The Religious Policeman

No Letup in Raids Against Travel Agents in Riyadh

No Letup in Raids Against Travel Agents in Riyadh

RIYADH, 15 March 2004 — Raids and sweeping arrests of expatriate travel agents continued until last night, defying hopes of a grace period for Saudization of the travel industry.

No more heads have been forcibly shaved, according to recently released travel agents.

But all detained workers complained barbers in the detention center used pressure tactics to persuade workers to allow their heads to be shaved — possibly to maximize their income. Some said that while head-shaving was not mandatory, many inmates were tense and anxious during detention and did not dare refuse or simply asked no questions of the barbers.

So the good news is that nobody's getting his head shaved any more. But the bad news, according to the Saudi Gazette, is that the Travel Agents are now losing millions, because they can't get replacement staff, or staff with enough experience. Same problem with the jewelry shops since Saudization. Half of them are closed, the other half are manned by Saudis who don't know an Amethyst from a Ruby, like the guy who was trying to sell a ring to my wife the other night.

The problem with Saudization is that nobody in our government is smart enough to figure out that these guys need training begore they can do these jobs. We've got graduates in all the academic subjects, and a whole university in Riyadh turning out Imams (as if we needed more of them) and lawyers, but how many technical or vocational colleges are there? That's right, zero. So until then, we should start by Saudizing the unskilled jobs. Let's start by replacing the Bangladeshis we see sweeping up the litter we endlessly drop. That'll soon stop us from being the litter champions of the world.

Oh, I forgot, street-sweeping is beneath us, that's for Third World nationals, We're a nation of businessmen and managers. Like the expression "All chiefs and no Indians".