I READ with great interest the article by Meshary Al-Ruwaih, “How to survive 10 days in Riyadh.” Most revealing — not so much about Riyadh but the writer.

I take entirely his point that Riyadh is not teeming with women for him to stare at; if he had headed southeast from Kuwait rather than southwest, I am sure he would have found a suitable Gulf destination with more unattached “ladies-who-do” than he could shake a stick at. But he was in Riyadh on business thrown on his own resources that seem, from his own listing, piteously few.

“Bring with you your collection of music and DVDs, a good way of wasting your time,” Mesahary suggested. Never was a truer word spoken. Decades of research by Professor Manfred Spitzer, one of the world’s leading neuroscientists, proves that watching television seriously damages your health and kills 20,000 people a year in Germany alone. Other studies, using real-time MRI scans, show that people watching television use their brains less than when asleep.

His advice about extending meetings to allow business visitors to spend less time in hotel rooms might explain why it is notoriously difficult for many negotiations to cut to the chase and reach a decision. Perhaps if he got on and made a few, he could get back to Kuwait expeditiously and stop wasting everyone’s time.

I am however somewhat surprised at his observation that “if you cannot pray in Riyadh, where all worldly temptations are absent, you will never pray anywhere,” as if the city was the devotional equivalent of the Last Chance Saloon! It is also quite difficult to comprehend that one might need ‘temptations’ surrounding one before one prays effectively. However, I have to assume he is speaking from his experience; if so, Mr Meshary, it’s probably too little too late!

Meshary relies on smoking a diversion, that is, inhaling the 276 or so chemicals from a burning leaf and describing one of the most addictive substances known to man — nicotine — as “a good friend.” Looked at another way, this is an indication of how far down the slippery slope to self-destruction our correspondent has gone; certainly time to pray. Added to the televisual brain-death he also recommends, all anyone can really do at this stage is sympathize.

It is true that Riyadh is not well supplied with lap-dancing clubs, bars and cafes selling alcohol or wall to wall women of easy virtue. And thanks be to God for that! Saudi Arabia is one of the few places left on the planet where that is the case. If you don’t believe that, try standing in the lobby of one of the fabled “Bourgeois Al Arab” multistar hotels in a well known Gulf destination and shout “Svetlana” at eight in the morning; you will be in serious danger of being run down buy a phalanx of East European bottle-blondes all wanting to be your “little friend, daaaaarlink!” (Credit cards not accepted.)

It is also true that the driving habits of Gulf citizens in general are — shall we say — cavalier. I wonder though how he knows incarcerated as he seems to be either in his hotel room for long hours numbing his brain with the product of assorted fantasy factories and feeding his nicotine addition, or in overlong meetings extended by his self interested desire to stay clear of the self-same hotel room. He sounds a really confused person.

Clearly as a visitor to Riyadh, he will not know the city well but appears to be an expert on the décor of five star hotel rooms. Tips to try next time he visits the capital might include:

One; Get out more, leave your hotel room, get to know the city.

Two; bring a book — several books — remember them? You could try making one a guidebook.

Three; Riyadh has a history — so rather than stare at the television, go and see a little piece of reality. Take a walk — yes, walk — around Dir’iyya, the Masmak fort, the National Museum and any number of less famous but fascinating parts of the city that are vignettes on some of the past he is the product of.

Four: Cut your meetings short, be decisive and then leave.

Five: The human brain does one thing really well; learning. It even produces chemicals to make you feel good when a learning task is completed. Try it sometime; addiction to learning is better than to nicotine.

Finally and possibly most important Mr. Meshary; should you by some improbable chance find one, then avoid like the plague the company of anyone that looks remotely like a television-stunned, time-wasting, prayer-deficient, learning-phobic, nicotine-addicted, woman-ogling individual.