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Homeward bound I wish I was……..
Well for those of you who are not aware I am currently fulfilling a contract in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Whilst I would have preferred employment in London, or the United Kingdom it wasn't to be and I was headhunted in a way which could only make one feel a little special.
One passion I have always had is a fascination in visiting places that I have never been before. To talk with people, see them at work and play and to try to understand the local culture. I have in the past found that in many ways we are all the same. We normally come into the world with very little, we grow up, obtain an education and a code of morality along the way. We find a form of employment which either fills our aspirations or satisfies our financial needs. We make friends and commit to relationships, sometimes more than once, raise offspring and try to impart to them a code or ethos for them to live within. It doesn't always work but the common approach is to try.
The people here are very much like this, they are a very courteous helpful people. Always looking for a reason to smile or help you with a task that they believe is causing difficulties. They are not patient but appreciate that there is always a point at which the task is insurmountable. Once that point has been reached the approach normally taken here is to place the task firmly in Gods hands, ‘In Shallah'. If you saw the way these people drive you would understand what I mean.
Interestingly enough one concept which I would like to share with you is this; the locals do not believe that there is nothing wrong with making a profit. The profit can be derived by any means, whether through your own ideas, promotions, activities, or joint ventures. What the locals cannot comprehend is the concept of interest. It seems that if capital is not being used to generate the wherewithal to create profit then it is wasted, especially if it is just left with a financial institution. Perhaps we in the west have become too fascinated with products in the interest markets, especially banking, which are not perhaps good for our society or adequately controlled.
For those unaware I also have an interest, unhealthy according to my wife, in how we are governed. I have never been of the mind set which totally trusts my peers, leaders and higher authority. Sometimes there is absolutely nothing which can be achieved by one person on their own refusing to accept government legislation by act or secondary legislation. For example there is still something wrong with the idea of one enormous super computer holding data on every single one of us in the hope that a few individual miscreants can be identified. It would be totally wrong of course to merely hold information on just the offenders.
Every morning in my Hotel I receive a copy of the local ‘Arab News' in English. There is something quite chastening to read about the effect we are having provided from a different perspective. Here, in the benign Kingdom of the two holy sites, there is concern that we in the UK should have a constitution to protect the citizens from the state. One article lamented the loss of ‘habeas corpus' the right created by King John at Runnymede. The people here have few rights, they have no voice, no Parliament but must rely on the benign rule of their King. It does alarm me that they are saddened by what they see as an erosion of our safeguards built over many, many centuries, but I am even more saddened by the fact that we do not appear concerned by all of this.
Forgive me for the following but I have always wanted to say this:
From your own foreign correspondent.
Adrian Chase
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