Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, 1996-05-28 16:00 local (Z+3)
Just got back from a walk down to Baskin & Robbins in over 100 degrees of temp. Terrible disappointment—they were closed. I forgot that Saudi pretty much closes down during the heat of the day.
When C.J. and I lived in Ras Tanura, I used to say that, “In the end, technology will overwhelm them.” That assessment, of course, wasn't original with me. Many thought that, but the stated Saudi intention was that they could take advantage of the Western world's technology while retaining their, to them, pure Islamic tradition. Well, they were wrong and I was right—and that gives me a great deal of pleasure, sort of like revenge. <g>
When we were living in Saudi, you couldn't get uncensored news over television, couldn't get uncensored magazines, couldn't get a Coca-Cola, couldn't see a movie with a star or director or producer who was Jewish, and couldn't walk around in public in short pants. Today I have watched CNN, looked at uncensored magazines in a bookstore, watched part of a good movie on TV, walked around in short pants, and I'm drinking a coke as I write this. To top it off, Morris Nachtomi, Tower's CEO was here a couple of days ago and he's a Jew. That would have been unthinkable when C.J. and I were here.
When I look out the window, I see numerous large satellite antennas on homes. Today's English language Arab News has a writeup on the Internet coming to Saudi. In short, technology is overwhelming their tradition. There's still a long ways to go, of course. There are no women walking around in shorts; they're still wearing abayahs (the black cover all) and most of them are still veiled (but not all). And there are very few men in short pants for that matter—but technology is winning.
They did recently outlaw any more satellite antennas, but are permitting those already installed to stay, and of course the new 18" antennas will be relatively easy to smuggle. The battle wages back and forth.
We arrived here from Jakarta this morning at about 03:00. Saudi customs gave us a bad time at the airport. They insisted on completely searching both my flight bag and my luggage, leaving both in a mess. They were obviously in a bad mood. I wasn't the only one they did it to. If it had been the U.S., I would have immediately demanded to see a supervisor to complain of the treatment, but there is no point in doing that here. All you can do is grin and bear it, but their doing that to flight crews is almost unheard of.
We'll probably leave sometime early tomorrow morning, but I haven't received any official word. I haven't really slept yet since getting in, only dozed, and I'm beginning to fade. If I'm lucky, I'll sleep about 12 hours and then leave immediately for Jakarta. When we get back to Jakarta, we're through insofar as the Hajj is concerned. I'm hoping to return to the U.S. vis Garuda to Los Angeles. The other two possibilities that I know about are on one of our airplanes all the way to JFK or a ferry flight to Singapore for maintenance and then commercial from there. Anyway, I'm ready to go home, but then I'm always ready to go home.
Terry