Chronicle of Twenty Years in Saudi Arabia (Introduction)

                              In the January/February issue of Saudi Aaramco's "World" journal appeared an article about how Ms.Haifaa Al-Mansour had made the first film inside Saudi Arabia describing a 10 year old gril named  "Wadjda"(the title of the film). 

                             I then watrched an interview on YouTube where she enthsuastically and lovingly describes her achievemnt and new situation of hope and bright future for the people and kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She said it has been nominated for an oscar and so far received favorably inside of the kingdom. 

                             It is was with that same spirit we lived and worked and then wrote many such same books, monographas and articles about Saudi Arabia that you are about to read below and elsewhere on the www. 

                       When  this was originally written the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was applying for membership in the WTO and to have most favored trade status with the United States of America.

Further it is repatriating its funds from western institutions to invest in the real estate development and tourism industry within its own borders.

Such companies as AL-Hammad, Rikaz (HAK group) Aloula, etc are following in the footsteps of Rashid, Olayan etc.

Recent disruptions and shortages of oil supplies within the United States of America and our war on terrorism demands that the United States of America welcome all to cooperate and solve these most important problems.

                          This book will show that the ruling family, kingdom and its people are worthy of relationship and extending an olive branch of faith in the possibility of a real maturity of the Saudis’ beliefs and lifestyles.

The author’s unspoken message is that “what we have done so can others.”

There is a way for both the Saudis and Christians.

Book as Architecture:

The author is a architect and writes his book as a work of architecture; Not a story but an experience of a place to live and experience a culture, place and people.

                         The theme and use is Life in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the Fez-Barringten’s.

It is like a building with a structure, sequence, color and texture. It has limits and bounds and filled with light and shadows.

When you are in the building you are protected, escorted through its chapter places rooms, see and its inhabitants and as a good building gain understandings about its structure, presence and workings.

As a work of art it has value and gives the inhabitant a confirmation of the values of his society and culture.

As  art is the making of metaphors so is writing and architecture.

                              God fulfilled my heart’s desire to serve and support key persons in this world; persons whose lives made a difference in shaping and changing the lives others.

I not only served but befriended and developed meaningful relationships with many.

In the Universities these were philosophers, writers, artist, dancers, architects, planners, historians, and scientist. a servant to the aristocrats, citizens, nation builders, moguls, tycoons, etc.

To help them build the world and society.

In Saudi it was businessmen, educators, tribal leaders, members of the royal family and workers.

Many of the workers were Saudis as well as expatriate workers from every corner of the globe.

Yes, a native New Yorker did live and survive very well for nearly twenty years in Saudi Arabia.

                                   This is part of my whole life's story including those twenty years and how I got there.

I have CD versions which you can request but I have provided a summary which when reviewed with my above web site will give you a pretty good idea of my background and work.

I'd welcome your comments and requests.

Chronicle of Twenty Years in Saudi Arabia (187,907 total words) by Barie Fez-Barringten

The third part of an overall four part work of how I rose from a Bronx working class second generation immigrant family to graduate Yale, earn a architectural license and be appointed Associate Professor of Texas A&M University.

And there is a lot more about my family contexts and origins, handicaps, urbanity, architecture, relationships and people.

Other writers and professionals have already called what I have done”: “extraordinary”“; extensive and comprehensive"; and "it is a work of art in itself".

The table of contents of this work:

1. Preface

2. Saudi Story

3. Saudi People

4. Saudi Arabia

5. Saudi Arabia Footnotes

6. Saudi Arabs

7. Saudi Arab footnotes

8. Saudi Aspects 9. Saudi Aspects Footnotes

10. Wahhabi Arabs

11. Wahhabi Arab Footnotes

12. Conditions of Arabia in Metaphor (11,890 words)

13. Aesthetics of the Arab Architectural Metaphor (7,181 words)

                           Confluence of his whole life and his learning came to bear on his moments of success.

He overcame his physical handicaps and gang violence.

And he describes clearly how the vast variety of these qualifications, experiences and education impacted his ability to sustain his work, mission and professional life in a very dangerous and challenging part of the world including the streets of New York to the context of Arabia, Puerto Rico, India, South Africa, and the Philippines.

His observations and analysis provide the facts, information and perspective useful to understand today’s media and government reports.

The information is from his own personal relationships, experience, activities, and conversations with students, colleagues, employers, laborers, businessmen, and government officials.

His experience was intensive up-close and personal. In addition you will enjoy his descriptions of the many European cities which he visited.

“Chronicle of Twenty Years in Saudi Arabia” 

                              This is a report of an architect, teacher and missionary witnessing twenty years of development in Saudi Arabia.

At a time when the world is seeking intelligence, truth and facts about a very important place along comes a book by a person who spent nearly twenty years observing, living, working, consulting, teaching, and organizing business, a AIA association, a Christian Seminary and underground mission in Saudi Arabia.

The writer reports not only the completed unique works in Saudi Arabia but in New York and many other places where he has lived. It is an expository meant to inform. His views are not that of a casual tourist or visitor, but of a full time resident.

In this capacity he witnessed, observed and performed tasks of extraordinary interest.

Read about how he became a wise adviser witness and source for those seeking the truth.

This book explains how to live and let live in a land whose traditions and point of view differ on one level but which share many of our values and understandings.

                                      It is an expository to help both Saudis and non-Saudis realize that it is possible to live and work together.

Writing this book fulfills the great commission to show Jesus and his might works.

To begin with you will read his unique observations and descriptions of the history of his family, his childhood, play, architecture, music, entertainment, neighborhoods, and education in the context of New York City.

Then Yale university in New Haven, the move to Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Texas, Austria and Saudi Arabia.

You get detailed descriptions of the people, places and how he visited and viewed over one hundred cities in Europe with an eye of an architect.                                      

And last you will be intrigued by the philosophical and learned observations about urbanity and the city context.

Those who seek the truth and have a passion for eye witness accounts and testimony by a knowledgeable observer will enjoy his report of the people, places, building, facilities, means and methods of what he experienced including vivid descriptions of his ancestry, parents, family, schools, work, and profession.

He unfolds in fascinating terms his philosophical urban mind and international communications experience and abilities.

Indeed he is an overachiever having a lot to tell.

Let me tell you a few things about Barie

By Christina Fez-Barringten

                           Because Barie’s decisions are often controversial deriving from a complex background, his life has become extremely eventful.

Since he is not an ordinary guy, not everyone can understand his vision.

However he is easy-going and great to work with.

He is a philosopher describing the happening of our modern times and many examples point to things to come.

But throughout his writing he shows that God is the only safe and consistent pole in our turbulent changing world of strives, crimes, and terr

The question is who would read his book?

Well, to begin with, all those who like such books as Alvin Toffler’s, Future Shock, or Marshall McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Message”. .

Then there are the large group of born again Christian readers, who love to know about his walk with the Lord Jesus Christ through most of his life and the protection of the Holy Spirit especially in Saudi Arabia.

There is the occasional young individual from a slum yearning for a better future.

He will find plenty guidance encouragement and hope in Barie’s book But that is not all, people who like to know New York in the 40 and 50.

The music, the people, the buildings the neighborhood, the radio programs, the shows, early TV, Barie tells it all he has a super memory.

Remember John Travolta in “Greece” when he was the “Leader of the Pack”.

And then in “Saturday Night” he decided to leave the pack forever behind.

That is Barie’s story.

                         Barie even looked like John and was a good dancer too; but Barie’s story does not end when he leaves the Bronx it is only one of his many new beginnings.

Barie does not like change.

He is an urban New Yorker no matter where he is. It was not his decision to leave New York and most of all he never chooses to go to Saudi Arabia.

God called Barie to that hostile Kingdom.

God drafted him in to his army of Christian soldiers to do a job that, we know now, only Barie could do.

It was all right because his confluence made it all work.

He did not go there as an ugly American or blatant Christian proselytizer.

He went there with an open mind, true to himself, and his principles his American Heritage.

And he made no secret or compromised his Christian beliefs even under pressure. That was always very impressive to the Saudis.

                              With this he earned the trust of the people and much love of the Christian community.

His Arabic friends admired his free spirit, for they all suffer under a great depression and the deceptive teaching of the Wahhabi. Little that they knew that the truth is in God and the His truth sets you free.

Barie respected the people and in return they respected him.

That is why he has no personal horror story to report, even thou, plenty nasty things went on around him.

He is like a Forest Gump in Saudi Arabia. Living a straight- forward, honest life and therefore never being trapped in unpleasantness.

What makes that book so special?

It is his confluents derived from his lessons learned in his constant changing life.

These get him to survive nearly twenty years in Saudi Arabia. Even the Saudis appreciated his well of information, know-how and insight into the most difficult situations, and made use of it.

He is like a treasure chest waiting to be opened to release his knowledge.

The more one reaches in to it, the more precious jewels one finds. However, Barie has one big shortcoming.

He has no experience to commercialize his own talents and wisdom. Barie is like a precious stone ready to be put into a magnificent setting by a competent jeweler.

Friendly greetings from Florida.

Christina Fez-Barringten.

PS. I forgot to tell you. Barie has published many articles in learned journals.

Two of them on Saudi are included in this table of contents. And, had a book under contract to publish with John Willey and sons. He also originated and conducted a lecture series at Yale University about “Architecture: the Making of Metaphors”. And that book has recently been published and is available in most bookstores and Amazon. com.

In addition Barie was the founding president of a chapter of the American Institute of Architects in Saudi Arabia and a New York not-for –profit corporation called “Laboratories for Metaphoric Environments”.

He is a charismatic speaker.

He has a radio sounding voice trained by Ted Brown, a friend of the family and was a radio broadcaster for WLAE in Harford, 93.7 FM.. He is a multi talented professional and everything he does is successful.

Market Sales (275 words)

The release of a book must be filtered through three principles

1. Not to endanger Christ’s work of people in KSA

2. Not to offend Islam or its worshippers

3. Not to betray the trust and show any disrespect to any Saudi or other persons

                           An overachiever can succeed by confluence of all his applied experience, background and personality applied to projects and enterprises.

Truth and honesty is respected by the Saudi’s for example when arrested one can be released when telling the truth .the truth will set you free.

Saudi is not Afghanistan nor the Taliban.

While we were in Saudi observing the great increase in worldwide Muslim evangelism the Taliban was doing things inconceivable in Saudi Arabia.

Apparently so was Al-Qaeda, but none of this was known to us in Saudi. It was different and this difference is laid bare in this book; a must to understand the realities of the kingdom.

We were tentmakers

                             Confluence and convergence of all my background, experience and qualifications had positive use in KSA to form

• AIA chapter

• ICI • Underground church

• Jobs and continuous employment even when transferring for government to private sector

• Protection when carrying bible

• Smuggling Bibles and ICI material

• Others raided such as:

• Wally

• Khobar Philippino/international ministry

• Wim Hartog who put bibles in front of Saudi’s doors

• British and American teachers who proselytized in class rooms

• Ian whose company forbid him

Debriefing after 20 years to save American lives.

                              Learn about your potential enemy not by going after innocent people but criminals.

USA has very little intelligence from Saudis as it did in previous conflicts.

Arabist, spies and intelligence personal are sorely needed to live and work amongst the Saudi’s to learn and understand their culture and get firsthand knowledge of current and planned activities.

                   Even what information we communicated in our mission reports to USA was ignored. Draft part of a chapter (work in progress)

This is the part about Saudi Arabia however; no account of my life could be true when it is presented as a partial, thematic and exclusive view of aspects and single dimensions that explain the most known aspect of my life, its legacy or popular impression. Not even through the role or singular theme of one or another aspect of my life.

Confluence and symbiosis are more truthful. It is also the single characteristic which made many of our impossible missions successful.” Confluence” Omissions, intentional gaps and withholding information can only present a slant on the reader’s perception that an understanding will be vague and thwarted. This was particularly valuable in my experience in Saudi Arabia. My life and its aspects may not have jelled and come together because it was lived in different contexts, venues, conditions, etc. but these differences have a symbiotic relationship.

My life is that combined stream. I have found myself trying to block up one or another streams from entering only to find another beginning. I recall being astonished at the application of vector analysis I had learned from Hank Pfisterer at Yale applied to Pratt school of Architecture curriculums. I then later saw it applied to other analysis. This is the way the pattern of my life and its avalanche of events, episodes and encounters form the time I was very young. I was to have refuge in family, marriage, career, profession or school. My life has not only been expressed as a symbiosis but the confluence of so many vectors of emotion, politics, psychodrama, finance, etc.

Confluence is a flowing together of two or more streams and the point of juncture of such streams, with the combined stream formed by this juncture. For example “A confluence of negative events conspired to keep me from hearing what the teachers said in the class room, not even knowing what were the home work assignments, not hearing lectures in the classrooms, and asking too many seemingly irrelevant questions out of turn in the classroom all kept my grades below any acceptable average. In public school through high I was identified with the lowest and least likely to do anything.

Finally, one high school guidance counselor decided out of desperation to test me and found me to be intelligent and capable of a career in the arts. This was in no way shape or form related to any of the other thousands of students in my neighborhood or high school. The confluence of streams made me an outcast. The only teachers in the building that even regarded me as semi-human was John McGiver (the actor) Dr. Kurzband, Joseph Trunz my music teacher, and Mrs. Boyagean my art teacher. So it is with my life, I assumed a variety of identities, roles and contexts and I tried to resist my will from ruling and controlling and to let God’s will be done.

We may live in a city and not be urban. Urban is recognizing you live in a city and identifying with its culture. Just living in a city and not doing city things is faith without works and hearers and not doers. The same for a spirit is for our flesh; one is an antidote for the other. God’s principles are the same. I trusted, believed, obeyed, and depended on the city for “life”. I could not picture the city without its amenities. As a boy and young man I was indigenously Bronx, urban. Familiar and co-dependent. I spoke and sounded like one of the characters created by Damon Runyon.

The Bible says, “All things work together”…and I find that many aspects of my life are symbiotic…”for the good. Sometimes the opposite of anomie can jar reality as the below Arab News article by Lubna Hussein who was based in Riyadh.

After she asked, “What will you miss the most?

“ The expat speaks of her departure from Saudi in negative terms regretting what had not happened.

While I shared her testimony

I did not regret not knowing more locals closely.

I had known many and could have known many more.

I simply had enough at work, teaching, running AIG/ME, attending hospitals, gymnasium, etc.

Between the laws that said I could not speak openly or take pictures

I was turned off and really learned to keep private.

The expat responded:”

“I will miss more what I haven’t had the ability to experience than what I have.

“ And then continued”:

“Do you know what the saddest thing is?

I have spent my youth here, all my golden years and yet I have hardly had any cultural contact with the people of this country.

With the Saudis themselves that is.

People who spend a year in other countries have had more success in this regard than I have had in 20.

Their frequent acquaintance means that they even become fluent in the language.

The only Arabic I can take away with me is ‘Mafi Mushkila’ (not possible) and a few other choice idioms but that’s about it.

I don’t think I could string together one coherent sentence in Arabic even if my life depended on it!

”Lubna then comments:” Gregarious and outgoing, most expats possess an innate curiosity as to the customs and traditions we follow and crave firsthand knowledge of who we are and what it is that we represent.

For the most part, the majority of Westerners are limited to shuttling between the confines of their compounds and the shopping malls in scheduled air-conditioned buses in absence of any better form of exposure to our highly defensive and guarded society.

Saudi reeks of distrust and hence alienation most notably between natives and foreigners and between tribes.

Even internally within families there is distrust but loyalty. A trip to Diriyah or the carpet souk is about the closest they get to experience Saudi culture.

They appear to be recreating their own idiosyncratic world within separated havens.

They are often criticized for not bothering to assimilate. But where is the opportunity to mingle with the general Saudi public?

In addition to this, they are normally too intimidated to directly approach people in a casual manner.

Language is a definite and tangible barrier.

Arabic, being a very complex and difficult language to master, serves to compound the problem, but there are so many other ways we can communicate with others if we have the inclination to do so.

There is something quite forbidding about approaching a stranger here.

I remember one instance recently when a cameraman had arrived from the States on his first visit to this part of the world.

We were in a lift with some women and in all innocence and politeness he looked at each of them individually with a huge grin plastered across his face and said a generic “Hi!” .

You could visibly see them twitch with disdain under their veils as if he had attempted to molest them in public.

I found the above remarks poignant and important.

My problem is that I did not want what the Saudi’s had.

None of them in all the time I lived there changed my mind. Whereas when I visited European cities, etc. I craved to know more because the people made themselves and their lifestyles desirable including their love of Jesus and our common Latin, Roman or Germanic roots.

I describe these visits and my observations of cities.

As a conformist I continued to accept goals and means set by society, even though failure was a likely outcome.

I did not know what else to do!

I had to innovate when I accepted the goals set by society but rejected socially acceptable means e.g. find another (legal) way of making money.

In my case we went to Saudi Arabia hoping that would offer a way of meeting some financial needs.

And I became a minister of the gospel.

I adopted rituals including means and goals to which I conformed. In Saudi Arabia anomie prevails Religious zealots ignore calls for moderation

Anomie is also when a child comes home from school in tears because of a teacher's prophecy of her horrifying death if she does not recite Islam's five daily prayers.

Or when a Christian Pakistani girl is forced to take classes in Islam in order to attend school and she must attend school in order for her father to work and stay in Saudi Arabia.

At a cafe, a man is berated because his wife's abaya, the black cloak that women must wear in public, too daringly outlines the shape of her upper body.

A researcher at the Education Ministry who raised questions about religious extremism expressed in some textbooks finds himself suddenly out of a job.

These scenes persist in Saudi Arabia even though the kingdom's leaders — worried at complaints their country is nourishing Islamic radicalism — have urged officials, the clergy and educators to preach moderation and promote tolerance of Western values.

Saudi leaders understand the dangers facing their nation following the Sept. 11 attacks, which were blamed on Saudi dissident Osama, bin Laden and carried out mostly by Saudis — 15 of the 19 hijackers were from the kingdom.

At the time Crown Prince Abdullah, who was the most powerful figure after the king, has urged his people to cling to Islam as "a religion of moderation and wisdom”.

As the Saudi’s try to wean them off of the extortion they have paid the likes of Al-Qaida for several generations is finally having its toll.

As it did in Columbia and Sicily the Saudi’s too will have to face a hard time. Extortionist does not walk away from a pot of gold easily. "Beware of extremism," he said, "because the annihilation of nations that came before you was caused by religious extremism." Minister of Religious Affairs Sheikh Saleh bin Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, told mosque preachers they should not "use Friday sermons to vilify people, vilify countries ... Vilification is not lawful”.

The minister warned that preachers should not allow just any worshiper to speak out in the mosque after prayers because they may "say words that incite people. ... Some have called for jihad (holy war)." Still, a small yet powerful minority of fanatics persists in spreading a radical interpretation of the Qur’an, Islam's holy book, in their quest to make the kingdom more Islamic.

They are in government, schools, and mosques and among the muttawa, the religious police who enforce Islamic social codes. These radicals create an atmosphere that breeds hatred of the West.

They reject any behavior they feel is Western or could lead to what they view as Western-style decadence — mixing of the sexes, drinking, and women’s emancipation. They try to rule every aspect of people's lives. Extortionist and thug’s rule use classic bully tactics having everything to gain and nothing to lose. They have virtually taken a nation hostage. The siege is not by the USA as they purport, but by them who object to another power moving in on their territory. Take the Saudi woman who was out shopping.

A muttawa agent stopped her because her feet were not fully covered and asked a policeman to make sure she didn't escape while he got her a pair of dark socks from a nearby shop. Or the mother who angrily recounts what her 6-year-old daughter learned in school — when she dies, her face will turn black and worms and blood will come out of her mouth as punishment for not praying five times a day. Or a recent, full-page article in a Saudi daily on the sins of men and women mixing, signed by a member of the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which runs the muttawa. Its headline: "It has been medically proven that repeatedly staring at the opposite sex with lust causes sexual weakness”. Then there's the story told by Khalid Nasser, who was having a quiet coffee with his wife at a mall when a muttawa agent barged in, ordering women to cover their faces and hands. "Protect your religion, Muslim women.

The Christians and Jews are trying to tempt you away from it," he screeched. All of these misleading, superstitious tales are part of the hostile siege of extortionist and bullies. The agent berated Nasser for 10 minutes and threatened to drag him to jail because his wife's face was uncovered and her black cloak was of a type rejected by radicals as un-Islamic because it gives a hint of a woman's bust. "Extremists like him know nothing about Islam," Nasser said later. "They're racists who are biased against anyone who's not as radical as they are." While these incidents may seem mainly to infringe on the daily life of Saudis, they also help create a religious environment in which militants can find justification for urging murderous actions against the West and, in particular, the United States. Before the Sept. 11 attacks, little attention was paid to fanatic elements in Saudi schools, mosques and the government's religious establishment.

Now, the hijackings have focused the spotlight on what influence fundamentalist Islam may have had on the hijackers. Some in the West have blamed the hijackers' militancy on the austere form of Islam the kingdom has adopted, based on the strict teachings of an 18th century cleric named Muhammad bin Abdel-Wahhab. "Before 9/11 we lived in a world where we accepted the peculiarities of the political system in Saudi Arabia," a Western diplomat said on customary condition of anonymity. "But that has changed, and the Saudis have to wake up to the fact that the rest of the world is concerned about the religious environment in this country”, the diplomat added. Limitations to families, businessmen and religious leaders are unseen by Non-Saudi’s visiting the kingdom. It is wide and pervasive.

The ruling Saud family is bound by an 18th century pact between its ancestor, Muhammad bin Saud, and Abdel-Wahhab that allowed the Saud clan to consolidate its control over Arabia in the early 1900 s. Key religious positions are still held by Abdel-Wahhab’s descendants, giving them sway over legal and social policy in return for helping maintain the royal family's legitimacy. But the pact has meant the ruling family finds itself constantly in a balancing act between the quest for modernity and the need not to upset the religious leadership. That has not always been easy. When the late King Faisal introduced girls' education in the early 1960s, delegation after delegation of radicals protested at the monarch's court. Today, almost as many girls as boys go to school.

The same extremists fought the introduction of radio, television and even cars, which they thought were driven by the devil. When satellite dishes began sprouting on balconies in the early 1990s, religious zealots enraged at the amount of flesh on TV often shot at the dishes. Today, many homes have dishes — though they still are not legal — and Saudi Arabia is one of the most high-tech Arab countries. A woman who is a Western-educated member of the royal family, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said introducing change slowly has always been important because most Saudis are conservatives who worry about the West encroaching on their society.

"If you react quickly, the alternative may be worse," the princess said. "There's been a huge change in Saudi Arabia in the past three decades," she said. "People were unequipped to deal with it. The one constant they hold onto is Islam." After the Sept. 11 attacks, however, even gentle critics of the kingdom say the Saudis must speed up the pace of change. Hassan al-Malki, the Education Ministry employee who was fired, had prepared a study on extremism in textbooks that contained an unprecedented questioning of the ideas of Wahabism's founder. "The religious curriculum is based on (the teachings of) scholars such as Sheik Muhammad bin Abdel-Wahhab and the scholars who followed him, who, at the end of the day, are human beings who are sometimes right and sometimes wrong," the report said. The anomie is deep and dangerous because the results can be deadly. There was a time not long ago when America had no threats to its shores and on its land. 9/11 has proven this to be not the case and this factor has created an anomie hankering back to the days of the cold-war when the thereat of a soviet nuclear attack seemed possible. This new anomie is worse because the attack did happen and went beyond the imaginary to the actual and with it our imagined invulnerability and point of view. We based our behavior on one standard and value and found it violated and they’re fore no longer applicable.

Those born and raised in this new reality will not understand the change and will live in the new reality while those who have experienced the difference will live with an anomie only a colleague could understand. We of the 9/11 generation will be disaster support group the size of a city, and nation as was the survivors of the depression and world war two. Even in south Africa those growing up under apartheid are now reeling from the loss of their values and standards created by the policies and values of the new government implementing a nationwide policy of accessible hiring preferring less qualifies and untrained to the culturally developed, educated and experienced in many fields. This is leading to a mass exodus of many to places to heal the anomie and find new homes where they can fit. Massive development and relocation schemes are underway.

Christina and I noticed that as we changed from one to another venue, job, residence, and context that we spent so much time and energy on what it took to settle and build in the new context that we had little capacity to reflect, meditate, remember and recall what we had left and abandoned. Friends, possessions, knowledge, experience and savvy of the old context was forgotten and emptied to make space for the new information, names, places, and faces. New residence, job, employer, fellow workers, neighborhoods, facilities and resources demanded us to drop the past and concentrate on the present. In so doing the failures troubles along with the delights and pleases were lost and gone. Often we did not communicate with those were left behind and many of them knew we were starting over again. It is only now in writing this autobiography am I able to retrace and rethink the times, peoples and places we left for what had to follow.

Only now that we can remember and link one to another and sew them together we just had so little capability, capacity and opportunity to do otherwise. In the same manner, the anomie of change had little to no impact on most of our changes. Our life in the world is suspended. It reveals that what we call life is “world-related” being as how it is distracted and derailed.

The circumstance stops everything and anomie starts. Anomie starts because world life that has been stopped is not replaced easily and conveniently by another life. However, if one’s life is already rooted in a non-worldly mind, then the physical circumstances that change will not alter the continuum of the already invulnerable concept of one’s life. In other words, life is really a concept and state of mind then it is the reality of circumstances so long as we regard the physical and material as being transient and temporary with ideas, beliefs and faith permanent and invulnerable. When we live a life because something has happened it gives us a freedom. We are free because our income stops and is taken away. When the gas and electricity stops and the storm are over we learn that there is yet another life with the media, resources, and energy. It is also life but not the life we expect, anticipate or find righteousness.

It has an anomie of great proportions and scope beyond a mere change of jobs, locations and residence. It is what happens after a hurricane such as we experienced in Florida after Charley and Francis. The hurricanes of 2004 and my childhood’s hurricanes and blizzards teach that life as we know is interrupted by these events. A new life then begins. What we have come to call life is merely a continuum of power and energy related utilization events. It is the life we have chosen and relish above all. When it is interrupted and out of our control we are anxious, upset and stressed. We suffer anomic stress and disorientation. Our air conditioning, media, electricity, lights, television, communications, telephone, Internet, gas and transportation modes are discontinued. This in itself is bad but when combined with loss of home, building, possessions, personal possessions is calamity and traumatic. It is similar to being robbed or having a loved one kidnapped or killed. Our time in war where everyone obeys. Imagination disappears. Everyone instinctively submits to curfews and limitations. I have surrendered freedoms in favor of being controlled for the common good. I watched society subordinate its creativity in 1953 when the war was over.

The world wanted the USA to continue to conform and obey while others rebelled and said “no”. The early fifties were the beginning of a political and social split in values and interruption in the contiguity of values. In the aftermath of the Al-Qaida attack on the world trade center a state of war where everyone is politically unified to rely upon man to reestablish security and restore the status quo. In Saudi I was in the middle of one thing and doing another: I was at work serving the word of God; developing AIG/ME; sending tapes to Christina; maintaining the apartment and working on articles for publication. I am usually focusing on one thing while doing another. Joining the underground church is a way for many to escape being controlled and managed. It fulfills our urge for survival by bonding together for security. I used to say AIG/ME meetings “together we can do, what alone we cannot.” It is one thing if it is God and another if it is the denomination and the laws of man’s order.

Several generations of expatriate workers for many nations wallowing in poverty have been able to build a new life in Saudi Arabia with new friends and activities which have helped to dull the ache of being homesick and lonely. Boris Pasternak reminds us that many new stories will be written about interrupted, disjoined and broken lives caused by both external and internal factors. The ones which are uncontrolled by the individual and yet change everything for the individual are the most tragic. The life of Jesus can be seen from this point of view as well as the lives of the many millions displaced by wars, political upheavals, coups and natural disasters. Some of life’s interruptions are controlled and planned and these can be more easily dealt with, but the ones, which are caused by accidents and bombs, are often capricious and arbitrary and often unfairly dealt. One very early Friday morning at sunrise I drove alone to newly opened corniche road leading to sunset beach and midway I saw the tragedy of a whole Saudi family’s dead bodies and an overturned new white very large Cadillac with bodies on the ground, hanging out of the car and in the car; all were dead and had apparently struck the medium divider in the dark and over turned many times. Their life ended abruptly.

Pastor Bergen suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage and fell off the roof in Puerto Rico and his family was left without a father and husband; John Kane suddenly died of natural causes in Puerto rico leaving his wife betty and their three children, etc. so many died suddenly and before their time leaving families suddenly without a loved one who they counted on to spend the rest of there lives. Disasters and changes make us take our homes, family and arts more seriously. After the 2004 Florida hurricanes we plan to shutter and be more prepared for the next season and potential of a hit by another hurricane. In time of trouble and sudden change, I have turned to god for help, rescue and His salvation. The tsunami of December 2004 left millions without context, family, connections, place, metaphors, reference, nor identity. Did you ever have friends and family who you haven’t seen in many years who then appeared and then died? Or who you knew and then died and you felt good because you had known them and as such believe they are part of you life whether you see them or not?

In other words in your mind whether they are alive or not or that you see them or not is inconsequent since their importance in your life has less to do with there flesh and blood and more to do with an idea you have that about who they might really be. This kind of awareness resists anomie by faith, trust, and belief in eternal life and God’s divine will. It transcends flesh and its changed status. What you did not have you cannot loose. The idea and impact of anomie is to those of the world whose faith and credibility depends on tangible coveted flesh and the flesh’s evidence. My own experience with the death of so many relatives, both parents, close friends distant acquaintance, pets and icons has been more about ides and disputes; about unfinished differences; about ongoing love and passion; about their well being and affection than it has been about there physical presence. In most cases my relations have been about there spirit and soul or their status and meaning or about their accomplishment or meaning than about their flesh.

And when it was about flesh they have been replaced or eclipsed by more flesh. Most of my affection, love and concerns for people is about their heart, minds, courage, passions, zeal, ideas even in their physical presence. The physical presence bore the passion and mind but the mind and passion is what lives in their name, song, memory, words, and accomplishments. My closest friends who were absent for a long time and hearten died are both times absent but it is in their physical death that they are no longer contributing ink the world. Since they were not present with me there absence by death or by space is negligible in the realm of their spirit, idea and my memory of them. There are many deceased persons whom I have known and loved and whose departures I grieved and bear sorrow. However the sadness and sorrow is no more or less for their death than they’re leaving active involvement in my life. They are no longer part of my bridging experience but made the bridge what it is today. They accumulated in my metaphor but are no longer part of connecting to the future.

They are in the past and can only be part of the future by my own mind bringing their ideas, words, and accomplishments into my mind as I act upon the present. So it is with many of people who have been lost to me by space, distance, or death. They are all still dear to me and when I recall any of them recall their presence and lessons I learned with them and the way we connected the past with future by our faith, trust and loyalty toward God and each other. (1,056) No betrayals, insults nor disrespects intended. There was a time before 9/11 and a new openness in Saudi when I was a very protective of our ministries and underground church so as not to confront or challenge the Wahhabi and religious clerics.

However, it is now abundantly clear by their raids, advertisements and public announcements that they are aware of our presence, activities and even identities of key leaders. However I upon publication I intend to use only first names and initials of those Christians remaining and active in the kingdom. After living in KSA for nearly twenty years you can have no doubt that my wife and I were happy and without complaint. There is nothing implied nor intended subtly or overtly about the kingdom, its rulers, subjects and institutions that is critical or meant to show disrespect, insult or embarrass Islam, its practitioners or clergy. We have always had good relationships with everyone in Saudi and in all instances preferred and did life amongst the Saudis and their families. In the office, home, and socially our preferences were to be with Saudis and we did. We’d often remark that I’d rather be employed and work for a Saudi manager and owner. My walk has taken me thought the desert, strong sun, harsh weather and surprising situations with employers, security forces, police, clergy, businessmen and officials.

I even have lived in buildings and neighborhoods with the religious police. I also had students who were also clergy and religious police. In writing my essays and monographs for publications I gave for review to my colleagues at the University and one cautioned me not to publish such a thing that I had written because it may be taken to mean something which was not intended and I may therefore be criticized or insult someone or something. So it with my former colleagues caution I am writing thesis apology beforehand to assure my respected Saudi colleagues , former neighbors, friends, and acquaintances , colleagues, fellow workers, employers, land lords , businessmen, etc that although you have been included in this autobiography you have to been singled out for any punitive or negative reason but only as a good account of our life and experience with you. I have also separated out the factual observations about Wahabism and its affiliations with any religious, royalty or business relationship because my experience and knowledge of any person I knew had no such affiliation and in every was so far as I knew and could discern was in every way respectable and kind to me, my family and those under their authority.

I too apologies to my readers if they were expecting a scathing inside story such as “The Princes” or some other lambasting of the kingdom Islam or the royal family because this was not my intention in writing this but rather to give a faithful account of our experience and perceptions during the time we were in Saudi and the Eastern Hemisphere. It was about a fifth of our life not more nor not less and should only be viewed proportionately. Still every day I search the Arab news, Goggle and the world press for reports as well as ready ARAMCO magazine from cover to cover.

Certainly when we meet an Arab person I try to welcome them with whatever Arabic I can muster. The experience affected me positively and uniquely. I do not apologize for being as if some of the young journalist which has recently been published opening the door to new ideas and information about the kingdom and its practices. Even when I lived in Saudi I never was critical of Islam, Muslims or any practices. I was well liked and welcomed into Saudi homes and amongst families and business concern. Saudi businessmen trusted me and I trusted them. I would not betray their faith, trust or relationship with them and any of their interests. There is nothing printed here that I know of which betrays such trust. AS for some descriptions of specific business practices, driving, social and other specifics a goodly amount of time has passed for any of this to be consequential and I am sure if my Saudi employers and friends wanted these things silenced they would have either kept it from me, kept me in Saudi or simply requested I not divulge any of this information.

I have never had to sign anything that bound me to such privacy. In any case I have been careful to wait for over five years before authoring any information. However readers will find that discussing these things lend reality and familiarity to this report. Yet the reader wishing to be informed about the life and times of the period and the detailed resources, happenings and persons in the kingdom will surely find this account exciting and informative. Since this was all written without knowing any particular literary, agent, editor or publisher I am the sole and complete source of all the material except those which I have so noted in the footnotes and other places from the newspapers, books and internet.

However, although I am not a Muslim, Muslim scholar, cleric not practitioner I did participate with other Saudi and non-Muslim instructors and professors in the university to teach the design students about the design of building used for worship and I myself did learn the vocabulary, elements and design necessities for a mosque. We did visit mosques and many other building types in the kingdom including design offices to see haw Saudis practice there profession. In all of this I never did pretend or discuss Islam or an religion with any of students or other professors.

Our work was purely technical and professional. There may have been those in the kingdom who may have other opinions of me and what I did but they never did face me with any charge or discussions. I was taught many times that it is the custom if you did something wrong you would know it very quickly. Nearly twenty years passed and with the accumulation of very long lasting relationships, good friends and fond memories. I hope to share these with my readers.

As Saudi this work provides a view of our life and times, as did Alvin Toffler and Marshall McCluen I have tried to face the experiences from birth to present to reveal the outlook and path for success and accomplishment. It has been said if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere. The same can be said of Saudi. It is a microcosm of our all that is victorious as well as failures and surely is the enigma of our times. It is therefore worth the reader to read this debriefing and know the person who lived through these events. My ubiquitous identity led me through the world’s bigotry and intolerance into the most intolerant and bigoted realms. My monographs have been published by many learned journals and John Wiley and sons contracted me to publish my book on “project management”.

On the way to all of this I overcame the affects of abuse and speech defects to become a radio broadcaster, author and public speaker. For a follow up and later publication: The whole story is comprehensive and completely reveals the details of travels where I made pen and ink drawings of over 100 European cities, India, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. First married to a person born in Auschwitz and later to another who lived through Hitler’s Germany, and later fled Leipzig’s east zone from Russian occupation. It is a story with contradictions and complexity of victories in changing careers, jobs and venues surviving tough economic and life threatening times and events. It is a lesson in change, transitions and acclimatization’s demonstrating the virtues of confluence and bridging.

My identity as a person with a vague identity made me tolerate, subordinate myself to bigots and prejudice so that I could get on with some work I had to do. I was not a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices but rather in search and very pleased to hear those who had an identity of which they were proud. On the way I render my urban and ethnic origins from New York City, Bronx, Hunt’s Point, Morrisania, Harlem, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Rhodes, Aegean Sea, and Bessarabia, Romania. In the complete autobiography I describe the contexts, buildings, ambiance, and places of the neighborhoods, streets and buildings.

You will read about the people, places and companies as well as the descriptions of the jobs, schools and organizations I helped shape and bring to success. I was manager of Special Projects for the Gulf Oil Corporation. I include famous and well known entertainers, architects, educators, and business men including my family’s personalities who I encountered along the way. Much of this excitement and diversity is included in this autobiography of twenty years in Saudi Arabia. My whole autobiography is organized into four volumes of about 250,000 words each; however they can be edited and reduced for publication.

The first is the Scenario about the action of my life. Index of the first is

1. Childhood

2. College

3. Corporate

4 Saudi (This is an expanded version of this book)

5. Lee County

• The second is the conditions of the action

• The third is the ideas and reasons

• The forth is the footnotes and research by others about the context, background of context and activities.

250,000 words is the average size of a large autobiography so the idea of three volumes of approx 250,000 words each still works. 1. Scenario: Action through time; Saudi; residence; jobs (226,272)

2. Condition: people that made the action: family; friends& acquaintances; teachers (261,012)

3. Ideas, God. Intro; recreation; education; Saudi (256,460)

4. Footnotes: Incl. Appendices 196,704 total words: 4/18/05 Total of all four books (940,456) (Certainly can be edited to a smaller size, etc.)

Another version, which is one without footnotes, and another with all the footnotes. I have given the word count for the total, text and footnotes only to sort out and control publication.

This autobiography of 20 years in Saudi Arabia includes all its related footnotes.

Before writing the four volume version I had a single ten part disc combing all of what you find on the above four volumes.

I have simply cut, pasted, and edited these contents into the current four volume version.

I did this after first segregating the text form the footnotes into a two part version of my autobiography where you can find the ten part text and the ten part footnotes relating to each of the text.

All are available for review and use. In the other works you would find what I did and what drove my actions.

How was I qualified? What were the benefits to others?

Was anything in the world changed?

All of this is available in other works.

However, this book is solely about our experience in Saudi Arabia.