Comments on: “No Reservations” Does Jeddah

By: kenghata

kenghata — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:53:09 +0000

Good insight for someone making their first visit to Saudi. Thanks for all your comments. The No Reservations Jeddah edition shows how food can open the doors between cultures and ignorance.

By: dawud al-gharib

dawud al-gharib — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:03:00 +0000

fathima and Abu Sinan (‘dude’ as well) are all speaking about the class issues there, and fathima and ‘dude’ have lived there – as have I. I did find it strange that they didn’t mention that Danya was from the wealthy class (as she said “We eat and shop”) while showing shots of workers bringing food and transiting over faces from abroad. I do think having interviews there would have been difficult, as there is much suspicion from foreign workers of western (white) people – I would pray in a mosque, wear a thowb or kufi, and still get asked whether I was a muslim, missionary, or face open suspicion that I was a spy… logic was often lacking.And it probably should be examined how class and power relate in Saudi, but I rarely see that examined in travel shows, because the purpose (in general, if not in this particular episode) is to advertise a new travel destination for young travel addicts. (‘Lonely Planet’ comes to mind) All in all, I think this program did pretty well at covering the de rigeur topics of women and religion in Saudi, if only superficially – but I didn’t expect much in the first place.

By: Duniya

Duniya — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:16:00 +0000

“Would you demand a similar show about some place in the US focus on the drug wars and the high incarceration rate (the US is, BTW, the most imprisoned nation on the Earth)? Or demand that they point out class issues in the US w.r.t. health coverage? Or the impact of the market on your average Wal-Mart worker?”Most definitely I would! Neglecting these issues, especially when the extravagance, success, and/luxury we speak of is due to the labour of these groups, is racist/classist itself and inaccurate. It also negates the human-ness of the people upon whose labour the country was built. For instance, when we speak of the affluence and success of the US we should be acknowledging that the reason they are so rich and successful is because they subjugated, controlled and indeed terrorized Black people – their slaves. Taken from an anti-racist perspective these issues are necessary to point out regardless of where they occur otherwise we risk implying that a certain group of people do not exist.

By: Dude

Dude — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Comparing a ban on toplessness (something which most women do not choose to do) to a law enforcing a woman cover from head to toe (something which many, if not most, women don't choose), is not at all accurate. The two are worlds apart and not at all comparable.They really are not all that far apart. The point is that the government does have the right to dictate such things to a degree. Certainly, Saudi Arabia goes too far with it, but then again (at least in Jeddah - where I've lived), this is also mostly a non-issue. Go to any popular supermarket and you'll see plenty of people not fully covered up. Nothing happens to them.To be fair to these non-Saudis, would he then not have to cover the racism these groups experience from Saudi nationals?Yes, he certainly could have. I don't watch the show, so I don't know what his usual routine is (i.e. if he ever shows such things for other places). At the end, there is only so much one can squeeze in. Would you demand a similar show about some place in the US focus on the drug wars and the high incarceration rate (the US is, BTW, the most imprisoned nation on the Earth)? Or demand that they point out class issues in the US w.r.t. health coverage? Or the impact of the market on your average Wal-Mart worker? And speaking of racism, how about the racism in the US? Particularly against illegal immigrants. Jeddah, like the US, has a huge illegal immigrant problem. People come for Hajj and just don't leave. They're everywhere: Cleaning up cars, selling foods, etc.

By: Krista

Krista — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:21:00 +0000

@ fathima: Thanks for bringing that up. Obviously I don’t have much (any) knowledge about social issues in Jeddah (and this show clearly didn’t do much to fix that!), so I appreciate you mentioning those social dynamics.@ maheen: I’ll have to check out that Uzbekistan episode. I thought that his positive reaction to the prayer in the Saudi episode was also refreshing. (On the other hand, there was a point where it seemed almost like he was giving his approval – like “don’t worry folks, these prayers are actually pretty peaceful!” – which obviously isn’t what’s needed. But it was cool to see that he was moved by the prayer.)

By: Maheen

Maheen — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:43:00 +0000

I watch No Reservations regularly. It is probably one of the most intelligent travel shows on tv. I watched the Saudi episode, it was good, but definitely not as good as other episodes. He had recently been to Uzbekistan where he participated(or rather sat quietly and listened to) friday prayers. He said it was one of the most spiritual and peaceful experiences of his life. I think that might have been his first in depth exposure to Muslim life other than what he’d seen. If you watch the beginning of the Saudi episode, he says he chose Danya because he wanted to see what kind of country would produce the hijackers from 9/11. All in all, I think he left with a broader sense of what it means to be Muslim than he had before.

By: fathima

fathima — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:46:00 +0000

yeah, the issue of class was hugely lacking in the segment embedded in this post. and class issues are intricately tied also to this notion of Jeddah as a diverse city. while Jeddah is certainly a city with a lot of international influences, that internationalism is a direct result of its labour relations with other countries. so passing off its cosmopolitanism as an unabashedly positive thing is problematic because it denies the deeply entrenched nature of Saudi racism and the fact that immigrant/expatriate labour is hugely exploited in Saudi Arabia (and, to be fair, much of the Middle East) - while this labour force is simultaneously integral to how functioning of the nation. for one (by no means isolated) example, see this Arab News' article on Indonesian Embassy concerned over surge in maid abuse cases

By: Duniya

Duniya — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:59:00 +0000

dude:Comparing a ban on toplessness (something which most women do not choose to do) to a law enforcing a woman cover from head to toe (something which many, if not most, women don’t choose), is not at all accurate. The two are worlds apart and not at all comparable.Abu Sinan:”A show about Jeddah should have covered more about the long standing international flavour of the city, the Indonesian, Pakistan, Indian and other ethnic restaurants that are so popular there.”To be fair to these non-Saudis, would he then not have to cover the racism these groups experience from Saudi nationals?

By: Krista

Krista — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:50:00 +0000

@ zeynab: Yeah, I had that concern too. Social class was a big issue that totally didn’t get discussed, and it’s true that the show was not especially representative of the majority experience. There definitely is a lot to criticise – I think I’m just still so amazed that the show wasn’t as terrible as it could be, that my usual rip-things-apart critical eye has been temporarily stunned into silence @ Abu Sinan: Those are really good points, and it’s interesting to hear a perspective from someone with connections to the city. The show did have a vibe of trying to do (or eat) the craziest things possible, even if these were far from typical of the lifestyle of the people he was spending time with. It’s interesting you bring up the international side of Jeddah – in Danya’s video that she originally submitted in the contest to appear on the show, she actually talked a lot about the diversity of Jeddah as a city, and the multiple international influences that it has, so it’s too bad that that side was ultimately overlooked in the show that was produced.

By: Krista

Krista — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:44:00 +0000

Hey everyone, thanks for the comments!@ forsoothsayer: Yes, certainly, I’m aware that there is serious inequality and oppression in Saudi Arabia. The point that I was trying to make is not that these things don’t exist, but that there’s more going on than that, that there are more ways of understanding what’s happening, and that people there might have their own interpretations of certain laws and customs that are different from what an outsider might expect. I was surprised that the show actually allowed for some of that complexity. @ nenena: Thanks for that description of the book – it sounds interesting that he’s so self-reflexive!