"SAUDI ARABIA?"
Uhm, actually, it's The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Whenever I admit having lived in this country for 11 years of my life the very first question that pops out of everyone's mouth like a piece of unchewed coffee flavoured toffee is, "Did you have to ride on camels to travel?" Yes, why indeed we did! And if we fed them a special date milk it would enhance their 'horsepower'.
For those who couldn't get the hint, that was sarcasm. Why would cars not exist in a country that is literally drowning in its oil reserves? Rumour has it, Saudi Arabia is still going to be the next major oil exporter for another 20 years. Just to clear the air even further, people did own cars and I went to school everyday on a big, bright, yellow school bus.
I won't disregard what the world claims to know about the country - women are constricted, there is religious intolerance being an Islamic extremist country, and yes, we got the cheapest Laban (buttermilk so thick and full of flavour you'd erupt into a fit of giggles once your stomach is full.)
But I'm also here to give the flip side of the coin. Life was bliss, until of course the 9/11 which put this country and its cultural injustices under the spotlight. (Yet America keeps crawling back asking for more barrels of oil.)
Saudi Arabia isn't all that bad as the Western media portrays it and times are changing. For interested feminists, in 2011 King Abdullah granted voting power to women and are slowly cracking open to the idea of working women. The 9/11 has passed and I hope to provide a more tolerant view of the birthplace of Osama Bin Laden and perhaps change this opinion (I kid you not, this is real):
Uhm, actually, it's The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Whenever I admit having lived in this country for 11 years of my life the very first question that pops out of everyone's mouth like a piece of unchewed coffee flavoured toffee is, "Did you have to ride on camels to travel?" Yes, why indeed we did! And if we fed them a special date milk it would enhance their 'horsepower'.
For those who couldn't get the hint, that was sarcasm. Why would cars not exist in a country that is literally drowning in its oil reserves? Rumour has it, Saudi Arabia is still going to be the next major oil exporter for another 20 years. Just to clear the air even further, people did own cars and I went to school everyday on a big, bright, yellow school bus.
I won't disregard what the world claims to know about the country - women are constricted, there is religious intolerance being an Islamic extremist country, and yes, we got the cheapest Laban (buttermilk so thick and full of flavour you'd erupt into a fit of giggles once your stomach is full.)
But I'm also here to give the flip side of the coin. Life was bliss, until of course the 9/11 which put this country and its cultural injustices under the spotlight. (Yet America keeps crawling back asking for more barrels of oil.)
Saudi Arabia isn't all that bad as the Western media portrays it and times are changing. For interested feminists, in 2011 King Abdullah granted voting power to women and are slowly cracking open to the idea of working women. The 9/11 has passed and I hope to provide a more tolerant view of the birthplace of Osama Bin Laden and perhaps change this opinion (I kid you not, this is real):
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