Blurred Vision - Life Inside The Sand Castle by L. Martin Moss - HTML preview

Chapter TWELVE

Thou Shall Not Mock the King ... and Other Cultural No-Nos

The following are little snippets of life in the Kingdom that unfortunately would not fill up complete chapters. I thought it appropriate to add them here to give readers some perspective of everyday life in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In spite of what might seem to Westerners to be antiquated rules and regulations, Riyadh was one of the most modern cities of the world at the time I was in Saudi Arabia; it still is. The city was growing so rapidly, with banks, hospitals, ministries, hotels, mosques and malls constantly under construction that a steel crane could have passed as their national bird.

Riyadh s architecture was unrivaled  But whereas the outside of the buildings were spectacular the ͞don t give a shit  attitude for the furniture and inside appointments became apparent after a few months. Furniture would have nicks, scratches, and other disfiguring marks, including cigarette burns in leather couches and chairs. Spills and trash would be left to be picked up by the evening clean-up crews.

Some of the most remarkable architecture were the new ministry buildings and Embassies which went up during my tenure in Riyadh. The Ministry of Interior building was shaped like a diamond on a pedestal. The buildup of the Embassy section in which the majority of Embassies moved from Jeddah to Riyadh was beautiful as each rich nation tried to outdo each other. The Iraqi and Iranian Embassies were next to each other. Several of us would go to the Embassy Section to ride our bikes on weekends.

I played bridge at the Turkish Embassy and attended the opening night at the German Embassy which brought in a quintet from the Berlin Philharmonic to entertain the guests. There was a three-hole putting green at the Japanese Embassy. Tennis at the American Embassy was on a sand-covered fake grass court.

Saudis didn t believe in maintenance contracts If they bought something outright, they expected it to last forever without routine maintenance or a service contract. Air conditioners, automobiles, computers, etc., were discarded rather than repaired. Preventive maintenance did not exist in their dictionary.

The most obvious difference between life in the Kingdom and life in the United States regards individual and personal freedom. Whereas in the United States  we  have  freedom of speech   including  the  privilege of criticizing our elected officials, all the way up to the President and members of Congress    and the right to choose our religion and spiritual b