In the late 1970's I had the adventure of becoming Wood Gundy's man in Saudi Arabia. I spent 3 amazing years travelling around the Kingdom as it was in the midst of the transition from from small mud-brick towns such as Jeddah, with the Purdah wooden screened balconies facing narrow streets, and in Riyadh, where the old mud quarter and the old fort were still part of the town, to a huge building site where all sorts of modernity emerged.
My first night in Jeddah was spent in the old airport hotel, high ceilings and fans and waiters in fezzes, opposite the old airport - so close you walked from the terminal to the front door. I got some kind of skin disease on my feet from the shower floor. When I left the new airport was miles out of town and I stayed in hotels that matched any for opulence and cleanliness. I am not sure that this was better.
To prepare myself to fit into the culture, I read two books - The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and Wilfred Thesiger's account of his travels across the empty quarter. I wanted to get the cultural sense of how to behave as a westerner. I wanted to get a sense of the meaning of life even if this life was being destroyed before my eyes. Thesiger, a hawk of a man and a real warrior stood out more than Lawrence. He found the essence of the bridge between the Englishman and the Desert culture. The power of reticence and understatement - the formality which hides the feeling - the love of the landscape - courtesy - the power of holding back and letting things happen - the essence of endurance and toughness and not complaining - the power of giving one's word - the ability to listen for what is the subtext and the real agenda.
These were great lessons. I learned how to spend the day productively in the great man's audience room gradually making my way to his ear and being asked to comment throughout on other people's business. I learned how to listen for the test that would be put subtly upon me before I could return and talk about what I wanted. I learned to love the desert and would spend the weekends (Friday) in the desert with friends hunting and picnicking. A Saudi Picnic would usually involve taking lunch, a goat, out live and killing it and the cooking and eating it that evening. Knowing how to talk and how to eat was an important part of fitting in.
He died this week aged 93 a stranger in his own culture and lost to a culture that has also died. So much the pity
1:28:08 PM 
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