Nathan Deuel draws my attention to a piece he wrote for the UAE’s The National paper, here republished on the True/Slant website. He notes that the Jeddah floods appear to have been a major development in the quest for accountability and personal responsibility in Saudi Arabia. I definitely agree. I agree, too, that if there is to be reform in Saudi Arabia, this cannot be a sole instance, a demonstration. It needs to be the element that pushes people to demand that their officials treat them with due respect.
Down in the floods, something in Saudi Arabia may have changed
Nathan DeuelOn the first day of Hajj, rain blanketed Saudi Arabia’s vast western coast. As my wife assembled her radio gear in preparation for the next day’s news brief about the storm’s effect on the pilgrimage, I quickly scanned the news online: it was already the heaviest rain Jeddah had seen in a quarter-century, and the city of four million was flooding; four were already reported dead. By the time we woke up the next morning, the death toll had risen to 77.
Blame for Jeddah’s flood disaster can easily be traced. Nearly 30 years ago, the city was issued funds to build a new sewer and drainage system, but according to a story by Lawrence Wright published in The New Yorker, the government official in charge of the project diverted some of the money to personal projects, including a mansion in San Francisco and a palace in Jeddah equipped with a bowling alley. When the misspending was discovered, the Saudi government gave the official a jail sentence and a fine, but he ended up being pardoned — because, a local journalist told Wright, his brother was a private secretary to the king.
So often the news that makes it out of Saudi is ghastly. Earlier this year, a man was beheaded for murder, then had his head sewn back onto his corpse, and was then crucified and hung in public for several hours. These nightmarish headlines top news sites for an hour or two, after which the stories — and the country’s vexing, more fundamental problems — remain ignored or overlooked.
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February:08:2010 - 11:29
Nice article but I choose not to know the answers to many of those questions in that article. Ignorance is bliss. HOwever I was recently informed of a jail midway between Riyadh and Damman that when people get released they turn into zombies. I don’t know how true it is and wouldn’t wanna find out.
February:09:2010 - 05:00
The mayor of Jeddah had his term extended. The name of one official they have in detention is being kept out of the press (aka protecting the guilty from having his reputation harmed). The area is still a mess. The fervor of the initial public reaction has faded almost completely. And all the governor can do is make nebulous comments about a “culture of responsibility.” I’d say it’s business as usual.
February:09:2010 - 05:46
Yeah I tend to like the culture of accountablity because if one is accountable then naturally they would act responsibly.
Thanks for the update anonymous.
February:13:2010 - 13:20
UPDATE: The man has been named in the press — but only because some online paper claimed he died in custody. This has led to a row between the online paper and Jamal Khasoggi, editor of Al-Watan who wrote an editorial slamming the paper for its libel (as I understand it, in the US it’s libel if you say somebody is dead who isn’t, and it’s surely libel here, too). I’ve heard that Khashoggi is already in the sights of the mutawwa for his paper’s critical editorials.
February:13:2010 - 15:16
Jamal has been in their sights at least since the Mecca girls school fire back in 2002. Death threats ultimately led to his resigning his position at Al-Watan.
I’m not sure that stating that someone is dead is actually libel. I recall that the US Embassy in London inadvertently declared John Major to be dead when it was actually a previous PM. Embarrassment all around, but it was seen as what it was: a mistake.