10

 

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Even though Nash had visited several dozen countries in the past few years, it was always a thrill to visit a new one. He’d never been to Saudi Arabia, and he was more than a little curious what it would be like. He’d heard and read so much about the land controlled tightly by the House of Saud. He wondered if it would live up to its reputation.

It was nighttime when they landed in Riyadh. As the Saudi Arabian Airlines plane made the long descent into the Saudi capital near the center of the country, Nash couldn’t help himself. He pressed his face to the window and gazed out at the city. King Fahd Road stretched out before him. The colors dazzled him—blocks of green, orange, and purple mixed in with the usual lights of the city.

He kept his eyes glued to the sight as the plane made its way to King Khaled Airport north of the city. He tried to spot places he’d heard about, like Masmak Fortress, but it was hopeless. He did manage to spot two different golf courses, both lit by floodlights, during the descent. There didn’t seem to be anyone on either course, though. That’s odd, Nash thought.

One of his mVillage volunteers was scheduled to meet him at the airport and drive him to a hotel near the center of the city. He had a full set of meetings starting early in the morning the next day. He’d left no time for tourism, so this view from the plane’s window would have to suffice.

He’d been told by his New York staff not to even bother going out at night in Riyadh. Alcohol was banned, along with movie theaters and nightclubs. His skeleton staff—volunteers for mVillage and Village Health Corps—gathered at a coffeehouse in central Riyadh, just off Tahlia Street. That would have to do for the evening’s entertainment.

Nash turned his mobile on the instant the wheels touched down. With a couple of quick keystrokes, he’d switched his roaming to the local Saudi cell carrier. He had the mVillage network up and running before the plane had even begun to taxi.

The news jumped out at him almost immediately. Yemen’s president—a man who’d been in power for more than three decades— had been forced to flee the country that night, while Nash’s plane was in the air. Rebel forces now stormed different parts of the country at Saudi Arabia’s southern border. There were no reports yet about an emerging leader.

So, Nash thought, Yemen is falling—just like Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. What’s next?

Large Middle Eastern countries like Syria and Jordan—and smaller countries like Bahrain—faced growing pressure from students and rebels. People seemed fed up with the status quo and leaders who’d been in power for years. It was the greatest uprising the Arab nations had seen since the Second World War, and no one could predict when and where it might stop.

Buried in the news reports, though, was an item that troubled Nash the instant he saw it. In order to protect itself from the unfolding events, the House of Saud had apparently invaded Yemen to contain one of the rebel movements aligned with the Shi’a leadership in Iran. Saudi Arabia had invaded once before to contain the Houthis, who had received funding and arms from Iran for years.

The world had ignored the Saudi move against the Houthis the first time, largely because the House of Saud had pulled the troops back into Saudi territory quickly after the initial invasion. But the world would notice this time, Nash knew. Iran, especially, would make sure the United Nations and others noted the Saudi action against the Zaidi Shi’a insurgent group.

The mVillage report was colorful:

Sporting replica “swords of Ali,” or Zulfiqars, alongside their assortment of rifles, the young Houthi rebels are putting up quite a spirited fight against the Saudi forces. The Saudis have yet to make much headway against the rebels, and the fighting is scattered across the landscape.

One of the mobile videos was chilling. A group of young teenagers stormed Saudi troops with little more than swords and a few rifles. The Saudi troops, clearly uneasy at the prospect of killing teenagers, held back as long as they could, then fought hand-to-hand as the two forces clashed briefly. It was an unmistakable sign of the passion sweeping through Yemen and elsewhere.

The report concluded that thousands of Houthi tribe members had joined the fight during the night. If that was true, Nash knew the Saudis would have their hands full with this insurgency in northern Yemen for days.

Nash had planned to make his way through southern Saudi Arabia and into northern Yemen in two days—near the areas where the House of Saud had invaded and the fighting had broken out. He grimaced. Su would never forgive him if he went anywhere near the fighting. He’d have to play it by ear.

He scanned other mVillage news reports and checked the dozens of e-mails that had accumulated while he’d been in the air. There was nothing urgent or pressing that demanded his attention, so he sent a quick note to Su that he’d arrived safely. He finished the note as they arrived at the gate.

The young Village Health Corps volunteer would be waiting for Nash as he exited the gate area. Nash always marveled at the intensity and commitment of the young men and women who volunteered around the globe for both mVillage and the Village Health Corps that ran the network. They were constantly upbeat and relentless in their pursuit of social change. Nothing seemed to faze them. They truly were the “relentless, positive storm” generation.

“Mr. Lee?” True to his word, the young man approached Nash as he came through the exit.

“Please.” Nash smiled crookedly. “Mr. Lee is my father.”

“The US ambassador to Japan,” the young staffer said. “Yes, I know, he’s—”

Nash cut him off. “He’s Mr. Lee, not me. I’m just Nash.”

“Okay, well…” The young man seemed uneasy, as if not quite sure whether to take Nash seriously.

“So you’re Badr? Badr Ahmad?” Nash asked. “You run the Riyadh operation?”

“I am,” he said, lifting his head with pride. “And yes, I’ve been trying to build up an mVillage network.”

“Good.” Nash nodded. “I’m here to help with that effort. You’ve been working out of the Riyadh office for, what, six months?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Straight out of school—out of KAUST, right?”

“I started helping out with VHC while I was still in school,” Badr said.

“And you began working on some software applications for the local mobile carriers while you were still at KAUST?”

“Yes, sir, absolutely.” Badr beamed. He seemed incredulous that the famous Nash Lee knew so much about him. “I believe I’ve come up with a way to add several new software applications directly to the mobile devices that people use here…”

“Which should make it easier for mobile devices of any shape or kind to communicate with each other?”

“Yes, regardless of the type of carrier, or the type of mobile device,” Badr said. “I studied software design at KAUST, and this was my major side project.”

“Good. That’s going to be enormously helpful to us in the effort here. I wanted to thank you in person.”

“My pleasure.” Badr bowed slightly. “So please, my car is outside. I will take you into the city. There are others gathered at the coffeehouse.”

Badr gave Nash a quick overview of the mVillage and VHC efforts on the drive into central Riyadh. It was rudimentary. They were just breaking into the tight control the House of Saud kept over the mobile networks. There had been some minor flare-ups. The Saudis were extraordinarily wary of anything that allowed even modest mass communications.

The Saudis viewed mVillage as a way around their control. For this reason, Badr said, they’d been exceedingly cautious about the groups and people they worked with—and the knowledge they shared. Unlike other parts of the world, where mVillage was freely and openly shared, the Riyadh staff members were much more circumspect in their actions.

Nash couldn’t blame them. It was difficult to work in a country like Saudi Arabia, where there was a great deal of money dedicated to preserving the power of the House of Saud—and the status quo. Still, Nash was determined to make mVillage freely available here and in other closed societies in the Arab world. To Nash, it was only a matter of time.

Like the youth-led uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and now Yemen, there was no stopping a global mobile communications network like mVillage—especially when the open source code was beginning to make every single mobile device on the planet capable of talking to any other device across both platforms and carriers.

“Is downtown Riyadh always so quiet like this?” Nash asked as they made their way along Tahlia Street toward their coffeehouse destination.

“It is.” Badr nodded. “At night. But it’s very busy during the day.”

“I see,” Nash said. “So I will look forward to our day tomorrow?”

“Yes, sir. We have a lot planned.”