I’m a lover, not a fighter. Haha! Who am I kidding? I can be a real scrapper and there are few things I love more than giving a jerk a taste of their own medicine plus some. Saudi Arabia brings out the worst in people, and the longer I’m here the less it takes to bring out my inner fighter.
A little while ago I went with my friend Aladdine to a compound bar. We were outside eating our dinner at a picnic table when a man in his late 50’s walked over to us and asked if he could share our space with him while he finished his pint of beer. We agreed, then braced ourselves for the standard barrage of questions that accompanies any introduction here in Riyadh.
He looked at Aladdine and asked in a thick South African accent, “Are you Saudi?”
“No, I’m half Syrian, half-Lebanese.”
Then he looked at me. “And what about you?”
“I’m American.”
The man snorted, then nastily replied, “That’s your problem.”
I gave him “the American look” then continued my conversation with Aladdine.
The man ignored the obvious by asking, “Am I interrupting something?”
Aladdine showed more politeness than I felt like this guy deserved and answered, “No, not at all.” Those were the last words out of his mouth until the older guy left, opting instead for a front row seat of a verbal smack-down.
Then the guy decided to really make his feelings about Americans known. He said, “I would never work for a Saudi company or an American company. I’ll work for a British company or a German company, but I stay away from American companies.”
“I believe you. You probably can’t handle the work ethic Americans have. We don’t tolerate laziness the way other countries do.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s that Americans take care of their own.”
Hmmm…I’ve never heard or seen that one before. Americans are more performance-based than any other country I’ve seen. If anything, we’re guilty of NOT taking care of our own in the workforce because we’re frequently overly capitalistic. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that one of the main premises behind Occupy Wall Street?
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I train people for my job and I’ve often seen it in American companies where the person I’ll train gets a promotion ahead of me if they’re American.”
“It’s probably because they do the job better than you.”
“No, it’s not that. I’ve had excellence awards for the past four years.”
“Then it probably has to do with your abrasive personality and your lack of people skills.”
“I don’t have an abrasive personality.”
“Yes you do. You interrupted a total stranger’s conversation only to insult their country. You don’t think that’s rude?”
“You’re taking this all the wrong way, sweetheart. It’s nothing personal.”
“I’m not taking it personally, I just think you lack the social skills that Americans value, so you’ll never get ahead in an American system. I think you’re a total ass hole, and I’m sure I’m not the first American to tell you that.”
“You Americans are all the same!”
“Why are you talking to me then? Isn’t there somewhere else you can sit?”
At that he walked away and mumbled, “Typical American.”
“Thanks!”
Aladdine looked at me and began to laugh. Yeah, he enjoyed the show. He said, “As soon as that man said that being an American was your problem, I knew you would get him. You would let him sit there, say a few things, then you would attack him and make him look like an ass.”
Mission accomplished.
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Wow!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the South African guy was asking for it.