Authoritative, Informational, Polished
Michael Goldfarb produces yet again another terrific well researched documentary.
Saudi Arabia is a country whose customs, politics and current trends most of us know about only superficially.
Goldfarb talks to people from all walks of life, painting a picture of modern Saudi Arabia. His goal is to not only translate for us what we in the West find difficult to understand about this kind of strict Islamic culture but also to ask how the people of the country perceive themselves. He looks at the various dissatisfactions within some factions of Saudi society, talks to dissidents and academics, people on the street, the youth. He looks at how and why the country has become what it has become and where it looks like it may go in the future. He talks to Saudis about how they perceive the US and its huge influence over their own rulers. The result is a thorough thoughtful programme that thankfully adds colour and shades of grey to a palette that has for too long been restricted to black and white.
His narrative is well scripted, well delivered, balanced. If you?re a station that wants to provide informative, well balanced radio for listeners whose intelligence you refuse to underestimate, then this is a programme for you.
Dheera Sujan
, Radio Netherlands
Hilversum
January 30, 2007
Michael Goldfarb travels across Saudi Arabia, taking the measure of the power of the royal family, the influence of fundamentalist Islam, of domestic unrest, and attempts at reform
