There is something other worldly and somewhat eerie about the call to prayer which happens five times a day and permeates the city sounds wherever you are.
I thoroughly enjoyed my Explore tour of Saudi Arabia. Being in the country with a good guide has led me to learn many things that I’d like to share. I hope I haven’t made any substantive mistakes, if I have please let me know.
First off, living in the west our media has portrayed Saudi Arabia as a repressive, mysterious and somewhat intimidating regime controlled and ruled by the iron hand of the royal family. Although the latter part of that is probably true, I learned that the country is opening up to the world, welcoming some of western culture, liberating women from traditional religious rules and striving to make their mark on the world. Secondly, none of what I have seen in modern Saudi Arabia would exist if it were not for the discovery of oil. That had a profound effect on the country and allowed them to afford to build desalination plants and pipe water around the country, which allowed them to live all over what is essentially a desert. Before that happened the population was small and people lived in nomadic tribes and relied on oases. As we drove around the country there was evidence of new building everywhere, especially the cities; and many other places that looked to be abandoned and were falling apart. Some were hard to tell if they were being constructed or ‘destructed’.
Saudi Arabia only exists in today’s form because of desalination plants. However as with any man made solution to a problem they create other problems. In this case the salt that is extracted from the sea water is dumped back into the sea which raises the salt content and because the water released has been heated it is raising the temperature of the sea, both of which are bad for the ecosystems. Although this desalinated water allows them to live here and irrigate fields they don’t drink it as it has an unpleasant taste. As a result they use plastic water bottles by the millions. I wonder if and where they recycle them.
We traveled on well constructed dual carriageways throughout the country. Often alongside electrical power towers and sometimes train tracks and of course plenty of trucks. Speed limits were often 140km for cars, 120 for buses and 100 or 80 for trucks. We were surprised to find Tim Horton’s here and that they have over 300 restaurants in the Middle East, we saw two.
There are trains in Saudi Arabia for transporting goods, but recently high speed trains have been introduced for transporting pilgrims from Jeddah to Medina for religious tourism and Mecca for pilgrimage to replace inefficient shuttle services. There is no train yet from Riyadh to Jeddah as it is a long distance across barren desert, so for now it is either by road or by plane which is expensive for the average Saudi family. The trains built since 2017 are high speed (160km/hr) but train stations are built a long way from the centres of towns because the towns were there first and many have narrow streets. Here they are more like airports with shuttles or buses into the cities.
This is a very conservative country and most women wear black burqas (although it is no longer required). This serves to de-sensualize women and make them all look alike, unless you see one wearing high heels. Public affection is frowned upon although you sometimes see men holding hands as a sign of friendship. Tourists are requested to dress modestly, women with head scarfs, shoulder and legs covered; men to keep shoulders and knees covered. Many Saudis men wear a head scarf called a ‘keffiyeh’ or ‘ghutra’. It is secured to the head using an ‘agal’ which is a doubled goat or camel hair ring; apparently its inspiration was that it was originally a hobble for camels repurposed. The people we met were friendly and welcoming and we never felt unwelcome.
Power is generated from oil, as they have plenty of that. Therefore, renewable energy is a slow growth industry as building and maintaining solar panels across the desert is problematic due to the dust and drifting sand that would accumulate on the panels and impede their efficiency. Wind power is in its infancy. We saw very few electric cars and no Teslas.
There is no tax whatsoever in Saudi as it is all funded by oil. Education is free, health care is free. Fuel prices are very low but have doubled in 5 years and are now 50 cents a litre.
We tend to think of Saudi Arabia as an endless sea of sand dunes, but this is not the case. There are sand dunes of course, but much of the land we saw was barren, flat or rocky desert. I was surprised to see how many cities, towns and villages appeared as we drove the highways. And even in between settlements there was plenty of evidence of people attempting to live there. However water is the primary problem as there is precious little fresh water and the water table has sunk below reach with over use. In an effort to improve their self-sufficiency in food production the government offered incentives for farmers to use irrigation machines that rotate in a circle creating round fields, but in many areas the water was overused and the fields abandoned with time. In other areas shifting sand is blown by the prevailing winds and sometimes subsume roads, farms and even towns causing more migration from place to place. This is what many of the tribes of the Arab peninsula did in the past, move to where the resources were and then move again when needs be. But people persisted.
Saudi Arabia is famous for its date production. Palm trees must have their feet in water and their heads on fire, as you need a lot of heat and water to grow dates. Hence in the old days they were grown around oases. Now with desalinated water and irrigation they are grown in many areas that would not have previously supported them.
When Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, (nicknamed MBS) came to power, at age 29, he immediately improved the lives of women. He recognized that there was an obesity and public health problem which he felt was created partly by the inactivity of women who were expected to remain home to raise kids and tend the house. It was exacerbated by the prevalence of processed, fast and junk food. In the shops we often saw the main shelves lined with packages of snacks and chips. Therefore he allowed women to get out of the house and work which provided extra income for families and provided some independence for single women. He also made it easier for women to do sports for exercise. Gyms were created exclusively for use by women. Now the country has some professional women athletes, with modified traditional clothing for sports or swimming to meet Islamic rules. Women are now allowed in sports stadiums, seated in family or women only sections. He allowed women to drive and get passports. However, much of the society, including education, transportation, gyms and restaurants, is still segregated as men only or women only or for families. Medicine is one of the few university degrees that has mixed classes.
MBS has removed the power of the religious leaders who controlled all aspects of life… women and men were only allowed to be in the same room if they were married; the religious police could arrest or kidnap you for things you did that offended them. They could administer punishment including amputation of hands or execution.
If you are a Saudi you are a Muslim by law. Christians and Jews are allowed to be here but not to practise their religion in the open. People are not allowed to leave Islam and be something else or say they are not religious. They have the freedom to practice Muslim as they wish but with a grain of salt. There are some Shia communities here but they are the minority and sometimes harassed or repressed.
MBS arrested all the corrupt officials in the government who were stealing oil money and locked them up. They were forced to buy their way out by returning the stolen money and giving up their positions of power which had enabled them to be corrupt. He aimed all of his reforms towards the young people and women. In this way he was able to gain the support of the younger generations. The older, more traditional generations were reluctant, but the young people are very happy with the reforms and hoping for more as they see the lifestyles of other countries. Roolie, from a previous post, told us they don’t worry about not having elections and follow the directives of the royal family as they know what is best for the country. There are two sides to MSB: he has liberal ideas about opening up the country and modernizing it, but still maintaining strict control. He is very impulsive: executing journalist and dissident, Jamal Khashoggi, which caused the western world to distance themselves from him. After the media stopped reporting on it they gradually came back to working with Saudi Arabia because of the oil and the money involved and money to be made. He has forcefully moved tribes from areas that they didn’t want to leave when he wanted the area for some other purpose.
However there is no freedom of speech in the country, you cannot criticize the royal family or the government, as there are severe penalties. Saudi Arabia still has capital punishment, which is by beheading and according to a few articles I read they executed over 200 in 20025 mainly for drug trafficking (including foreigners), but also apparently for ardent critics of the regime. Other serious crimes with consequences are abandoning your religion, murder, abortion, and child abuse.
Saudis are addicted to the internet because they get their news there, but they have to be very careful about what they say on social media as it is all monitored. On our drives through the country we encountered many police check points. We were never sure why but they only came on the bus once to see us.
Gay people are not tolerated, but they have made statements that gays are welcome for sporting events just not for Saudis. Apparently they were surprised to find the prevalence of homosexuality in the country which is apparently the result of the strict dating culture. Single people can only hang out with people of their own sex, and one thing leads to another and they experiment.
As the Saudis open up to the world they are attempting to show themselves in a more open and positive light. As of 2021 they welcomed foreign tourists. They are bringing into the country numerous major events. They recently had a large professional tennis tournament with the richest prices in history. They have the 2030 World’s Fair and the 2034 World Cup. and proposed to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029! They have announced and started several mega projects to impress the world. But recently have pulled back funding on several in order to redirect the money to needed infrastructure projects.
Yannis has seen a lot of change in Saudi since he first came. For example: We drove by a large flat area in the desert that looked like a parking lot and Yannis explained that until recently cinemas and western music were banned, but this spot was the site of a huge music festival that hosted very prominent western artists who were paid large sums to play here. The festival happens once a year.
There are many foreign workers in Saudi Arabia doing jobs that the Saudis don’t want to do, many in the service industry, like hotel workers, bus drivers, restaurant employees, etc. I met people from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other places.
I noticed that there were no urinals in the washrooms and there were only cubicles, all equipped with water wands for cleaning which invariably leads to wet floors…. so I asked our local guide in Riyahd why? Was it because with men wearing long outfits they would have to pull the whole thing up and it would be too difficult and would expose them… he laughed and thought that was an interesting idea, but apparently it is for religious reasons, they are not allowed to empty themselves standing up… who knew?
Non Muslims are not allowed in Mecca but we did see a few images on the TV about the Mecca Mosque and the hajj where the pilgrims and devotees walk in a counterclockwise direction seven times around a large black cube, called the Kaaba, which represents the grave and body of the Prophet.
We learned that Islam prohibits the monumentalization and worship associated with some types of graveyards or gravesites. The core reasons for these restrictions are to maintain strict monotheism and uphold equality in death. Islam emphasizes that all are equal before God in death. Therefore, graves should be simple and not raised high above the ground, usually only by the amount of soil displaced during digging. Making constructions, plastering, or painting graves is prohibited because it wastes money and suggests a false, special status for the deceased. While building structures is forbidden, marking a grave with a simple stone or wood to identify it is permitted, to prevent it from being stepped on or desecrated. Initially the Prophet forbade visiting graves, but later allowed it. Visitors should not wail, hold festivals, or recite the Quran inside the graveyard as the Quran is meant for the living to act upon in their homes.
Saudi Arabia is embracing its history and reconstructing heritage sites, some of which we have seen, but they are also imagining the future and trying to take the lead in mega projects. They are part of the 2030 plan to diversify the economy in an attempt to solve their oil addiction in the case the oil runs out or the world moves to renewable power. However, since their economy is so closely linked to oil, any drop in world prices has an immediate effect on the budget and available monies for major projects. Here are three that were proposed as massive ideas but have been either temporarily or permanently shelved for budgetary reasons:
The Line, part of the NEOM Project: Originally planned to be a 170 km long, 200 meters wide, and 500 meters high, enclosed city designed to house 9 million people. It was to be a mirrored, vertical city without cars or roads, powered by 100% renewable energy and accessible by cruise ship. While the ultimate, long-term vision still refers to the 170 km length, immediate construction has been scaled down.
Murabba: Was to be situated in the northwest of Riyadh, covering 19 square kilometers and expected to accommodate 400,000 residents. The Mukaab was to be the centerpiece and a massive enclosed cuboid structure (400m x 400m x 400m). The project includes 104,000 residential units, 9,000 hotel units, over 980,000 sqm of retail space, and 1.4 million sqm of office space. Over 50% of the area is dedicated to green space, with an 11-km vehicle-free pathway, focusing on sustainability and a 15-minute from home to work, pedestrian-friendly environment.
The 2029 Asian Winter Games in Saudi Arabia. The mind boggles at how they would pull off winter games in the desert. But plans have been postponed indefinitely.
These are but three of many Giga projects proposed by MBS and Saudi Arabia. All were scheduled to be completed in time for their Vision 2030 and have now been scaled back or delayed but not cancelled. I wonder about competition between Saudi Arabia and other Arab powers on the peninsula. My upcoming tour of the 5 Gulf States might provide answers to that.
And finally, as I said at the beginning, none of what is here now and what is projected would be here without the discovery of oil. It is the world’s addiction to oil that has allowed the Saudis to live, thrive and dream of a fantastic future in the desert.
Congratulations if you made it this far. Please let me know if you did. I know John would have but sadly not to be.
