Fadel Al-Omani

Al-Riyadh

Let me begin by saying that our society is no different from other societies in terms of having good and bad habits. I will write another article about the 10 good habits that Saudis have, but today I want to list the bad I have observed from personal experience. I hope that the concerned authorities will conduct in-depth studies and research on the positive and negative practices of the members of our society so that we can identify and solve some of our problems and overcome our challenges.



The 10 bad habits that we Saudis have are as follows:



First, we tend to judge the people we meet based on their cultural, religious, intellectual, tribal and ethnic background. We never judge a person based on his value as a human being. For example, we use terms like liberal, secular, of pure origin, of impure origin, etc.



Second, we do not respect the privacy of others. I can give hundreds of examples. But let’s take the example of ATMs. When someone withdraws money from an ATM, he feels like everyone’s eyes are on him. People standing next to him want to know how much money he has in his account and how much money he has withdrawn.



Third, Saudi men feel embarrassed about mentioning the names of their sisters, wives, daughters or mothers. A prominent university professor, who teaches information and media courses at a prestigious university here, refused to write his daughter’s name on the wedding invitation card. He just put “daughter of Professor ….”.



Fourth, we are selfish and inconsiderate in most situations. In Japan, if an employee arrives early at his place of work, he will usually park his car in a spot that is away from the office and leave the spots that are close to the office for the employees who will come late. Here in our society, we live by the motto “After me, the flood”.



Fifth, we do not have any respect for time, let alone the skills necessary to manage it. “We’ll meet after Isha prayer” is a common phrase we hear a lot. It shows our disrespect for time.



Sixth, we care too much about what others think of us and of our lives. We do not have confidence in ourselves. We eat food and travel on vacation to countries because others have told us about them, not because we selected them ourselves.



Seventh, we stay up late and never go to bed early, which causes insomnia, psychological pressure and low productivity.



Eighth, speed controls our lives. We eat fast as if we were in a race. We drive fast, or more accurately as if we were crazy. We talk as fast as newscast anchors, despite the fact that most of our talk is small talk and chitchat.



Ninth, we do not have social role models whom we follow. We tend to disrespect inspired and creative persons. Other societies respect their role models.



The tenth is the worst habit ever in our society. Honestly speaking, I feel ashamed and cannot write it. Readers will have to imagine it for themselves.