My New Home for a While

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

I've been meaning to write this message for a while now, and I've been putting it off because until recently I'd been pretty upset about it and it was something I didn't want to write about when I was angry.

Before coming to Saudi Arabia and when I first arrived, a lot of my friends facebooked me and said to me "be safe," or "be careful over there," or something to that effect.

This upset me for two reasons. The first is perhaps somewhat selfish and not as serious. Surely in all the years people out there have known me, you have realized that I have no history whatsoever of taking foolish risks or not paying attention in questionable or dangerous situations. I realize some of you maybe only said it to let me know that you are thinking about me, but nonetheless I found it a little frustrating.

The second and much more serious reason this "be safe" thing upset me is because Saudi Arabia is the 15th country I have been to on this trip, and no one said anything for any of the others, which says to me people are concerned simply because it is Saudia Arabia, a country in the "dreaded" middle east.

In the last five years there have been no terrorist attacks on foreigners in the country, with the exception of four french nationals in 2007. Many euopean countries can not boast the same. For example I doubt America can boast less than 4 foreign traveler murders in the last five years. I wonder if even Canada can. The government here is extremly pro-active in keeping this country safe from those types of attacks and have been quite successful. In addition there is currently no travel warning by the Canadian government for coming here.

So why then is eveyone so concerened? This type of unjustified fear of anything middle-east is extremely damaging to not just people from this region, but also unwarrented fears of Islam, foreign governments and most importantly it is counteractive to the idea (and dare I say fact) that a third world country can change, grow, and evolve into something better. And most impressively, Saudi Arabia is doing it without westernizing or sacrificing its culture.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I am soapboxing here, or picking on anyone's general well-wishing, and there are certainly many serious problems that Saudi Arabia faces in its future which I will discuss in detail another time on this blog, but I think this is an important thing to think about, and if we truely want to come together as one people in this world, these sorts of negative preconceptions have to be left behind sooner rather than later.

I'll write again soon and update with some pics of the first couple weeks of my stay here.