Outside a closed coffee shop with Nasser #5

            So after almost two weeks of no responses to my texts, I sit down to write my professor an email explaining the situation and lo and behold, a text from Nasser! So we met today outside of the TCU bookstore like normal. One unfortunate thing was that the bookstore was closed today for inventory purposes so Nasser was not able to get coffee; apparently 3pm on a Sunday is a little too early for him.

While to trying to catch up from the last two to three weeks since we last met, a car rolled down University blaring music. We then discussed the differences between American music and Saudi Arabian music. He said Saudi Arabian music does not have genres like American, but is all of the same style, most of which is composed and performed by three very famous Egyptians artists. He said that if you were to walk up to anyone on the street and ask if they know [insert name in Arabic of famous Egyptian composer], they will say yes. He describes his music as more sophisticated because the lyrics are the words to well known poems; beautiful poetry is set to a tune and that is the music they listen to. For this reason, I have to agree that their music is more sophisticated; it is about much more mentally engaging material than drugs, sex, girls, and booze.

Then I asked him about humor because the Middle East is the region of choice for my Humor Around the World presentation next Wednesday. I do not wish to give away some of the answers he gave because otherwise ya’ll would be less inclined to listen in class (I say that because I assume that everyone that reads this is from this class), but we talked about general categories of jokes, political jokes, the ability of puns in the Arabic language, and like always religion. He said that he would try to find some good jokes (or at least jokes that are still good once translated) on the internet and send them to me.

One thing I did learn is that Saudi Arabia does not have absolute freedom of speech as compared to how Nasser views freedom of speech in America. I did explain that our speech is not absolute: we cannot yell “fire” in a crowded theatre because it can cause harm, but in Saudi Arabia emotional harm is considered worse than physical harm and so speech is more restricted. People do not say things that attack a person based on physical appearance or dislike for that person. He explained that this restriction comes from personal conviction due to religious beliefs, as is the case with many of the laws in his country, whereas in America the law determines the behavior of many citizens.

Finally, we came to one of my least favorite subjects: politics. I asked if there were any sort of elections held in Saudi Arabia; there are not because the government system in place is a monarchy, but he isn’t quite sure how long that will last because most of the other Arabic nations in the area all hold elections. Yet again he made me feel guilty and like a bad American (I will say that I am not the most politically informed, patriotic American out there, but honestly medicine and science is so much more interesting that politics); he watched all of the presidential debates and he cannot even vote, whereas I did not watch any of the presidential debates and I am voting on Tuesday. However, he did inform me who he would vote for based on personality, demeanor, and plans from the debates. But at least we ended on a common belief: America likes to be, but shouldn’t be, the police of the world.