An Open Kingdom?

Saudi is open for breakfast, Saudi is open for business, but its social barriers remain indefinitely closed for renovation.

Ever since we landed in Saudi, I have been extremely impressed by the openness of the people we’ve had the pleasure to speak with. On many different levels Saudis has been willing – nay eager – to embrace the outside world, learn from it and make it their own. Two examples come to mind, food and FDI.

For those who know me, you are aware that food is what keeps me waking up every morning. Saudi cuisine has not disappointed: it has been spectacular, though not entirely “Saudi.” Egyptian Foul (a bean stew topped with a variety of tasty toppings), Lebanese mezzes like Labneh cheese, French croissants topped with zatar, a blend of Middle Eastern spices,Japanese miso soup and, goodness knows, that I’ve never had a date I didn’t like. The fruit that is.

And the chain restaurants, oh the chain restaurants! As we pass the main strip in Damman we enter a suburban heaven (or hell) as Chili’s, Applebee’s, McDonalds, KFC (charmingly nicknamed “King Faud Chicken” after a former Saudi King), Dunkin’ Doughnuts, Krispy Kreme, to name a few, appear in all their glitz and glamour (mainly glitz). Fears of Saudi’s chanting “Death to America” seem far away as their mouths are stuffed with America’s “culture.”

Far from an isolated, stone age Kingdom clinging to their century old gruel, food here has been as diverse as it has been delicious. With food, Saudi has welcomed the world’s variety: it does not fear compromising what it is by striving for what it could be.

FDI, Foreign Direct Investment, has also revealed a deep Saudi drive to embrace the world. SAGIA, the investment promotion agency previously mentioned by Jai, will literally bend-over backwards to attract new companies to invest in Saudi. SAGIA well-funded and driven to make their country a better place to do business. They also have a good sales pitch: Saudi brings access to markets, East and West; a great business environment; plentiful energy and a burgeoning system of impressive universities.

Today we visited Al-Jubail, a planned city built from the ground up to be the petrochemical hub of the world. The scope and scale of this city, with its suburban California strip mall appeal and enormous industrial areas is breathtaking, particularly if you consider that 30 years ago this was desert.

With such a focus on FDI, Saudi is trying to move past oil. It recognizes that doing so requires it to work with the world, learn from best practices and integrate what the world has to offer Saudi with what Saudi can offer the world.

The social scene, however, is where international best practices go to die. Saudi is a traditional, conservative society, we hear. Perhaps other places have different norms about the treatment of women or the wisdom of not applying strict religious teachings in such a doctrinaire way. But Saudi is not interested, at least in the short term. Separating the sexes, depriving women of the fundamental rights Kelly mentioned, restricting the social and political space where free expression and independent thinking are crushed is the norm. In light of all the freedom moving through the Arab world, Saudi still bans protests or peaceful assembling of any kind.

Questions about lessons from Tunisia about the importance of political voice or the inequity and inefficiency of relegating women to secondary status fall on sympathetic, yet ultimately resistant ears, even among the progressive slice of society that we have been meeting with. Instead, we hear a lot about the difficult balance between changing social relations without getting ahead of the people’s values. Gradualism, is the name of the game. While I appreciate their concerns, I want to echo Kelly’s question: Is change happening fast enough?

No. Well at least that’s my take on it. I am just not sure that economic and, only half-kidding, food-openness can coexist with a closed social and political sphere. Having oil at $120 a barrel makes many things possible, but when you deprive half your population of legitimate channels to be themselves, when you foster fear and rule by royal decree, how can you create and sustain openness and learning in the rest of your country?

How can you push a gradual approach to empowering your women, while your quest for FDI, with the norms and values embodied by these foreign companies, is not even close to gradual? Why learn from the best practices of the fast food chains of the world while not recognizing that Saudi has much to learn from the world about the importance of social inclusion?

The question of what constitutes progress and how much to achieve it is elusive in any society. Saudi food and FDI recognize what Saudi might lose by not adapting and embracing the world around it. The social and political scene has yet to inspire a similar realization. Socially, Saudi remains too fearful of compromising what it is, for what it could be.

Update: there is an interesting polemic today in the Arab News which strong rejects the US calls to allow peaceful protests, citing non-intervention principles.