I am sure no one living in Saudi Arabia for the past decade or more would disagree that changes have occurred here, particularly in the behavior and habits of people during Ramadan.
In the past several years, and since satellite dishes have become part of every Saudi household, special sitcoms and soap operas are screened during the holy month and keep people up all night glued to their screens.
A major change I noticed this year is that nobody wants to make the effort to pick up the phone and exchange Ramadan greetings which for decades was the norm in our society. Why make a phone call to your dear ones and blabber away causing your phone bill to skyrocket when you can send an SMS for only 30 halalas?
That is the consensus among many Saudis now.
Thus a good gesture, which was part of our culture, is slowly starting to disappear due to the economic changes in the Kingdom. This Ramadan, for example, I got over 30 mobile text messages from relatives, friends and acquaintances, but not a single phone call from any of them wishing me well on the occasion of the holy month.
I thought there was something wrong with me until I asked some colleagues and acquaintances at work and found out that their experience was the same.
Even making a phone call to friends, relatives and acquaintances represented a change from the visits people used to pay each other two decades ago. That too is due to economic conditions. Nowadays everyone is so bogged down earning a living and trying to survive in what has become the sad reality of our economy that they do not have time for such visits.
So what has gotten into our society? Put simply, capitalism.
Sadly, not exchanging greetings with one another on the eve of Ramadan over the phone is not the only thing that has changed over the years due to the decline in economic conditions. Arab hospitality has changed as well.
It used to be an insult to receive a guest visiting you for the first time outside of your house. But it is now acceptable to meet someone for the first time in a coffee shop, café, or restaurant. Even the traditional habit of slaughtering sheep and camels for guests has become less common in the past decade. Though the ritual still remains intact among Bedouin tribes in towns and villages in Saudi Arabia, in big cities the ritual is no longer practiced to the same extent. Instead of preparing a feast to honor a number of guests — which in most cases meant slaughtering a sheep and can cost up to SR1,000 — a meal for all of them at a fancy restaurant can cost half that amount, if not less.
Because of capitalism, even our Eastern culture of maintaining close relationships with neighbors and other members of the community is slowly dissolving. In the past, everyone living in the street used to know one another, and families in the neighborhood would regularly visit each other. Nowadays, a neighbor living on the same floor can move out without both of you having had the chance to sit down and talk to one another. What is sadder is that neighbors living in the same building do not even know one another.
Thirty years ago, a school kid would not dare skip school. Everyone seeing him in the neighborhood knew his father, so he would get in trouble. In fact, ask elderly Saudis, and they will tell you that the neighbors in the past played a large role in people’s upbringing.
Sadly, all that has changed. We are becoming so self-centered and materialistic in our lives that Ramadan no longer has the flavor it once had.
It’s no wonder that burglars in our cities are now bold enough to park their pickup trucks outside buildings, break into apartments, and empty their contents in broad daylight. Most people think they are new neighbors moving in or out and don’t even care to ask.
