Welcome to Saudi Arabia - Sign Here!
Posted by worldneighbor, May 8 2009, 08:07 PM
I took a trip to Saudi Arabia that was fascinating. I was able to obtain an invitation through the Department of the Minister of Telecomm for my “day job”. I only spent a week in Saudi Arabia but it was a wonderful experience and it helped me appreciate another part of the world and a different culture from my own.
While I was setting up for the trip I had to sign a Saudi Arabian “Death Warranty”. Essentially, I had to acknowledge that if I were caught bringing drugs into the country that I would be put to death. Earlier I had packed my normal travel bag that contained some vitamins and aspirin that I discovered on the plane in. I was forewarned that entrance to the country was subject to a rigorous search process (including drugs, pornography, alcohol etc.). Even my everyday magazines might be deemed inappropriate material for Saudi censors. So to play it safe, I threw away my vitamins and magazines on the plane. I didn’t want them to have any reason to detain me or even think the words “Death Penalty” in association with my name!
I was also cautioned not to get too camera happy either. If I accidentally photographed a forbidden mosque, female or government building the Sharia law (Islamic Law) may prohibit it. Instead I purchased a bunch of nice photographic postcards just to play it safe. Everyone that I met in Saudi Arabia was very warm and nice. They were more formal and kept a personal distance from me but they were always very kind and respectful.
The first interesting moment was when I got to my very nice hotel at the Sheraton Riyadh I set up shop in my room. It was about 5:00 in the afternoon local time and I had just arrived from the airport. At 5:05 I heard the call to prayer directly outside my window from the loudspeakers that were placed all around the city. As I went into the bathroom (WC, rest room, toilet, etc.) I turned on the cold water so that I could splash it on my face to revive me from my long flight. When I put my hands under the “cold” water they were almost scalded it was so hot. I guess when you have over 100° Fahrenheit (~38° C) sun baking down into the grounds and pipes every day cold water is difficult to come by! I leaned back into my bed and checked out what was on the tube. There was an assortment of old TV shows from the 70’s all edited up to be as family friendly as you can get them. Also some of the magazines for sale in the lobby had either torn out pages or dark black marker over the naughty bits. I often wonder what kind of a job that would be…a warehouse full of censors combing through every copy of every magazine. Did they establish a single formal review, create a guideline and then set the pallet full of magazines in front of an editor to do the work. The logistics just boggle my mind. The next morning at 4:52 am local time I heard the prayer call once again outside my window. I suppose I should have asked for the schedule because it scared the heck out of me!
FYI: Riyadh local prayer schedule: ;-)
4:52 am 6:15 am 11:40 am 2:44 pm 5:05 pm 6:35 pm
Snakes For Everyone!
Posted by worldneighbor, May 7 2009, 07:26 PM
My colleague in China was bent on ensuring that I tried the snake soup at lunch. He took me down to the local restaurant that he liked to frequent. When I walked in I saw a fish tank full of snakes in the back. My new friend shouted out something in Mandarin and gestured to himself and me. The shop owner smiled broadly and got ready for the show. He selected a nice juicy snake from the slithering hoard and held it up by the back of it’s head over a large bowl. He proceeded to slit the snake’s belly from stem to stern so that the blood could spill into the bowl below. It was very primal. I felt like I was witnessing a ritual sacrifice. My colleague laughed and slapped me on the back and pointed to the now limp snake. The chef then proceeded to filet the snake to add the meat into the bowl with the blood. He then set about preparing his magical soup.
My colleague informed me that it would “put lead in my pencil”. I had to laugh as I wondered where he had picked up that saying. I’m not one to turn down a good Chinese snake Viagra so I was ready to partake. The soup came out several minutes later steaming and ready to slurp. My host waited with a big smile for me to take the first sip. I sipped away and was surprised at the delicate taste. It reminded me of the turtle soup that I had sampled at the Taste of Chicago festival the year before. The snake meat was not all that different from the clam chowder that I eat back home. I actually enjoyed draining my soup bowl with the obvious approval of my friend and the chef. Sharing a meal of local cuisine with a resident of the place you are visiting is such a great way to experience a part of the culture first hand. I never turn down an opportunity to sample the local grub, it has always been an interesting experience.
Culture Smack! Chinese Experience
Posted by worldneighbor, May 6 2009, 08:01 PM
I had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong and Beijing China on business. On my final night in Hong Kong we ate a very nice seafood dinner on the Jumbo restaurant boat in the harbor. Well I guess it was nice if you consider explosive diarrhea a feature of fine dining! When I got back to the hotel room my stomach was rumbling. I figured the shellfish might not be agreeing with me. Little did I know that I was to spend the next four days eating nothing and throwing up or pooping out everything that I put in my mouth. (yum!) I ate a pigeon and had snake soup and a fried scorpion with no problems whatsoever. All I had to do was eat a simple mussel and it’s off to the Hershey squirt highway.
I was scheduled to fly to Beijing from Hong Kong the next day and I could barely keep myself together long enough to get to the airport and onto the plane. When I arrived in Beijing I got off the plan and looked for a cab. An unlicensed cab picked me up and dropped me off a half block from my hotel. I didn’t figure out that he was unlicensed until later. …at least he didn’t take me to an empty apartment and harvest my body parts. He probably took one look at me and figured he could do better.
I asked the front desk manager at the hotel if he had anything for diarrhea. The English to Chinese translation made it difficult so I broke out my best charades action. I acted like I was eating and then put my hands on my tummy with a pained expression to indicate an upset stomach. The light-bulb went off in my new Chinese friends head and he acted out “one minute” with his hand and got on the phone. He sent me up to my room and told me to wait for someone to bring me my cure. About 20 minutes later a man showed up with a folded piece of paper with some Chinese characters written on it. He pointed to the paper and then his mouth and handed it to me. He bowed a few times and off he went. I unfolded the paper and inside were four little white tablets. They didn’t have any markings on the tablets so I had no idea what they were. Maybe this was the second attempt to harvest my organs. Oh well…at this point I felt as though I would welcome a good organ harvesting. So I popped those anonymous little white suckers in my mouth and prayed for the best.
I was trying to stay hydrated so I was chugging through a bottle of water every 30 minutes or so. I kept ordering more dozens of little water bottles from the front desk. They probably thought I wanted to bathe in it. I bowed out of work the next day and slept in to try and regain some strength. Over the weekend I had some site-seeing to the Great Wall of China and the Summer Palace. I was carrying a computer bag full of toilet paper with me so I was ready for the inevitable emergencies. We were able to stop for lunch and for some breaks so I did fine. The thing that took most getting used to was that a stall with a hole in the ground constituted a toilet. The Chinese toilet paper was like the streamers that I hung up at my last birthday. But hey, when you travel and experience other cultures you have to be able to stick your neck (or butt) out a little – right?
By the time I was starting to feel better it was time to get back on the plane and head for the States. I was looking like Keith Richards after a week long bender. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to have business class seats on the way back so I was able to kick back and relax for my long journey home.
Culture Smack! Has a Dream
Posted by worldneighbor, May 5 2009, 08:04 PM
So how do we ever get to a point of cultural awareness? People always tend to gravitate towards the familiar. How do we get to know each other if we are afraid of always being politically correct? I have to be honest I am an average middle class white guy and I grew up listening to occasional racist comments everywhere I went. My family, my friends, people in school - it was always amazing to me that there was such a large amount of ignorant hatred. So how the heck did I turn out to be someone that is interested in other cultures? I can’t help but think that even though I have the best intentions that my mind has been polluted with all this garbage. If anyone white my age tells you that they grew up without any racist comments or backgrounds they are liars.
My wife and I are trying to ensure that our kids don’t have this background as they grow up. Now we can’t control what happens at their school and at their friend’s houses, but if we teach them correctly at home we hope that they will have a well-centered base to make the right decisions. I don’t want World Neighbor to be a preachy, holier than thou kind of place. I want to create a business that is first and foremost, fun. If we are having fun then we can get to know each other so much easier. Am I totally naïve? Do I think this business will completely change the world? No. Maybe it will just expose a few things that will make a few people more informed and more tolerant. That would be a dream come true.
Culture Smack Deals With Difficult People
Posted by worldneighbor, May 4 2009, 08:06 PMSo at my day job I work with a guy who is an equal opportunity grouch. He is one of my customers and I am his supplier. Unfortunately he knows a lot about the industry and he works for a company with a culture that values condescension. This makes for a dangerous combination. He berates everyone on my team (and often people in his own company). As you can imagine this makes working a great joy. ;-) I’m not sure how people like this tick. I guess we all have to realize that people like this have incredibly low self-esteem and are miserable. Still I would like to haul off and clock this stooge sometimes. …just a little life lesson on a micro level. If we have these issues at a personal level how in the heck are we supposed to work things out between different ideologies, cultures, countries, religions, and politics? Well…call me an optimist but I think we can do better with all our relations. We will always have people that are difficult to deal with and we will just need to learn how to boost their self esteem enough to bring them along. Best o’ luck to you all – I know from first hand experience that it is no easy assignment.
Many Faces
Posted by worldneighbor, May 3 2009, 08:29 PM
I volunteered for a diversity event at my kid’s school. They call it “Many Faces”. The premise is that the parent’s perform skits or presentations based on our cultures. I went to the first planning meeting last night. The PTA was gathered and they were yapping it up at a thousand miles a minute. Yowser! My head was ready to implode…I couldn’t get a word in edge-wise, I had to break out quick!
I dashed out of the PTA meeting about half way through to set up a display case in the front of the school. I carefully, dare I say artfully, placed several of the cultural items that I have imported into the case. After I put the items in place I thought to myself…”self, what am I doing here?” Would the kids even notice a display case? I can’t remember a single display case from when I was growing up. Oh well, I will also be doing a show and tell with several of the cultural items. Hopefully that will be memorable for the kids. I am going to bring some unbreakable Tibetan singing bowls, prayer wheels, bells, cymbals, Guatemalan foot-bags, Mexican cocoa stirrers, and copper pitchers. They can grab all the items and check them out. I will have little stories about the places where the items came from. I will have pictures of the fantastic artisans that I have the pleasure to work with. Roaming hoards of 50 kids at a time clamoring to claw at the items on display - It should be fun!
Motorcycle Diaries in the Yucatan Peninsula
Posted by worldneighbor, May 2 2009, 08:12 PM
We based ourselves in Cancun since this was the easiest way to fly in and get around. We took a boat out to Cozumel with the intent of snorkeling and having a great relaxing day. My brother-in-law Randy and his wife Eleni along with me and my wife Demetria were ready to have some fun in the sun. We rented some mopeds to cruise around the island. We decided to take the long way around so that we could soak in some of the scenery. We had two mopeds which the guys drove while the girls clung for dear life on the back. We stopped at a few roadside stands to look over the arts and crafts but we didn’t find anything that was unique or not touristy.
We finally got ¾ of the way around the island and saw a sign for a diving marina. We pulled off and took the rocky entrance road to make our way to the beach. The moped that I was on suddenly started lurching. We had blown a tire and bent the rim on the big pointy rocks in the road! We were still about 5 miles from the rental location so we were stressing a bit. We walked the bike the rest of the way to the dive shop and asked if they could give us a hand. Thankfully, the dive crew was very resourceful. When they looked at the rim and tire they determined that we had only bent the rim and the air had escaped where the rim was bent. So, what to do? They grabbed a log and started pounding on the rim to beat it back into shape. The log was infested with ants that were flying all over the place while they were pounding. They either didn’t notice or didn’t care. They were hell bent on beating that rim into submission. They finished the job with the rim being roughly back into it’s original shape. The next step was to take a scuba oxygen tank and jam the air tube right over the inner tube nozzle and pray that it didn’t explode the tire. After a few short busts that baby was as hard as a rock and ready to roll. We tipped our new MacGyver like saviors generously and rode off into the sunset.
Unfortunately, we did not have time to snorkel since we spent so much time messing with the tire and we had a boat to catch. We moved on down the highway with the more experienced motorcycle rider, Randy, on the newly repaired moped. We returned the mopeds without incident and hightailed it out of there and onto the boat. 
World Neighbor's Italian Adventure - A Close Shave
Posted by worldneighbor, May 1 2009, 07:54 PM
While we were in Sorrento and making day trips to Capri I needed to get a haircut. We stopped by the local barber shop (candy stripe spinning pole and all). The friendly barber greeted us in Italian and had me step right up. Some neighborhood friends of his were hanging out reading the newspaper and talking. I just opted for the straight shave of the head. The Italian peanut gallery were all interested in the American guy that was about to get his head shaved down. Instead of the barber breaking out the electric shaver he started sharpening his straight razor on the leather belt hanging from the chair. I looked into the mirror and gulped! The barber laughed with the blade up and pointed to it and said something in Italian. I just motioned that it was no problem and he should go for it.
j: He lathered me up with the old-fashioned mortal and pestle lather and got down to business. His hand was as steady as a surgeon as he drew the sharp blade across my scalp. My new bride, Demetria, was hanging out with the Italian peanut gallery drinking coffee while my new shaving cream ‘fro was being removed by the skilled hands of the barber. The barber completed with some finishing touches and placed a warm towel, scented with lemon no less, on my head. The pièce de résistance was the manly smelling aftershave that the barber applied which made my scalp tingle with pleasure. This was one of the most enjoyable head shavings that I have ever had. The only thing that would have made it even more perfect would be a neck and head message from my gorgeous new bride at the same time! I guess there are some things that don’t get better with technological and process “improvements”….
How about Something Pleasant?
Posted by worldneighbor, Apr 6 2009, 08:27 PM
Culture Smack is about building bridges between cultures, so I will make every attempt not to fall into the general media trap by focussing on only negative stories. While it is important to highlight those areas so we learn from them, it is equally important to uplift and inspire so we can learn from the positive side as well.
A woman in South Padre Island Texas decided to start a beach clean up. She organized a team of 2800 volunteers and in just two hours 2,800 volunteers had bagged 124 tons of waste. She started the movement in 1986. Today, it has become a worldwide movement. The event attracts more that six million volunteers from 127 countries. Small beginings bring about great change over time. Kind of like our little Culture Smack operation!
Check out:
Positive News USA
What a great idea!!
Yesterday Yia Yia yelped, The adventures of my Greek Mother-in-law
Posted by worldneighbor, Apr 5 2009, 02:13 PM
My mother-in-law is heading upward into her 80's and she is pretty stuck in her ways. When she calls the topic of conversation is about 2 primary things 1. weather and how cold it is and 2. the latest danger she has seen on the news. Although she drives my wife crazy, I find it pretty comical. Unless it is 80 F degrees and sunny she thinks it is too cold to go outside. She always reminds my wife to put extra layers on the kids and to keep them inside if we can. The other day she was talking about the lead poisoning from Chinese products (particularly toothpaste). She never really gets the facts straight, she just automatically jumps to the conclusion that ALL toothpaste is poisonous and that we should be using baking powder to brush our teeth so we don't die. When we try to explain that the news only applies to particular "off-brand" toothpastes made in China, she doesn't hear a word. She is off to call her brother George to warn him about the news!!