JEDDAH - A sense of social responsibility among individuals living in a neighborhood seems to be absent, as many people refrain from taking the initiative to report a problem or getting together to fix one. Most people believe it is not their responsibility to get involved when they see something wrong or detect suspicious activities. To them, it is the duty of the municipality, police or the Passport Department to fix the problem. In the past, people were more involved in matters related to their neighborhood security to ensure the safety of the district they lived in. Suspicious activities were often reported, and any problems were fixed with the help of the neighborhood mayor, or “umda.” These days, anyone who cares about what is happening is referred to as a “nosy person.” Even the role of the umda has been marginalized. Samir Yassin, a Saudi apartment building owner, criticized the silence of some of his tenants when he discovered that one of his apartments had been turned into a brothel. He said he was angry that this problem happened in one of his apartment buildings and even angrier when he learned that the other tenants knew about it and did not report it. "I rented the apartment to a married Saudi tenant. I reviewed and got a copy of his marriage contract and family card. According to other tenants in the building, he was bringing different women and sometimes holding big parties with many men and women. The other tenants did not even bother to complain or report it, saying it was not their problem," Samir added. He came to know about the problem when a man living in the same street complained to him about the noise and alerted him to the suspicious activities. Full Story>>
Saudi: Looking the other way at Brothals http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article481470.ece
