The distinguished economist Milton Friedman once said: ‘Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change’.
I, personally, agree with Friedman’s statement. What Friedman is raising not only applies to the world of economics, but also to everything that governs our lives. I will not go into detail about it, but I would strongly recommend Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine that challenges Friedman’s free-market policies and illustrates various examples of how a crisis actually produced real change. Klein highlights the change in Latin America; Chile and Argentina’s market privatization, post 9/11; change in US domestic and foreign policies – the fundamental reason for waging the war on terror.
I hope the picture is clear now, as I only plan to discuss this through a Saudi-Jeddawi lens.
By the end of November 2009, heavy rain hit the people in Jeddah – sadly, a number of them passed away.
What succeeded this unfortunate event was something noteworthy; the emergence of humanitarian aid – not the basic collection of material donations, but instead a personal hand.
Saudi youth, adults and elders stood hand in hand, despite age, gender, background, class… It seemed that everyone was pre-occupied with purpose – a GOAL to help out those who have been affected by the flood.
The Jeddawi Saudis were in a state of shock, and, therefore, something abnormal occurred. Although there was opposition by the committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (هيئة الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر) to put the humanitarian aid movement to a halt, it was resisted by determined Saudis who subconsciously protested and used the external circumstances as an alibi for such a significant change; community service, and to be precise gender-mixed.
This dramatic change would not have happened with perhaps 20 Majlis Al-Shura meetings, as a result of some of them being diagnosed with phobia of change – or as would the psychology jargon phrase it: future shock – ainophobia, the fear of newness.
It seems that Friedman’s theory of change was, to a degree, applied to Jeddawi Saudi society. Whilst the aim of this post is not to assert that change only occurs when there is a crisis, but to argue that people with influence should take advantage of a crisis (لا سمح الله) to produce positive change within our society.
