Khalaf Al-Harbe Okaz Few days ago, there were reports that there were vacancies for expatriates to work as “poets”. The announcement, which attracted a lot of controversy, was made by no one else other than the Ministry of Labor itself. The ministry refuses to open expatriate recruitment for a number of jobs that are not favored by Saudis and opens the door for people from abroad to work as poets. It is as if the ministry does not know the majority of the Saudi people are poets. The ministrys reply to this news was not convincing. It said the job was opened with the art production companies in mind. It is incomprehensible that we will change from a country that exports poets to a country that imports them. What can an expatriate poet do in a country that is overflowing with poets? Anyway, I have always believed that the Saudis excel particularly in writing poetry. This is not only a profession for them, but also a hobby. Saudi Arabia has been the cradle of Arabic poetry. Since the early ages the Saudis have been writing poetry. They never needed to import anyone to do this job for them. In these times, most of the Saudi citizens have either written poetry, tried to do so or bought ready made poems and had their names put on them. The number of Saudi poets is the largest on satellite channels. They have the largest representation at the poetry nights held in some neighboring countries. The Saudis are even songwriters. They have written songs for a number of famous singers in Lebanon, Morocco and other countries. However, it seems that our poetic nature has lost its leading position. It has given way to the exporting of suicide bombers who have become the fuel of terrorist operations in a number of Arab countries that are already suffering from political upheavals. Reports and statistics issued by some foreign media and published by the terrorists on their websites are unanimous that the Saudis constitute about 65 percent of the suicide bombers in Iraq and Syria. We cannot, of course, verify the authenticity of these reports but the TV news tell us every day about young Saudi men who died in suicide operations. Instead of being a real asset to their families and country, the young Saudi terrorists have decided to kill themselves and many other innocent people in meaningless wars. If you ask them, these young men will not be able to tell you why they have joined fighting in these troubled countries. The funny thing here is that the Saudi suicide bombers did not forget to recite poetry while they are wearing explosive belts or riding booby-trapped cars. It seems that they wanted to give a romantic touch to their deviant acts. We cannot confront the bombers who are looking for a romantic side to their suicide acts and a poetic flavor to their bombs. We cannot save them by condemnation and criticism. We have to make a radical change in the environment that has lured them to this painful situation. Print Print Post Comment Post Comment
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 16:19:59 +0000
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