http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article=118138&d=15&m=1&y=2009
Wednesday 14 January 2009 (17 Muharram 1430)
We live in Utopia
Ali Al-Mosa | Al-Watan
We are not a society of angels, but if you listen to our talk without
seeing the reality you would think we live in Utopia. Only blind people can
believe the existence of such a place.
Whoever wants evidence that we are not living in Utopia should visit any
of our police stations after midnight. You would see all kinds of people
arrested for deviant behavior, including drug use, liquor consumption,
fornication and other crimes. Of course this is not our reality, but it is,
however, an indication of our present reality that we are trying to cover by
what we call the "specialty of Saudi society."
I would not be exaggerating if I said the production of liquor in our
country surpasses the output of any regional liquor factory. Some of our
overstaying brothers from Asia produce tons and tons of liquor for thousands of
local consumers who buy the hooch by the liters. Imagine how much money the
producers make.
The best and purest heroin targets our local market because of the
abundant liquidity. You may be surprised when you come to know that a single
smuggler was trading in 70 kilograms of heroin that would mix with several tons
of other substances and sell in grams to those who sniff. Selling this large
quantity in grams may give you an idea about the number of drug addicts in our
society.
While all these crimes are eroding our integrity we have opened a war of
retaliation against the Saudi film "Manahi" as if it was the sole power
demolishing a building that has no walls! It is a fact that in our society
there are those who fight the presence of movie theaters and those who call for
these theaters at a time when we all have televisions in our homes. We watch
movies and dubbed soap operas from all over the world through satellite
broadcasts and cable subscriptions. The films and the TV serials we watch in
our homes are more perilous than the Saudi film "Manahi."
It is a paradox. Those who call for opening cinema houses in our country
are in fact inviting us to sit collectively around a big screen to watch films
together while those against such a step are inviting us to have own cinema
houses inside our homes and bedrooms. This is exactly the story of the ostrich
that buries its head in the sand.
