SAUDIS have always prided themselves on living in a safe country, on safe streets and in safe neighborhoods. In fact, it was the first thing we thought of when we heard about the high rate of crime in other countries. After reading a report in which taxi drivers voiced their fears of going into certain areas of Jeddah, I had to ask myself: Are we going to say goodbye to those feelings of safety and security?
The writer of the article conducted several interviews with taxi drivers in Jeddah and some of them said there were neighborhoods in Jeddah which they, and other taxi drivers, regularly refuse to go to, especially at night. They all told stories of being robbed by passengers. Some were robbed of their money and IDs. The report went on to say that despite police efforts to combat the criminal acts, the fear of going into those areas is still common among taxi drivers.
No doubt, in every big city in the world, theft and robbery are a part of life. At the same time, however, as one woman remarked, “Jeddah was not like this before.” She told me that she is now very careful in the street, holding tightly to her handbag lest she lose it to thieves. Another woman said that as she sat in her car using her mobile phone, a thief reached through the open window, snatched her phone and ran away. She commented, “And mine isn’t the only case of this.” Hearing these stories has become both annoyingly common and sadly disquieting these days.
And for the icing on the cake, new tales of the Tahlia menace are surfacing. For years people in Jeddah were used to seeing a certain young man roaming the streets, talking to passers-by and asking for money. Rumor was that due to a blow to his head in childhood, he was slightly subnormal. Over time, people got used to seeing him and let him wander at will. Girls were always a bit frightened of him and some even ran away if he approached them. Now the boy is a young man, grown up, still roaming the streets and harassing men and women for money. One of my friends felt menaced by him when he approached her and in order to get rid of him, she gave him all the money in her purse.
Trembling with shock and fear, she rushed to the traffic police nearby and complained. The policeman, however, offered no help. She was shocked beyond words.
This reminded me of endless cases of young men chasing girls in Jeddah, and how some of them go overboard and insistently pursue the girls to the extent of opening the girls’ car doors when their cars are stopped at traffic lights. Many times, the girls have asked the traffic police for help but the police response has sometimes been reluctance to take any action. It thus seems that people will have to deal with being annoyed and menaced in the streets by beggars, badly-behaved young men and dangerous drivers.
Sadly, the days when members of the public unhesitatingly offered help and assistance to those in trouble also seem to be a thing of the past. These days, people don’t want to “interfere.” Which brings us right back to why the police are on the streets. The problem is one of law enforcement, but who is enforcing the law? In some cases of housebreaking and robbery, the victims did not even bother to go the police because they knew they would get no redress. Are people expected to take the law into their own hands? Or are we supposed to be always looking over our shoulders?
One of my relatives told me that a thief had broken into his car and stolen his expensive camera and some important papers. He went to the police where he was told, “Yes we know there is a gang in the neighborhood. Yours is not the first case.” Now he says that the neighborhood has become unsafe and people have taken the extreme measure of putting iron bars on their windows. I cannot help but wonder about this. Instead of putting thieves and criminals behind bars where they belong, why are we putting ourselves behind bars instead?
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How Many Ph.D.s Do We Need?
A recent conference in the country addressed the need for cooperation between the private sector and universities in order to fund research. According to the main speaker at the conference, the aim was to make sure that the research deals with something useful and necessary and also that it can be implemented in reality. The private sector is naturally going to make sure its money is not being used for useless research.
One of our newspaper columnists who wrote about the conference commented that in Saudi Arabia, there are huge numbers of Ph.D. holders and many of them in subjects that have little or no utility here. We are, the columnist, said, in danger of becoming the nation of a million Ph.D.s.
All well and good perhaps — but to what purpose? Come to think of it, the sheer number of Ph.D.s is an indicator that something is amiss. Ph.D.’s are academic qualifications; if someone has no intention of becoming a university professor, why does he need a Ph.D.? Perhaps the reason is that we are obsessed with titles — but what about what they are supposed to signify? Getting a higher education is certainly a good thing but let it be of some benefit to our developing society.
