two British and a score of Pakistani, Indians and Filipinos. Some of them were coming from the United States after living there for a few years without decent employment. All working class: machine operators, technicians, designers, general laborers, etc. were imported from Philippines. The janitorial staff and all kinds of servants were brought over from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Palestine, and other similar countries with a lot of unskilled labor that needed employment, any employment. The same thing could be seen throughout the country. People from every corner of the world worked in every business and government office. People, officially in charge, were the Saudis. But they were too busy doing nothing. Between a few prayers during the working day (up to a half of hour each), lunch, a number of coffee/tea breaks, sports and politics talks, reading newspaper and dreaming, there was no time left for anything else. Could they do the job? Not the one they were appointed to do. All of them, including the best ones, lacked the skills and the right working attitude. That is why they needed foreign people to do the work. And people of the world often needed jobs the Saudis offered. It worked for everyone.

After being in Saudi Arabia for a month or so, I saw a document marked confidential that really surprised me and changed my view at the outside world completely. That document informed all newly arrived senior managers of a pay scale for different positions for people from different countries. It was not based on professions or training or any other qualifications and merit. It was based strictly on the employee's country of origin. According to that document, Saudis, Americans and British were paid one hundred percent of the pay scale for their position. People from other Western European countries were paid ninety percent of the pay scale. Central and South Americans were receiving seventy-eighty percent of the pay scale. Muslims from any other country received from sixty to eighty percent of the scale; while many others were paid as little as twenty to fifty percent of the pay scale for the position. A laborer, even a Muslim, but not Saudi, could be paid only twenty to thirty US dollars per month. I spent that much only on fruits. But those poor people tried to work a few jobs in order to survive, using the pay from one job, and sending the rest of it home, wherever the home was. Why is it? What is it? That is the real discrimination in action. Do you hear, American minorities? It should have hurt holy Islam, religion of all religions, as hell. They had it all: slave labor, discrimination of races, religion and sex. WOW! They can take the discriminatory prize for being right on top of everybody. Fascists, KKK, Skinheads, Aryan Brotherhood, Black Panthers, Terrorists and all others move aside; the Saudis are coming. They are the masters. They are the heroes of lying and cheating. They hate us all and they are in control for as long as oil runs our cars.

Frankly, I did not feel very comfortable with it, but like they say: "In Rome do as Romans do." In other words: "Shut up and follow orders." I was not there to make the revolution, I was one of the slave labor, but I could leave whenever I wanted. Well, not really. The Personnel Department took our passports, disregarding our open protests, for "safe keeping." We could get them back only when we were leaving the country for vacation or permanently. That means that we could not leave at our discretion. What a bunch of hypocrites. Double and triple standards everywhere, and all covered by religion.

This country is a difficult one to travel in. Foreigners need permits to travel within the country. Your permit should specify the town of origin and your destination as well. Also dates of your travel should be stated in this document. What the Saudis are hiding or protecting, I have no idea. There is nothing there worth being protected, but their ego. Military and police patrols could stop you almost anywhere, and, specifically, on the main highways and check the documents. If documents were in question or did not match your location and destination, you could be in a big trouble. Local jails, as they say, are almost the worst jails in the world, and it took forever for the police to check you out and to release you. Religious holidays, constant prayers, multiple breaks in the work day and the natural laziness of Saudis would add time to your tortures of bad food, thirst, heat, dirt, smell, pests, locals, and anything else the Middle East could provide, if you landed in one of their jails.

Nevertheless, I had a chance to visit the capital, Riyadh, and Jeddah - the rare pearl of the Red Sea. What can I say - impressive. That was quite impressive, and especially from a distance. Exotic and notable, there is something to talk about, if you want to listen. Even if you do not care to listen, I am going to talk about it.

The first impression of Riyadh was - "Wow." Riyadh is definitely a statement. It is the middle of the Middle East, as they say. World-class hotels, beautiful government buildings and outlandish private villas, markets where one can buy anything, and I mean anything and from every corner of the world. Shops that could shame the famous Fifth and Park Avenues of New York. There are golf courses, swimming pools, expensive cars and luxuries of all sorts. That is what one sees even before one enters the city. Now, we are in. We are in the city going to a hotel. A feeling of richness and luxury still follows us wherever we go. Good rooms, excellent service, perfect food and reasonable prices. There was only one problem: not too many people enjoyed it. For a couple of time I went to one of the major hotels famous for its buffets. I am a well-traveled man; I have seen a lot, but even I was surprised and quite overwhelmed.

The seafood buffet I visited contained almost every delicacy the seafood cuisine of the world could offer. There was salads, soups, and French, Italian and Arabic bread. Mountains of lobsters, boiled, broiled and deep fried fish, including salmon, trout, catfish, blue fish, cod, keta, flounder, tuna, shark, swordfish and other rare catches; crayfish, clams, oysters, abalone, prawns, shrimps. Lakes of black, red and white caviar added spectacular colors to the interior. Sushi, smoked, salted and pickled fish, multiple offerings from the bottom of the sea, fruit, deserts, sweets, tea and coffee of the best quality, and scores of soft drinks including delicious imported water tested the strength of the tables. It was breathtaking.

The price was surprisingly low: only nineteen US dollars per person, all, even gratuity, included. Five people were there enjoying the food, and all of them were from the West. No Arabs, no locals, only the hired help of Americans, French and Italians were stuffing themselves with the seafood delicacies at nineteen US dollars per person.

Women were not there at all. Although it was allowed for Western women in Riyadh to walk around with uncovered faces and light black robes just slightly covering their regular clothes, they preferred not to go out at night and to stay home as much as possible. Who knows when one would meet a religious fanatic angry enough to hit, injure or even kill a Western woman for violating what he thought was Islamic law. Much better was not to agitate the mad, not to flash red in front of a bull. Therefore, if a woman was not heavily escorted by men with influence, she had better stay home at night. She better not be too bold during the day either. Men could not escort single women unless they were close relatives and had documents proving it. How many of us carry marriage certificates when we go out? Right. I do not even know where mine is. My wife has it hidden somewhere. And, what about dating or just a business meeting? Forget it. What dating, with whom? Your friendly camel driver - or his camel?

Jeddah was different from anything I saw in Saudi Arabia. It is a beautiful city; Sinbad the Sailor was from there. It is a pearl on the Red Sea. It is a real gem. I enjoyed every minute of my time in Jeddah. Hotels, exclusive restaurants, shopping, the Red Sea. A monument to Sinbad the Sailor in a form of a sailboat with waves surrounding it. A fountain springing directly from the Sea and shooting so high that no other fountain in the world can match it. The villas of very rich people and a King's yacht the size of a good cruise ship - out there - not too far away, unmoved by the sea's waves. The most beautiful and relaxing sight was a park along the shore of the Red Sea. There was a kind of boardwalk only without boards. There were swimming beaches for Westerners, somewhat remote and secluded, where everyone was together enjoying the weather and the sea. The Muslims could not come there. Western women in bikinis created too much stress for the ascetic members of Islam, but that was a sight for my sore eyes. I was stressed too much not seeing that.

I walked in that park for hours looking at the Red Sea, enjoying scores of statutes displayed along the way. I rested in exotic gazeboes breathing the fresh salty air and feeling the penetrating warmth of the Red Sea coast. I ate shish-kebab purchased from a street vendor. It was probably the best one I ever had. I day-dreamed of the thousands of years of the past. They were civilized back then.

What has happened to them lately? The country had no book stores with books other than religious ones, no movie houses, no theaters, no information concerning the world and no entertainment to speak of. Once, in Riyadh, I purchased a copy of "Life" magazine and found some pages missing. A black marker crossed out words, sentences and whole paragraphs. Why was it done? Who had done it? There could be a number of reasons. Maybe the subject matter was not approved of by Islam or the Saudis. Maybe there was something about Arabs in general and Saudis specifically; maybe there was something about women, homosexuals or other religions. Maybe there was not anything at all. Who could say? I had not read the article and censorship is unpredictable. We have no idea what kind of instructions they had. There could be both written and verbal instructions, and the verbal instructions usually carry the most weight. Even more, foreign magazines (censored) could be obtained only in large cities and at the foreign consulates where many Westerners are present. An average person living in the middle of the country would have no access to actual information from the western world. He will know the West only through the religion-twisted media and local questionably-educated Mullahs. This kind of informational deficiency would not help anyone to become an equal member of the freethinking society.

For the first couple of weeks I was doing just great. The excitement of being in a foreign place and the feeling of adventure was overcoming everything else I was experiencing at the time. Then, I started to miss things like food, books, movies, TV, freedom of movement and freedom of expression, women and children. There were women in black from head to toe and no children running around and laughing their little heads off. I clearly understood that when I was in Jeddah walking in the park along the Red Sea shore. I saw men, Arabs, Europeans, Americans, Indians, Pakistani, Filipino. I saw black groups of women in the distance inside the isolated gazeboes. They were with their men and children resting and having picnics. But there was not children playing in the sand or running on the walkway and catching each other among the trees. No noise and laughter created by the playing little brats, and so annoying at the time, but so missed when there is no one around. It was quiet, and that made it strange. So strange. What have you done with your children, people? Why are they not running around laughing and screaming just to annoy you? I wanted to see them and I wanted to hear them. I wanted to be annoyed.

Television was entirely a separate issue. There were two local channels; one was in Arabic and the other in English. Dish antennas were officially forbidden; nevertheless, some people had them. It could be arranged, like almost anything in the country, but why would one take a chance in the country where Islamic law prevails and a foreigner almost always lost against the Muslim way. The Muslim way was always right. Why was it? According to Islam, a Muslim never lies, but everyone else does. The English channel of the two local TV channels basically repeated the Arabic channel. Fifty percent of the programming was religious propaganda in one form or another. The remaining shows were sports (mostly European football, called soccer), children's programming, news with questionable interpretation, and American or British (mostly American) programming like "Emergency 911", "Believe it or not", "Funniest videos", etc. Useless stuff. They show it in the States only because we have dozens of channels with dozens of programs and that provides additional variety. These are just "one more program."

Almost every day one could see an American movie. It started at ten o'clock at night and not too many people watched it because they had to get up at four or five o'clock in the morning and go to work. Work started very early in these parts before the heat makes it too difficult to work and puts everyone into a sleepy mood. Nevertheless, whatever program you watch, there would be no women or religion, or anything else abrasive to a sensitive ear and eye of a Saudi. It was very funny to watch an American movie where all delicate parts were cut out. It became a new movie all together. The producer, director and all actors probably would be surprised at the change of plot. It was a new movie that was extremely difficult to follow. Sometimes very large pieces were missing, and one had to guess what happened in between. Well, that was an entertainment by itself. I watched my movies, whatever I could catch, mostly on weekends, which were on Thursdays and Fridays. I needed food for my brain at any time of the day and in any form. My brain was hungry, it was starving, and I had to feed it constantly.

Religious programs were interesting too. All of them were badly composed propaganda designed to convert people to Islam. Islam was just waiting with open arms for anyone to convert. They even paid money to poor converting souls, and there were many who desired money. The converting process never stopped. Working people from many third world countries saw conversion as an extra way to make a few dollars and to gain better working and living conditions. After all, they would be brothers - Muslims with the Saudis, and Saudis should consider that and give them a break. What happened after those people went back home? Had they converted back to their original religions or stayed true to Islam? Who knows? Some Saudis told me that they realize the problem, but they do no worry. Allah will punish infidels for lying and cheating. And, if only a few were the true converts, Islam had gained a few good people. That was all they wanted to accomplish. I am sure it worked.

I recall one religious TV program very clearly. I really spent an hour listening to it totally hypnotized by the wrong logic and stupidity of the question and the approach to handling it. There was a doctor of something and a professor of Theology from Egypt talking about Moses and trying to prove that Moses was a Muslim. According to them, if Islam was the last religion given to people by God and the Koran was the last Holy Book concluding God's giving and God's will, and the logical conclusion of the holy work of God and Moses really lead the people to religion and to God, Moses was leading people to Islam. Therefore, Moses was a Muslim. Sounds logical except what if Islam was not the last religion? What if Islam was not given by God? What if Moses lead people only from bondage and religion was secondary, coming as a result of his leadership. Then, Moses would still be a Jew and Islam would be in question. Using the same logic we could prove that Mohammed was not a Muslim, but a Jew trying to reform Judaism, and Islam was not a new religion, but just another totally confused reform of Judaism. Oh! That would create a riot I am scared even to think about. Kaaba, instead of being one of the most holiest Muslim relics and prayer sights, would become just a place where a Jewish ancestor, Abraham, used to live. I do not think they would be able to comprehend this concept.

Often, TV proudly showed people freshly converted to Islam. They talked for hours, telling stories of their lives and how they came to Islam and how happy they were now and how sad they were before conversion. Mostly it was nonsense so full of open lying and misleading that I could not watch it for more than five minutes. But once they outdid even themselves. There was a black man from one of West African countries. He used to be a football (soccer) player, traveled a little, lived in the States for a year or so. His soccer career was dying due to his age and maybe also his skills. He became a soccer coach. One of lesser teams in Saudi Arabia offered him a coaching job. He came over. After a while, by accident, he found out that a coach from Germany working with a neighboring and well-known team was getting almost twice the money for the same job. How could he get more money? The answer was quite clear - by becoming a Muslim. And, he did. When the person in charge of the TV program asked him how did he like his life now, he stated that he liked it very much. He was getting much more money and he was accepted by the people around him. Religion was just great and very sport oriented. Six times a day he had to get on his knees and pray, continuously bending over and straightening out. That was excellent physical exercise and five or six times a day. That was so stupid and so funny that I was laughing hysterically for days. The Saudis were showing it on TV as positive propaganda of conversion into Islam. It gave the impression that Muslims ran out of smart moves and good examples. They had a problem of too many smart people being around and they did not know how to fix it. Islam needed fresh recruits, but they were hard to come by.

But I was in Saudi Arabia to work and not to analyze and criticize the system. The plant was a beauty. I guess four hundred and some million US dollars can go far. This time they went to Saudi Arabia. This pharmaceutical plant could produce enough medication for twenty to twenty five million people. Saudi Arabia had only nine million people and three operating pharmaceutical plants already. But the majority of medication sold in pharmacies came from overseas anyway. People preferred to buy drugs from United States, Great Britain or France instead of the locally produced stuff. Price played no role in the matter; medical services, including medication, were free in Saudi Arabia for Saudis. All local stuff was made under licenses from the large international pharmaceutical concerns and was supposed to duplicate the original product completely, but no one really believed that was so. Therefore, the company had only one real customer - the Ministry of Health, which placed orders, purchased the product and controlled the prices. One of royal princes was a major shareholder in the company and he influenced the ministry. So, almost all government orders went to us, but they were paid poorly regardless of the top connections. Prices too were controlled due to the government's limitations. The country's wealth was not unlimited anymore. The Saudis kept purchasing everything from overseas producing almost nothing, and what little they did make was of poor quality. No one wanted to buy it. In addition to this, the royal family continued to grow uncontrollably, spending more and more money on estates, travel and useless luxuries. Also, the Saudis had to pay, together with Kuwait, for the Gulf War. This shook the treasury dramatically. The treasury was getting very low on funds and funds were not coming in as they used to. One could see that money was becoming a problem difficult to solve. The Saudis needed money like any other people in the world. I guess mismanagement of funds does not pay, and lack of desire to work can leave one without funds.

Nevertheless, we kept a good size marketing department which was not doing much more then servicing just one client. Anyway, coffee, newspapers, prayers and socializing took most of the day. And, it was not easy to find new markets in a small country like this, where all markets were identified already and full of better and cheaper products. The main question was why did we keep almost fifty people in the headquarters in Riyadh when ten could have done the job. We kept four hundred people at the plant too when two hundred and fifty could have done a better job. Well, it did not work that way in Saudi Arabia. It was too easy and too simple. There was a very interesting law in the country. Any company had to hire any Saudi who was looking for a job. If a position was not readily available, you had to create one or to let go one of foreigners working for you and hire a Saudi instead. That was a good policy teaching people to work, creating opportunities, designed to eventually substitute all foreigners with local talents. But there was a problem. Saudis were poorly educated and not very productive due to many different reasons including working attitude and time taken off for prayers and religious holidays. They all wanted to be in charge, in charge of something, anything. Products produced by the Saudis were expensive and of an inferior quality. Also not too many Saudis wanted to work to begin with.

Once I was called to the Personnel Department because a young Saudi came over with a request for work. He was a high school graduate with no other skills and very sloppy looking. When I asked him what he wanted to do, he said that he wanted to be a manager, or a supervisor at least. We could not afford to hire a guy like that for anything but janitorial duties, but he had to be in charge. The Personnel Department solved the problem by creating a new position of Supervising Janitor in charge of cleaning hallways. That was a new group with a supervisor and no members until further notice. The young Saudi was happy to be called a supervisor, and he was mopping the hallways quite well. Me, I was shocked.

Work was just fine, not very demanding. There were too many people and not enough work. Anyone could handle that, even I. We started very early in the morning, around six and worked until ten. Then there was lunch - not very delicious, but plentiful and paid by the company; then coffee in the coffee/smoking lounge room and a "bull session" until eleven, then work for another four hours, and we went home around three in the afternoon.

Foreigners of professional and managerial status lived in a special camp that was built years ago when many Westerners came to Saudi Arabia to work. Since then, the Saudis discovered a way to save money by hiring more Indians, Pakistani and Africans. Three of them could do the job of two Americans or British, but there were savings in salary and in benefits. Westerners had two and sometimes three vacations per year where the Saudis had to pay not only for the vacation time, but for the travel tickets as well. Also, Westerners with a position had a family stipend, and even if the family was not living in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis had to pay for their vacation tickets. Wives sometimes would come over, but usually they would join their husbands for vacation somewhere nice. That was expensive. People from less prestigious countries could not get it this good. They did not get paid for families; they had only one vacation a year, and basic salaries were much lower. So the Saudis were restricted to hiring Westerners only at the beginning of the project when training was essential and for the positions where people from any other part of the world were not qualified, trusted or desirable. Trust was a very important component. Westerners were trusted more than some other people.

My camp contained fifty houses with ten Westerners, two Egyptians, one Syrian, one Sudanese and a number of Indians and Pakistani. In the old days the camp used to have a little store with basic items, a restaurant, a library, a doctor, a swimming pool, a tennis court and a close circuit TV cable system which showed video cassettes to all houses in the camp that wanted to pay a little fee. A few hundred video cassettes were kept there. Every house that wanted to participate, and everyone wanted to participate, had to pay twenty American dollars a month to cover the expenses of the studio and the salaries of two technicians from Philippines. Also, there was an English school for small children (up to ten years old). Older children, boys and girls, had to go to a boarding school in Riyadh supported by all the embassies of the English speaking countries. I was told that schools in Riyadh were just fine and provided a good education to those who wanted to learn, but it was in Riyadh, and we were not.

That would have been fine, but I was six hours away, by car, from Riyadh. If we had children in that school, we would not see them for weeks, and, then, we had to spend a lot of money on travel, hotel, meals, and entertainment every time we visited our children. Also, we needed permission to travel every time we wanted to go. Between paying for the school and the child's allowances and traveling expenses to see the child and the stress of traveling, it made no sense even to go to Saudi Arabia to work. The Saudis did not pay that well in the first place. They paid you an average pay well below the earned overseas tax credits, free accommodations, food at work and vacation tickets two to three times a year, depending on your negotiating skills. And, you received a US tax break. All together it may come to something around one hundred thousand US dollars per year.

If your family came to stay with you, your wife could not work. She would have nothing to do all day long. This will drive her crazy and she will drive you nuts. Your children would have to stay home with grandparents or come over and stay in a boarding school. That was uncomfortable and too expensive. If your family stayed home, you would spend a tremendous amount of money on telephone and postage, and flying home for vacations. Also, you would have to send all the money back home to support the family. What was in it for you? Not much. You had a job paying reasonably well, but you were in a middle of a strange country full of religious fanatics and bizarre customs. The climate was hot, the food was dull and boring, and there was no entertainment as you knew it. There was nothing to do but to write bad books. You worked hard, but saw no money, and on the top of it your family was so far away that you could see them only twice a year. Was it worth it? Not really. I was not crazy about it, and my family did not like it at all. They told me that at every opportunity. That was if you were married. But if you were not married, it was even worse. There was nothing going on for you over there and when you were on vacation there was no place or person to go to. Let us say you took off to a hot spot like Paris, had fun for a week or so, and blew all the money you made so far. Great! What did you work for? What do you have to show for it? So, what were you doing in Saudi Arabia? You suffered, made no money and wasted time. You could have stayed home and done the same thing or something better.

Foreign professionals with single status had a house for two people. Houses were fine even by European measures. There were two relatively large bedrooms, hallway, living room, large kitchen and one and a half baths. It was furnished cheaply, but everything necessary was there. Beds, dressers, tables, chairs, TV, utensils, iron, ironing board, glasses, cups, plates, silverware and whatever else one may need in a regular, but not luxury life, was supplied. A little front yard and a decent size backyard were attached to the house. Sorry, but no built-in garage. Nothing was growing in this soil full of clay and sand, but if you water enough and plant some tough greens, they would flourish. So, in the beginning everyone was installing some kind of a sprinkler system to water the area. Then, you obtained some grass, cactuses and whatever else the locals would recommend. I even planted a palm. It was a small one, but, nevertheless, it was still a palm. In a couple of weeks you start to enjoy your little garden full of fresh colors. In another couple of weeks early in the morning when you come out to water the greens and to breath fresh cool air before the sun is fully up, you see a quick movement in the grass. With a shock, you recognize a snake. And, not just a snake, but a viper, a poisonous one. How did that happen? Where did that come from? Well, you have created a beautiful spot, a paradise for people and animals of all sorts. Why would a snake, even a poisonous one, not enjoy it? So the snake moves in and brings the family over. One can not get rid of them. You kill them; others take their place. All you can do was either to destroy your garden, which you did not want to do at all because you needed it. You needed the green color, you needed the fresh cool air and you needed birds singing all around. Or batten down your house making sure that there was no opening left for snakes to get in. Now, you better watch where you step all the time. But on the good side, you would have no mice, rats or lizards in your house. Well, I had one lizard in the house. It was a funny looking creature with a small light green color and big feet that glued themselves to any surface. It was a very friendly guy that talked to me in a loud chuckling voice and ate all kinds of insects. I had no insects in my house, only the chuckling voice of my friend. This little lizard would follow me anywhere I would go in the house. I would sit there on the couch and watch TV and he will attach himself to the ceiling, watch TV and me and chuckle. I thought this was very neighborly of him. His behavior was hilarious.

So, that is how you live in the desert of Saudi Arabia getting accustomed to different things little by little. You get with a program and routine becomes your life. There was only one thing which I really could not accept and digest. That thing was local laws, sentences and executions. Let us say that you hired a cab, and that cab had an accident while driving you. You were totally responsible for all damages including injuries, death and anything else. The reasoning for that was that the cab would not be there and, therefore, would not be involved with an accident if you had not hired it in the first place.

I met a German doctor who had to pay one hundred thousand US dollars to the family of a person killed by a driver of the cab he hired to go somewhere. What do you think of that?

Weekly executions were announced in newspapers and on TV every Friday night. There were always a few executions nationwide every week. People were executed for many things such as murder, rape, adultery, drugs, alcohol, pornography, contraband, etc. It was done in the main square, in front of the mosque and by a powerful stroke of a sword. It did not make any difference who you were and where you were from. One was punished in accordance with Islamic law regardless of his position or income. Lawyers were helpless. All they could do was to argue the fine points of the Koran or pass a bribe. That was not much. That was what Saudis said. I do not have any personal experience, but I do not question that. Knowing the Saudis, I believe that some negotiations could be conducted with many of them, if negotiations were handled properly. But in many cases death was better than a lifetime in a Saudi jail. A quick death was much better than a lifetime of torture.

I recall ae case very widely publicized in Saudi Arabia at the time I lived there. A seventeen years old Filipino girl was arrested for murdering her employer by driving a pair of scissors through his heart. She was employed as a maid and a babysitter by a professor of theology in the local university. He had two wives and three children. He was forty years old and considered a prominent member of the community. She was arrested when one of wives came home from shopping and saw her husband lying there in a pool of blood by the couch in the living room. The maid was siting by the body in a torn dress, crying and holding the bloody scissors in her hand. The police noticed that the maid had bruises on her hands and face. The rest of the body was not inspected. She was a woman after all.

The girl claimed that she was attacked by her employer and violently raped. While he was attacking her, she reached for the scissors on the coffee table next to the couch and struck him with them hoping that he would stop. The strike was powerful and precise. The scissors went right through the heart, and he died instantaneously. She confessed to killing her employer, but it was done in self-defense.

Members of his family claimed that all that was absurd. They said that she was trying to commit adultery, and he refused her. She then became mad and killed him in the fury of jealousy. The Court accepted the family's argument based on a few reasons. First of all, the family consisted of Muslims of good standing, and Muslims never lie. Second, the Filipino girl had no witnesses to substantiate her story. She was not a Muslim and therefore could lie. Because she was very poor and could not pay damages to the family of the deceased for the wrong she had done, she was sentences to death. The execution was scheduled in two weeks giving time for her family to come over, say goodbye to her and take care of the body after the execution. Nothing else could have been done with this case, not officially. The case was closed, and the court proceeded with some other business. The girl would be executed, and no one could change it. Not in Saudi Arabia.

The girl's family complained to the American authorities knowing that American influence in Saudi Arabia was very strong, especially, after the Gulf War. The United States Ambassador in Saudi Arabia appealed to the authorities and hired a good attorney on behalf of the girl. The legal battle for the life of the girl was not going very well. Medical expertise could not say much because of the time passed. It was already two months since the incident. Bruises and a torn dress could not support the rape charge any longer. She could have done it by herself or anyone else could have done it, and not necessarily the victim. Only if she was a Muslim would she have a chance.

The attorney for the defense (a Muslim from New Jersey) proudly requested a one-month delay in execution due to conversion of his client to Islam. The request was happily granted. One more Muslim, even a dead one, was always welcomed by the authorities. Conversion into Islam of anyone, even a convicted criminal, was honored and customarily accepted. Now the attorney for the defense had a full right to request a new hearing on the grounds of testimony of a Muslim against the testimony of a Muslim. That would create a fair argument in the court of law, even a religious law.

A new court was assembled. That was already six months after the original incident happened. The eighteen years old Muslim Filipino girl testified that she was attacked and raped by her former employer. In defense she struck him with the scissors lying not too far on the coffee table and killed him. Also she stated that she did not mean to kill him, all she wanted from him was to stop. He was hurting her badly and against her will. The testimony of the family was not heard because nothing had changed there. Now, it was a Muslim against a Muslim, and a woman had an upper hand. A Muslim woman would not lie about rape. That was the ruling. Therefore, the family of the deceased was not telling the truth, and that was punishable by law. The family had to pay for it. The Filipino girl was released. The family of her former employer had to pay for her attorney, court expenses and another fifty thousand US dollars for punitive damages. The girl was free to go back home with the money. A very interesting and quite unusual turn of events, don't you think so? I was happy for the girl. Everyone was happy for the girl.

There were many stories, funny and sad, I could tell about Saudi Arabia, the Saudis, work, businesses and workers from overseas. That would take me forever, and I would not have anything left for more novels and short stories. I have to save some. I am going to tell you just one more story and then finish up.

A friend of mine from Norway also working at the pharmaceutical plant as a supervisor of electrical and electronic technicians took me once to meet a French guy who was managing a Toyota dealership not too far from the place we lived. That was a quite interesting evening. The Frenchman spoke a very good English and we had no problem communicating and enjoying each other's company. We were exchanging stories about our business. He told stories about cars and the Saudis buying them. Coffee, dates and American cigarettes in addition to the stories made our evening a lot of fun. I asked our host why there were two prices on every car. The answer was quite interesting. Muslims would not pay interest on the money and would not accept any either. That was a big violation of their laws. Of cause, it could be debatable. Money made money in direct and indirect ways. If we begin to investigate in details, we will find Muslims making money all over the place without considering any laws. But religious and legal debates were not incorporated in this book and we will not consider them. Anyway, Muslims officially will have nothing to do with interest on money. Therefore, if one wanted to pay cash for his purchase, there was a price. If one did not have enough money to pay for the purchase, he had to pay more over a period of time. There was no contract and no mentioning of interest. A contract was not needed with a Muslim because, if he did not pay the obligation, he was considered a thief, and that was strongly punished by Islamic law.

While we were talking, laughing, eating dates, smoking Winstons and drinking coffee and tea, a little dark man entered the room. He was a servant wondering whether we needed anything else. Our host began to smile telling us a new story.

Zahid, that was a name of the servant, was a Bangladeshi. He came to Saudi Arabia almost five years previously to work as a servant at the Toyota dealership. He was a good hard worker doing everything he was asked to do. He never complained or argued. All he wanted was more work so he could make more money and go home earlier. He never went home for vacation either, asking for the money instead. A few days prior, Zahid told to everyone at the dealership that he would go home for vacation after five years because he wanted to see his new child, a boy. We looked at our host. What child was he talking about? Zahid was not home for five years. Our host asked Zahid to continue the story. Zahid pulled out a small, passport size picture of a little boy on the lap of a dark, thin woman. We said that it was a nice looking boy and congratulated him. Zahid told us that when he left Bangladesh, his father became responsible for his family too. His father would receive the money sent by Zahid and take care of all family needs. The father also was responsible for the needs of Zahid's wife. If she wanted a man, she had to go to Zahid's father. The father would decide whether he would take care of the problem by himself or he would ask Zahid's brother to do so. In this case Zahid's father satisfied his wife, but the child was Zahid's anyway because his father did it only to help Zahid and his wife. His father did it at Zahid's request and on Zahid's behalf. Zahid was very grateful to his father for everything and for this child in particular.

We tried to hold our laughter back as hard as we could. Zahid was a very nice man. It was not his fault that he belonged to a primitive society, but maybe he was right and we belonged to a primitive society. I am sure that from Zahid's point of view a lot of things we did looked very strange. Who can judge? Who can solve this puzzle? They survive and we survive as well. Maybe we all are right. Zahid was happy, his wife was happy, all his family was happy. We gave him some money as a present for his new son, and congratulated him again. He kissed our hands making us very uncomfortable.

People reading this will ask me whether there was anything I liked about Saudi Arabia. The answer is "Yes." Yes, of course, I liked a number of things. I liked the view of the Red Sea in Jeddah. I liked to look at Bedouins riding their camels. I liked the view of Riyadh early in the morning when first coming to the city. I liked the fresh hot local bread. I liked shish-kebab and shurma. I liked talking to people and learning everything I could. I liked the sense of adventure. I liked to think of Sinbad the Sailor, his friends and their adventures. Was it anything like now back then? Now, I understand why Sinbad was a sailor. He was trying to leave Saudi Arabia, as are many Saudis today. Saudi Arabia was a nice place. It was a nice place to get away from.

Boris Zubry is a mechanical engineer. He was born in the Soviet Union and now lives in the United State. This article is one of the short stories from his book, "Miles Of Experience", Orlando: Rivercross Publishing (editor@rivercross.com), 2002; ISBN: 1-58141-067-0.