A 23-year-old Saudi man was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for using his car for drifting that led to the death of a friend. The Riyadh man also terrorized his neighbors with his dangerous driving, which he recorded repeatedly for YouTube.

The 10-year sentence in this case is appropriate, and it appears that the young man escaped the death penalty in a 2-1 judicial vote. Saudi law enforcement officials have taken a zero tolerance policy against drifting, which is a popular technique that originated in Japan in which the driver can manipulate his car into controlled spins and slides. The practice is so popular especially among young Saudi men that drivers’ exploits frequently appear on YouTube and music videos.

It’s a fine thing that traffic police are cracking down on this reckless hobby, but drifting and its accompanying dangers are only a symptom of the problems facing Saudi men between the ages of 16 and 30. And putting a Band-Aid on the problem by enforcing traffic laws will not under any circumstances keep people from behaving in a manner that threatens others.

It’s nothing new that single Saudi men have virtually no forms of entertainment to keep them busy during their idle time. Sheesha has been banned from cafes and many restaurants and amusement parks are off limits. Oftentimes access to public places like beaches or parks also invites the attention of the Haia. So a lot of guys turn to their cars for entertainment and as a means to attract people especially girls on busy commercial streets like Tahlia in Jeddah.

Since driving and owning a car may be the only form of entertainment available to guys other than video games at home or the Internet, it’s of little wonder that the automobile is so attractive.

Our strict society rules have virtually created the phenomena of Saudi-style drifting, reckless behavior and eve teasing. If these are the rules we choose to live by, then so be it. But by the same token, why are we complaining about young men’s public behavior when only we are to blame.

We can only speculate on the case of the Riyadh drifter and what brought him to be responsible for his friend’s death. But he obviously was not a university student and it appears he was not employed.

This is the lot of a lot of Saudi men his age: No job and no pursuit of a university education. I don’t buy for a second that jobs are not available to Saudi men. The Ministry of Labor has set up a system that allows individuals to register their name, education and skills. If a job opens up, they are called.

Yet a university education is not for everyone. One of the knocks against young Saudi men is that they are unwilling to get their hands dirty and prefer a nice government job with a SR 6,000 minimum salary and where the day ends at 3 p.m. There is a grain of truth to that stereotype, but Saudis only have themselves to blame for such an arrogant attitude.

Saudi women don’t appear to have this problem. It was recently reported that Saudi women have been taking up jobs as plumbers and electricians at Princess Noura University in Riyadh and seem to be quite happy about it. Another group of women started their own all-female restaurant with delivery available.

What we haven’t done is inspire Saudis to accept what Americans call blue-collar jobs like plumbers, electricians, welders and auto technician. And the Ministry of Education needs to shoulder some of the blame.

There once was time in the US where high schools offered students industrial arts classes, better known as shop class. These classes were usually broken down to woodworking, metal and welding, and auto repair. By the 1990s, many of these classes went the way of the Dodo bird, but have recently made a resurgence to give young people skills and to reduce unemployment. Auto repair quickly became the most popular shop class because of the need for computer skills and the high wages that such employment brings.

We have nothing like that in Saudi Arabia. We have not instilled the notion of pride in a day’s work, whether it’s manual labor or an office job. It apparently has occurred to no one that a computer literate certified auto mechanic can make far more than SR 6,000 per month.

If the Riyadh drifter with his love for cars was exposed to auto shop six or seven years ago, he likely would have a far different attitude about the ethics of driving and the care for his car. He might still be a drifter, but he would have been a responsible one.

Email: [email protected]