“Can you believe that it has been exactly a year since you started writing this column?” inquired a friend of mine who has always been a great inspiration, sounding board and devil’s advocate for my work.
“Really?” I asked in amazement.
“I should know!” he replied stoically no doubt musing upon the eternal dilemma presented to him in the whine of “what should I write about this week?”
I never imagined that I would be able to sustain the feature this long to be honest as every time I wrote about a subject the potential of others seemed to diminish and dwindle into nothingness. This accompanied with the knowledge that I was constantly overstepping the mark made each article appear like my final swan song. However the revelation that I had made it to my first anniversary inspired me to reminisce and I began recounting all the weird and wonderful things that have happened as a result. Last week I received an e-mail from a reader who heaped all sorts of spectacular praise upon me. I was rather flattered by his liberal use of superlatives little realizing that such compliments were totally misdirected.
“Madam,” he remarked, “although I like your articles, I know that you are far greater even than that.”
I wondered what he meant and bolstered by my inflated ego, read on in an attempt to alleviate the suspense and satiate my expectant curiosity.
“It is a great thing what you do. In your article you talked about Saudi women being better than Saudi men and I believe you. You are the best example of this running one of the biggest businesses here and still having the time to write weekly in the newspaper. You have helped to make Olayan group a great company.”
Rather deflated by this revelation of mistaken identity, I wrote back divulging my true self in an attempt to assuage my conscience.
“Sorry,” I typed feeling genuinely remorseful that I was not indeed Lubna Olayan, “but I am Lubna Hussain.”
What I received as a reply was even more off the mark.
“But madam,” the writer persisted, “my friend told me that you also run the economy of the GCC! (I think he may have meant Sheikha Lubna Al-Qassimi)”
It’s amazing what the name Lubna can do for you these days! Those who have commented on how “bold” or perhaps foolhardy my own writing has been wonder how it is that I consistently escape the gallows and get away with so much. What they fail to realize is that I have namesakes in high places who probably bear the brunt of my subversive rantings while I bask in their reflected glory!
During my training at NBC News in London this summer I had a chance meeting with a Saudi official who was supposed to help me set up an exclusive interview for the network. As usual, he asked me about where I was “originally” from and I gave him all the standard answers. A few days later I received a telephone call from him once again inquiring as to the roots of my ethnicity.
“I thought you were originally Indian,” he remarked.
“Yes,” I confirmed, “I am.”
“Are you sure?” he counter-questioned in such a manner as to make me doubt my own sanity leave alone my ancestry.
“Of course,” I confirmed sounding utterly unconvinced.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought you had said but there was a guy I met who knows you and he told me you’re actually from Thailand,” he commented sheepishly.
“Thailand?!” I asked in shock. “That’s impossible. How on earth would he think that I was from there?”
“I told him that you were originally Indian and that you had told me yourself, but he told me with the greatest conviction that you’re actually Thai. I mean you don’t even look Thai at all but he said he knew you and that he read all your stuff.”
“Thai?” I repeated in amazement wondering how on earth I could have been confused with somebody from a country whose cuisine I enjoyed immensely but had little else in common with. I tried to remember whether or not there were any Thai-Saudis I knew but to no avail.
“No,” I said firmly, “I am not Thai. He must be thinking of someone else.”
I received another phone call re-asserting this assumption.
“Yeah. He told me you’re most definitely Thai because the very first article you wrote in the newspaper was about where you came from. He looked it up and you mentioned there that you were born in Thailand.”
Suddenly the penny dropped and made me realize just how left of center my sense of humor actually was.
“Ohhh. Now I get it. I was talking about how I wasn’t originally Saudi in that article. I never said that I was from Thailand, but I said that my parents had me in Taipei and I was a ‘Made in Taiwan Saudi’. It was a joke! The guy probably abbreviated Taiwanese to Thai and there you have it. Voila!”
Asides from such faux pas, I have been regaled with all sorts of criticism and praise depending largely on which side of the fence I am perceived as being on. I have been called a “yankee” and a “Talebani” in response to the same article. A glance at my inbox is really quite instructive as to just what an impact the local media has had on the international arena. Arab News is read all over the world and generates heated debate and dialogue in places I would find difficult to pinpoint on a map. It has given me the privilege to interact with people from all different walks of life for which I am eternally grateful.
In retrospect this has been a remarkable year for the country and the media. The progress toward reform has been tangible and the strides made toward it definite and ingenuous. Personally I truly believe that we have come a long way and even though there is still a significant journey ahead of us, if we continue the momentum that we have initiated then we may even get there much sooner than when we had thought.
Testimony to these changes has been the greater freedom that journalists have been afforded in the past 12 months. I myself am constantly astounded at what is allowed to appear in print. A decade ago even thinking about concepts such as women driving, being given a chance to actively participate in decision-making and being elected to the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) would have been impossible. And yet, such previously unimaginable issues make front-page headlines every day. Outsiders are quick to label such extraordinary endeavors as exceptions, but what they fail to realize is that in the history of their own countries and societies such singular achievements were responsible for paving the way to establishing norms. I don’t see why Saudi Arabia should be considered so different in this respect.
At a time when there is so much dissent and disharmony in the world I wish that we could all work together to build bridges instead of destroying those that exist. For although we have differences our similarities are far greater.
This week many people will be celebrating and wondering what presents to buy for family and friends. I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of my readers Season’s Greetings and hope that we can enter an era where we exchange love with peace, tolerance with respect and understanding with acceptance. After all, there is no better gift than that.
(Lubna Hussain is a Saudi writer. She is based in Riyadh.)
