After spending my first nine months in the Kingdom reporting from Jeddah, I moved to Riyadh. At that time, the newspaper had settled into a new headquarters. Fellow newsmen drove me by the old building in Jeddah which housed the paper, and I realized how much progress had been made and how lucky I was to be working in the new structure. The staff was made up of reporters and editors from Sudan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen, the Kingdom, the UK, Palestine, Egypt and the United States.
As much as I loved Jeddah, especially the Corniche, I wanted to work in the Riyadh Bureau because I believed Riyadh was where most major political and economic decisions were made and I followed the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) in its move to the capital. Within a few years of my transfer to Riyadh, foreign embassies also began transferring from Jeddah to the newly-built Diplomatic Quarter. For a journalist in the Kingdom, Riyadh was where the action was.
I joined a staff consisting of two great colleagues, Sir Sidahmed, originally of Sudan, and Javid Hassan, of India, in the Riyadh bureau, which at the time was a two-story villa.
Riyadh was a fascinating town to work in. In the heart of the city was the famous mud fortress Musmak which heroically captured by a young King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, marked the first act in creating the Kingdom. The old souk had the evocative feel of the Arabian Nights, with merchants raucously selling everything from gold, incense and carpets to the latest electronics.
The capital was well past its initial phase of expansion. Electricity, water and phone lines were all installed and worked well. Most of the modern hospitals were built and functioning. The Kingdom was now moving into the next phase of expansion and modernization. Older government headquarters built in the 1960s and early 1970s were being replaced with striking modern designs. The inverted pyramid of the Ministry of Interior was just being constructed when I left.
Industrially, the Kingdom was making tremendous strides. I was able to cover new electrification projects, investment in refineries and petrochemicals. Economically, the Kingdom was maturing. Oil revenues were lower in the 1980s than they were in the booming 1970s, and the Kingdom was moving toward less government involvement. The birth of the Kingdom’s stock market was one step in this direction, and proved to be one of the most interesting stories I covered. The government also encouraged private investment in SABIC and its related industries. Efforts to cut back subsidies on agriculture were not always appreciated, and I recall getting into trouble once when writing stories on these plans.
Not every article involved industry and business. One of the most interesting stories I covered was the solar village, which was, at the time, the world’s largest photovoltaic electricity generating plant. SANCST, the Saudi Arabia National Center for Science and Technology provided many similar features on research in the Kingdom. The breathtaking new King Saud University Campus was completed and I was privileged to tour the campus before it was opened. Probably my most favorite modern structure was King Khaled International Airport, which remains, to this day, the most beautiful airport I have ever visited. I covered the official opening by King Fahd. It was an impressive ceremony in a building which combined space-age architecture with traditional Islamic themes to create something that still commands my respect.
Perhaps the most interesting stories I covered involved the Kingdom’s heritage. The annual folk festival at Janadriya with its camel races, poetry contests and handicrafts was always a great source for feature stories and a highlight of the year. I wrote about the old capital of Dirriyah and visited it many times on my own. One of my favorite stories was the establishment of a modern camel dairy. The dairy exemplified the creative ways Saudis married new technology to age-old traditions to create something new.
Regardless of the story, whether it involved petrochemical plants, hotel openings, or finances, I never failed to meet polite and interesting people. That probably was the most enjoyable part of the job. I have often used a run-in with Saudi guards as an example of the courtesy and good manners I encountered in Riyadh. A few months after I had arrived in Riyadh, I had to head down to the Council of Ministers to pick up an annual report on the Kingdom. Wandering in the older section of Riyadh, near the old government building, I asked a guard, in my hideous Arabic, “Fain Al-Majlis Al-Wuzzara” or “Where is the Council of Ministers?” The soldier was puzzled at this foreigner asking these questions and detained me. I was passed through to several groups of guards, who were courteous but did not know what to do with this foreigner. After about three hours, I made my way to a lieutenant who spoke some English. We had a nice chat; he said knew of Arab News. He offered me tea and coffee, and then released me. I ended up getting the report because Sir Sidahmed was able to collect a copy.
That little adventure summed up a great deal of my reporting experience in the Kingdom. You had to be persistent, you had to be flexible, and you had to have a sense of humor. I know I spent some of the best years of my journalistic career in Saudi Arabia, doing my small bit to ensure the Arab News maintained its reputation of being the best source of news in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
