While perusing some choice avocadoes the other evening at the neighborhood supermarket, I noticed an elderly Western couple a few feet away fondling some ripe melons and debating their merits. From their hushed conversation, I quickly took them to be Americans.
Much to the annoyance of my other half, and as it is customary for me to strike up a conversation just about anywhere and with just about anybody from the multitude of nationalities here, I politely asked the gentleman, “Hi. Been here a long time?”
The sudden expression of concern that quickly enveloped this man’s demeanor, and the hasty steps he took in retreat as he looked me over, perhaps fearful that I had breached his defenses against an act of terrorism directed against him, startled me to say the least. And just as his wife was beginning to smile back and say something to me, he took a firm hold of her arm and quickly led her off and away from the produce section.
They disappeared in a flash, and I was left there standing momentarily dumbfounded and wondering if I had said or done anything wrong. My appearance was acceptable and I certainly did not carry an air of an aggressive misfit of society with a chip on his shoulder and intent on mayhem.
But as reason slowly crept back in, I realized that this poor man was perhaps a victim, afflicted with the notion that all the locals were out to get him and his kind. I pitied him then, as there was nothing else left to say or do. How depressing it is that individuals like this gentleman are so insulated from the society they live in, that the least bit of interaction with the natives causes them so much fear and apprehension!
While many of them live and work here for decades, some have chosen to have no real contacts with the Saudis. And whether they take in anything of the culture and of the people they are around with remains a moot point.
Isolated from the locals and rarely venturing out after sunset, those who choose this lifestyle must indeed find it suffocating.
Creating a mini home state behind walled housing developments may offer some a sense that they are somewhere else, safe and protected, but it denies them the riches of learning and interacting. Ignorance and fear get greatly amplified through the gossip that circuits its way among the unwary expats. If fear governs so much of their existence, why bother?
And with the memory of that pitiful man that evening gradually fading off my mind, I resolved to continue talking to strangers. After all, it provided me with the material for this column.
