Okaz

Yesterday, I went through the Riyadh Season programs, whose events are organized by the General Entertainment Authority (GEA) and are set to begin soon. Truly speaking, I never expected the programs to be so comprehensive and diverse, not to speak of the seriousness, care and attention that took place in making preparations.

The Jeddah Season was also a very positive beginning compared to the gloomy situation that characterized entertainment before the creation of the GEA and prior to “breaking the chains that imprisoned the birds of happiness in people’s hearts for so long”.

The residents of a city like Riyadh, which is located in the heart of the desert, used to look for entertainment in other regions of the country that were of a different nature.

The reason for this was the lack of creative thinking in making the best use of the nature of the city and its climate during some seasons of the year along with a failure to create events that suit the place and time.

Perhaps we cannot blame anyone for that because the capability to think and innovate in the field of entertainment was not within reach. Moreover, entertainment per se was considered by some to be a kind of frivolity and even a vice, according to the prevailing thought at that time. And, it must be admitted, there as still some who think that way.

However, this kind of thinking will disappear as a natural or normal life overcomes an artificial life imposed by ideology.

In reading research on the psychological crises and social problems of the Saudi family, I was not surprised to find that one of the important reasons was boredom and the lack of opportunities for entertainment and recreation.

Those who were well off could afford to travel abroad, while the majority of society did not have this option, so they had to stay put in their cities and towns, where they often suffered from boredom. Therefore, entertainment can be seen as a treatment and a cure as well as a natural human need.

In this regard, the GEA should revise the charges for entertainment events so that everyone can afford them because we are in the first stage of the spread of the culture of entertainment.

All segments of society need access to entertainment as its purpose at present is not its financial return, but to compensate society for a period that was full of boredom. It can be likened to an almost free treatment for chronic diseases that society has suffered from for quite a long time.