Besides attending a workshop on my research themes and meeting researchers from that field, a supplementary incentive for attending Stochastic Numerics and Statistical Learning was to catch a glimpse of Saudi Arabia and its idiosyncrasies. While this is far from my first time visiting a Muslim theocracy, remembering a most enlightening (if penniless) backpacking trip to Morocco in the summer of 1982, Saudi Arabia is in a class of its own, as I experienced from filling a visa application where I had to enter my religion (non-Muslim was enough, though, while atheist would not have worked!), to flying on Saudia Airlines, with the broadcasted travelling Du’a before take-off, plus an extra religious announcement when flying over Mecca, to (early) Hadj pilgrims disembarking from planes wearing only the ihram, to the absolute prohibition of alcohol, even on the KAUST campus. Even though there are signs of recent liberalisation, in the sense of less restrictions imposed to women, probably helped by the timid opening to (non-religious) tourism, if not at all of democratisation, as show by the repression of dissenters, cf. Amnesty annual report, or the current plight of Raif Badawi.
Obviously, these are just quick impressions based on being no more than a few hours in the (real) country, between the airport visits and the taxi trip back from KAUST, since the city campus has had its own regulations from its creation ex nihilo (or de deserto) in 2009. Accommodating more foreign students and faculty than local ones and running quite efficiently, thanks to the enormous budget provided by the Saudi monarchy, which also proves a Damocles sword, were the kingdom choose to allocate this money differently, to one of the many Hercules projects pushed by Mohammed bin Salman, also chairman of the university.
