Saudi As A Social Experiment

"If our contemporaries are not encouraged to accept their multiple affiliations and allegiances; if they cannot reconcile their need for identity  with an open and unprejudiced tolerance of other cultures; if they feel they have to choose between denial of the self and denial of the other --- then we shall be bringing into being legions of the lost and hordes of bloodthirsty madmen." -Amin Maalouf, 1998.     I've been stuck for a very long time trying to figure out what should the next Baby Step be, and honestly I didn't manage to go that far.      Most of my thoughts were generally surrounding the notion of empathy; or better empowering empathy. But how, to what extent and concerning what exactly that has been a never ending dilemma to wrap my head around; until I accidentally went back to Maalouf's  Les identités meurtrières, which explores into the meaning of identity and the gruesome acts of expression committed in...

Societies develop and grow by virtue of the change that the human civilization in general goes through.  For so long, we have been so apprehensive towards this "natural" process of change,  out of fear that we might lose the essence of who we are. We are an Arabic Islamic society,  and we cherish that. It is deeply rooted in our being -and living- it scares us to ever give it away. But we won't give it away. We cannot give it away. Because it is who we are, any -positive- change regardless of how gruesome it is won't take that away from us. The way I see it, the world was developing, growing, and changing while we were right here "stuck" fighting the change so we don't jeopardise our values, not realizing that by doing so we are losing the coherence of our -modern- culture. It wasn't until recently that we started realizing that this attitude is not helping us anymore. It wasn't until recently that we realized that the change is not bad, a...

     A perfect stranger once told me "Attempting the perfectionist road is just a way to place little obstacles to keep yourself from doing what you should do."  Maybe. Maybe, I am just a little girl with a big mouth and small hands, who would never be able to change anything in this world.   But maybe, maybe I could be that woman who will bless the world.  So here I am giving what I can give right here. Right now, to do my part in initializing the change I WANT TO SEE.      I have been living in Saudi for a year. I have to say that it was more of an eye-opener than I have expected it to be. I am a trained scientist, with a solid background in psychology and I would be lying if I said that till now My Life in Saudi has been nothing but a big SOCIAL EXPERIMENT.       No need to take it in an offensive, snoopy way better take it as an educational experience.        I love this country....