Saudi Minds

Car rental companies being very courteous about the buildings next them. I wonder why no one is acting on regulating the space that they use in parking their cars. It is a public parking space not a warehouse for them.

Dec 20

Think

For sometime now, i have wondered about this word, THINK . I don’t know if people understand the essence of this word. It is the basis of our nature. I would consider it a very influentual word. We are evaluated on it, and placed into society on how we use it, promoted on how we analyze it, and remmebered by the actions that were motivated by it. I really don’t understand the motiviation of floating in life. I believe that we should take part in it and not work around it. I believe that we should embrace it, not fear it. Being able to judge and analyze makes us who and what we are. But still, you would see people trying to supress it. We should help our children to understand there thoughts, help them with whatever ideas that they have , and motivate them by providing tools for them to would stimulate it.

Jan 04

Prayer

Back in the days, people used to go to pray in groups. The motivation needed for them to do this was the love of our religion, Islam.

Looking today, here in Riyadh, you do not get that feeling. You see people going to the Masjid and praying, but you cannot feel the motivation. Sometimes I look at them and think to myself that they are programmed , as if ( in my case) waking up and making myself a cup of coffee before my shower, even if I barely can open my eyes.

I hope that this is not the case here, but the way things are in Riyadh, it looks like that this is a solid statement.

The way religion is promoted is by rubbing it in your face and by making you feel guilty about anything that is not conceived as appropriate. Even though what is being corrected is not related to religion.

My theory is that Islam is so integrated in our lives that we, sometimes, the thin line between religion and tradition becomes blurry ( example, the Abaya & the reason for it to be black).

Sometimes it makes me wonder, why when someone who has some or little insight into religion will be automatically questioned about his faith and is he a true believer. Even though you can be discussing something that is not faith shattering (women driving, or better yet a woman who wants to represent herself in an official office).

Why is it that we have guided always , not taught to think? Why do we consider the population sinful when there is so many virtues? Why do we look into ourselves as people who are not allowed to question our basic principles?

If I am wrong, correct me. But if I am right, do not undermine me.

Apr 09

Respect

What people are really missing here is family values. I am not speaking about respecting your personal family, I am specifically speaking about respecting other families.
An incident happened in Khobar today. A driver with some girls in the car got stopped and the door opened by another man. Of course the driver was a foreigner and the other party is a Saudi. The Saudi shouted some bad things to the driver after he got out of his car, walked to the other car and opened the door of the driver, that is when a female in the car told him to close the door. The Saudi (showing his perfect manners) did NOT apologise , but instead shouted at the driver and the female(of course cursing), and everyone in the car. It really shows where the values are in the society.
There was a time a person would get bashed by an elder neighbor without retaliating, only expressing his regret. There was a time when an elderly women would need some help in something, and a stranger would help her without knowing here or expecting anything in advance.
The family values that exist today are great, but people like this Saudi guy do not represent society, he represents what could happen to it if no one stepped in to knock some sense in him.
I am not blaming the parents , I am blaming him for not representing himself in an orderly manner. There is no excuse for such behavior.
Some people might think that this is a one-time incident, and maybe it is or it isn’t, but everyone one of us has seen something like this happen in front of them (disrespecting other people). It is up to us to help guide ( or even stop and punch) these lost parts of society.
Lets try to help heal what little damage there is, before it becomes an epidemic in our community.

Mar 29

Synergy

There has been lots of debates about lots of issues in the region. starting from local issues ( traffic police, moral police ….etc. ) to international issues ( Palestine , Syria , Lebanon …… ).
There was a time when people were dreaming of uniting, dreaming of no boarders, dreaming of accepting each other.
Right now most of us are looking into only survival of the fittest. Countries are turning there backs to each other. The gain in this NOTHING.
When will we consider ourselves mature enough to recognise the affects that we are implying on each other. We love to talk about unity, we idealize it a lot in our daily lives, but we never think about acting on it.
Lets start with a few simple steps, acknowledge the fact that each and everyone of us is different ( race, religion, origin ) and do not act on these as a basis to be different. We have seen the affect of this back in the early 20th century. We will see the affect of this in 21st century. It is dated back to the beginning of time, and there was nothing gained about this.
While the fact is that most of us don’t want to see the big picture, and we talk about being one nation bonded by all of these ( not divided ) we act as if we are the only people here through poems, through story telling of glorious days of conquering other tribes, and also through interaction with one another.
Why is that when we mingle with foreigners, we try to understand them even though there are from a different culture, BUT will not try to understand each other?
This relates to every one and everything in this region from top to bottom, from left to right.
Synergy does not and will not exist if this continues.
It reached to a point that outside of this region are planning a reform strategy for us and declaring on international TVs, while we sit, listen and acknowledge this. We are good , or maybe even great in condemning things , but we are NOT even close to acting or trying to implement anything that has to do with the greater good of our nations.
Also another step that could be taken is to respect one another. most of our problems can be solved by doing this. From forming lines to national debates, if only we listened and recognised each other as humans with simple rights, things would be much better.
Do this for a change : when you see someone who needs your help ( and you have the time ) try to help them. It could be helping to walk stairs or allowing an elder person to pay ahead of you in the supermarket. These simple gestures will help us elevate to a higher standard as a nation let alone as humans.

Mar 10

Thank You All

I don’t know where to begin. As an Arab or a Muslim it is a combination of lots of things. Well here it goes any ways.

I would like to personally thank the World for supporting the Iraqi’s and preventing them from being murdered ( by themselves or by others ) and also preventing the abuse of their Human Rights. And also helping them maintain a stable government (since they never had a stable government).

I would like to thank the World for protecting the Afghan’s against the radicals which they were self taught about blowing up, military tactic and deterring outside forces (they were NOT affiliated with ANY WESTERN country when Afghanistan was being attacked by Russia. and they DO NOT use any western weapons in the attacks).

I would like to thank the World for helping to protect the Palestinians from an INVADING ILLEGAL GOVERNMENT ( since the Palestinians were their for only 2000 years, unlike other continents who are existing for LESS than 300 years), 2000 years is too far back that people can not remember.

I would like to thank the Arab League for denouncing any wrong doing that has happened to our Nations (would any one please explain to me about the gains of denouncing, I think I am missing out here).

I would like to thank the U.N. or agreeing on resolutions and giving out numbers to make them seem important ( 446 , anyone? ).

I would like to thank the ARAB NATIONS for standing with each other ( WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ……… ).

I would like to thank THE nation that reelected the same president TWICE for being very SMART ( THEY GUY CANNOT SPEAK , let alone run a country).

I would like to thank our ARAB LEADERS for uniting the front against any intervention of outside influence (Great work on Palestine guys).

I would like to thank myself for being so honest (I cannot put my name here, but hey, who are we kidding here).

Feb 14

Reasons for this !!!

One of the main reasons that I created this blog is to let out some steam about a few things, and share it with all of you on how some things are working. This is NOT a Saudi bashing blog. I am Saudi. Born and raised and deep rooted (generations in the home land). This is not a blog about Al-Qaeda or supporting them, or some radical left or right wing, communist or capitalist, political party. It is a place for thinking out loud about various issues of our day to day lives.