Word: jidda
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...impact of breakneck development and foreign influence on their ultraconservative Muslim culture. As a result, Saudi leadership views the world from the palaces of Riyadh with considerably more confidence than it has in some time-and wants the world to know it. Concludes a long-experienced U.S. observer in Jidda: "The Saudis are determined to get the message across that they are not in immediate jeopardy." Concerned officials and experts in Washington and other capitals tend to agree. The outlines of the Saudis' tripartite campaign...
...port of Jidda and the inland capital of Riyadh, each with a population of more than 1 million today have become two of the fastest growing cities in the Middle East. Skyscrapers sprout from the desert landscape. Building cranes bristle across the horizon. Multi-lane highways and ringroads girdle the cities. Old neighborhoods change dramatically in a matter of weeks; new ones spring up overnight. The din of traffic and construction, residents complain, makes it virtually impossible to sleep after...
...cacaphony, the clash of old and new, of Islamic and Western ways, is harsh and sometimes bizarre. A $500 million 200-unit apartment complex in Jidda has yet to be occupied nearly a year after completion, because religious conservatives objected to the lack of separate elevators for women. Concedes the city's young mayor, Mohammed Said Farsi, an architect educated in Egypt and Britain: "Our biggest problem has been too rapid expansion...
...pumps, VHF telecommunications relay towers, automatic weather stations and even an Air Force radar station. In addition, Kansas oil wells use solar electricity to inhibit the rusting of metal; a remote Arizona Indian reservation gets its power from cells, and even the Saudi Arabian government plans to line its Jidda-Riyadh highway with 400 solar-powered emergency call boxes...
...were in 1977, for example, when they reportedly provided Cairo with around $1 billion in aid. "We deal on the basis of principles, not emotions," says Saudi Information Minister Mohamed Abdou Yamani. "No matter what has happened, our relations with Egypt remain the same." A Saudi newspaper editor in Jidda is more blunt. "Sure, we will let the Egyptians attack us and insult us," he says. "Then they will send us a letter demanding to know why the check is late. And then we will send the check...