Today’s first-time visitor to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – or KSA, as it is often known – could be completely forgiven for being confused at the kaleidoscopic canvas that greets him. He will see a profusion of white mosques topped with green minarets, intermingled with glass malls crowned with the familiar orange M’s of fast-food. What is real? What is fantasy?
The lucky visitor, at least, will get the opportunity to judge for himself. Most folks do not. Saudi Arabia is still one of the most closed-off, secretive countries in the world, and until the oil boom, the country was virtually shut to outsiders (apart from the closely monitored pilgrims to the Holy Cities). Since then, the hordes of expatriate workers going there to partake in the oil bonanza have still had to go through consular hoops just to obtain a work- or business-visa.
Tourist visas are a new phenomenon. In 2002, the country passed a law allowing non-Muslim tourists to get visas to travel in official groups, and subject to strict conditions such as being accompanied by a tour-guide at all times.
This writer has been extremely fortunate to have spent a number of years working and living in this fascinating place, with all its idiosyncrasies and ambiguities.
Even in this age of instant global communications and technology, Saudi Arabia is a land which remains strange and aloof to the western world. It doesn’t exactly feature on lifestyle channels where people talk about food, fashion, vacations and homes in the sun. Sure, we hear about it from time on time on lofty news channels, but usually through a report on some terrorist atrocity, or perhaps another increase in oil prices. Occasionally, a reporter goes there to do a documentary on lack of female equality. In other words, we rarely hear anything good!
And then, of course, we have our own images: vast expanses of baking sand punctuated by ugly refineries, and tented villages inhabited by Bedouin tribesmen dressed in white robes, checked headdresses and sandals, all tending to their camels while black-clad women shuffle around inconspicuously in the shadows. Oh, let us not forget the terrorist training-camps where teenage boys practice with their Kalashnikovs between Koran recitals!
Why, then do such misconceptions abound? Partly because of its history and geography, but equally because of its self-imposed isolation, the desert kingdom remains one of the least understood countries on the planet.
In 1938, oil was discovered in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Up to that point, the young country – united under King Abdul-Aziz Ibn Saud just a few years before – had virtually no resources. This, coupled with a sparse population which had been living the same tribal, nomadic existence for thousands of years, ensured that contact with the outside world had been minimal.
While smaller Gulf States, such as the Trucial States (now UAE) and Bahrain had become part of the great empire building of the 19th century, a great expanse of wilderness to the west – holding little attraction for colonial soldiers of fortune or captains of industry – remained not only untouched but mostly unknown.
This was not the only reason for KSA’s isolation, however. Ironically, the very factor for which it is best known to a large sector of the world’s population has also been the predominant contributor in ensuring its relative isolation. Saudi Arabia is, of course, the centre of Islam, the world’s second biggest religion. Being the birthplace of the Prophet Mohammad, and the location of the two Holy Cities of Makkah and Madinah, it has always had to maintain a delicate balance.
On one hand, the Kingdom must ensure its doors are always open to the millions of pilgrims who visit annually; on the other, it has, perhaps too self-consciously, worked hard to ensure that the hundreds of millions of visitors it has received over the years haven’t diluted what it sees as its religious and cultural purity.
Indeed, it is this dichotomy which may well be at the heart of Saudi society’s internal conflict today. The Saudis’ innate hospitality, which naturally gives rise to a desire for openness, wrestles with a desire to protect their society from what many of them see as the corrupting influence of secularism and - a somewhat exaggerated view, perhaps – western decadence.
Along with all of this, there have been two other factors which have served to isolate and alienate the Kingdom in the eyes of the western world.
In the last two decades, we witnessed a number of bombing attacks both within KSA and internationally, mostly attributed to Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Compounding this has been the shifting sands of the geopolitical power structure, US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Middle-East conflict, all of which have directly or indirectly involved, or at least affected, Saudi Arabia.
All of these events have placed the Kingdom in a delicate position: it has worked hard to maintain good relations with the dominant western powers, notably the US, which it regards as an ally, while also stringently trying to avoid alienating the rest of the Muslim and Arab worlds, who are increasingly hostile to the US and its allies.
Last but not least, there is what I believe is a case of plain, simple envy. KSA is the world’s single largest oil-producer, and like it or not, we need them as much as they need us. As in any relationship of mutual dependency, tension and resentment are inevitable. Since the ’73 oil-crisis, we have been acutely aware of how much we need their oil, which prior to then we also needed, but for which we had paid a lot less!
So, then, what is the real Saudi Arabia like?
Certainly, there is an awful lot more than sand, oil installations and women dressed entirely in black shuffling along ten paces behind their men. These do exist, but they are hardly the sole features by which such an influential country and complex society can be defined. There are, in fact, hardly any terrorists, but there is no shortage of camels! While there is – inevitably, in the home of Islam – a strong conservative religious ethos, coupled with an ingrained tribal way of thinking, there are also ultra-modern cities full of glass-and-steel office towers, shopping malls with the latest in designer fashion and gourmet foods, and countless fast-food joints, chic coffee shops and satellite TV outlets.
There is also a substantial urban middle-class. Educated, well-travelled and open to new ideas, they are acutely aware of their country’s shortcomings, but are equally keen to extol its virtues and exploit its potential. And just like in the west, there is the downside of urban life, such as considerable youth unemployment, a growing drugs-and-crime problem, and serious traffic congestion, problems of which King Abdullah and his government are acutely aware and are trying to address.
However, the trappings of modernization and consumerism by themselves are not what makes Saudi Arabia so unique, or even worthy of a second thought. Their presence may help to dispel some of the myths, but it does not bestow any credibility or substance as such.
What does serve to give Saudi Arabia its substance is the fact that these icons of the western world manage to exist comfortably in such a deeply traditional society. It is this which truly makes Saudi Arabia so enigmatic and controversial.
The newcomer to the kingdom will immediately see the malls, the mosques and MacDonald’s. He will be faced with the Burqah, the burger and the Blackberry, all side by side. Young men in designer baseball caps sip their latte in the air-conditioned ‘bachelor’ section of Starbucks, while sending SMS texts to their girlfriends in the ‘family section’ next door, girlfriends they met online but whom they may never meet in person unless they marry. Outside, an ancient farmer looking and dressed like Moses, rattling past in his flatbed truck carrying sheep or watermelons to market, is overtaken by a gleaming Lamborghini. One would indeed wonder, which is reality and which is illusion?
The truth is evasive. At different times and in different contexts, each one of the images is real. It’s their juxtaposition within the same frame that creates such a compelling picture.
Over the coming months, this blog will present pictures of Saudi Arabia intended to entertain, surprise and, hopefully, enlighten. Most importantly, it is hoped that they will help you, the reader, determine for yourself the reality of Saudi Arabia.
'See tomorrow run by hand in hand with yesterday
Where once the time hung still forever.' [Al Stewart, The World goes to Riyadh]
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