News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Lee and Jacqueline Ingham.
Leeman Ingham calls Sisters his home town -- although he has spent most of his life since the 1960s living and working in Saudi Arabia.
The life of an expatriate oil and gas worker has always been interesting. Its gotten considerably more so since September 11.
"On September 11, I was driving across the desert to go home," recalled Ingham, who was in Sisters visiting family for a month.
Initial reports made the plane crash into the World Trade center sound like an accident. Like the rest of the world, Ingham soon learned the true nature of the event.
"Our house was full of Saudis just flipping out," Ingham said. "They were very upset. Everyone knew instantly who had done it."
Because Osama bin Laden descends from a prominent family construction empire in Saudi Arabia, because 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers carried Saudi passports, Saudi Arabia is deeply suspect in the minds of many Americans.
A recently leaked security briefing by the Rand Corporation argued that Saudi Arabia is no friend to the United States.
That, says Ingham, is simply false.
"Saudi Arabia has been a U.S. ally -- has been and remains to be," Ingham said.
Ingham's Saudi friends educate their children in America and vacation here --although they are now afraid to come to the United States in the wake of September 11 and what they perceive as a "profiling" of Arabs as terrorist suspects.
They wish Americans would understand, Ingham said, "that they're not terrorists. They're peaceful. They want to be friends."
Ingham questions whether the hijackers were actually native Saudis.
"You'd better look at where they came from," he said. "Saudi Arabia is, like America, a nation of immigrants."
That's because there is money to be made there -- lots of money.
It is work that drew Ingham there back in the '60s and again in the 1990s after a four-year stint as the owner of The Dime Store in Sisters.
Ingham is a materials specialist with Saudi Aramco (the Saudi Arabian Oil Company). His work involves construction of gas and oil extraction sites.
"I make sure the purchasing department lays down in the field what the engineers need," he said.
His wife Jacqueline also works in Saudi Arabia and she says she is treated respectfully as a colleague by her male co-workers in the notoriously male-dominated society.
The same does not go for Saudi women, who are, indeed, quite restricted. They cannot drive and, if their male relatives insist (and most do) they must go veiled.
Jacqueline noted that the women enforce restrictions on themselves and each other as well, since strict adherence to the veil and to other restrictions is a sign of religiosity.
"A religious Muslim woman is respected by all," she said.
"The toughest thing on the women is they're expected to have one baby after another and it really wears them down," Jacqueline said.
She was reluctant to make further observations on women's reactions to their status -- because she and Lee have almost no contact with Saudi women. All of their Saudi friends are men.
The Inghams noted that there is gradual pressure building in some segments of society, pushing toward liberalization and a more Westernized lifestyle.
Posed against that trend is the growing power of militant Islamic fundamentalism. While dissent is quickly and ruthlessly stamped out, there is an undercurrent of potential revolt similar to that found in Egypt, Algeria and in other parts of the Islamic world.
A rapidly growing population of young, unemployed men is a ripe seedbed for militancy.
Is a militant revolution a threat?
"Sure, without a doubt," said Ingham. "We worry about it."
The whole world worries about it, because a disruption of Saudi oil supply would have immediate and devastating impact on the world economy.
However, the militant fundamentalists are a minority, at least for now. Osama bin Laden is a wanted man in Saudi Arabia -- and was long before September 11.
"He's been under a death warrant for years," Ingham said.
Ingham said that Americans should not read too much into Saudi Arabia's refusal to support another attack on Iraq. He notes that no other nation -- besides Israel -- seems to think an attack is a good idea.
Israel, according to Ingham, is the key to resolving America's problems in the Islamic world. Only the United States can pressure Israel into ending the occupation of the West Bank, Ingham said.
Once that is done, militants will lose their most important rhetorical weapon against the United States.
"If the West Bank (situation) is settled, it's over. You'd take the wind out of everybody's sails," Ingham said.
"Until that's resolved, nothing is resolved. The problem in the Middle East is the West Bank."
If the United States genuinely pressures Israel for a resolution, Ingham says, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world will genuinely pressure the Palestinians.
It sounds simple, but Ingham acknowledges that this long-standing and bloody feud has historical and cultural impetus that is almost impossible to overcome.
"Nobody is willing to take the last hit and say 'It's over,'" he said.
While the politics of being an American in Saudi Arabia has become a more prominent part of the Inghams' lives over the past year, the desert and the culture of its inhabitants continue to charm them
"The four-wheel driving is spectacular," Ingham said. "There are no fences."
There are no "No Trespassing" signs or property owners telling them to get off their land. Quite the contrary. Hospitality is so important that it becomes a hazard.
"You cross their land, you have to stop and have tea," Ingham said.
That, for Ingham, should be the lasting impression of relations between Saudis and Americans.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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