My
third meeting (second with Mohammed) went exceptionally well! I am staring to get to
know him better and we both felt more comfortable around each other this time
because we now know what to expect. I was running late, and last time he showed up
early, so I was worried I was making him wait. Thankfully we were both running
late and it all worked out. We first started off with the obligatory “how are
yous” and finally got settled in to our conversation.
I
started off by saying how worried I was about being late because I lost track
of time with all of the work I need to get done this week. He too said that
this was a busy week especially because the intensive English program has their
finals the week after thanksgiving break. We both laughed and agreed how every
professor decides to assign projects, papers and tests right before finals. We
then began discussing what we will be doing over the break. I said that I would
be returning home to Colorado and he will be visiting Austin or Florida with
his wife depending on what his budget allows. I asked if he had experienced
thanksgiving and Christmas before and he said that he had while he was in the
Netherlands for a year. He said it was cold this time of year, which I
responded with how cold it is back home right now.
The
conversation then transitioned into talking about how it is currently raining
in his hometown. It doesn’t rain to terribly often and when it does it causes
some major problems. The government in Saudi Arabia, if you didn’t know, is a
monarchy. As with any monarchy the government is filled with corruption. What
does this have to do with rain you might ask? Well the rain needs somewhere to
go, i.e. storm drains, infrastructure. Do to the corruptness in the nation
money that gets allotted to the construction companies to improve the
infrastructure and create the storm drains finds its way into the owner of the
companies bank account instead of actually making the improvements. Mohammed
said this is a big issue and because the infrastructure is so poor, it only
takes about three ours of medium rainfall to create massive flooding that
usually ends up in the deaths of a few citizens. I asked how often this happens
and I was shocked to hear that is occurs every single year, sometimes even
twice a year. It doesn’t just stop there. Another example he gave me was how
the airport has a leaky roof and every time it rains it comes dripping into the
building. Again, money that was allotted by the government to maintain the
airport finds its way into someone’s Swiss bank account as opposed to making
the necessary improvements.
Mohammed
worries that if the oil runs out that his country will be in ruin. The only
thing he says that everyone relies on is oil. The government has destroyed the little
bit of farmland that they have, and the once fairly good fishing grounds off
the coast have now been covered with sand so the prince can have more plots of
land for luxury houses. He said they are killing their natural resources and
putting all of their eggs in one basket so to speak. Mohammed is also concerned
with the property prices in Saudi. A decent home costs around $1 million US
dollars. This is because there is limited space in the cities in which people
actually want to live. Either that or the plots of land are on these man made
spits of land that are owned by the royal family and they charge even more. I
asked why not simply finance the house. He laughed and said that the banks are
not in the best of shape and so getting a loan for a house is nearly
impossible. If you do somehow get one you’re looking at 20% interest.
Our
conversation ended here with the worries he has for his countries. Right before
we left I too said I was worried about my country and how my parent’s
generation has left us with this huge mountain of debt and expects us to pay it
off. Both situations are worrisome for guys our age but we are both confident
that things will work out.
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