Quote:
Originally posted by John McGillivray
I had also worked in the Middle East. I was in Iran in 1980 when the American hostages were been held, and was working in Oman in 1982 and 83.
Although Oman is located right beside Saudi Arabia, and they are both Muslim, the differences between them are almost like day and night. You did not have any of the restrictions that you find in Saudi. They had liqueur stores and bars in all of the hotels. Women did not have to cover up, and they could work and drive. One could buy gold crucifixes in the markets, and there were Christian churches.
I was also in the Philippines. Away from Manila, that place is like the Wild West. There are guns everywhere. Small stores have armed guards. Banks had guards armed with M16s sitting at tables just outside of the main door, with signs reading “Please check your guns before entering the Bank”. On News Years it seemed that everyone was firing their guns into the air. It sounded just a major war was going on. Oh yes, guns were often used to settle minor disputes.
As was said in the Wizard of Oz, there is no place like home (Canada).
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Oman is OK, for the record Bahrain (where there is actualy a convent!) and most of the UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai etc.) are in the same class and Qatar is moving in their direction. (When I was resident in Doha I ad a liquor licence and my villa was well stocked and today most hotels have bars - called libraries!). Curiously enough Iraq under Saddam was also far from dry and actually had breweries and a distillery (some of their beer was quite tasty) although in a dastardly move during the Iran/Iraq war the Iranians took out the gin facility with a missile. It was common at one time for ex pats in Kuwait to drive over the border towards Basra to pick up booze and the border guards usually turned a blind eye. The Kuwaiti royals used to run the bootleg business (and therefore hd a vested interest in keeping the country officially dry).
Its the Saudis who are the greatest fanatics although some senior members of the Royal Family do like a drop of single malt from time to time. The Middle East is no more homogenous than is Europe and no one seems to like the Saudis much.
Guns still are used to settle disputes in Yemen and I suspect that , as was the case in Northern Ireland, some people in Saudi and Iraq operating with terrorists also take the opportunity to settle some personal scores.
Your comments on the Philippenes could also be applied to parts of Indonesia. There was a spate of increased crime in Jakarta one time (about six years ago) and the police started to operate a shoot to kill approach with regard to 'the usual suspects'. The papers registered some concern where upon the head of the police made a statement reasuring everyone that the police were only shooting down known criminals. When asked how the public would know that the victims were criminals his reply was to the effect 'well they must be criminals otherwise we wouldn't be shooting them'. It seems obstructing a police bullet was a crime. Given that the police in Jakarta were some of the most corrupt in the world one was not reassured. In the end the President told him to cool it and the shooting stopped.
I guess the point I'm getting at is although here in the UK as well we have some ill thought out knee jerk legislation that stifles legitimate use of guns (such as in target shooting) it is possible to err in the other direction.