Bad NYT

I'm disappointed in the New York Times. Usually, it's one of my favorite newspapers (and that probably tells you a lot about the type of person I am).


Did you see this article about 2 weeks ago? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/world/middleeast/12saudi.html?scp=1&sq=saudi%20arabia%20dating&st=cse It's a story about young Saudis and how they are coping with new attitudes regarding dating and falling in love versus the conflicts with traditional culture. This article couldn't be more distant from the actual Saudi Arabia that I experience. I think the journalists probably needed to travel into the Bedouin areas of the desert to find people who live like this.

Last night, I was at dinner with some work collegues and their spouses. One side of the restaurant they called the "dating area". An area where young couples who are dating will sit together. It's next to the "family area" which means an area where women are allowed and is separate from the "men's area". OK, so I admit it's still a bit odd to have separate areas for men and women. But, nevertheless, young unmarried couples are sitting together in a restaurant sharing a shisha and having a coffee just like any other couples in the world (sans the booze).

It's things like this that get my goat. Really, how are Americans supposed to form a balanced perspective of the world when this is the type of story they read. And from a reputable paper, too. Couldn't the reporter have qualified his story by saying, "I traveled into the back of beyond in Saudi Arabia to find a family of sheep herders. . ." It just continues to feed the mindset that there is a huge chasm to fill between Saudi Arabia and the US. It's not right!!!

I mean really - Saudis are normal people. Giving. Generous. Kind, kind, kind - to the core. It's so much easier to put people into a hell-hole like Gitmo or torture them in Abu Ghraib when you can depersonalize them into a bunch of weirdos.

Can you tell I'm angry?