Diaries of a Ghanaian Saudi Princess- Part III

December 6^th 2010

“The Arrest”

Today is the last day of the conference. I had interviewed so many people the day before that I was confident that today I could just explore Saudi Arabia. So we asked the conference organizers about going around the market areas to record what Saudi was like. They said it was strictly forbidden to have people in our shots but as long as there is no one in shot we were fine. So I went along with Isaac and Edward.

Saudi Arabia is a beautiful city! Very much like New York or Toronto, but cleaner and more spaced out. Everything looked planned, organized, and done with such class I was totally impressed. I was expecting a bit of the dessert, and buildings that looked like those in Egypt or morocco but it was the complete opposite. We went by the mall which was beautiful as well. It was there that I saw how women were not fully covered like the women at the conference or the airport. In fact some of them had all their hair covered, others showed a bit of the hair in front and more of their face. I saw 3 women at the entrance who had their scarf around their shoulders but had their hair fully exposed. Although everyone was indeed in black I also noticed that some women had become very fashionable with their Abayas by trimming the black Abaya with beautiful colourful fabric or patters. Some had on red lipstick, huge designer glasses and bags much of what you would find ladies in the western world doing. The mall however was also sectioned off. The ground floor and first floor were unisex and the 2^nd floor was only for women. There was a guard right on the stairway making sure that only the women would go up to that floor. I also noticed that the stores didn’t have changing rooms. It turns out you get to purchase the item you want and try it on within 3 days and bring it back if it doesn’t fit. Mind you under those Abayas are usually western clothes like jeans and a shirt or a beautiful jacket so people did wear western clothes underneath their Abayas.

On our way back we decided to start filming. We took videos of the buildings and the streets. We were so impressed that we did not see that we were approaching the ministry of interior affairs where there was a police check point. So all of a sudden we see a police man aggressively waiving at our taxi driver to stop the car. At this point, I was gripped by fear and was confused as to what the fuss was about. He came towards the taxi yelling in Arabic, asked the men to step out of the car, took the camera from Isaac and kept yelling in Arabic. I believe he was saying “Who are you, what are you doing? This is forbidden in our kingdom!” I did not understand him but I knew very well that we were in big trouble. Within minutes, more Saudi police men arrived and none of them could speak English. We tried to explain that we were tourists from the conference and we were just taking pictures of their beautiful city. They kept yelling back in Arabic and pointed to camera and said “NO, No!” and crossing his hands in a manner that clearly meant “this is not allowed in our country, we go to police station!”. The police men looked at me thinking I was Arabic and so I had to keep explaining that I wasn’t. We gave our passports for proof and they still persisted in speaking Arabic with us. Panic had completely taken over and all my thoughts were of returning home to Ghana. Truth is I wasn’t worried about the men at all, because they respect men out here, but I was horrified as a woman. Women seem to have no voice here and I know from stories that there have been cases where they have acted irrationally towards reporters who were disobeying their laws so I was really nervous. To top is all off, there was a police man outside my door who kept talking in Arabic and this time he was motioning his hand on his arm as though he was saying “In this country if you get caught doing this we cut your hand either short sleeve or long sleeve!”. Not sure if that is what he said, but I was just thinking all the worst things possible. To make a horrible situation worse, I had the urge to use the bathroom. So the pressure was on! I begged them to let me go to the washroom because no one was coming to solve this problem yet. Luckily for me I had interviewed the Secretary General of Saudi Council of Chambers and passed the card to my boss to contact him to come and explain the situation. FOR THE FIRST TIME BEING A WOMAN SOLVED THE PROBLEM! They let me take the taxi to the washroom! I rushed off to the hotel, used the washroom and found the conference people who then accompanied me back to the street where we were stopped. I was asked to stay in the car and keep a low profile while they did the talking. However to my surprise by the time we got there Edward and Isaac were practically sipping tea with the police officers since they had managed to negotiated their way out of the situation. I was baffled. I was told later on that the secretary General of Saudi Council of Chambers that I interviewed a day earlier spoke to the police who decided to let us go! I HAVE NEVER WANTED TO GO BACK TO GHANA AS BADLY AS I DID AT THAT VERY MOMENT! In Saudi Arabia it is forbidden to take pictures of certain places especially near the ministry of interior affairs. So we had to delete the video. Earlier on I had taken so many pictures of the building because I thought it was so beautiful. Not knowing I could have had a gun to my head had they caught me, this is what I was told by a Saudi local who had experienced it himself before.

Back at the conference Edward and Isaac teased me for my fears and taunted me about my need to use the bathroom. I tried explaining that I needed to use the bathroom regardless of the situation. The whole ordeal was a definite experience that I’ll not be forgetting anytime soon.

At the Conference- THE SUMMARY

During the smaller working sessions I stepped into, the talks revolved around Agriculture in which the Mozambique agricultural minister basically stated that investors should be investing in the current cultivated land instead of investing in land that had not yet been cultivated. There were trends showing that less than 25% of arable land was being utilized, that there is a high potential for irrigation and lots of room for innovative technology.

Another room dealt with the ICD fund which is basically a fund for private business in African countries. However in order to be a member of this ICD fund you had to be part of the Islamic Conference. For example if you wanted to apply to World Bank or IMF for funds you would have to be a part of the United Nations. This room stirred up a huge discussion between our fellow Ghanaians and Zambian colleagues on one side and Benin and heads of ICD on the other side. Our Ghanaian’s and Zambians who were not members of ICD yet wanted there to be an exception to the rule for them since they wanted access to funds right away. Member such as Benin were giving examples of why that would not be possible because of the steps a country has to take to become a member of the ICD. They encouraged Ghana and Zambia to follow the application process just like Ivory Coast did and attained membership of ICD in about a year.

In the final plenary session that summed up the entire discussions of the different workshops this is what the action plan of the Gulf Africa conference 2010 was:

• Encourage corporation between Africa and Gulf states, especially in the rural areas
• Business men are expected to forge business relationship
• Realize the importance of promoting the different countries
• Noted how Saudi Arabia had excellent ties with Africa in communication, infrastructure, agriculture, trade and energy and mines to name a few.

Identifying the reality of the Gulf Trade and investment ties between the gulf and Africa were still low

1. Many opportunities for promotion of investments through utilization of mineral resources in Africa and money in the Gulf states
2. Differences between the two foreign direct investment business ventures.
3. Investments in Africa region lack guarantee and return on investment.
4. There is a lack of Gulf states banks in Africa

Identifying reality of Africa

1. Identification of African markets
2. High customs rate
3. Unstable Exchange Rates
4. Instability of laws and legislation on foreign investments

New Proposal

1. Start forging Gulf Africa Partnership after determining investment regulations
2. Africa should prepare investments climate to get Gulf funds
3. Government rules in GCC and Africa should encourage investment flows and trade
4. Create Africa & Gulf Fund for promoting the two regions.
5. Ensure food security
6. Urge GCC banks to open branches in Africa
7. Establish trade fair exhibitions with institutions to promote both nations
8. Create an Africa Gulf Agreement to encourage Trade
9. Allocate Investment fund to promote joint investments
10. Establish Regional blocks and organizations
11. Boost Sovereign Funds
12. African Countries to make rules for Saudi export funds

The end.

Xoxo BE BOLD