JEDDAH, 17 November 2003 — Living in Jeddah, and spending a great deal of time out and about, I tend to see a lot of things that are worth writing about. Most of the time, they are newsworthy and so they get their space in the paper. But sometimes, things happen that are not exactly newsworthy, but trigger something inside me that I feel I have to come rushing to the office, and write up.
At Danube Tahlia on Friday night, I came across a gentleman of European descent driving a gold late-model Chevrolet Trailblazer. Parked in front of the store, and blocking the flow of traffic, this gentleman (and I use the word “gentleman” very loosely), was approached by a beggar carrying a small baby. As she got to the window, and before she had a chance to utter a single word, this gentleman screamed a four-letter word at her that began with the letter F, followed by a three-letter word that commonly follows it. Granted, these beggars are a nuisance, but it is Ramadan after all.
Perhaps I should have minded my own business, but it really irked me. So I pulled up next to him in my car to protest against the way he treated this beggar. In order to get his attention, I honked. He immediately lowered his window and used the same expletive on me, before I had even said a word to him. Then he drove off.
Wow: Was he having a bad day or was he always like that? I was determined to find out. So I followed him to the next light and pulled up alongside him again, now a little hot under the collar myself, but also concerned for his safety because there are people in this country that would not take too kindly to being treated in such a manner and are in a position to make his day far worse than it already may have been.
“Hi, I just wanna ask why you told me and the beggar back there to **** ***,” I said. His response was the internationally recognized hand gesture for the two word expletive my ears had started to become accustomed to hearing from this particular individual. At this point I was no longer upset, but beginning to become rather amused at being able to get a reaction out of this man simply by being there. So I posed the question, “You are a guest in my country, benefiting greatly from being here, don’t you think you have a social responsibility to treat others with respect, especially during these sensitive times?”
Need I tell you what his reaction was? It was the spoken version of the internationally recognized hand gesture for the expletive he had earlier flung at the beggar and me, followed by the hand gesture.
I don’t advocate violence of any type, or for any reason, against any person regardless of race, religion, or nationality other than in self-defense, but had it been anyone else who received this kind of treatment from this man and reacted angrily, or even violently, the Western media would have been up in arms saying this poor innocent expatriate was accosted simply for being a Westerner in Saudi Arabia.
The relationship between guest and host involves rights and responsibilities. Our guests have the right to expect our tolerance and hospitality. In turn, they have a reciprocal responsibility to behave in a responsible and gracious manner.
