Earlier this month an unprecedented view of three nations in the Middle East afforded us sights of military capability, tribal history and pageantry rarely available to the public. To me, it was delicious!
As a semi-informed, average citizen who would probably fail a basic geography test, I wasn’t expecting to be all that interested in the presidential Middle East trip. Usually what we see, at the very most picturesque, are our guys in suits next to their guys in head cloths (sometimes red gingham?) doing remarks in front of stone doorways, getting into cars, and end scene.
But my daughter woke me up holding her phone (it better be important when you wake me up) saying, “You need to see the Trump parade in Arabia; there’s white stallions all around his car.”
White stallions! When was the last time I was notified of that? Maybe never, and though I usually get up pretty slowly I jumped up and grabbed the phone. I saw a couple of dozen superbly matching Arabian horses, in full military garb with their riders, prancing confidently around the “Beast” black van. Threading through a street in Riyadh, the parade had apparently joined the motorcade as they neared the Emir’s palace.
Oh my goodness, I started watching the trip non-stop, for no reason other than it was the best entertainment ever. Entertainment aside, I knew it would be educational for me, as my knowledge is definitely surface level in politics. Only because the tour was specifically announced for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates did I know they were separate countries.
Saudi I knew about a little, starting with the iconic silent movie image of Ramon Navarro as the Sheik wooing Clara Bow in the desert. Then on 70s and 80’s tv our presidents, driven by sand-capable jeeps, met Arabian leaders in elaborate tents, with horses and camels standing outside showing the exotic romance of the nomadic Saharan countries; I loved it but hadn’t realized they have long since moved far beyond the tents.
Qatar I only heard about in the last decade or so. A friend of a friend moved there with her husband for work and although she didn’t say much about it, I was swiftly informed that it was pronounced “CUT-ter.” But now, by cable media accordance, it seems to be officially called “cut-TAR.”
For most of us who go to airports United Arab Emirates familiarity comes from sleek airplanes on every runway with the distinct impression of understated wealth and power.
People on travel blogs and podcasts often aspire to travel UAE and when they get there, capture every detail of their time on board. They say food is wonderful and flight service is the best of any airline.
But aside from overall impressions, where exactly are these countries on the globe? I had to look at a small map on Wikipedia to get even an idea. Though I knew they were somewhere northeast of Egypt, I had no clue about nation names or boundaries. I somehow would have thought United Arab Emirates technically included all three of them.
So geographically, Saudi Arabia is the largest of the three by far, followed by Qatar— a tiny peninsula—and the United Arab Emirates is about half the size of the peninsula.
In population Saudi is 33 million-ish; ruled by a hereditary monarchy, it has a large immigrant percentage, nearly half of legal residents are from nearby eastern countries.
Age-wise, half of the Saudi population is under 25, and in all three countries people are quite young!
Qatar has two and a half million residents, fewer people than Dallas/Ft. Worth with almost 90% legal immigrant residents who live and work there.
UAE, governed by “tribal autocracies,” has 11 million and like the other two is heavily immigrant worker reliant.
Despite any measure of size, the three receptions were equally elaborate and extravagant. Each day of events had me bouncing between online channels; I couldn’t get enough.
Beyond a wow factor, the planning-to-execution of the three is mind-bending to consider.
We expect most countries to have tours of famous sites ready to go for state visits. But being able to bring out: fighter jet escorts, a Royal Camel Brigade, mounted and foot military escorts in full regalia, hundreds of men ready for sword dances, a line of women with hair long enough to flip around stationary bodies. I’m sorry, that puts Buckingham Palace stuff to shame.
As it turned out, one of my favorite events was purely entertainment: the receiving line at the Qatar dinner. I happened onto it while scrolling all the events online.
Like a fly on the wall I watched as the Emir and his wife Sheika Jawaher (who dressed in traditional “abayah” for the dinner but often wears western-style designer clothing when in other countries) stood with Trump to greet 400 dinner guests invited by the Crown Prince. And yes, the Crown Prince has two other wives.
Dinner guest dress was what I can only categorize as “semi formal” because the western men were not in dinner jackets. The suits of men slowly passing displayed a hierarchy of quality starting with world class to finer tailoring to good suit, all the way down to decent-suit-used-a-lot-for-work. Stand-outs were a man in a white suit and black tie, one man in thick, white-soled walking shoes and a single pair of brown shoes in the last part of the line.
Women guests were in the minority but numerous. Qatari females wore their designer draping that gave them a lot of leeway for physical appearance, western women not so much.
American women were seen in a little bit of everything and some fared better than others; one obviously rich and influential elderly woman had on a pale pink, glittering translucent long gown that didn’t do her body any favors.
I got hooked into this reception line thinking I’d watch just a minute or two, but on that online channel you could almost hear the conversation, could catch a name, hear a word enhanced by a lot of gestures from Trump, the Emir and his wife. I spent almost an hour trying to eavesdrop while important people talked to the Qatari royal couple and Trump.
Now that was entertainment.
Marilyn Stokes was a public school teacher in Fort Worth for 15 years and subsequently worked at KERA public television for four years. She retired after 15 years at Ford Motor Company, Southwest Region.