Outsourcing Culture

What does Saudi Arabia have? Oil and culture. That is all. And as everyone and their grandma are trying to make oil obsolete, culture in Saudi is getting battered from a number of fronts.

First, you got those who are trying to erase it, go down any uptown street or up any downtown slum and you are greeted (not really, more like shocked) with an array of subcultures based on what popular western genre was available. But mostly rap/hip hop for the boys and teenie soaps for the girls. It is quite distressful when dealing with someone who doesn't even have a grasp of their own identity, their ever changing personality are entirely dependant on whatever free time they had last night to shoot up another rap CD or episode of 90210.

The other problem is with those who are outsourcing culture, one example is the importing of the Shumaq (red-white checkered head scarf) from the UK, and blatantly advertising it as the "Original English Shumaq". One far out example is this belly dancing video from Japan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk3kIvJlAiQ

If this goes on, once the oil runs out, Saudi cities, void of local culture would resemble broken down malls.

And that concludes the post for today, sayonara, adios, and goodbye.