Chatting with Saudis

Had lots of conversations with nice Saudi folk all over Kuala Lumpur but one in particular is memorable and worth recording:

Nice young fellow I met in the lounge at our hotel and we started talking about his fabbo crocodile skin shoes, but then it slewed off into dark territory.

He said he was checking out KL because he thinking of moving his family there because "Saudi Arabia is not a place anyone can live." He then told me that no one with money lives there anymore, and the whole point now is to bring in Indonesian and Filipino workers so that even the middle classes can flit off and live someplace else that's nice; and since only the filthy rich can now afford to live in Paris and London, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur are the new destinations of choice.

I didn't say anything, however, until he pointed to the Malaysian "Kung Hei Fat Choi" sign on the wall and said "But it shocks me that Malaysia allows the Chinese to celebrate their festival here. As a Muslim country you'd think they'd know to be more hard-line."

Well, that's when I saw red and completely lost it, and adopting my brutally-Machiavellian father's low scary voice I went for it. "You have turned your own country into such a hell-hole, you have no right to tell other countries how to run themselves."

He was very taken aback, so I went for it: "For sixty years now, because you have petrol, you've been given all the money in the world.  Where is it? What have you done with it?  Where are your great hospitals?  Where are your great scientists?  Your great doctors?  Where are your great universities? Your great libraries? Your poets? Your artists? Your composers?  Where is your great literature? Your great music? Yes, you have none. You have nothing!  You have done NOTHING! Your country does not deserve to have money.  Any other people on earth, given only a fraction of what you've been given, for only a fraction of the time, would be already filling the world with their greatness.  Instead, what has your country given the world?  Nothing but hate and violence and lies.

Even Muslims from other nations say that Hajj is very unpleasant because your country doesn't even have basic hygiene.

And now even you Saudis don't want to live there anymore. You know, in the very near future they are going to develop the electric car and no one will be giving you money anymore.  And then what will you do? You know what you should do?  You should stay! You should all stay! From all over the world, you should go back and use the last of your petro-dollars to build and rebuild and develop so you can turn your nation into a country you can be proud of and then none of you will want to leave."

At that point, I ran out of steam so shut up to hear his reply but the lovely fellow didn't say anything for the longest time. Then he stood up "You have given me a lot to think about." he said and he and his fabbo crocodile skin shoes left the room.

I floored him, I think. And, just looking at this now, I think this is an argument we should all be throwing at Saudis we meet everyplace, so feel free to use it or to adapt it to your own purposes.