Reports from Amman Jordan
by Samah Sabawi
| Part
II - We
Built Countries that are Not Our Own |
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| Aug
16, 2004 Amman Jordan The worst part of being in Amman is the driving. I am lucky I don’t have to put up with it, but sitting in the back seat of a taxi gives me a pretty good idea of how bad it is. “The streets are more crowded than usual”, the taxi driver explains in his distinct Jaffa accent. Another Palestinian in exile; another taxi ride in Jordan. We are stuck in traffic again, and I begin to amuse myself by reading the license plates of other cars around me - "Jordan", "Saudi", "Iraq", "Saudi", "Iraq", "Jordan". I had a pretty good idea why there would be so many Iraqi vehicles; after all, Jordan borders Iraq which is currently a war zone. It seems Iraq’s most elite were able to flee, along with their luxury cars, and to settle in Amman. However the Saudis are here for different reasons. “Are there always this many Saudis in Amman?” I asked the driver. “Only during the summer holiday season”, he replied. “This must be wonderful for Amman. They must bring in a lot of money”. “No, it is terrible for Amman”, the driver said with a look of disgust on his face. Where the Iraqis come in droves fleeing the war, the Saudis come in droves seeking a good time and a nice vacation. There is a huge cultural divide between the Saudis and the Palestinians. The Palestinians are for the most part a more open and welcoming culture. Palestinian women are a visible and viable part of society. For the Saudis it is a different story. In Saudi Arabia women must remain invisible under their black abbayas and behind the veil. It is a segregated closed society. So, when some Saudis drive north to Amman, they let loose. They shed their veils, they hit the nightclubs and they get into a lot of trouble. I lived in Saudi for many years, and I know the dangers of stereotyping. Unfortunately though, the few bad Saudi apples give the decent ones a bad name. Our driver began to tell me the story about the one bad apple he met the previous night. “Saudi men and women are my least desired passengers”, he said. “Last night I picked up this Saudi woman from a night club – she was drunk. As we began to drive toward her hotel, she began to curse. She said the Palestinians were dogs and she told me Sharon didn’t do a good job of finishing us off. Can you believe that? So I told her to get out of my cab.” “She was so arrogant, she looked down on me. I was merely a servant in her eyes”. I was reminded of a time long ago in the late 1970s when we lived in Saudi Arabia. A television reporter asked the King why is it that Arab foreigners do not have the same rights as do Saudi nationals, and the King responded with what became a famous quote. He said, "Because they come here to serve us and you do not treat the servants in the same manner you do your own family." The taxi driver was still fuming. “If she wasn’t so drunk I would have gotten into an argument with her and would have told her that Saudi Arabia would be nothing if it weren’t for us, the Palestinians. We built it up. All over the Arab world we are the most highly skilled people. We are the doctors, the lawyers, the engineers. We built up countries that are not our own, and in the end not one of them stood by our side. Every country we built turned around and stabbed us. They all sit impotent as we get slaughtered by the Israelis”. I looked out the window at the beautiful streets of Amman that are lined with olive trees planted by exiled Palestinians in the hope of evoking memories of home, and I sighed. Indeed, we built countries that are not our own. Re: Saudi portrayal above: My one bad Saudi Apple is by no means representative of all Saudis – nor did I have any malicious intent when writing that story to incite hate against that group of people. I did spend ten years of my life in Saudi Arabia and I met there some of the most wonderful people I know. However, I do believe that as Palestinians, we have put up with too many bad apples all over the Arab World, the most harmful of which have been those bad apples that are amongst us. One of the greatest blessings of Arab culture - our ability to turn a blind eye to one another’s faults so we don’t embarrass each other in front of strangers - has now become one of our greatest downfalls. I would love to see us all ridding ourselves of our bad apples, starting with a few in the Palestinian Authority. But that would be material for yet another article. My respect and love to every decent Arab, every decent Saudi and every decent human being. Samah
Sabawi, originally from
Gaza
and whose permanent residence is now
Ottawa, is a writer, playwright and well-known activist. Her articles
appear in several popular online journals. Her Palestinian Diary
is exclusive to YayaCanada.
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