Money, or ‘faloos’ as it is called in modern colloquial Arabic, can and cannot do certain things. The Beatles famously sang ‘can’t buy me love’ , a modern day version of an old classic truism; one that reveals not only the surprising sagacity of a new generation of emancipated youth but that of many a wise observer throughout the long channels of human history.
Faloos, notoriously, cannot buy love, love of people, love of nation, love of heritage, love of education, nor love of God – that one single commodity most needed from the town planners in Riyadh and from those claiming to be guardians of the City’s prosperity. Despite the wealth of its many citizens, Riyadh still cannot boast a legitimate public transport system, unless we are forced to cite the abysmal 2 Riyal Bus Service used exclusively by poor Indian migrant workers, even for all the love of money. It does not matter which way round we wish to examine it, but Riyadh remains poorly placed for the likes of the 21st century and the needs of its soaring adolescent population. The traffic congestion is hideous in extremis and disorientating, inviting major hemorrhage – inducing blockages in all the main arteries at each and every rush hour and at most other times. The poor design of the roads, with virtually no pavements for pedestrians, nor conveniently placed U-Turns, makes Riyadh the most spectacularly un-modern of modern cities. Riyadh boasts great riches and proof of opulent lifestyles is much in evidence but it still ranks as the poorest city in terms of its major road design flaws. It is a driver’s apocalypse - an urban graveland where experienced owners of nice cars need not apply. Nice cars are for nice cities. Bad cars are for bad cities – so maybe the phantom-like oddity of the 2-Riyal Bus expressed a subliminal message after all? The presence of nice cars in bad cities is a crime for their owners and especially the car manufacturers and so Riyadh has finally emerged as the inglorious antithesis of everything the modern motorist most viscerally holds dear; the almost total absence of clean largely uncluttered roads, adequately planned country or desert lanes, ample U-Turning opportunities, hard shoulders, scenic views and ecologically friendly engines. And do not just take my word for it – go hire a car and check it out for yourselves; you can always watch the entire series of Top Gear as a consolation prize on your return.
But pity faloos, poor faloos for having anticipated such sublime niceties for the residents of Riyadh – for nothing is so characteristic of the abandonment of love for the love of faloos than the near total absence of Islamic art and architecture from a major Muslim city of the 21st Century. If the past is what helps to situate us in the present then Riyadh is neither in the present nor in the past, nor yet in the future. According to a report published in Saudi Aramco World, [Volume 31, No.4] “despite the opportunities that construction of this magnitude offers – throughout the kingdom as well as in Riyadh – no specifically Arab-Islamic style of architecture has emerged. Instead, Riyadh and most other centers of growth have imported not only the building technology of the West but also its architectural themes“. Einstein famously remarked that nothing is so unintelligible than the unintelligibility of the world and so nothing is surprising in the observation of the almost total absence of ‘specifically Arab-Islamic’ architecture – why? Because faloos cannot buy love and without love no education let alone traditional architecture is possible – Nothing surprising about that. Nothing whatsoever.
The icing on the cake and proof – if needed – that Riyadh is poor all but in name is the Sauron-like beast, the bottle-opener-in-the-sky, the unflattering anti-tribute to all bottle-opening aficionados and fans of J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings everywhere – Mamlaka Tower or the eponymously named ‘Kingdom Tower’. Here, in full daylight and in the deathly darkness of the night, stands this creature, this Eye of Sauron, blocking out both the rays of the Sun and the Moon as well as the aspirations of all traditional Islamic architects everywhere. In many famous Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad himself warned against the construction of high-rise buildings – why? Not because he was untrained in modern architectural methods nor for that matter because he did not countenance the opportunities available to future generations but because without aesthetic continuity – where the material ambiance breaks with the spiritual values of Islam – an unpleasant, ungodly vacuum is created, a void made up of entirely new elements, foreign both to the soil and heritage of Arabia. Nothing demonstrates the unceasing and disproportionate love of money more poignantly than the near complete replacement of traditional Islamic architecture with unappealing modern substitutes of the worst possible kinds. Even in Rome, in London, in Naples, in Venice, in Prague, in Moscow, in Paris, in Athens - in all the major European cities – continuity is both respected and practised for this very reason. What would happen if the citizens of Rome woke up one morning to find that all of their ancient monuments, buildings, and archaeological sites had been bulldozed, while they slept, to make room for kitschy 5 star hotels and nail salons? No doubt, one can only imagine the uproar. No society worthy of its name, no culture that respects its own heritage could, would or wish to achieve the unimaginable – namely, the elimination of itself from the cultural and aesthetic map of the world. No amount of money, even it be in the billions, is worth this kind of cultural auto-destruction. Every human knows this, every human sings it- only faloos does not.
Advertisement
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
Can’t buy me love
April 5, 2009
Money, or ‘faloos’ as it is called in modern colloquial Arabic, can and cannot do certain things. The Beatles famously sang ‘can’t buy me love’ , a modern day version of an old classic truism; one that reveals not only the surprising sagacity of a new generation of emancipated youth but that of many a wise observer throughout the long channels of human history.
Faloos, notoriously, cannot buy love, love of people, love of nation, love of heritage, love of education, nor love of God – that one single commodity most needed from the town planners in Riyadh and from those claiming to be guardians of the City’s prosperity. Despite the wealth of its many citizens, Riyadh still cannot boast a legitimate public transport system, unless we are forced to cite the abysmal 2 Riyal Bus Service used exclusively by poor Indian migrant workers, even for all the love of money. It does not matter which way round we wish to examine it, but Riyadh remains poorly placed for the likes of the 21st century and the needs of its soaring adolescent population. The traffic congestion is hideous in extremis and disorientating, inviting major hemorrhage – inducing blockages in all the main arteries at each and every rush hour and at most other times. The poor design of the roads, with virtually no pavements for pedestrians, nor conveniently placed U-Turns, makes Riyadh the most spectacularly un-modern of modern cities. Riyadh boasts great riches and proof of opulent lifestyles is much in evidence but it still ranks as the poorest city in terms of its major road design flaws. It is a driver’s apocalypse - an urban graveland where experienced owners of nice cars need not apply. Nice cars are for nice cities. Bad cars are for bad cities – so maybe the phantom-like oddity of the 2-Riyal Bus expressed a subliminal message after all? The presence of nice cars in bad cities is a crime for their owners and especially the car manufacturers and so Riyadh has finally emerged as the inglorious antithesis of everything the modern motorist most viscerally holds dear; the almost total absence of clean largely uncluttered roads, adequately planned country or desert lanes, ample U-Turning opportunities, hard shoulders, scenic views and ecologically friendly engines. And do not just take my word for it – go hire a car and check it out for yourselves; you can always watch the entire series of Top Gear as a consolation prize on your return.
But pity faloos, poor faloos for having anticipated such sublime niceties for the residents of Riyadh – for nothing is so characteristic of the abandonment of love for the love of faloos than the near total absence of Islamic art and architecture from a major Muslim city of the 21st Century. If the past is what helps to situate us in the present then Riyadh is neither in the present nor in the past, nor yet in the future. According to a report published in Saudi Aramco World, [Volume 31, No.4] “despite the opportunities that construction of this magnitude offers – throughout the kingdom as well as in Riyadh – no specifically Arab-Islamic style of architecture has emerged. Instead, Riyadh and most other centers of growth have imported not only the building technology of the West but also its architectural themes“. Einstein famously remarked that nothing is so unintelligible than the unintelligibility of the world and so nothing is surprising in the observation of the almost total absence of ‘specifically Arab-Islamic’ architecture – why? Because faloos cannot buy love and without love no education let alone traditional architecture is possible – Nothing surprising about that. Nothing whatsoever.
The icing on the cake and proof – if needed – that Riyadh is poor all but in name is the Sauron-like beast, the bottle-opener-in-the-sky, the unflattering anti-tribute to all bottle-opening aficionados and fans of J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings everywhere – Mamlaka Tower or the eponymously named ‘Kingdom Tower’. Here, in full daylight and in the deathly darkness of the night, stands this creature, this Eye of Sauron, blocking out both the rays of the Sun and the Moon as well as the aspirations of all traditional Islamic architects everywhere. In many famous Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad himself warned against the construction of high-rise buildings – why? Not because he was untrained in modern architectural methods nor for that matter because he did not countenance the opportunities available to future generations but because without aesthetic continuity – where the material ambiance breaks with the spiritual values of Islam – an unpleasant, ungodly vacuum is created, a void made up of entirely new elements, foreign both to the soil and heritage of Arabia. Nothing demonstrates the unceasing and disproportionate love of money more poignantly than the near complete replacement of traditional Islamic architecture with unappealing modern substitutes of the worst possible kinds. Even in Rome, in London, in Naples, in Venice, in Prague, in Moscow, in Paris, in Athens - in all the major European cities – continuity is both respected and practised for this very reason. What would happen if the citizens of Rome woke up one morning to find that all of their ancient monuments, buildings, and archaeological sites had been bulldozed, while they slept, to make room for kitschy 5 star hotels and nail salons? No doubt, one can only imagine the uproar. No society worthy of its name, no culture that respects its own heritage could, would or wish to achieve the unimaginable – namely, the elimination of itself from the cultural and aesthetic map of the world. No amount of money, even it be in the billions, is worth this kind of cultural auto-destruction. Every human knows this, every human sings it- only faloos does not.
Like this: