When I Cried This Summer

Tuesday, 31 July 2007

By Sabria S. Jawhar


Yesterday, while I was perusing the local Arabic newspapers, I was shocked to see so many pictures of apparently grief-stricken Saudis staring out at me. At first, I assumed that during my two-day emergency vacation from the Saudi Gazette some crisis had seized the Kingdom and my compatriots had been moved to tears because of it.

I quickly learned, however, that the tears were being shed over the Saudi loss in the championship game at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup soccer tournament in Jakarta. To be honest, I also felt sad that we had lost but I did not shed any tears over it. The fact is that the cup should go to the best team and, clearly, in that particular match, at least, the Saudi national team was not the best. It didn't take an expert to see that the Saudi performance, unfortunately, was not of the championship level.


Nevertheless, the scenes of those misty eyes and tears made me ask myself when was the last time that Saudis cried over something. And what was the motive behind those tears? Speaking for myself, I cried this summer more than any other time this year.

I cried first when my flight landed in Tokyo, Japan, last month and the bus took me through the streets of that beautiful and clean city. At that time, I wondered: what is happening to my beloved country? Who is to blame for the miserable appearance of most of our big cities? Why do some of them look like old, deserted cities straight out of the 18th century?

Why don't we have a transportation system and infrastructure like that of Japan, Seoul or even Dubai? Why does it take us so long to approve a project and much longer to implement it? Certainly, it's not the lack of money or expertise? Don't we love our country enough to dedicate ourselves to developing it?

On my way back from Tokyo, I had a layover at Istanbul airport. What I saw there was far beyond my expectations. The first thing that came to mind was King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah, a once beautiful lady that has lost all but just a hint of the good old days of beauty and glory.

My second stop was at Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz Airport in Madina and there I experienced my greatest shock. The female waiting area in the airport was like a junkyard. The filth and disarray made it impossible to sit, let alone pray.

That scene brought tears to my eyes. If this is what we are doing to the gateway of the Prophet's Mosque and this is the image that we are projecting to the Islamic world, then it's no wonder that Jeddah airport looks as miserable as it does.

The second time I cried this summer was when I read in an Arabic newspaper about a hot debate, which denigrated the importance of women in the workplace, saying that jobs should be secured for males first. The point seemed to be that the high level of unemployment in the Kingdom was the fault of women. Some people are still demanding that women stay at home and take care of kids. The whole world is progressing. People are talking about knowledge-based economies, high technology, and the use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes and we are still fighting over whether women should work or stay at home! Tell me: do I have the right to cry over my own people casting a blind eye to the progress in the world around them while busying themselves with issues as obsolete as the Great Wall of China?

It would have been more acceptable to me if those tearful eyes I saw in Monday's newspapers were a reaction to the deteriorating situation in the region. It would have been better if we all sat and cried over the daily deaths of tens if not hundreds of innocent souls in Iraq that stem from the horrendous miscalculation of the Bush administration.

The situation in Lebanon and Palestine is another good topic to cry over. Some people may think I'm exaggerating but this is why I cried this summer. In the end, maybe my people will find themselves part of a scenario that will move them to tears for reasons other than a lost football match. It could be that Saudis, and Arabs, in general, are saving their tears for bigger things, especially in light of the announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert concerning a new $30 billion defense package to preserve Israel's regional military superiority.