In Saudi Arabia 1997-2003 illustrated

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IN SAUDI ARABIA 1997-2003
Contents
...................................................................................................................................................................... 1
IN SAUDI ARABIA 1997-2003 ........................................................................................................................ 2
Contents ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
Our move to Saudi Arabia ......................................................................................................................... 2
First impressions of Jeddah, the hot and humid city ................................................................................ 4
From a group of Bedouins to the Saudi Arabian State ........................................................................... 16
From oil wells to international oil trade ................................................................................................. 24
Petro wealth’s effects on society ............................................................................................................ 39
Finnish art in Jeddah ............................................................................................................................... 51
Visits and consultations .......................................................................................................................... 53
The Arms Dealer Adnan Khashoggi ......................................................................................................... 62
On the role of women in Saudi Arabia ................................................................................................ 64
The desert, excursions and tours ............................................................................................................ 67
The Desert is beautiful ........................................................................................................................ 72
On and in the Red Sea ............................................................................................................................. 78
"This is Saudi Arabia. Take it or leave it” ................................................................................................ 82
Saudi Arabia's neighbors were "stepping countries". ............................................................................ 87
Our move to Saudi Arabia
We lived through the years 1967-77 in Frankfurt-am-Main, where my mission was to promote
Finnish products and establish Finnish companies on the German market. I had set up there an
office called “Finnish Export Center” and worked at the same time as Consul General for Finland.
Next, I was assigned as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and, at the same time, to five
neighboring countries.

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In October 1977 we filled our cars’ trunks and rear seats with essential goods and headed towards
the Arabian Peninsula and the South. Our daughter had already left to the West. She moved to
America to study. We drove in two cars from Frankfurt over the Alps to Monte Carlo, where we
stayed overnight. The city was impressive, what I had been waiting for. We did not go to the
casino to place our bets, but instead marveled at the foreground flowers. Our dog, however, was
driven away from all over. Our drive continued.
In Venice we wanted to show the city to our sons, back then a more impressive city was hard to
find. Unfortunately, the city of Venice sinks deeper
and deeper, so severe these days that the flooding
may well someday become fatal. From Trieste and
Venice operated the Finnish company’s YIT Ro-Ro
ship line to Jeddah. They had agreed to carry our
sons, our dog and our cars. The ferry line, which was
using the roll-on roll-off system to carry containers
directly to the port of Jeddah was one of YIT's
success secrets at a time when the usual ships were
waiting on the Jeddah red for months. A time when
such a cheap product as cement was unloaded from
ships by helicopter. When circumstances changed
the ferry line turned out to be a less productive
investment.
In the vicinity of Venice occurred, to an unknown
thief, an incident, which I assume became
permanently etched in his mind. We had, of course,
reserved for our cars, which were full of goods, in
advance, two garage places. When we arrived, we
found only one. Our elder son Joakim had been
driving my wife's VW Beetle, nicknamed the "Silver Cloud”. It stayed overnight on the street and
was broken into during the night. On the back seat was a big cooler, where the intruder first
probably pushed his hand after breaking the side window of the car. In the cooler was the
terrarium filled with Salamanders, lizards and frogs, the property of our younger son, which, after
a very superficial examination of the female veterinarian in Germany, also were together with
their documents on way to Saudi Arabia. The thief had not done anything else in the car other
than opened this cooler box. Even though I do not have a similar experience, I am able to imagine
what it feels like when in the dark night you push your hand inside the car in a big bag, looking
for something of value, and you feel little reptiles move on your hand. Maybe even biting you?
The thief must have fled immediately. I hope he was so shocked that he chose an honest
occupation in the future.

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In due time the ship went out and our sons traveled through the Suez Canal to Jeddah. My wife
and I returned from Trieste back to Venice, flew to Rome and from there via Cairo to Jeddah.
During the trip nothing very odd happened. The oddest was the security check out from Cairo. In
front of us in the queue was a man whose hand baggage X-ray revealed a revolver. The security
officers were excited to find a gun and dug it out from his bag. I watched the gun too. It seemed
to be a fully usable impressive “Smith & Wesson” revolver. To my surprise, it was given back to
the passenger who pushed it back into his bag. I do not believe that the gun was a toy. My wife
was startled and feared a hi-jacking of the plane, and I was left thinking about the matter. Having
later become better acquainted with the regional culture and local habits, I developed a suitable
response. A small bribe, a “baksheesh”, was one of the possibilities. I myself believed more in the
explanation that the security officers had been given the instruction to investigate via the X-ray
scanner whether passengers had weapons. They had, meanwhile, not been instructed on what
do with a gun, in the event that they found one. So obviously they just gave it back to the owner.
We were, having been in China and Germany, again entering a new culture with its own religion,
traditions and behavior rules. I felt thirst to learn also from this desert culture and to see how it
was influenced by the sudden surge of enrichment following the rapid oil pice increase.
First impressions of Jeddah, the hot and humid city

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The Red Sea port city of Jeddah, always fairly moist and somewhat hot, really impressed us.
Jeddah had been and continues to be for millions of pilgrims on the Hajj pilgrimage the last stage
prior to Mecca, a city closed for Christians. It was November, but still hot and sticky. The sound
of crickets was mixed in with the sound of construction cranes and of car drivers always and
everywhere using their horns. Most of the streets were pot-holed and unsurfaced. There were
no sidewalks, no street signs and no street addresses at all. The Stench of raw sewage wafted
throughout the city. People discarded their waste on the street in front of the houses, where it
was subsequently left to decay. Sanitation was provided with care by goats, who roamed the
streets and waste mounds. Tree branches had a lot of foliage in many places. However, it was
not always advisable to park your car in the shade of a tree, because goats would therein enjoy
the pleasure of the leaves from the tree branches, as able climbers climbed on car roofs, including
a great number of new Mercedes and Cadillacs. Using the car roofs as platforms the as also the
goats reached the branches to eat the foliage. Goat hooves left very persistent prints on the cars.
There was not much foliage left after the visitation of the hungry goats.
When watching camels, frequently called "desert ships", it does not easily come to mind that
camels eat absolutely everything. When somebody is picnicking and places food stuff on straw
matting, and a camel enters the scene, it will definitely eat the food, but it will also eat the straw
mats. On the waste dumps around Saudi cities it turned out that the camels are waste eaters.
They were moving around on the waste mound eating everything that was consumable. The oil
dollars had quickly increased the volume of waste. The goats were sharing the meals with the
camels. There is no greater misery that comes to sight than the desert ship eating on a waste

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dump, and there was more to see on these waste dumps. Packs of wild dogs. These wild dog
packs were running here and there. Whether the dogs were wild or feral is a totally different
thing. A few decades back in Saudi Arabia all the dogs had been shot due to rabies. Now, the wild
dog packs were almost threatening. At least they were, in a very effective way, a hindrance to
jogging. It is not nice to run bare legged while being chased by a pack of wild dogs, which is all
the time getting closer, no matter how hard you run.
People were in a hurry. Everyone worked with their sleeves rolled up. When I say everyone I
mean expatriates from abroad. The first American-type supermarkets, located in primitive
storage areas, had been born and were in constant use. Men in short-sleeved shirts committed
to these locations in their food shopping errands. Some women in long long-sleeved dresses were
among them. A woman could not move around alone in the city, the Law prohibited it. A woman
was not allowed to drive and is still not at the time of my writing these memoirs.
The Hajj pilgrimage season was by coincidence just around the time of our arrival in November
1977. Millions of pilgrims through the years have had to endure the stiflingly hot weather of the
Holy City of Mecca’s port city Jeddah, The night filled the sky with bright stars and brought to
Jeddah some moderate relief. Large airliners carrying pilgrims roared in a continuous stream
above Jeddah’s brightness. Against an exceptionally bright sky it was indeed interesting to watch
these planes. There was no reason to dig out ones camera. Taking photos was absolutely
forbidden. As the airport in 1977 still was in the heart of the city, the planes were, during the
night, a serious disturbance, as they frequently landed directly over our house depending on wind
direction.
Our removal lift arrived during the pilgrimage season, a few days before the 60th anniversary of
the independence of Finland. The
unpacking was managed in a hurry,
because we had to organize a big
party. Actually I was at work in my
office and the unpacking was under
my wife's control. The Embassy’s
caretaker Ali interpreted to the
movers where the table or cabinet
should be placed. My wife became
frustrated when Ali would, every once
in a while, disappear somewhere
discreet. It turned out that Ali would
run to the Embassy to my Office in
order to obtain confirmation to where
the Cabinet had to stand. A woman’s instruction could not be the final word. In our family it has

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always been so when moving, at all other times my wife has ordered where the cabinet should
stand. Our family has always been on an equal footing. This is how equality should be interpreted.
In Jeddah’s hot, sticky climate with the temperature usually between 30 °C and 40 ° C (85 o F to
105 o F), sometimes more, life must have been terrible before the invention of air conditioning.
Night temperatures were about the same as day temperatures. The hot season was about eleven
months, between August and October at its worst. Now that air conditioners had been invented,
not everybody had them. Often, even if one had them, the service would not work. Power failures
were frequent. Sometimes short but frequently long. Without maintenance and electricity, air
conditioning equipment did not work, so we were lucky enough to experience the horrors of
earlier times.
The water supply situation was the same. Naturally all water, whether from cisterns on the roof,
or in the garden, was warm. It also had to be boiled before drinking. The water pipes did normally
not work so water had to be brought by tanker truck. Some of the enterprising but dishonest
traders mixed Red Sea water into the drinking water. It was, of course, clear, but really salty and
not possible to drink. Jeddah built a new water distribution system, but the water supply for the
Embassy continued to be somewhat capricious.
One holiday our family drove to a small diving equipment shop. It was maintained by a German,
named Hagen Schmidt, on the premises of an old Arab house, in a very cramped shop. I went in
with the boys in order to get the compressed air for our diving cylinders. My wife was left to sit
in the car and watched after a moment suspiciously a man with a dark mustache who approached
the car staring at my wife, who already was in a very bad mood. That day there had not arrived
any water, so she had had no opportunity for a morning shower in the hot city. The man,
however, signaled no bad intention. He was the director of a Greek contracting company, named
John Petropoulos, who wanted to thank us for a dinner at our residence. My wife happened to
complain about the matter to him forgetting that his company had carried out the contracts for
Jeddah’s water pipes. Petropoulos took the matter up immediately and said our house was
already connected to the new pipeline system. A plumber would come immediately to check the
connection.

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The man did not arrive.
That was the rule rather
than the exception in
Jeddah. The Director
called to verify the
matter. It turned out
that the man had gone
to a neighbor's house.
As told earlier there
were no addresses in
Jeddah. The neighboring
house had, surprisingly,
started to receive
water. The plumber
came finally to our
house. Our house had, of course,
already been connected to the
pipeline system. The connection was
OK, but the pipeline were missing.
There was only a few meters’ long
piece. It did not lead to our house. A
good and truthful reason why the
water flow to the house had been
weak. We finally got our pipe, making
life a little bit easier.
In the country of Saudi Arabia actually everything worked, albeit often in its own way. The officials
also worked in their own way. The Interpretation of the Law was by no means the same for
everyone. Relationships were very essential. The Law, however, was heavily enforced. In
particular, the aim was to prevent the illegal residence in the country. This was frequently
committed by persons who arrived with a pilgrimage visa and would then stay in the country,
working without permission. During police raids people were collected in cages on trucks if they
did not have their Residence Permit on their person. For men, of course, there were different
cages than for women.
Once a number of Bedouin police officers with slightly less appropriate literary skills succeeded
in catching a group of shopping women, who did not have a Residence Permit. Among them was
the wife of the Ambassador of Cameroon, who was then the oldest (Doyen) of the Diplomatic
corps. She had of course her red Diplomatic ID card, but it was not recognized by the Bedouin

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police, they knew only an ordinary Residence Permit. She was put in the cage on the truck and
transported to a place behind bars in a large hall in the harbor together with the other women
waiting for expulsion. When the news finally reached my colleague, the Ambassador of
Cameroon, he drove to the port and got his wife out of the cage, following consultations with the
guards. He was so upset by the incident that he marched to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to
complain about the behavior. He was asked whether his wife was still in the cage. Hearing that
she was out, they found that everything was in order so the complaint was thereby dealt with.
The Saudi Protocol department worked in an original way. On my first visit the head of Protocol,
Sunbul, announced that his office localities were also mine. At any time I wanted to, I could come
and use his office as my own. Prior to my departure from Saudi Arabia 5 years later, Sunbul spoke
to me repeatedly about the high decoration granted upon me. During my term of office I have
received several high decorations, of which I am proud. This one he spoke of, however, I never
received. It was usual in Saudi Arabia that a positive thought replaced the act. When a Saudi was
invited to your home for dinner, he replied pleasantly to happily accept. Whether he actually
arrived was quite a different matter. Already he had been thinking about the issue in a positive
way. If Saudis would arrive upon one’s invitation, they frequently brought their acquaintances,
who were present when the invited pair left for dinner. These habits confused foreigners, for
whom these customs were new. They also explain the reason why in Saudi Arabia we almost
always served a buffet meal, when we invited Saudis.
One attraction in the surroundings of Jeddah was the Tomb of Eve. It was generally said that this
was the tomb of the wife of Adam, Eve, from the Old Testament. The attraction itself was not
very special, but was, in context with the Bible, historically very impressive. This attraction
created problems for the young boy of a relative. The boy told his teacher after his return to
Finland that he had visited Eve’s grave. The teacher found his credibility questionable. The boy
had earlier told the class that Uncle Mohammed had helped him mount the back of a camel. The
first name Mohammed is common in the Arab world.
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Today, the Embassies are located in Riyadh, the capital
of Saudi Arabia. During my mandate 1977-83 the Saudi
ministries were in Riyadh. The only exception was the
State Department, which was located in Jeddah as were
all Embassies. The Chancellery of the Finnish Embassy
and the Ambassador’s official residence were in the
same building. It was surrounded by a beautiful garden
with date palm trees, mango trees, banana trees and
other flowering bushes. In the courtyard I let set up an air-conditioned Finnish prefabricated
house with three guest rooms. It stood close to the swimming pool with a butane gas heated
Finnish Sauna. The swimming pool water was not too cold. It remained mostly around 36 °C. It
was the same temperature as the Red Sea water around Jeddah throughout the year. The sauna’s
gas heating turned out to be unhealthy. Not so much because of the ionization of the air, but
because of the risk of explosion, so I replaced it with a stove with electric heating. I am a member
of the Sauna-Club of Finland, so I understand the benefits of a wood-fired stove, but collecting
enough wood in a stone and sand filled desert would have required an inordinate amount of time
and expenditure of energy.
To our guests I always recommended a morning swim. One morning I was myself going for a
swim. Our protection, a trained German Shepherd dog, as usual, went out of the door first, and
calmly went on a run towards the swimming pool along the banana plants. From the other
direction came our guest in bathrobe and black shoes, a newspaper in his hand. When seeing the
dog coming he continued directly into the swimming pool in bathrobe and black shoes, the
newspaper still in his hand. Our dog stood at ease, astonished, gazing towards the edge of the
pool. It had run to eagerly greet our guest. It was customary to teach young diplomats that the
Diplomatic dress code always required black socks and shoes. The dress code for swimming pools
allows bare feet.

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Our dog Edda was friendly but at the same
time an effective protection dog. It did not
bark unnecessarily. Once a Saudi dressed
in a white thobe and a black gold-edged
cape erroneously entered through the
wrong door. He did not enter through the
front door of the Embassy, but walked
around the house and entered through the
terrace door into our residence. To meet
him came our dog, step by step looking
into the visitors eyes and presenting her
teeth. The visitor backed against the wall
and the dog came closer, looking into his
eyes. The Arabs do not really like dogs.
Generally they are slightly scared by big
dogs. When our dog came close enough to
the uninvited guest he slithered down
along the wall. Some family members
came and expressed their regret about
what had happened. The dog left and so
did the Saudi, who had mistakenly entered
through the wrong door.
Next to our bedrooms, by the corner of the
house, rested a big tank. It was slowly corroding in the humid, hot climate, like all steel does in
this environment. I found out what this, more than a meter in length and about one meter in
diameter sized, pressure tank contained. It contained liquid petroleum gas (LPG). I got it out from
the compound before the, in due course, likely explosion, which could have destroyed the whole
house.
In the house I saw for the first time electrical wires knotted together by hand. Naturally it is a
possible way to connect electricity lines, but it is not customary in Finland. Before our arrival in
our house there had been a small fire. Following that I found that telephone lines and electricity
lines had been connected with each other. I had these connections immediately cut and replaced.
My graduation in engineering was to be a benefit to the health of the family. Nobody was ever
electrocuted.
The Embassy’s local all in all was the Sudanese Ali. To everything he said "no problem" and took
care of the matter in question, though in his own way. Immediately upon our arrival, we heard
of the Finnish Embassy’s “Sudanese mafia”. It turned out that the local staff had always been

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hired by Ali. Upon my arrival, the embassy was only a couple of years old. Ali had always hired
the Sudanese. We let the habit continue after trying for a short time with a Somali. He appeared
to be a good and eager to work, but was forced by the "mafia" into isolation and was finally
smoked out from the house.
Only in respect of the driver of the car, we made an exception. Our Sudanese drivers possessed
a variety of strange, unique features. Good driving skills were not included in these features.
Once, our driver was waiting with my wife in the car behind a stop sign, but took off and drove
directly onto the main road in front of a Mercedes. The driver of the fast approaching Mercedes
was skillful enough to brake so that personal damage was avoided. As this type of incident
continued thereafter we hired a Yemeni called Mohammed to be our driver. The name
Mohammed is really not rare. If it was not somebody’s first name, it was most often the second.
Once Mohammed listened on the backyard, as my wife, in a raised voice, guided our son, who
had done something extraordinarily stupid and forbidden. My wife said to Mohammed that her
mission as a mother was to raise our children. Mohammed said that he had been six years old
when he came with his father from Yemen. The father gave him to a Saudi family as a tea-boy.
No one had ever brought him up. He hoped that he would also be sufficiently raised with us.
The opportunity arrived when Mohammed had to drive my wife to a wedding. My wife observed,
that Mohammed was “under the influence”. A woman was not allowed to drive and there were
no others available. Therefore Mohammed had to drive while being carefully supervised by my
wife. In a country where alcohol was completely forbidden, there was not a single Law prohibiting
drunk driving, as there was no alcohol available, so one could get drunk. When they arrived at
the wedding my wife commenced the upbringing, ordering Mohammed to sleep during the
wedding. Because the wedding was long Mohammed became fit again. Mohammed promised
after returning, as well as to Madame and to Allah in this order, that his becoming inebriated
would never happen again.
The ancient Egyptians worshiped cats. Today they are everywhere in Egypt and also on the other
side of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. It has already been mentioned that my wife liked cats, and
so we made space in our beautiful garden for more than thirty. My wife had given a name to each
cat and gave them food also. Because cats have claws they were not allowed to enter our
residence. All the cats knew their names and came individually when my wife called for them.
The staff here did not consider her a witch, as was the case in China, but looked at her as being
closer to Allah, because she could talk to the animals. This assessment was also due to our
German shepherd dog Edda, who spoke only German when we arrived, but quickly learned Arabic
also.

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The dog as well as the cats guarded their
territory. Strange cats were not tolerated
on our territory and the same applied to
humans. Strange roaches, presumably,
were tolerated. In the sticky, hot Jeddah
there was no lack of roaches. These insects
were running around through both
appropriate and inappropriate places, and
had no shortage of space. Numerous efforts
to the destroy them ended in an ultimate
victory for the cockroaches. Already the
first night we spent in our residence left a
memory of them. My wife stood up from
the bed and took a few barefoot steps.
Every step resulted in the sound of
flattening roaches. My wife decided to
leave the country immediately. I persuaded
her to settle by saying that no aircraft left
Jeddah during the night. In the morning she
had somewhat calmed down. She stayed in
Jeddah for a period of five years, which I
was quite happy with. I was not happy with
the cockroaches either.
Machinery was used by the authorities to decrease the excess insects. DDT was spread by plane
over the whole of the city at regular intervals. If it really was DDT I do not know, but so it was
claimed everywhere. The same DDT-spray was spread by tank trucks. If the views on the toxicity
of the substance, which are spread in our society, are correct, then this text has been written by
an already deceased gentleman.
One day there was a loud noise in one corner of our garden. The cats were angry. There was an
intrusion into the territory. My wife went to take a look and found our gardener, who had in his
hand a blue-gray rat-like small animal, with very inflamed eyes. My wife took care of this poor
small animal, a small kitten. The kitten was a boy and was given the name Schröder, taken from
the comic Charlie. With care and attention the kitten grew stronger and the inflammation
disappeared.
The cat was the only one allowed to move into the area of our bedroom and bathroom in the
house. It turned out the boy kitten was a girl and the name was changed to Natasha Schröder,
but only the second half of the name was ever used. The cat was, with its green eyes, of Russian
Blue race or, at least, an identical mutation. It accompanied us to Finland and later to Germany,

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where its life-cycle ended. Schroeder lived inside the house and the other cats remained outside.
All the windows were equipped with net-screens, but still Schroeder became occasionally
pregnant.
For this we found two reasons. In the mornings I went out with our dog for a swim. The dog did
not swim in the pool. On the way back a smart boy cat Sebastian developed the habit of hiding
beneath the dog and so being unobserved through the door. As soon as he came in he jumped
on a surface and froze in place. If I headed my gaze in the direction I must have thought he was
a decoration piece.
The other reason for Schroeder's pregnancy were our sons. When we were away they arranged
male company for Schröder if she was interested. Animal lovers will appreciate our sons more
than ourselves although we took care of and fed our cats. One of the kittens was also blue-gray
and with green eyes and received the honor of flying with us to Finland. To our grandchildren this
boy cat, who was named "Rats", became as close as Schroeder.
*
We had arrived in Jeddah just before the Finnish Independence Day. I wanted to do something
for the benefit of the hard-working Finns there, so we held a reception in the garden. All Finns
working in Saudi Arabia were invited. Several hundred Finns were working there in construction,
as experts, as nurses and in other positions. We served also illegally imported liquor and could
really not complain about the level of consumption that evening.
My wife, however, had other complaints. On the day before the reception the House was cut off
from both the electrical and the water supply. Overnight the YIT Company’s (a leading Finnish
construction company, the first building in Saudi Arabia) reconnected electricity and installed a
new water pump, so the kitchen could work again on Independence Day. All hostesses and hosts
have not always had experiences as exciting as we did during those years, even though they also
have had to endure several serving difficulties which in our case I do not even mention here.
I shall mention however a chef that we had to employ just before one of the official dinners as
our earlier chef had left suddenly. He had some time ago worked as a chef to the Ambassador of
Saudi Arabia in Brussels. He was a Sudanese. His wife was British. This surprised slightly my wife
until the chef presented to her a photograph. His British wife was as black as the color of the skin
of our chef. She was born in London and had received a British passport.
We heard a loud racket from the kitchen just moments into the dinner party. The reason was our
drunk chef passing out among the tableware. Apparently he had, when pouring Sherry into the
soup, poured an amount excessively into his own mouth. We had to quickly give up on this chef.
We had had to hire him quickly. His predecessor, interrupting his cooking, had begun to run
behind one of the other staff members with a carving knife in his hand, with the aim of hitting
him in the back. After this experience, nobody was prepared to work with him so we employed
a replacement.

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*
A little prior to Christmas, we invited the Ambassador to the United States, a John West, to us for
dinner. Through the German steel industry an entrepreneur called Willy Korff we had a
connection to John West, who had come to Saudi Arabia a few months ahead of us. John West
was a lawyer, who had previously served as the Governor to the State of South Carolina. He was
a good friend of then President Jimmy Carter. The cause for the dinner was the inspection of the
US Embassy. The inspectors usually wanted to meet with Heads of Missions of other countries.
We were told that one of the inspectors was accompanied by Finnish fiancé. When we arrived,
we met this inspector, whose name was Albert Williams. Al was his nick name, which he asked
us to use. With him was his fiancé Armi Kuusela, whose previous husband Gil Hilario had died of
a heart attack two years earlier (Armi Kuusela was the first Finnish Miss Universe).
During dinner I was sitting next to Al’s fiancé. She was still very beautiful and well-dressed. Armi
made a deep impression on me in her behavior and her ability to control the one opposite to her,
an exceptionally wealthy and very self-conscious Saudi businessman under the name of Gaith
Pharaon. Pharaon boasted about his family’s business aircraft. He was showcasing about his
Boeing-jet, which had developed an engine disturbance on its last flight from Jeddah to Paris,
forcing an emergency landing in Algiers. Pharaon claimed that he had used his radio telephone
to order to Algiers the second family jet, which quickly carried him onwards to Paris. Armi was
not impressed by this or other wealth emphasizing stories. She asked after the story, in a
courteous manner, how many hours Pharaon had been made late upon arrival in Paris.
Of course we invited Armi and her fiancé to our home for another party. I was sitting at the dinner
opposite her. The discussion moved into the exchange of opinions about whether it is easy or
difficult to stop smoking. I said it was easy and extinguished my cigarette. It took a long time
before my family discovered that I had stopped smoking. I have not smoked a cigarette since.
Although at the time I met Armi frequently. I have not met her since and I have not had an
opportunity to tell her about my last cigarette. I appreciated Armi, who even in this country made
an impact as a Finnish woman, and who was able to control the discussion even with ardent and
characteristically challenging discussion partners.
Al called my wife to thank us and asked whether there was anything that my wife longed for
when preparing for Christmas here in Saudi Arabia. My wife said that she longed for nothing. Al
answered that probably my wife anyhow longed for a Christmas ham. That’s what the Finns eat
for Christmas. There is absolutely no pork meat in Saudi Arabia and you are not able to bring it
to the country. My wife laughed and said that it is not possible to cater to that longing in Saudi
Arabia. The next day Al brought us a ham. Our Muslim chef was particularly horrified. He calmed
down when my wife informed him that she would herself prepare the ham.

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From a group of Bedouins to the Saudi Arabian State
In Europe very little was known about the Arabian Peninsula for a long time. Before I moved to
Saudi Arabia I had tried to find information about the country. Saudi Arabia was a nomad country
until as a result of industrial development its crude oil reserves turned out to be valuable and oil
production became the main source of income for the country. The second major source of
income to the Saudis were the holy cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina. Pilgrims arrived each year,
first thousands, later hundreds of thousands, finally millions. The title Hajj is a testimony of a
performed pilgrimage and has always been respected in the countries of the Islamic world. Hajj
is a corner stone of the religion. Still in the 1970s, the country was poor and nomadism the comon
trend. The country had already grown an important merchant class to the side of the ruling Al
Saud family.
*
The name Arab was originally used for the nomads, who lived their harsh life in the northern and
central parts of the Arabian Peninsula north of Oman and Yemen and South of the Mediterranean
States. Nomads were drinking camel's milk. The date was their second main form of sustenance.
The nomads kept goats and planted melons in the desert, which received humidity from the
morning moisture. Life was easier when the rare lightning storms brought rain that gave the
desert some additional life. A part of the Arabs settled in communities, such as Mecca and
Medina, which were easier to defend, against the competing tribes, as the tent camps of the
caravans. In Medina dates and grain were cultivated. Mecca was a market town.
When the sun rises, it scorches the Arabian Peninsula desert. The huge sand dunes are
shimmering in the heat in Rub al Khali or the Empty Quarter. The temperature in the shade would
be 50 o C, if there would be shadow whatsoever. It is almost as hot along the rest of the Arabian
Peninsula in the middle of the day. The camel caravans, carrying gold and spices peninsula to the
north, generally avoided the Empty Quarter by going round it, along the shore of the Red Sea
instead. The camel had ben domesticated around 1500 BC. Gold and spices had been transported
by ship from India to Salalah and Qana'an in present day Oman. The route of the caravans passed
through Marib, capital of the Kingdom of Hadhramaut and the Kingdom of Sheba. There's a rose
incense tree there, another note of caravans trading goods. Incense is the resin of the Boswellia
sacra tree which grows mainly in Hadramaut, present Yemen. As a commodity it reminds one of
giant tear drops. The aim of the caravan has been Gaza City on the shore of the Mediterranean.

17
The time spent for caravans used for the trip through Mecca, Medina and Petrah would total
about a quarter of a year. At the end of the thirteenth century shipping became competitive as a
means of transport instead.
In the year 571 a son Muhammad was born to Abdullah al Quraishi of the Quraishi tribe.
Muhammad changed the world. Muhammad was a deep believer and became a preacher, to
whom, according to tradition, the Archangel Gabriel presented the word of God. Muhammad
began to preach monotheism to the polytheistic shepherds. They had to surrender fully to God,
Allah, the complete surrender, in Arabic, Islam, which gave the name to the religion. In 622,
Muhammad emigrated to Medina. This year initiates the calendar the Muslims still use.
In the seventeenth century a small colony was founded by Sheikh Mani al Muraidi in the oasis
region of Wadi Hanifah. It received the name of his tribe Diriya. From his son’s name Saud
originates the family name al Saud, the name of the current ruling family of Saudi Arabia.
Saud’s son Muhammad Ibn Saud offered shelter to Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, who
preached a very orthodox Islamic faith. The habits of the Arab society had loosened. Originally
simple mosques had become decorative temples. Abdul Wahhab wanted to cleanse Arabia with
the word of God. The word alone was not enough, also a sword was needed. Muhammad Ibn
Saud offered himself as its user. He deduced that in union with a man, who carried the message,
he could unite the nomads, Bedouins and the inhabitants of the cities to a new religious battle,
Jihad, in order to extend the territory that he dominated. He married his son Abdul Aziz to the
preacher’s daughter and created so in 1744 the families were bonded, which has survived to this
day.
Saudi Arabia is still a State of Wahhabi religion, which publicly maintains and promotes a pure
Islam faith. The Al Saud family rules the country. The offspring of Mohammad Abdul Wahhab,
whose family name is al-Sheikh, act as advisors. Saudi Arabia promotes Unitarianism, which
connects all of Islam. Unitarianism does not make a difference between faith and political action.
The Wahhabis obtained in 60 years control of the central parts of the Arabian peninsula, from
the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea and the nearby Mecca and Medina. In the South, they stretched
to the border with Oman, and in the North to the environment of Damascus and Baghdad. The
success led to the destruction of the power of the Wahhabis. The Ottoman Sultan sent the
Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali to drive the men of the deserts from Mecca and Medina. The
British, which also had become the enemies of the Wahhabi, supported these efforts.
In 1818, Muhammad Ali's son, Ibrahim Pasha Invaded the capital of the Saudis Diriya, destroying
it. The Saudi ruler was transported to Constantinople and beheaded. Finally, his head was
crushed in a mortar. The Diriyan ruins are still visible outside the current capital Riyadh. I have

18
frequently walked there photographing the ruins of the buildings, some of which have now been
restored. The last time when I visited the area in the fall of 2006, the ruins had become an open
air museum.
Muhammad Ibn Saud’s grandson Turki and his son Faisal settled twenty years later in the new
capital Riyadh and started again with the enlargement of the Wahhabi rule and conversion.
Feisal’s two sons started, after the death of their father, to argue about power and assets.
Through this manner, a deteriorating second Saudi Kingdom was attacked by the Rashid family
from Hail, assisted by the Turks. The bulk of the Al Sauds were deported.
The recent history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia begins at the northern edge of the empty
quarter, Rub Al Khali, where the Al Sauds had fled from Riyadh. They were provided refuge by a
Bedouin tribe called Murrah, with whom they had gathered decent “razzia” spoils from twenty
years past. Razzia is the name of the attack of a nomadic tribe into another tribe’s territory. The
purpose had been to capture camels. Other property was not taken and the point was not to kill
opponents. Women were not touched. It would have been a disgrace (hara’am). The 15-year-old,
Abdulaziz ibn Saud, learned during those years that the Bedouins could not to be trusted in battle.
They were turning against their own leaders and siding with the enemy in order to get a winning
cache. In 1894 the Abdul Aziz family moved to the port city Kuwait, where life was easier. Kuwait’s
ruler, Sheikh Mubarak Al Sabah, was host to the Saudis. The same family rules Kuwait still today.
In early 1901, Mubarak led a band of Bedouins, including the Al Saudis against the Ar Rasheed
family who had occupied Riyadh. During late summer Rasheed, in turn, marched toward Kuwait.
The British fleet supported Mubarak and Ar Rasheed traveled North to negotiate with the Turks
in Baghdad. Ar Rasheed’s troops were now as far away as possible from Riyadh. Abdulaziz ibn
Saud took advantage of the situation. He left with a small group of Bedouins from Kuwait towards
Riyadh. During the move the group grew from around forty up into two hundred. Before Abdul
Aziz was able to carry out the attack, the number had once again dwindled.
Abdulaziz did not want to give up. In December 1901, they continued their journey with 60
Bedouins into a desert called Rub Al Ghali and hid there in very primitive wilderness conditions.
After the end of Ramadan, the group moved to the surroundings of Riyadh. Abdulaziz climbed
with 40 bedouin over the city wall using an old Palm tree as a ladder, and finally reached the
Governor Ajlan's House and also Mismak, the fort in the center of Riyadh. During the fight the
Governor was killed. This led to the Rasheed garrison surrender. Around the middle of the day
came thousands of citizens to swear allegiance to Abdulaziz al Saud, who had conquered the
family’s old home town. Since then, the Saudis have ruled Riyadh and from Riyadh the enlarged
Kingdom. About the events before and during the invasion a variety of different stories are told...

19
30 years later, upon the Arabian Peninsula, a lot had happened, such as the First and Second
World Wars and Abdulaziz's conquering excursions. He conquered in the South of the Peninsula
the Asir area, the city of Mecca and the Western Hejaz region on the Red Sea shore. Formally, he
proclaimed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the eighteenth of September, 1932. Modernization
grabbed hold and crude oil began to accumulate lucrative income.
*
Early trading connections between Arabia and Finland bear witness to thousand-year-old
Arabic coins found hidden in Finnish soil. Much later, a Finnish researcher Georg August Wallin
or Abd professoral-Wali spent many years in the Arab world. In the years 1843 - 1848 he made,
during his journeys to the Arabian Peninsula, some interesting notes. The deceased professor
helped me significantly with my work in Saudi Arabia. He was the first European who visited the
current Saudi Arabia’s middle parts, and secretly Mecca as well as Jeddah, where secrecy was not
needed. During his travels, he wrote a diary, which was later published as a book. I gave the
Arabian language version of the book to major Arab acquaintances, many of whom were
members of the Government. The book has been greatly appreciated.
Finland appointed the first Honorary Consul in Jeddah in 1950. Diplomatic relations were signed
in 1969. The Ambassador in Beirut, Carolus Lassila, took care of the relations with Saudi Arabia.
He moved in 1974 to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The Importance of Saudi Arabia had Increased as a
result of the oil crisis, so an Embassy was opened there.
Saudi Arabian acting Foreign Minister Sayyid Omar Saqqaf visited Finland in 1974. He met with
the then President of the Republic Urho Kekkonen and the Foreign Minister Ahti Karjalainen. He
said that Saudi Arabia was going to open up an Embassy in Helsinki. As I write this, more than
thirty years later, it has recently been set up. During negotiations on economic, technical and
technological cooperation an agreement was signed. Finland sought to enter into these
agreements with as many developing countries as possible. They included annual negotiations
alternating in both countries.
To the general public and the Helsinki society the trade potential of Saudi Arabia became
interesting in September 1976, when a wealthy businessman, Adnan M. Khashoggi, from the rich
oil-producing country, arrived in Helsinki with his entourage. Usually no public attention is paid
to travelling businessmen and their entourage, but this business man with company arrived in
two private jets and met with the top persons of Finland’s economic life and the top political
leaders. Already on the airport, a Miss Europe Ritva Väisänen embraced the arriving Mr.
Khashoggi. A well-known PR man Topi Törmä took care of Mr. Khashoggi’s public and personal
relations. Khashoggy met the President of the Republic Urho Kekkonen during an athletics
competition between Finland and Sweden. The top managers of many leading Finnish companies

20
were waiting to meet Adnan Khashoggi and the Representatives of his Triad Group. Finnish
companies wanted to do business with the oil enriched Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Finally
Khashoggi organized a large reception in the hotel Kalastajatorppa. It was the event of the season
for the Helsinki society. A lot was said about the visit and the big contracts signed. Mr. Kerkko
Keinonen had arranged the program in Finland for Khashoggi. Mr. Martti Huhanantti who had
learnt to know him in the Middle East had succeeded in getting him to come to Finland.
*
The Foreign Service offered a wide field of view. In private sector companies the views would in
the seventies have been much smaller because globalization was not yet advanced. As I received
the opportunity and honor to move from Germany to the Arab world, where a lot of buying
power had concentrated with regards to the price of crude oil increasing rapidly, I picked it up
without any hesitation. The big oil revenue of the oil producing countries could finance many
Finnish planning and construction projects. On the other hand, Finland needed a guaranteed oil
supply. In an altered state of the oil market, we did not want to be totally dependent on our main
supplier the Soviet Union. I was appointed Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 1977. Above, I have
spoken about my first impressions.
My predecessor, Ambassador Carolus Lassila visited us mid-June in Frankfurt on his way to
Finland. We discussed during the visit in detail Saudi Arabia and the neighboring countries, to
which I was also assigned. A matter of some weeks later, I met with the Undersecretary for
Commercial Policy of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Arvo Rytkönen. He did not want to rush the
opening of an Embassy for Saudi Arabia in Finland, because there they would just translate into
Arabic all manner of press articles, from our perspective too much to left leaning and orientated
press. Rytkönen mentioned that Neste’s Hietarinta was aware of Khashoggi’s confidence man
Huhanantti quite well. In mid-August, I spoke with Foreign Minister Paavo Väyrynen about the
state of Finland’s economy and the overvaluation of the currency. Väyrynen criticized
unprofitable political investment decisions. We did not talk about oil. My role in the Middle East
Väyrynen considered essentially constituting of economic policy matters but he also wanted
views of the Middle Eastern overall situation and of the Saudi Arabian relations with other Arab
countries.
In October I departed with Rytkönen to meet with the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Stockholm,
His Excellency Shawwaf. The discussion handled crude oil, energy-saving measures, sales of ships,
the YIT Roro Lines shipping line from Venice to Jeddah, an air traffic agreement, a ship yard
agreement and the construction of Embassies in Riyadh.

21
His Majesty King Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Kai Helenius discussing development of trade
My formerly purely commercial job expanded to other areas also. Trade issues stayed at the
forefront. My mandate covered almost the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. Then, additionally to
Saudi Arabia, I was Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (including Abu Dhabi and Dubai), to
Bahrain, the Yemen Arab Republic, Oman and Qatar. My primary mission was to get oil for Finland
at a reasonable price. Just as important was to get new projects for Finnish companies and
increase overall trade. It was also important to help Finnish construction and other companies
and their staff were included, with how to solve endless local problems. Interesting indeed was
the monitoring of political and steadily increasing economic development on and around the
Arab Peninsula, and its influence on the whole Middle East, moving from crisis to crisis.
Exporters whom I attempted to advise, about how to successfully trade with the Arabs without
forgetting the small details of the Arab culture and traditions demanded, went somewhat well.
It was important first to get to personally know a trading partner. Some of the rituals, such as
taking and drinking a cup of coffee always with the right hand only and the right way to keep your
legs when seated was important. One should never refuse coffee. The Bedouin host had to offer
coffee in order to show his hospitality and it was a serious insult to refuse. Though the coffee
might resemble medium light crude oil, one should drink it smiling. The foot sole should never
be directed against a person. It was interpreted as contempt. Within a tent it was considered

22
polite to sit on one’s legs. It was interesting to observe how one unaccustomed was able to get
up after sitting so a while. If he had not taken off his shoes before sitting down it was even more
difficult to get up. I, of course, had to
learn all these manners and customs
before giving advice to others.
I was not the only advisor. The
Embassy's Commercial Department
provided it for a living. Books and
writings on the subject of how to sell to
the Arabs were released in numerous
countries. Some of the writings were
serious, but some were tending to
playfulness. They were not always
thinking much of the expected Arab
customers, one might consider many texts insulting. The advice was published during the years
when the petrodollars started to turn Arabs into major trading partners. To those traveling to the
Arabian deserts to get back the dollars paid for crude oil a variety of advice about how to
negotiate with the Sheiks was given. One of the proposals was to add to the discussion of business
issues poetic Arabic phrases. The Arabs adore their language. When you learned by heart a few
phrases it showed appreciation of their culture. They were not interested in the in the Western
normal discussion openings, such as, "today is a beautiful day," or "it is not this that kills you, but
the moisture." It would be more appropriate to begin for example by saying, "Oh, my cousin
Ahmed, I would be happy to travel months in a sand storm in order to bring you this offer, that
smells good like a thousand camels."
I was from my studying days used to the black cloak of Sitsimiesliitto (A student fraternity), even
if someone borrowed mine forgetting to return it, so I felt at home surrounded by people dressed
in robes. In Saudi Arabia, as in the other countries of the region, the elite used black cloaks with
golden borders. Many other habits were such as those I was already adapted to from during my
student days at the Technical University. Once we were sitting above the sand-desert in a small
but fast jet. We were Kari Kairamo, Jaakko Ihamuotila and the author. My objective in Saudi
Arabia and its five neighboring countries was to obtain cheap oil, as well as construction projects,
consulting assignments and export customers for the Finnish industry. Finland finally paid for its
crude oil at much less cost than what many other countries in Europe paid. Many Finnish
construction and industrial projects were completed. The role of Sitsimiesliitto was essential.
*
There was sufficient work for me in the six countries where I worked. There were sufficient flight
trips. The division of the administration of Saudi Arabia between Riyadh and Jeddah made it
necessary to fly this distance of one thousand kilometers several times during the week. At first

23
it was flown primarily in small passenger planes, such as the Boeing 737, later in wide body jets
such as Lockheed L1011 TriStar and Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets.
In the early years it was almost impossible to book a flight. One had to purchase a ticket and then
traverse some hours prior to the departure time of the flight to the overcrowded Riyadh airport
with the ticket in your hand to reserve a seat. The functionary took your ticket booklet, ripped
out the ticket and wrote something in Arabic on the booklet cover. When the departure time
came closer, jostled around the functionaries were local people, migrant workers, ambassadors,
construction workers, sales managers, and truck drivers trying to get a boarding card with their
ticket covers. The best way frequently was to tear a boarding card from a functionary’s hand. If
you were unlucky you had to return to the jostling crowd of the next departing plane. With
enough energy you eventually received a boarding card to a plane which departed the same day
or the next day.
On arrival you had to get a car from somewhere, if nobody was meeting you. There was no public
transport except for taxis. There certainly were enough taxis available but they had no foreign
language skills and could not find any addresses. The Finnish YIT company and other contractors
helped me in Riyadh with their cars.
There were
no street
addresses in
this large
“Wild West"
of
construction. All address information was always in the form: "Drive from the Water Tower on
the broad street to the North until you see the car lift. There turn to the left until you come to
the Arabian Lamah office, then straight over two streets and five houses to the right. The house
has a blue gate”. Finding the destination was not easy but fortunately I always found my way.
Otherwise there would not have been any negotiations and no project or business successes.

24
Essential when working with the Arabs, especially with the genuine desert Arabs was sincerity.
Sincerity created genuine relationships. It was the core of confidence-building. When there was
confidence, good results were possible. It is nice to negotiate with Arabs, as long as you accept
the culture and all local customs. If they are not accepted, there is no trust. The creation of the
trust called for several meetings and familiarizing oneself. By launching too early one’s
commercial interests one did not progress through the negotiation nor guarantee result. Many
of the Finnish companies wanted to enter the market without having references of operation in
the Arab world or of similar circumstances in general. Because I had created relationships based
on trust with many influential persons I could sometimes play a decisive role in order to get a
project or an order simply by explaining to the Saudi party that I had confidence in that particular
Finnish company. The policy makers accepted my simple oral statements that the Finnish
company competing for a major project was a reliable business partner. They had learnt to rely
on my sincerity. I never misused the confidence so results were achieved.
Sincerity was inevitable for the necessary personal relation. Of course you can’t ask an Arab for
example “How is your wife?” That is not for outsiders. But it is quite correct to ask, “How is your
family?” The illusion that all the Arabs are fanatic zealots is quite unfair. However among them
can be found extremists, like the Islamic fundamentalists, as we have been shocked in witnessing.
Personal relationships were, in Saudi Arabia and its neighboring countries, a basic requirement
for all economic and other activities. Creating trust between people was the base on which
trading and relationship were built. There was a lot of wheeling dealing and slice taking, but for
serious trade talks a high degree of confidence was crucial.
From oil wells to international oil trade
From the Earth came wells and
rivulets of black-green substance.
Sometimes lightning struck and set
fire to gas outbursts. The fires were
likely to last for centuries. Already,
about 4000 BC, The Sumerians, and
after them the Assyrians and the
Babylonians, used crude oil.
Natural asphalt was used as mortar,
fastening and medicine. I have
walked on the excavated Babylon
ancient asphalt-covered street.

25
In the Persian language, crude oil is “neft”. Nafta was used as a weapon as, later, Napalm. The
Greeks poured burning oil on enemy attackers and sprayed it on their ships. Marco Polo told of
Baku's gushing oil wells in 1217. The Arabs had already in the 900 th century written about oil
distillation.
When whales were driven almost to extinction to obtain lamp oil, in the eighteen hundreds for
the same use was derived petrol obtained from crude oil, and at the same time lubrication grease
was produced. The first oil well was drilled in 1857. Three years later the first oil refinery went
into operation. The first oil pipeline was built in 1865. These developments all took place in the
United States. Oil had been discovered also in America, which was first sold as a medicine with
the name “mountain oil”. John D. Rockefeller started in the oil business with a small refinery. In
1880 95% of all the refineries in America were under his control.
With the invention of the combustion engine the oil business leaped powerfully forward.
Systematic exploration of oil, the oil industry and an oil distribution network, in which the end
purpose was the petrol station, were born. At the end of the 1920s, almost 87 % of the world's
oil production came from the United States. New oil discoveries were, however, also made, for
example in Venezuela.
During World War II oil became more important than ever before. The Germans never reached
the Baku oil fields, which contributed to the defeat of Germany. To note as well, the Germans, as
also the Japanese, had to resort to a significant extent to synthetic products made from coal. The
synthetic oil was not of the same quality as natural oil. The German air force Luftwaffe was forced
to use airplane fuel, which was much poorer than what was used by the Americans.
In Persia oil production began in 1909. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company constructed an oil pipeline
from the oil fields to the Persian Gulf. The company, whose name later became The Anglo-Iranian
Oil Company and, finally, this British Petroleum provided oil to the British Navy.
The Iraq Petroleum Company started production in Iraq in 1927. The Kuwait Oil Company
discovered in 1938 the gigantic Burghan oil field. In the same year commercially interesting
quantities of oil were discovered in Saudi Arabia. Slowly it became apparent that the world's
largest oil reserves were in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia.
King Abdul Aziz gave, hesitantly, in 1930, the right for foreigners to examine and evaluate the oil
and mineral resources of Saudi Arabia. The first oil explorers arrived in the country in 1933. An
agreement was signed for the exclusive oil exploration and production in the eastern part of the
country. Standard Oil Company of California (SOCAL) committed itself to providing a loan of £ 50
000 in gold, or about 250 000 US $, and to pay 25 000 $ per year in rent, as well as paying 1 US $

26
royalty per tonne of produced oil. The Agreement covered additionally a 25 000 US $ advance
payment of royalties when commercial quantities of oil were discovered. The period of validity
of the contract was 60 years.
In December 1936 drilling commenced at the
Dammam bore “number Seven”. In the
spring of 1937 the wives of the first two “oil
men”, as they were to be called, were
allowed to enter Saudi Arabia. In September,
four more wives and four children arrived. In
March 1938, at 1440 meters depth
commercially significant amounts of oil were
discovered. Dammam number Seven
produced oil in the quantity of 3810 barrels a
day. By 1979 it had managed to produce 27
million barrels.
War broke out in Europe. In Saudi Arabia
Dammam was bombed by mistake by one
Italian aircraft mistaking it for the
neighboring nation of Bahrain, where the
other planes of the fleet had flown. The
damages were small. The oil company's
name was, in the year 1944, changed to
ARAMCO (Arabian American Oil Company).
The oil company grew, expanded its
production and production areas, and built
oil terminals and pipelines. When I moved to
Saudi Arabia, the company exported more than 7 700 000 barrels per day (BPD) of crude oil. It
was exporting a large portion of the demand for energy of the industrialized countries.
*
Before moving to Saudi Arabia I had, through my discussions in Helsinki, found that the
perceptions of the purchase method of Saudi crude oil were considerably variable. The CEO of
Neste Oil, Uolevi Raade, had discussed with me that he had strongly influenced the President of
the Republic, via an agreement in 1974, to set up Embassies in the oil-producing countries; in
Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia and Teheran in Iran. He considered it to be antagonizing of Neste Oy’s
policy to pay commissions when buying crude oil from Saudi Arabia. Neste had, until then, bought
Saudi Arabian oil from Caltex and Chevron, the parent companies of ARAMCO. Khashoggi Whad,

27
during his visit, indicated that he could act as an intermediary in the event that Neste Oy wished
to buy directly from the Saudis. Raade had been getting ready to retire at the age of 65, but his
mandate was extended until the 1980's, because no new Chief Executive Officer had been found
for Neste Oy. Raade considered personal contacts to be especially important in Saudi Arabia.
Raade considered that the oil policy should not be the responsibility of the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs, but that of the oil companies, as it was in the United States. President Kekkonen had
provided Raade with the responsibility over the oil policy. For one, at the political level, it had
been handled badly, was the opinion of Raade. The President of the Republic did not desire
traveling to Saudi Arabia because he considered that it might disturb his ties with the Soviet
Union. Saudi Arabia was opposed to the policies of the Soviet Union. No other important minister
had visited the country. The owners of ARAMCO had promised Neste oil deliveries for three
years, so there was no need for direct purchases. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs fought
unsuccessfully to force Raade to accept direct purchases. Others in Neste Oy thought the
company's policy was going to change.
The Finns sought direct purchases already 1972, when there had been an opportunity, but the
negotiations broke down because the Finns did not dare to make a decision. In 1973, it was quite
the same situation. After the oil market had changed, the situation had become clearly more
difficult. The Supreme Petroleum Council was chaired by Crown Prince Fahed. The Council
planned matters about and around the issue of oil. Petromin conducted the negotiations and the
decisions were made by Fahed. In Saudi Arabia it was difficult to get information, even about
who’s responsibility an issue was.
Rytkönen estimated the annual oil consumption in Finland to maintain at around 12 million tons.
The Soviet oil deliveries were no longer growing. According to Khashoggi Crown Prince Fahed had
taken the political decision to sell oil directly to Finland. Rytkönen spoke about one of the two
American oil suppliers to Neste that had cancelled its delivery contract. From Neste I had not
heard this yet. Rytkönen urged me to use oil deals made by other nations as examples to make
Raade change his strict position, while, at the same time, without antagonizing him.
Raade informed about the decision of the Neste Board not to sign oil trade contracts with
Khashoggi. Neste sought now direct purchases. Hietarinta (Head of Crude Oil Operations) was
going to Saudi Arabia, but the Embassy had not been able to arrange contacts. Raade wanted
only a part of the purchases to be direct, because they thought that the impractical Saudis would
not be able to carry out direct deliveries. Neste had always made long-term purchase contracts.
Now the company was considering purchasing a part as “spot-lot purchases”. Sweden had,
according to Raade, better contacts to the Saudis. One former Minister had even visited oil
minister Yamani’s home residence. Deputy Foreign Minister Abdullah Ali Reza had, when visiting
Finland, said, "Raade had contact with us already before the oil crisis, when we did not know

28
what we were." Raade spoke of the fact that he no longer met with the President of the Republic,
as often as he had in the past, when he used to go fishing and celebrating with the President.
Raade thought that Khashoggi was taken in the Foreign Ministry too seriously. Crude oil
purchases were at Neste Oy becoming the responsibility of my former fellow student Kai
Hietarinta.
*
The Iranian revolution was preceded by increasing unrest in the country in 1978. The Saudis were
in the process of taking over Aramco from the international oil companies. I spoke to the
Undersecretary of State for Trade Policy Paavo Rantanen about the issue of it being high time to
send a Government’s letter to the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs indicating our interest in
purchasing crude oil. As Ambassador I could write the letter. According to Rantanen, Raade was
insulted by the indifference the Saudis were showing.
In January 1979 I agreed with Hietarinta that I could start soundings about 1-2 million tons annual
oil deliveries. During the same month, the Shah of Iran was forced to leave his country. With

29
Oman and Qatar, it was decided to start negotiations around the estimate of about 1 million tons
from each country.
Securing the supply of crude oil at a reasonably price was one of the most important tasks of my
initial term of office. The difficulties reported by the Soviet Union to supply all of the oil promised
to us, and with crude oil price increasing to more than 40 dollars a barrel on the Rotterdam
market made this activity essential for the economy of Finland. I reached out to contact oil
minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani in the Ministry in Riyadh and all over the country. Sometime later I
caught him on the way to his plane and the discussions took place during the flight. Yamani’s
Gulfstream became familiar. During one discussion I gave Yamani Georg August Wallin’s Travel
Report about his travels to and around the central parts of Arabia in 1845 and 1848. The Report
was translated into Arabic and leather bound. Yamani was definitely interested in this rare travel
report.
I negotiated with oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani in May. I set out the reasons for the
requirement of Finland to obtain Saudi oil. Finland was the coldest country in Europe, importing
73% of its energy. The previous year the imports amounted to 10.5 million tons, of which 67,5 %
from the Soviet Union and 14.9 % through Texaco and Chevron in Saudi Arabia. Chevron would
not continue their deliveries and Texaco would cut their deliveries in relation to the cuts made
by ARAMCO. Finland had introduced energy-saving measures and developed the domestic
energy resources. The Neste oil refinery was the largest in Northern Europe. The first links of
Neste with Petromin were from 1972, when Neste’s CEO Raade, met with Foreign Minister Prince
Saud al Faisal and Petromin's CEO Dr. Taher. I brought up the majority of 113 – 87 of non-socialist
Members of Parliament and our pro-ab foreign policy.
r

30
Yamani listened in a sombre mood, and
replied that he could not earlier than
June 10 th indicate what Saudi Arabia
could do in favor of Finland. Yamani said
that there still appeared pressure to
raise oil prices. Especially in the United
States it had not been possible to reduce
consumption, instead the imports had
increased. Yamani did not believe that
solar energy could be of help in the near
future. In the process of nuclear fusion
technology he believed in, meanwhile.
As I write this, forty years later, it is still
not available. I suggested to Yamani that
he should fly over and admire the
midnight sun in Finland after having
finished his official visit to Denmark on
June 23 rd . Yamani promised to get back
to me. Originally he had intended to see
the midnight sun in Greenland. I wrote to
Raade and hoped that there was
preparedness in Finland to welcome
Yamani as Midsummer guest. The Saudi
Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote
in the early days of June that the
Kingdom was unable to respond
positively to the Finnish request for an oil
delivery under the prevailing conditions.
Hietarinta told me on the phone that
Texaco had reduced their delivery promise from one million tonnes to 830 000 tonnes. The
Russians had set their prices to equal the costs of those to which we had to pay elsewhere.
Therefore, the Saudi oil became even more important.
The days through the middle of June were filled with several discussions and negotiations. The
result was an offer of 40 000 barrels per day of crude oil with deliveries beginning July 1 st 1979.
Yamani confirmed that he would visit Finland in June 22 nd to 24 th .
For us it was important to develop a good personal relationship with oil minister Ahmed Zaki
Yamani, who those years appeared on all TV channels around the world. It took time to create a
significantly deep personal relationships with this person that everybody was eagerly trying to
contact during those years. We succeeded and Yamani, accompanied by his wife, arrived for

31
Midsummer to Finland. The Midsummer Festival is dedicated to the family. This time the top
management of Neste, the President of the Republic, and many others made an exception.
I flew to Finland to be there to welcome the oil minister, who arrived from Denmark in his own
plane. He was immediately upon arrival interviewed by the press. He considered the current oil
price 20 US $ per barrel, far too high. OPEC's next meeting, June 26-27, in Geneva, he thought
would be both difficult and important.
The journey continued to Rovaniemi, where the Yamani couple enjoyed following the midnight
sun cycle. The atmosphere was very romantic. Our guests seemed happy.
The next day we visited the President’s summer residence in Kultaranta, where Yamani met with
the President of the Republic Urho Kekkonen. Yamani received Kekkonen’s invitation to travel
back during April for skiing in Lapland. Kekkonen emphasized the “Arab positive” policy of
Finland. After Yamani had repeatedly regretted taking too much of the President’s time,
Kekkonen responded that he had nothing more than time due to him being on summer vacation.
He chuckled at the same time about the civil servants who have six weeks of summer vacation,
and wondered how a man can during six weeks come up with things to do. Yamani said in

32
conclusion that he was glad that he had the opportunity to meet with a President, who had been
in power for more than 20 years. Kekkonen replied: "A lot of people stay for far too long."
The weather was fine. Kekkonen came to the pier to say goodbye, when we left by boat to
Juusluoto. On this island, used by Neste Oy to entertain guests, Raade insisted that the Minister
and his wife Tamam should change into Neste’s green warm-up suit, referring to the traditions
of the lodge. I do not think the Minister at other times used a warm-up suit and it did not suit
him particularly well.
In the lodge we ate a decent lunch. During that lunch I was able to make the CEO turn pale. It
was more common that he made others turn pale. With the fish we had Morels, a familiar
delicacy in Finland. Yamani asked me what sorts of mushrooms we ate. In a show of my
knowledge of nature I told him that we were eating Morels, which belong to our most toxic
mushrooms. At this point our host CEO Raade turned pale. It was a miracle that he did not ask
me to leave immediately. The oil minister did not turn pale. He was more accustomed to my
special sense of humor. Of course I immediately added that the poison had been completely
removed from the mushrooms.
Yamani’s hobbies included both astrology and palmistry. He read the characters of Raade,
Minister Sundqvist, Mrs Hietarinta as well as some others from their palms. Unfortunately,
everybody kept Yamani’s analysis secret.
e oil was discussed during the beautiful summer day. Yamani advised to contact Dr. Taher at
Petromin to notify that the Finns were willing to negotiate. Taher would tell us when the signing
of the Agreement could be carried out. The oil for Finland would be lacking from the others.
Yamani hoped that the matter should not be publicized yet.
When I visited the Foreign Ministry I spoke with Foreign Minister Väyrynen about the matter of
the quantity of Saudi crude oil to Finland not being raised to above the 2 million tonne limit, in
order not to impede negotiations with the Soviet Union. I told Minister Väyrynen that I was trying
to arrange his visit to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis had, however, recently only received the Foreign
Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany, France, and the Foreign Minister of the EEC
Presidency Belgium. I also gave a brief report on the political situation in the Kingdom.
Deputy Secretary of State, Paavo Rantanen, was about to travel to Moscow. He wanted to know
when Alireza could schedule in the Joint Commission talks in Finland. I spoke about the situation
after the Yamani discussions. Paavo considered it very advantageous for Neste giving them
support for the Moscow talks.

33
I met with Kai Hietarinta, who was responsible for Neste Oy’s crude oil procurement, making
numerous trips to the oil-producing countries on the Arabian Peninsula to find suitable suppliers.
With Saudi Arabia we signed a delivery contract, which guaranteed Finland the amount of crude
oil that we had wished for, for a couple of years into the future, almost to the current OPEC base
price. The price did vary somewhat, but it was, at the time of the conclusion of the contract,
about $ 18 a barrel.
When Hietarinta and Neste’s lawyer Jouko Leskinen came to sign the Agreement on oil delivery,
it turned out that Petromin was not ready to sign, as Neste’s representatives did not have the
Finnish Government's authorization. Saudi Arabia was a country of rapid reactions, so I ended up
right away writing a solemn letter with the following text:
I hereby authorize the national oil company of Finland Neste Oy, represented by Mr. Kai
Hietarinta and Mr. Jouko Leskinen, to conclude and sign a crude oil contract on behalf of the
Government of Finland with the competent authorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Jeddah on July 3rd 1979
Kai Helenius
Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of Finland
to The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia.
The Agreement was signed on the 10 th of Shaaban 1399, equal to the 4 th of July 1979 of our
gregarian calendar. It consisted of 36 560 0000 barrels of crude oil, or about 5 million tonnes.
Later in the autumn, I negotiated with Yamani and received a couple of days later a confirmation
that we would obtain the requested additional amount of 8 000 barrels per day. I met Taher on
the first of October pertaining to the matter. When I spoke with Hietarinta I suggested that we
should avoid further requests in the near future.
Finland had received an intergovernmental oil supply agreement. We paid the official OPEC oil
price when the free market prices rose to record levels. The savings were significant. The
agreement supported us also during the price negotiations with our main supplier the Soviet
Union. We were not as susceptible to pressure as prior to the Saudi agreement. The Soviet Union
was in 1979 supplying about 60 % of our oil, and Saudi Arabia about 15 %. The following year the
Saudi Arabian share increased. Trade between Finland and the Soviet Union was trade of goods

34
under a clearing contract. When the import price of oil rose, the volume of exports grew
respectively. A private entrepreneur was able to take advantage of the situation. There was no
advantage for the national economy.
In January 1980, top executives of Neste Oy, led by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Minister Ulf Sundqvist, visited Jeddah. During a dinner in our residence in honor of oil minister
Ahmed Zaki Yamani I decorated him with the Grand Cross of the Lion Finland. In December 1980,
Yamani promised to commit his utmost that Finland would receive in 1981 the requested
additional 200 000 tonnes of oil. Iraq's oil deliveries had been reduced, and Saudi Arabia was
forced to take care of replacing the production. Saudi Arabia would reduce its production level
in 1981 from 10.3 million barrels per day to the level of 8.5 million barrels per day, and did not
therefore make new contracts. The agreement with Japan had been cancelled. Yamani estimated
that already in the summer of 1982 there would be a market glut. Finland's current oil supply
agreement was going to be terminated at the end of 1981.
I held ongoing discussions at the Ministry of Oil. In most cases, two Americans sat in Yamani’s
waiting room reading newspapers. The same men I happened to see also in the Minister's home
garden. I had the pleasure of acquainting myself with these security men. Yamani had been taken
hostage in Vienna, so he had security concerns. I negotiated with Yamani even in his home. I
stood and watched as the minister prayed. Prayer time came in the middle of our discussions. I
have visited several times oil minister Zaki Yamani’s homes. The home in Jeddah, the one in Taif,
as well as the old home in Riyadh and the new home he had built there. In addition he had an
apartment in Geneva, one in London, a house in the Swiss Alps, one on the Riviera and one in
Bahrain. I also went to the house of the oil minister of the United Arab Emirates, built for him in
Abu Dhabi. I do not know whether or not he's actually been there himself. The UAE oil minister
built it for Yamani, whom he admired. The oldest home was in the Al Yamama Hotel in Riyadh.
The entrance was a small side door of the hotel. The home was relatively dark and very Arabian
style.
The Jeddah home, as several others had in the middle of the living room a big pool. The house
was large, it had open walls in the style of the Peninsula of Malacca through which air could flow
freely. This home was a typical home of a wealthy resident of Jeddah, very wealthy.
Yamani had, while visiting Finland, invited my wife and myself to visit his summer residence in
the mountain town of Taif. His wife, Tamam, also wished to meet us. Taif is the administrative
summer capital of Saudi Arabia. Taif is a town close to Jeddah but about 1 500 m higher up.
During the night there it is smooth as silk. Even the King lived there during the summer, in his
palace. The Yamanis spent the fasting month of Ramadan in Saudi Arabia. Yamani told me that
he was growing dates in Medina, and had 31 different species of these fruit-bearing trees. He
promised us some Saudi Arabian dates.

35
Yamani already had a Finnish Sauna in his English residence. During his Midsummer trip he
became fascinated by log cabins that
the company Honkarakenne built. He
ordered two sauna cabins to his Taif
house for his guests and his
daughters. The Saunas functioned
well and were admired. Following
Finnish tradition wooden aisles led to
the houses. They were constructed
by wooden laths close to each other
with a narrow opening between the
laths. This construction turned out to
be hopeless, Arab women always,
when at all possible, used spike
heels. Of course the heels, and so
also the ladies, were caught in the
openings, with disastrous results. In
The Taif home the pool was out in the
open air. Once I observed that I was
in this pool together with the oil
minister, the Chairman of the Board
of Exxon, the CEO of Exxon and the
CEO of ARAMCO. I really was then
amongst an influential group from
the oil sector.
A new representative residence was
built in Riyadh. There the architects
had been given free hands to make the best of it. Many visitors smiled a little at the Saudi
tendency to gold plate everything. In many bathrooms there were only gilded accessories.
Yamani’s architect had decided to make an exception. Thus, the inside of the Yamani house was
marble and everything was silver plated, which, not coincidentally was chromium. Inside the
house one could hear constant croaking. The oil minister was by no means croaking, but instead
it happened to be his white parrots. The sound was overpowering. The House was in the interior
quite palace-like. It was really an impressive representation residence. The pool was once again
in a large living room, like in so many other houses of the region.
In September 1981, I was in Washington, when Hietarinta from Neste called and told me that
Deputy Minister Sultan from the Oil Ministry was going to travel to Sweden without visiting
Finland. I had previously heard from the construction company YIT that the crude oil storage rock
cavern project, which we were competing for, would be given to the Swedes. I drew attention to

36
the visit of the King of Sweden to Saudi Arabia and the big Swedish industrial exhibition. The
Swedes had worked very actively towards the benefit of the project. I did not consider it possible
to do much more in the matter. Upon my return to Helsinki, I met with Neste’s Deputy CEO
Hietarinta and Director Rinta as well as the project manager Lars Johansson. We agreed that
Neste would contact the Swedes in order to examine possibilities for cooperation. Neste’s Yrjö
Ignatius would come to Saudi Arabia to realize the downstream chemical joint venture project.
Neste was prepared to invest one hundred million Finnish Marks (FIM). The project would allow
Neste to obtain petro-chemical raw materials from Petromin more readily.
The CEO of the Confederation of Finnish Industries Stig Hästö told me, while he was in Finland
during an October, that the fall in oil prices on the market had resulted in lower oil revenue in
bilateral trade between Finland and the Soviet Union. As a result, there were now ongoing
negotiations on decreasing orders from Finland. The decline in orders was expected to be three
billion FIM, which also meant canceling already placed orders. It would lead to a difficult situation
in general, and to the bankruptcy of some small factories set up solely for the export to the Soviet
Union. If oil consumption continued to fall and prices remained low then Neste would be left with
two options. Purchases had to be reduced from the Soviet Union or the Middle East, of which the
latter would be the more likely solution. The quantity of oil stored by Neste had earlier been
increased. Neste searched everywhere for investment objects, in order to be able to carry out
deductions before tax. In the next years there could arise difficulties when Neste and the power
company Imatran Voima’s interests crashed.
The next day I met Ihamuotila, who wished upon negotiations in Saudi Arabia in November. Neste
wanted to negotiate two million tonnes of crude oil per year, and an option for one million tonnes
more. Neste was interested in loan negotiations with SAMA (Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency).
With regards to the oil cavern storage sector Kamal Adham had again stepped in.
A month later, I was once more in Helsinki, consulting with Ihamuotila and Hietarinta. Neste had
begun to consider a reduction in the volume of imports. It could remain at the current level if
Neste could participate in the implementation rock cavern project for oil storage. The
Government had sought to get Neste to increase their purchases of petroleum products from the
Soviet Union. Neste was ready, provided that they could reduce the crude oil purchases from
there, which did not sit well with the Government. The Government wanted to maintain the
exports to the Soviet Union, with maximal oil purchases from there. Neste did not want to do this
for reasons of oil policy.
Due to poor telephone connections, small misunderstandings arose. I had been working to get
the Deputy Oil Minister Ghazi Sultan to come to Finland. He was a most important contact to get
us involved in the underground cavern oil tanks project. Although he had the use of a large jet, I
had problems with succeeding on my terms. In our discussions, I found that he was extremely

37
fond of seafood. I used this information and started to attract him to Finland to taste our famous
seafood. It turned out to be the correct lure, so in November we set off in his plane towards
Helsinki. We arrived in the evening. I still remember how polite the officials at the airport were
when the big private plane landed and only a few passengers stepped out. Business flights were
rarer at that time than now. The weather favored our short visit. I took the Minister for dinner
to the, at that time, best fish restaurant, called Havis, located on the corner of the main market
square. We ate flame-smoked salmon. He was really satisfied with the seafood meal.
The next day, we went to see Minister Rekola and continued to Neste’s head office from where
we took a helicopter to Sköldvik to inspect the constructed caverns for oil storage. In Sköldvik we
were supposed to eat the seafood lunch that I had promised. I had called already from Jeddah
and requested fish for the guests. I had not been able to give more details because the telephone
connection was poor, but the fish had indeed been promised to us. Of course, our guest for lunch
was astonished, as we were served chicken and no fish. The phone connection had been really
bad. (Fish is in Finnish = kala and chicken = kana). Fortunately, the previous night's flame smoked
salmon had been appetizing enough.
Minister Sultan was impressed by the rock cavern tanks he saw in Finland. He told us that the
Saudi project pursued a storage for seven to fourteen million tonnes of crude. Yamani had not
yet presented the project to Crown Prince Fahed, so all the rumors of the concluded contracts
were unfounded. Bids would be requested from the Finns and the Swedes, who were split into
two separate groups. During the visit it was agreed that the Duty CEO of Neste Jussi Rinta would
visit Saudi Arabia in January 1982, to familiarize himself with the Yanbu area and the
specifications of the tank caverns. Minister Sultan spoke about the fact that he planned to arrive
with his family in Finland for the summer of 1982.
After my return to Saudi Arabia I was a part of numerous negotiations with the representatives
of the oil sector, the management of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), as well as with
the Minister of Industry during the November-December period. The cavern tank project
proceeded, as well as the joint venture between Neste and the Saudis for the production of
gasoline additives in Al Jubail. In December, the representatives of Neste confirmed to SABIC that
they were interested in the establishment of a Joint Venture. Neste Trading was ready to
implement itself on the responsibility of selling the products to the North-West European market.
Yamani was not pleased with the large publicity of the rock storage matter. First, Aramco would
buy small storage caverns to start the Yanbu refinery’s activity. I was told that in June it was close
that the company Saudi Oger would have been given the contract for underground concrete
cisterns. The actual rock tanks would be constructed only in Yanbu. At the end of November, it
had been intended to hold the final meeting, where the Defense Minister, Prince Sultan, the
Minister of the Interior, Prince Naif, the Minister of Finance and the Oil Minister would all

38
participate. The meeting, however, had been re-scheduled. The American construction company
Fluor contacted Neste. The company was interested in the expert assistance of Neste.
ARAMCO had, additionally to Fluor, taken contact with Neste on the issue of the rock tank matter.
The magnitude of the project made it an even more complex negotiation matter than earlier. The
Finns appeared to have opportunities to make their point across, one way or another. Sweden's
Boliden had become very active on this issue. Finnish engineers were invited to the Yanbu and
Jeddah refineries. These engineers improved our relations with Petromin's engineering team.
The Soviet Union followed in March along the prices of North Sea Oil. Neste had purchased from
the Soviet Union 8.5 million tonnes, from North Sea one million tonnes, and 250 000 tonnes from
Qatar. The Saudi oil contract was fulfilled to the smallest detail, despite the difficult market
situation. Finland demonstrated its reliability once again.
I negotiated in March with Yamani. He understood that we could not obtain oil during the year
1982. Neste’s management was under pressure from the press and others in Finland. However,
Yamani hoped to receive a letter from us explaining that we had proposed a renewal of the
agreement, and to hopefully receive a positive response. We would ask to negotiate the
continuation during the second half of the year. Yamani received the letter he requested.
The oil market continued, after the OPEC meeting, applying pressure to reduce the prices. The
chosen victim was Algeria, which received most pressure. The intention was to break the OPEC
front. Yamani did not wish that the prices would go downwards, because it would necessarily
result in an inevitable strong increase. Saudi Arabia wanted to avoid the rippling. Yamani drew
attention to the decrease of the real prices due to inflation.
I suggested an OPEC meeting in Finland. OPEC could consider holding its May 1983 meeting in
Helsinki. I worked for this meeting a long time because I was hoping the confidential oil supply
relations with the Arabian Gulf countries and the other OPEC members would remain also during
possible future crises. Finland was energy dependent. We should not be dependent on deliveries
from the Soviet Union and possibly even a target of pressure. All countries consider their own
interests. In the Arab culture, friendship and confidence were exceptionally important.
During the first days of February 1982, Hietarinta inquired on my view of the continuation of
Saudi purchases on the adjusted market situation. I recommended continuation, because in a
crisis situation we could be dependent on crude from Saudi Arabia. Yamani saw a possibility of
regression, if the stocks emptied once again and economic activity recovered.

39
I was asked to prepare a proposal for Ihamuotila’s letter to Yamani. Finland had, in the current
market situation, no physical potential to import. We could revert to the matter in the near
future. I discussed with Hietarinta and Ihamuotila about how to stay in contact with Yamani and
other Arabian Gulf Oil Suppliers with regard to the new situation. Referring to the planned
general meeting of OPEC on March 19 th we decided to cancel Ihamuotila’s and Hietarinta’s visit
to Petromin, ADNOC and Qatar Oil Company. Helsingin Sanomat had published an unhappy
article about the termination of oil imports from Saudi Arabia. The leak probably happened at a
meeting of Neste’s supervisory board and auditors. A couple of days later, we discussed the reset
of the price of oil from the Soviet Union. At the same time, it was agreed that I should begin
negotiations around the purchase of one million tonnes from Saudi Arabia in 1983. The
agreement should commence during the beginning of the year 1983.
The oil markets adjusted again. There was enough crude oil on the market. OPEC was due to
reach uniform prices. From the point of view of the interests of OPEC it might have been a
mistake, that the so-called price hawks, who held short-term oil reserves, such as Nigeria and
Algeria, raised the prices to such a high level that energy importing countries moved more quickly
than expected from oil to coal and other energy variants, which resulted in the current market
situation.
In July I told Neste that the Saudis planned to group their clients into “loyals” and “unloyals”. In
the future the loyals would receive advantages or “preferential treatment." The development of
prices was not possible to predict. The crude oil supply was considered to, again, become more
difficult.
Although Saudi Arabia's production was back to within the normal range, there was still a surplus
of oil and the resources would be enough for a long time to come. If the market situation forced
further cuts in oil production in Saudi Arabia, it would not cause serious disruption to the market.
The opposite views of the press were based on the assumption that it was necessary for Saudi
Arabia to implement its development program as fast as presented within the five-year plan.
Saudi Arabia felt no necessity. The reason for implementing at the planned speed was the effort
to invest oil proceeds in their own country. It was feared that oil proceeds invested elsewhere
would lose value due to inflation and exchange rate fluctuations. Saudi Arabia's economy would
function properly even with half of the production at the time.
Petro wealth’s effects on society

40
The increase in the price of crude oil during the 70 's, due to the production cuts initiated by the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), brought about Saudi Arabia becoming
very rich very rapidly. Their petroleum wealth provided an opportunity for rapid progress, more
rapid than it has ever been in any country. After only a few week’s trip abroad could the familiar
environment feel strange, especially as street names and address numbers were still missing.
Within a few years the infrastructure was built. The availability of water was provided by building
sea water distilleries, water treatment plants and sewage treatment plants. The country was
industrialized and industry to replace the requirements of importation was built. Food could be
imported enough, however agriculture was developed and sufficient food for the poorest was
secured by strongly subsidizing basic foodstuffs. Electricity was distributed even to remote
villages. Healthcare was developed quickly. Public education was under way. It was possible to
pay attention to safety. Rapid planning in a rapidly changing environment and the
implementation of the envisaged new model was understandably difficult.
Advisors and consultants were needed. To Saudi Arabia arrived, regrettable quickly, also
dishonest consultants. The human desire for self-assertion was exploited. Plans were born, such
as the development of a paper industry, by planting forests in the desert, and the Riyadh Olympic
Stadium, which had no realistic possibility of being implemented.
Direct swindlers also arrived in the country, and persuaded the fast enriched to buy factories and
equipment, which later lay unused and worthless in the desert. Through this activity increased,
fully understandably, the suspicion of the Saudis, orientated against us Europeans. This made
honest trade more difficult and slowed down prospects of correct project negotiations.
The human tendency for speculation could be seen in the rise of the property valuations and
subsequent earnings from such property. Saudi Arabia and its neighboring countries strongly
increased their imports. Suppliers required locally a so-called sponsor, who had to guarantee the
reliability of the supplier. Often, these partners did little more than collect their compensation.
Some became corrupt, and, as in so many other countries, bureaucracy, with its well-known
features, grew steadily. The oil-producing countries on the Arabian Peninsula had to import
foreign labor, in the range of around two or three million persons, in order to implement the
projects.
An immigrant was allowed to come to the country to work. Only a few people were allowed to
bring family members with them. It required that one had a notable position or role. All had to
fully accept the local habits and customs. The immigrant encountered many constraints. Any
Christian symbol was not accepted. The slightest neck crosses were not allowed. There were no

41
Churches or church services of any variety, because no priests were allowed into the country.
There was no Alcohol either. From raisins bought from local shops, individuals produced some
secretive wine. Moonshine was sometimes offered at parties. The name of the moonshine was
Sedeeqi (My friend). Women were not allowed to drive a car. Persons of differing gender could
not sit together in a car unless they belonged to the same family.
The Christian Finns who came to Saudi Arabia met with an entirely new foreign culture. The most
part lived in fenced barrack areas, where they tried to live by their customary way, but with many
restrictions. This culture shock I experienced myself also. My wife felt it even more. An infidel
was not allowed to step into a mosque. Mecca and Medina were fully closed cities. Shops were
closed during prayer times. Prayer is five times per day. If you happened to be in the shop when
prayer time started, you had to stay in there behind closed doors, until the prayer time ended.
The CEO of the American company Bechtel, said once, upon our meeting: "This is the country,
where you with a maximum of input get a minimum of output". He was quite disgusted with all
the adversities he had met.
The local people were often not willing to do heavy work. All forms of business activity increased
in different forms at the same time as the transport chaos. American cars, Rolls Royces and
Mercedes tended to push away the growing quantities of cheaper Japanese cars.
The effects of wealth on individuals began to appear quickly. The health of the people improved
of course, with the development of healthcare, the standard of living increased rapidly and also
the education opportunities of the youth. In Arab countries the family is of great importance in
the makeup of society. Parents continue to be respected, and extended families are common.
The extended family and the tribe are together able to bring up its members. They are also
capable of providing economic support. As the country’s wealth increased rapidly several
nomadic traditions remained respected.
If an individual wanted to criticize his community, he was able to do so by speaking directly with
representatives of the administration or with members of the ruling family. In this way it was
possible to defuse any criticism. There was not much of this criticism in the controlled press or at
public meetings, it was more a case of face to face confrontation. The press was controlled in
many ways. From arriving foreign press and publications, pictures rated unsuitable were
blackened. The page six girl in the Finnish trade paper Kauppalehti belonged to these blackened
varieties and so were many of the fashion and beach images, as well as ads with sparsely dressed
women. Religious Influence was strong. Islam is a way of life at the same time as being a religion.
I have seen Ministers and entire military units kneel and bow in prayer.

42
The sudden upsurge in wealth brought with it a rapidly growing obesity dilemma. Traditional
lifestyle began to change. The men, however, still embraced and walked hand in hand. Thobe
and Ghutra were still worn as dress while driving in a Cadillac or Datsun and when shopping for
video tapes. A cosmopolitan class was born when outbound tourism increased. A "golden youth"
emerged, with a lifestyle less strict than their parents’. The former Bedouins were now
businessmen. A part of these successful businessmen bought quickly into an industrializing
country.
Old habits, however, were handled by the so-called religious police, which in Saudi Arabia went
by the name "the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice". The classic
forms of punishment were appreciated, as they significantly reduced crime rates. Desert trips
were made on the weekends. One went to the beaches to watch the sunset and to the desert to
watch the night stars, but at the same time one watched one’s mobile TV.
The role of women was not showing signs of change. Women were educated behind walls and
generally segregated from the rest of their community. Only a small number of women had a
working place in the more conservative countries. Women did not complain about their destiny.
Jewelry and evening dresses were purchased.
The modern elite often proclaimed that one should not look for problems in the interaction
between traditional and industrial culture, that the Arabs will not be able to live without the
scientific instruments and the technology of the West.
About one thousand years ago, the Muslim Arabs conquered large areas of the world map,
including Spain. At that time they brought to Europe the foundations of knowledge: science, skills
and culture. The Arabs influenced positively the Renaissance. They had by then scientific
instruments and technology.
A member of the government of a major oil producing country expressed the following views in
public: "Western civilization is not only long hair, sex shows and drugs. Islam can withstand the
introduction of the better aspects of Western civilization. The Arabs need from the Western
civilization: technology, natural sciences, social sciences, business management and scientific
planning principles. The Arabs do not have to accept these traits into their customs, but they can
learn from aspects of Western politics, philosophy, literature and law. Islam did not create Laws
that would deal with maritime issues, airspace or nationality questions. The West transmits easily
also the extrinsic frames, such as advertising and commercialism, which, however, is not
important. The old Arab habits, such as eating habits, bringing uninvited guests to dinners you
are invited to, eating on the floor and arriving at a meeting without having previously agreed the
time, can survive, they do not disturb even if they appear strange to Westerners. The most
important thing for the Arabs was to rid themselves of backwardness. "

43
Oil wealth also brought challenging socioeconomic problems, security risks and political risks.
Migration to the cities was the first sign that the cities were beginning to receive oil wealth. The
rapid increase in the amount of money and inflation were another symptom. The rural areas
emptied fast and the cities were filled.
The additional money in circulation made the oil producing countries consumers of even the most
expensive products of the industrialized countries. In the fast growing department stores and
supermarkets of the oil producing countries one could buy all kinds of televisions, stereo
equipment and even living lions.
Initially the countries had to import practically everything. They had only one export product,
which again was influenced by the economic climate. It was difficult to get technology from the
industrial countries, because the oil-producing countries lacked the intellectual infrastructure to
exploit the technology and the industrialized countries were indeed willing to sell their latest
knowledge. The sense of insecurity forced the Middle Eastern countries to acquire both suitable
as well as unsuitable weapons.
The old productive habits disappeared. People no longer had a great interest in farming in
difficult climatic conditions, not in the traditional, not in nomadism nor in fishing. As replacement
came no new productive activity. The oil wealth allowed numerous public and semi-public sector
to disguise the unemployed. Trade, service, and speculation were interesting activities. In trading
circles the margin and profit expectations were far too high to allow the trade to be considered
normal.
What where the options that the oil producing countries then had? If everyone should have
received money from the government, it would have destroyed every motivation for productive
work and created a pure welfare society. A lot was demanded and a lot was desired, but the
ability to act was missing. In reality, a lot of work was needed and the majority had no incentive
to work.
An income distribution problem was born. Some of the families were well known business
families, some of the people were part of the elite. The ruling families of these countries had a
positive role to play, as they kept the nations together and in general had already been in power
for a long time, so their status and authority were well respected. However, their prosperity as
well as the prosperity of the business families was much larger than that of the common people.
There was no taxation to balance the income distribution.

44
An all too large economic disparity between groups of people affects the political stability
negatively and is not socially fair. Disadvantaged groups may look for exterior support due to
their insecurity, their ambitions and frustrations. And not necessarily even from the exterior as
was shown in the Mecca crisis in November-December 1979, when a small group who were
against change attempted to appoint themselves into power using all the wrong methods, and in
the wrong place.
One of my good friends, a member of the Government of Saudi Arabia said: "Money cannot buy
happiness. If in a community where money is placed ethically before moral behavior then the
community will be destroyed. Not all problems can be solved by buying turn-key ports, power
plants and factories. A wad of cash is not always the solution. "
Even before the change in the oil market, it was noted in oil-producing countries that the best
solution for social problems was to produce less oil and process it further. At the same time one
should develop local production and services, as well as reduce Imports.
Regional integration, as for example, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), contributed to the
development of production potential. When the price of oil fell from its peak, the oil producing
nations became slower in their acquisition of wealth, which may well have been to the benefit of
their long term development.
The Arabs had over the years got used to the fact that the Europeans looked at them a bit from
the top down. Names of a racist, insulting nature were commonly used against the Arabs. It had
been to the contrary earlier, as Arab countries represented the cradle of civilization and ruled in
North Africa as well as in Spain. The petrodollars again brought a time when the Arabs were
wooed and courted, because the rich are often served better. But they did not change all false
perceptions in either direction. We human beings are individuals. Generalizations are always
difficult and often unfair.
Even before the Finnish Embassy in Saudi Arabia there were Finnish companies established in the
country. As an example I mention the construction company YIT, which had created for itself a
prominent position as a contractor specializing in water treatment plants and sewage treatment
plants. The Regional Manager for Saudi Arabia was Esko Mäkelä, with whom I became friends
during his term of office. The friendship has continued.
In Saudi Arabia the situation was then the same as it is today in the field of racing sport. For
everything in that field a sponsor or Saudi partner was needed. YIT had a good sponsor and good
relations. The fast increase of wealth in these countries led to an enormous amount of housing
construction and left the infrastructure behind. There was no railroad. It was destroyed already

45
in the World War I. There was not enough port equipment nor port facilities. Thus it became
necessary to unload cement by helicopter from ships, to name an example of obscure behavior,
which had been waiting outside Jeddah for months. It certainly was not the cheapest course of
action.
YIT had answered to the problems by its own YIT Ro-Ro ferry line, which also supported other
Finnish companies. I used these ships for some trips to Europe and learned in doing so to know
the Suez Canal. Admittedly, I had gone through it in the past without giving much second thought.
The ships entering the channel were obliged, during the trip, to host a group of Egyptians on
board who were paid and given, in addition to food, tobacco and whiskey. Their mission was to
moor the ship if for one reason or another it should be forced to stop. Everyone had a role to
play. One time such a stop happened. It turned out that the Egyptian auxiliary staff brought
nothing but harm. At first they did nothing. Then they stood helpless, with their mittens erect,
and, finally, they did it all wrong. The ship's own crew knew how to handle the situation. For the
Egyptians it was only essential to get the whiskey, tobacco, food and, of course, their salary. Work
and actual application of skill were not considered important factors.
The Royals resided primarily in Riyadh and Jeddah. In the summer, they moved to a cooler Taif.
Everywhere there were a number of royal palaces, palaces of the many Princes and palaces also
for the wives. Jeddah contained a number of these palaces, even on the seashore. In order to
improve the situation a little, an artificial island was built in front of Jeddah. It was convenient to
build a palace on this island and so it was done. At the same time a great Intercontinental hotel
was built on the corniche of Jeddah. When the buildings on the artificial island were almost
completed, it was observed that from the hotel's windows you could look at and possibly even
threaten the people in the island palace. Therefore, the hotel was bought and it never turned out
to be the Intercontinental. It too, became a Palace. These palaces were not used excessively,
some were often empty. Still more were built.
The construction industry had real heydays during the oil crisis at a time when oil prices were
high and the Arab countries lived in the petrodollar euphoria. Along Saudi Arabia large housing
areas for more than a thousand residents, sometimes tens of thousands, were planned and
constructed. The buildings were European-style apartment houses. For example, the size of the
social housing apartments built in Jeddah in the 1980s were the 240 m 2 . The houses could be
from twelve to sixteen stories high. As the entire activity was new in a foreign environment, in
the beginning a variety of deviations were performed. Some of the rumors in circulation might
well, of course, have been exaggerated. Always the measurements between drawings and reality
did not match. The houses became high, but the rooms not. There were stories about a big
apartment house with a room height of only 175 cm (5ft 9”). It was not possible for most to stand
straight at all. The builder had made a mistake. The house was demolished.

46
All the great housing areas for between one thousand and ten thousand inhabitants could not be
put to use immediately. No water pipes nor sewage piping had yet been built. On the other hand,
nomads, the Bedouins, were used to living in tents. Into the high-rise apartment houses they
could not bring their sheep and goats. This was quite a problem. In addition to these two causes
there were very local reasons. Some of the houses were built by the French, as I recall, they had
built around every staircase an elevator (lift), as is customary in Europe. Well, in Saudi Arabia
nobody was able to think of having men and women in the same elevator. Therefore separate
“mens’ lifts” and “ladies’ lifts” were needed in every staircase. As it was no longer possible to
place the double elevators in the narrow elevator shafts, the houses could not be used. I always
used to call these houses “reserve houses”. It was a decent principle to build houses, for any
possible future requirement.
Finnish contractors and companies participated successfully in the development projects. Most
active in Saudi Arabia during the seventies and eighties however, were American companies,
implementing development projects, and at the same time, building a defense system and air
bases.
Driving around and along the Saudi Arabian deserts was one of the few recreational activities
that I define as being very interesting. Once a while one found excellent expressways. These
roads began in the middle of the desert and ended somewhere else once again in the middle of
the desert. I used to call these expressways “reserve motorways”. I almost never found anyone
else using them.
Often when I drove along the desert I found great fly-overs. There was no road in the
neighborhood, not even a “reserve road”. I called these fly-overs “reserve fly-overs”. There had
been a good reason to build them. Possibly a “reserve road” would be built in the future. Based
on what I have written it should be easy to guess what a “reserve hospital” stands for. It should
be noted that during the petrodollar boom time in Saudi Arabia there were many “reserve
hospitals” or hospitals, for which there was no staff. Perhaps they would be needed in the future.
Hotels, especially luxury hotels, bloomed up like mushrooms after the rain. Business men and
consultants, who in the early days of the petrodollar boom had slept in hotel corridors or even
park benches could now choose between suites. Often the rooms were empty. There was no
tourism.
As commented above were the deviations during the early ecstatic boom time. One could at that
time sneer, but the end result was a fine network of roads and a functioning society. During the
rapid growth phase various contractors implemented their projects at different speeds.

47
After a few years of rapid construction work there was no lack of hotels and public facilities in
the oil-rich countries. There was also no lack of residential houses. Rooms in hotels, restaurants
and public facilities that are needed for obvious reasons are mens’ and womens’ restrooms. The
doors used to have a sign showing that this is the appropriate gender for the men’s room or lady’s
room. European, American and Korean contractors were responsible for the construction work.
The ladies’ restrooms are in Europe often identified by a stylized lady’s picture. A dress says “For
ladies” and a pair of trousers “For men”. But the Saudi men used long shirts, appearing on a
stylized picture quite similar to a dress. I remember always the surprise of the ambassadors’
wives at the opening party of the Meridien hotel in Jeddah. European women and local men
opted to go to the restroom they perceived as the symbol recognized as theirs. I am not going to
describe the resulting confusion. The symbols on the doors were rapidly replaced.
In many places the ladies’ rooms proved to be very useful. As the passengers moving in the air
terminals were almost exclusively men, the male Filipino cleaning staff had frequently noted, that
the best place to sleep, smoke or eat was in the ladies' room. This surprised the European ladies
who went to these rooms. My wife was one of the astonished. By contacting the cleaning
supervisors the restrooms were quickly cleared.
All people have concerns, worries, even the enriched. As dinner is eaten only after midnight, it is
usual to sit before dinner chatting and drinking, in turn, tea and Arabic coffee, a light colored
strongly cardamom tasting brew. I once attended a discussion before dinner on aviation. I was
interested as my father had been an air force officer. A prominent businessman Gaith Pharaon,
and some of the other lamented the problems they had with their aircraft. At the same time they
were disputing about whether it was cheaper to buy for private use a new Gulfstream or a used
Boeing 707 jet. They were in agreement that parking and maintenance in London for the plane
was very expensive. A cheaper alternative was that upon arrival in London, the pilot immediately
continued to Brussels, where Sabena would service the plane at a lower price than the English.
When the Sheikhs in the morning again wanted to continue their flight they could give the pilot
a call. He would fly from Brussels to London airport in about the same time it took by car from
the over-crowded center of London. Wealth did not remove all concerns, you see.

48
The hotels became more and more luxurious. I often had trouble explaining that ambassadors do
not stay in
suites, as the
Foreign
Ministry’s
Economic
Bureau would
not approve
the travel
expenses, but
in a standard
room. Finally
the Arabs
found a
solution. The
Ambassador
was given a
suite, but at
the standard
room price.
This was not hurting the taxpayer, so I agreed under pressure to accept even a big suite. In
addition to suites the major hotels built separate villas for important guests, like noble Arabs.
The word mini-palace was more descriptive than villa. One of the hotels once placed a Finnish
delegation, of which I was a member, in such a villa. The delegation was introduced to the rooms
and there were a lot of rooms. Finally we came to the TV-room, but there was no TV. There was
everything else, including a two-wall library and sofas with shiny pillows etc. One guest had the
nerve to point out the lack of TV. The guide went to the wall and pressed a button, one of the
book shelves swung away and in came the TV. Next morning it was difficult to get the delegation
to assemble for breakfast. It had been agreed that breakfast is eaten in the breakfast room of the
chairman of the delegation, but there were so many rooms that the members of the delegation
had problems to find the correct room and it then became difficult to find the members of the
delegation.

49
The rapid enrichment was followed by a “nouveau riche" phenomenon. The same phenomenon
could later be
observed when
Russia´s
economy began
to grow as
rapidly as it did at
the time. Fast.
During my term
as ambassador I
could see in
Saudi Arabia the
richer Saudis
living in their
own houses,
usually called
villas, while
poorer Saudis
often lived in
tents, as poorer Saudis usually were Bedouins, who lived in the desert. Other poorer people
tended not to be Saudis, but expatriate labor. They lived either in various stone houses or in
shanty towns, which were built by foreign companies for their employees. The Saudi use of the
word villa easily springs to mind a simple Nordic summer house. I thought that their villas were
of the same size, until I discovered that one villa had 3 elevators. The villas were thus relatively
bulky. The rooms were large and the interior frequently designed by Italian architects to be very
modern or alternately so-called Egyptian Baroque. Egyptian "Baroque" has gold as other styles
of Baroque, but it is mainly located in different parts of the very large-sized sofas and armchairs.
The old Arabic way of living had come from the tents. In the
middle of the room were big carpets or one very large carpet
and all the other furniture had been placed along the wall with
the back towards the wall. From this decoration, the Italians
had sought to develop a little more of a European style of
model, adding decoration of glass and other shining surfaces.
Solutions varied according to family. The beds were very
imaginative. They were really big and they had been equipped
with all the accessories for a bed that one might imagine, from
a variety of radio equipment to television sets. Refrigerators
were often also built into a bed.
I have already mentioned that the Saudi home had several
televisions. In addition, the homes had still more phones.
Typically, these phones were always ringing, unless someone
was talking on each incoming line of the house. Night phone

50
calls seemed part of the Saudi way of life. Mobile phones were not yet in general use. The
interior decoration of Saudi homes included art. Mostly, the art had Islamic motifs. Since some
of the suddenly enriched wanted to buy the kind of art that was known to be appreciated by
others, such art was available in the local shops, such as, for example, copies of Da Vinci's Mona
Lisa painting. But a mere copy of the Mona Lisa itself was of course not very entertaining, as
one had to watch it constantly. It was necessary to make it practical. Thus, the shops sold
Mona-Lisa with added hands of the clock, so the painting became a clock, which was very
practical. This was art applied practically.
In Saudi Arabia people liked to have their TVs running, and they really liked them running. Several
Saudi homes had a television set in every room, and they were always running. The receivers
were in addition set to be relatively loud. The programs were official programs. I did not follow
them because I found them quite long-winded. The events on the news were certainly
interesting. It was told which important foreigner had visited the king, one of the princes, or
another Minister. Also the ambassadors’ visits were reported in the news. The visit reports were
usually accompanied by marching music melodies, the contents of the discussions always
described in the same brief way: "Discussions were held on matters of mutual interest." It was
never said what matters were really discussed, and never explained about anything mutually
interesting. Perhaps this explains why I did not normally watch the news.
Extra large satellite dishes I first saw on the Saudi Arabian family houses’ yards. They were used
to pick up satellite broadcastings of television programs. I do not know if, at that time, satellites
were transmitting programs which were prohibited in Saudi Arabia. If one could not get them
from satellites one could get them by buying prohibited videotapes.
The Embassy employed a tea-boy. All offices in Saudi Arabia had tea-boys. Their duty was to carry
tea to those working in the offices and their guests. The tea was needed because of the heat and
it was also an Arab tradition. Especially the working Saudis needed tea. Many did not do any
other work than to drink tea. For other work foreign labor was used. Our tea-boy seemed modest.
He was not very young. Perhaps it would have been better to call him a tea-man. He never said
anything. His being on holiday largely went unnoticed. It was observed that somebody else was
to distribute tea. One day, his wife, whose existence was not even known by me, came to the
embassy gate, crying, and explained to us that her husband had been arrested. She wanted my
help to get her husband out of the cell. When I tried to find out why this Yemeni had been
arrested, it turned out that he was the organizer of a porn movie copying enterprise. I would
assume that the company did well, because later we discovered that he had bought with his
earnings during his holiday trips a big agricultural property in Yemen. The Embassy employed a
new tea-boy.

51
Finnish art in Jeddah
As an example of private Saudi residence let me mention that of the Mayor of Jeddah, Said al
Farsi. It was his old home. He was, at the time, building another, which I never witnessed being
accomplished. One time, I went to a new home under construction, however, and found it built
around a boulder. This unique megalith was an art experience, standing in the center of what would be
its future living room. It was impressive, all people do not have a very large boulder in their home.
The old home was also very impressive. There was a collection of everything, which impresses a
viewer. There were all varieties of art styles, all colors and all sizes. The home was not missing
the antiques of old Yemeni palace art and decorations from the time of the Queen of Sheba.
These pieces of art were not, however, for the most part, exhibited. Archaeologically extremely
valuable pieces of art were found hidden in table and cabinet drawers. Each of these objects
should have been exhibited in a Museum, but they were instead in drawers in the House. Those
who were interested, however, were given the right to inspect them. The host was happy to
show them. Otherwise, the decoration items of the host, mayor Farsi included everything.
Baroque, empire and the latest Avant guard was everything mixed into one. On the table were
side-by-side small sculptures by famous artists, books, and cigarette lighters redesigned from
Coca-Cola cans and hand grenades. The collection was, indeed, varied and interesting.
The same Jeddah mayor had bought five of Henry Moore’s sculptures. These large-format high
value sculptures I had, to my surprise, found scattered here and there in the middle of building
material and construction waste in Jeddah. This gave me the incentive to telI mayor Farsi that we
have famous sculptors in Finland also. I mentioned of them Eila Hiltunen, Laila Pullinen and Raimo
Utriainen, who was the artist of the year in 1980. Farsi suggested that I should invite them to visit
Saudi Arabia and sent me First class airline tickets for them. The visual artists Eila Hiltunen and
Laila Pullinen have made Finnish art and the country Finland known in particular by treating metal
in various ways. Eila Hiltunen is such a good welder that the Finnish shipbuilding industry has lost
a lot of talent, after she did not choose to become an industrial welder. However, Eila’s decision
to become a sculptor was certainly to become a benefit to Finland. Eila’s vividness and liveliness,
as well as her fantastic dynamism, I have learned to appreciate. I recall these characteristics when
I pass the Sibelius monument in Helsinki. I have always admired the curved shapes of Laila
Pullinen. By this I do not primarily mean her own, but her artworks. The ones I've seen in
buildings, ships, airports and downtown Jeddah then still barren streets. Her Nissbacka Park
exhibition is deeply ingrained in my memory.

52
I invited both the artists at the same time,
as a naïve innocent I thought they would
enjoy being together in this very different
country. They enjoyed the visit, but there
was excitement in the air, which
sometimes was expressed in words. The
end result was that, after Farsi, having
during his visit to Finland visited even the
artists’ ateliers soon sculptures by both
Hiltunen and Pullinen were erected in
Jeddah, I was expected to continue this art
trade, without any provision. I did my
best, as was the case with other projects. The biggest sculpture in Jeddah was Hiltunen's "Sun
flower field", created using stainless steel, on the corniche.
Of all the Finnish construction companies working in Saudi Arabia, the company Partek was the
one most interested in Farsi’s visit to Finland. He was close to the Royal family, as a customer
significant. He had, during the busy construction season, which was still active, reached the stage
of "beautification" or taken to beautify the city of Jeddah. This aim offered possibilities also to
other Finnish companies. Together with the local manager of Partek Tapani Homanen, I prepared
the trip and accompanied Farsi and his wife. In Helsinki we went to the Minister for Trade and
Industry, Ulf Sundqvist, in his office. Visits to the Minister responsible for a certain sector with no
concrete problem are in international practice called "courtesy calls". Minister Uffe Sundqvist

53
said that after the visit of mayor Farsi he for the first time really understood, what a "courtesy
call" actually is. Farsi, having entered the room, shook hands with the Minister, said a few polite
words, and sat down. He then called his assistant, who came and presented to Minister Sundqvist
a Saudi cloak, an Arab sword and a medal. After this, Farsi, rose, shook hands once more and left.
None of us lost any valuable time. A similar courtesy call was made to the Mayor of Helsinki,
Raimo Ilaskivi.
Mrs Farsi was involved in exploring, among other things, the Helsinki fur shops. Yes, a Saudi lady
was able to use a fur coat even at home by setting the air conditioner to “cold” enough. In
addition, the Saudis travelled even during the winter. In the City of Turku we visited a Friitala
leather garment store. Mrs Farsi and her companion looked at various garments and threw them
in a big stack onto the shop’s table. The saleswoman became steadily more unhappy as time
passed, when nothing seemed to fit. Finally, the lively debate in Arabic stopped and the other
lady was left with a blouse in her hand. The ladies were at last ready to purchase. The saleswoman
became all the more shocked when it turned out that the ladies did not only want to buy this one
piece, but the entire stack, which had been growing on the table.
The Mayor had studied architecture in Egypt. While in Helsinki, I used a small program break to
illustrate to the Farsi couple the Temple Church that a couple of my university acquaintances,
architects Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen, had created. Farsi was indeed fascinated by the church.
He wanted to Saudi Arabia a similar one, though for it not to be a church. I received an invitation
to Saudi Arabia to be forwarded to these architects, and they did eventually comply.
Visits and consultations
Their Majesties the King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Sylvia once conducted a State visit
to Saudi Arabia. The Swedes told me that during the preparation of the trip, the Saudis had asked
what time of day the Swedish King’s plane would land in the capital Riyadh. When they were
informed that the King would arrive on an SAS commercial route, which flew from Stockholm to
Jeddah and not to Riyadh, they became confused, and asked to be given a break. After a while,
they returned to inform the Swedes that His Majesty King Khaled would be happy with sending
his plane to pick up his Majesty the King of Sweden from Stockholm. This was not convenient
according to the Swedish Protocol. A solution was found. The King of Sweden landed on the route
flight in Jeddah, where he was greeted, by the Protocol representatives. Then His Majesty King
Carl XVI Gustaf entered the private Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet of His Majesty King Khaled, which
landed in Riyadh. The Saudi TV cameras covering the welcoming ceremony were set up so that
nobody should get the impression that the King was not stepping out from his own Jumbo Jet.
Her Majesty Queen Silvia survived a difficult press conference with both challenging as well as
somewhat rude questions from the Swedish media. The Queen did have media experience from
her youth, and she knew how to combine it with her royal status. It was a pleasure to discuss
matters with her.
In the course of the Petrodollar boom consultants, contractors and exporters were eager to enter
the markets of the oil-producing countries. They were supported by means of unofficial and

54
official visits by Heads of State and Government, Ministers and even Royals. The oil-producing
countries were delighted by the floods of top dignitaries visiting their countries. Because the
countries had not been appreciated in the past, visitors had formerly arrived very seldom. But
too much is, of course, too much. To organize and manage the visits they did not have a sufficient
network. The Arabs, however, are excellent improvisers.
Even the official guests from Finland insisted, before a visit, on an exact itinerary to abide by. I
never dared to say that there was nobody preparing such an itinerary. Visits were arranged
wonderfully, but the official programs were usually formalized in a spontaneous moment of
improvisation. I have been sitting in a meeting with a Saudi Minister, when he has received a call
from a fast moving motorcade, at the same time looking for a suitable person to visit. Guests
never observed these improvisations. I always gave to Finnish guests in advance a detailed
program, which they had asked for, but in truth I could never obtain anything official as it, quite
simply, did not exist. My program was totally based on my “guesstimates” and prior experience.
I wrote on it "preliminary" and I pointed out that changes must be prepared for. The guests did
not need to know that everything would be changed and they did not observe it. They had their
preliminary program and were satisfied.
We had, with great care, prepared the visit of Foreign Minister Paavo Väyrynen. He visited Saudi
Arabia in November 1979. Ambassador and former Foreign Minister Paavo Rantanen tells in his
memoirs "The Winter Minister" that I had succeeded in creating a wide network of relations
within the highest circles in the country in the interest of Finland, and that I had arranged a great
program. He considered my activity to be a prime example of what a diplomat at best can
achieve. One rarely hears or reads statements like this one. Foreign Minister Väyrynen visited
the King and several ministers. Minister Rantanen was impressed by the delegation's visit to oil
Minister Yamani’s private house, where we also met Mrs. Tamam Yamani, who was, this time,
dressed in a European way, which was certainly not the custom in the country. The Managing
Director of the Association of Finnish Industries Mr Stig Hästö tells in his own memoirs about his
participation in the visiting delegation and considers that I was appreciated by the Saudi Arabian
rulers. I presume he meant ministers. Hästö also tells about the recipients at the airport, led by
two-meter tall, elegant, in a white and black Saudi dress clothed Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al
Faisal. There was an honor company with military orchestra and in the background important
bearded Saudi dressed high dignitaries. Väyrynen was amazed at the solemn reception, put on
his shoes and stepped out of the plane in a crumpled brown suit, brown shoes, and a colored
shirt. The reception, was according to Hästö, impressive. The Finns’ arrival on the scene was not.
I was highly acclaimed in the texts, but I should have been criticized also as I had not remembered
to warn the delegation about the welcoming ceremony.
On the second day of the visit His Majesty King Khaled ibn Abdulaziz received the whole
delegation. Hästö describes the motorcade with jeeps equipped with military hardware to the
post- and anterior. He describes the extensive Palace, whose corridors had sabre-equipped
bodyguards along the walls. The King received in a quite a large room. Next to one long wall sat
Crown Prince Fahed and other high officials. The delegation was seated along the opposite wall.
I had given a crash course in Arab practices and warned my delegation not to laugh out loud, and

55
to sit so that the shoe soles were not visible. I had also explained that coffee and tea, as with
everything else, should always be taken with the right hand only. Only Minister Väyrynen should
speak. King Khaled was already an old, tired and illness influenced man, who was not really fully
aware from where the delegation had come. Väyrynen asked His Majesty if he could read a
written greeting from the President of the Republic Urho Kekkonen. King Khaled asked whether
Väyrynen was familiar with the pilgrim question. Väyrynen attempted three times with no avail
to start to read the letter but finally he gave up and put the folded paper on a table next to the
King. Väyrynen sought to present the Middle East policy of Finland and the objectives in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Khaled the new developments of the pilgrimage. This strange
dialogue was interpreted. When the delegation, after drinking Arabic coffee, rose to leave, it was
said in loud voice from the Crown Prince’s party that the delegation had no cause for concern,
because our message had been heard.
Foreign Secretary Väyrynen was very happy with his official visit. The other discussions had been
interesting and Finland's chances of receiving further projects had decent prospective. I had been
in the country for two years. Väyrynen offered me the possibility to move to another interesting
place. I found it more interesting to stay in Saudi Arabia for a few years to keep abreast of the
huge and rapid process of development in the Arabian Peninsula, which provided our
construction companies, consultant agencies and industry great possibilities. I stayed in the area
for five years.
*

56
Finland's relations with, and the visibility in the area began around the turn of the year 1979-80
to be very satisfactory. Väyrynen’s visit was a success and got a good publicity in the local press.
The Saudi Minister of Agriculture Dr. Abdul Rahman ash Sheikh who had studied in Finland made
a visit in November to Finland. The joint commission meeting was held in the first half of
December. Finnish companies participated in the building exhibition in December in Dhahran.
Minister Esko Rekola took a business delegation to the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and
Bahrain in January 1980. A ship carrying a Scan-Arab exhibition toured the Arabian Peninsula in
February 1980. Finnish experts came to work in the Saudi Arabian Ministry for Public Works and
Housing. With the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, we discussed a new 50 million US $ loan.
The big increase of the price of crude oil created a need for capital in oil importing countries and
increased in the oil producing countries the amount of petrodollars which had to be invested.
Earlier I have written about oil. Also the cooperation on the financial sector was vivid. Our
Ministry of Finance appreciated the improved relations with SAMA, the Saudi Arabian Central
Bank. We had regular loan negotiations. Our good relations with Saudi Arabia made it possible
to negotiate loans when we needed to appropriate terms. The Ministry of Finance was in these

57
negotiations represented effectively by Veikko Kantola and Annikki Saarela. I kept constant
contact with the Executive
Director Abdul Aziz al Quraishi
and investment Department
Director Ahmed Abdullatif. I've
always appreciated the Saudi
sense of humor. Al Quraishi was
like many other Saudis ready for
small practical jokes. Saudi
Arabia is, as is well known, a
male dominated country, where
women often are veiled in the
background. I got al Quraishi to
agree to the fact that Annikki
Saarela would arrive in Riyadh to
chair the loan negotiations. She came and was reportedly the first woman that visited the Saudi
Arabian Monetary Agency’s impressive twin tower building. A meeting like this had not happened
in SAMA before. All went well and normally as loan negotiations usually do. There was talk of
conditions and argument about basis points in order to determine the correct interest rate. It
was a hot day and it was necessary to drink plenty of fluids. In Saudi Arabia, the fluids were coffee,
tea, juices and water. At one point our main negotiator asked her neighbor, my wife Inger, in a
whisper, in what direction she would find the Ladies’ powder room. We Finns asked the Saudis.
There was none. At least not on the directors’ floor where no ladies worked. The Saudis began to
act after a lively discussion with each other. One of the building's floors was cleared and police
put to guard the doors. This isolated floor then acted as “ladies powder-room”. Of course, there
was a bathroom and other necessary facilities. Saudi Arabia was a number of years the country,
from where Finland had its biggest loans.
In June we got the Director-General Abdul Aziz al Quraishi on a visit to Finland with the
investment Director Ahmed Abdullatif . Together with the Member of the Board of the Bank of
Finland, a Pentti Uusivirta, I took the visitors in a small jet to the Åland isles, Lapland and Savo. In
Helsinki, the guests discussed with Prime Minister Mauno Koivisto. Koivisto inquired about the
development of the price of oil. Al Quraishi was of the opinion that the price would not rise in a
year. He did not expect a new oil shock, as long as the OECD countries understood to continue
the austerity measures. Koivisto spoke of there being in the new trade agreement that the Soviet
Union had agreed to increase the oil supply as Koivisto had expected the supplies to fall. On Al
Quraishi’s question of rates, Koivisto said the Soviet Union used market prizes at their upper level
of about US$37 per barrel. Al Quraishi said Saudi Arabia was selling at $32 and the others slightly
higher.
President Kekkonen received Al Quraishi in his Tamminiemi residence on the eighth of June,
1981. With us came Bank Director Kari Nars. President Kekkonen was deeply concerned by the

58
situation in the world. He said that every
day that we are able to survive without a
war is a victory day. Al Quraishi said he
agreed with the world situation.
Kekkonen said Yamani had visited Finland
and that Finland had friends in Saudi
Arabia. The most valuable capital of
countries are people. Finland has with
entirely its own strength built its country
and its economy. Finland has complied
with a balanced development of the
economy in a way that had at the same
time taken care of the political, social and economic development. For Finland, said al Quraishi,
it had gone well due to its wise leadership. The President drew attention to the fact that you
cannot take two steps at a time, you must take one step at a time. He said that he had discussed
this with many representatives of the international economy. This simple thing many did not
want to understand. Al Quraishi agreed with the President's mode of thought. The aged President
of the Republic had, during the visit, short memory failures. He talked about Yamani’s visit as
very recent though it already was nearly two years ago.
The primary focus with my work in Saudi Arabia and five neighboring countries was transferred
to supporting project activities and to keep track of the political development in the Middle East.
Industry and electricity Minister Dr Ghazi A. Algosaibi became our permanent family friend. With
his support in Saudi Arabia several interesting projects for Finland were born during my time in
office and even a production facility partly owned and constructed by Neste, our National Oil
company. I wanted for Algosaibi to visit Finland and finally he agreed. The only condition was
that he would not have to visit any factories and listen to engineers’ over-length and excessively
detailed reviews. I accepted the condition and travelled with him in July 1980. In Finland we flew
to Kuusamo in the North accompanied by Saudi Arabian Industrial Development Organization
Director-General Abdul Aziz az Zamil. From the air I showed him Finnish industry, so that the
Minister would see Finnish Industry without us breaking the agreed condition. The hosting of the
visit was done in an excellent way by my former fellow students Nokia CEO Kari Kairamo and
Director Matti Nuutila.
I had been telling the visitors that in Lapland we had "rapid shooting" on the program. I had been
misunderstood and the visitors expected "rabbit shooting" or rabbit hunting. The Minister sent
his Director-General to the rafting. This journey the on his return white-faced son of the desert
did not forget soon. In Kuusamo, the weather was at its most beautiful. Kuusamo, with its log
cottages, and while we were driving, its reindeer, remained in the visitors’ memories as in the
memories of many other visitors of Lapland and Kuusamo. The Guests were also acquainted with
Finnish hunting weapons.
We went back to Helsinki, where there was a press conference. The first question was "what do
you think of the Finnish industry?" I was really interested in the answer. It came prompt: "All,
that I've seen, has made a good impression". The answer was honest. After all, our guests saw
some industry from the plane.

59
The visit of Minister Algosaibi included a courtesy call to Foreign Minister Paavo Väyrynen, who
had previously visited Saudi Arabia. The discussion moved on from serious subjects to lighter
ones, and Väyrynen said to us that he had in Lapland, as I recall, caught a 11 kg salmon. I took
part in the conversation, asking if the Minister could show a photo of the salmon. Väyrynen had
no photo to show. Only later did it become clear that the question was interpreted by Algosaibi
in a very Arabian way. My goal was to let our guests see the picture of a really big fish. Algosaibi
had been fishing in the Turku archipelago and caught some cod and was very fond of them.
Algosaibi thought I had wanted to catch out Minister Väyrynen for lying about the size of his fish.
That had not come to my mind.
The Finns received new construction projects, new electrification projects and cartography
projects. The number of Finnish consultants and experts in Saudi ministries increased. In the field
of electrification, concrete joint operation was negotiated.
Industry Minister Ghazi Algosaibi really enjoyed his visit to Finland. During many of the dinners I
took part in in Saudi Arabia, he told everyone about the rapids and Kuusamo, and about Finland
generally. Ghazi wanted to invite his Finnish host on a visit to Saudi Arabia. Together we began
to plan an “out of ordinary” visit program. Ghazi had his very wealthy country's resources at his
disposal, and I again had, during my time in the University of Technology in Helsinki, been the
host of the Student organization. My follower was Kari Kairamo, later Nokia CEO. Ghazi invited
his guests with spouses in March 1981. Additionally to the Minister of trade and industry Ulf
Sundqvist and Nokia CEO Kari Kairamo, and also the CEO of our National Oil Company Jaakko
Ihamuotila and Ambassador Unto Turunen participated in the visit. The visit experience could
affect the fact that Turunen sought and was appointed in due course my follower.
We met upon arrival of the group in Riyadh with Oil Minister Yamani. Sundqvist told us that the
Soviet Union had been cutting its oil supplies to Finland and additionally reserved the option of
a further 10% reduction. Yamani considered it possible that we might be able to get oil from Iran.
Saudi Arabia should not raise prices. The continuation of the existing agreement until the end of
the year in Finland would be negotiated during the same month. Yamani spoke of the expected
surpluses of the oil, when stocks should once again reach the 1979 level.
The next day, we visited the Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al Feisal, to whom Sundqvist presented
a letter from President Kekkonen. The Foreign Minister said relations with Finland had, during
the past year, increased and grown enormously. The Prince said that he aimed to visit Finland to
see the midnight sun, as his friends Yamani and Algosaibi had said that the visit was worthwhile.
The Gulf question, the war between Iraq and Iran was discussed. About Camp David, Saud al
Faisal said that it did not bring peace. Unfortunately, by splitting the Arab front it gave the Soviet
Union the opportunity to once again involve themselves in the Middle East question.

60
We then made an interesting trip to the Saudi Arabian countryside. We visited a group of camel
herding Bedouins. Our meals were organized in Bedouin tents. There was a large number of
camels and we were riding them in the desert, which was a real ordeal for our backs. A camel is
rising up rear end first, which will
inevitably makes your back hit
the wooden carrying knob on the
back of the saddle. Fortunately,
none were broken. No back nor
knob. Camel's milk and camel
meat was offered. During the
same trip we got the memorable
image of the camels’ love life. We
also got to see how the female
camel was fertilized. The method
was not insemination. I've always
been an avid amateur
photographer. Now I was more
eager than usual. A part of these
nature pictures were later circulated within the Saudi Arabian government, receiving deserved
attention.
In mid-August, Algosaibi asked for my opinion about the Saudi Arabian proposal for a political
solution to the crisis in the Middle East. The Arabs were now ready for a peaceful solution. We
also discussed the Finnish Vesi-Pekka company’s construction projects for the Saudi Arabian
coastguard and the giving of the Feifan project to Imatran Voima. The Finns were not the
cheapest provider, but they were supposed to do a good job. We agreed on the fact that Neste
Oy would again send a delegation to negotiate a joint venture in the petrochemical downstream
field. To the construction company YIT a new project was now available. Algosaibi promised to
come after his summer holiday to eat reindeer meat.
In February I travelled in Saudi Arabia and the UAE with two delegations. Pentti Uusivirta from
the Bank of Finland and Annikki Saarela with Veikko Kantola from the Ministry of Finance
negotiated loans. Wärtsilä Oy’s Managing Director Tor Stolpe was selling ships. Wärtsilä was also
interested in the LNG vessels for the carriage of liquefied gas for the United Arab Emirates, which
they, in due course, also bought.
In May 1982 we discussed in Riyadh the political situation in the Middle East. Algosaibi was then
and, until his death in 2010, the current King's foreign policy advisor. According to Algosaibi, there
were no major events to be expected in four months. The Saudis considered Israel to be very
nervous. The situation between Iraq and Syria was escalating all the time. Then the Iran-Iraq war
was in progress, and in the case of Libya, the situation was difficult. No Arab Summit was
expected nor Saudi activity to push their Fahed peace plan. Egypt didn't want to do anything in
the current situation.
Our discussion moved to the industrial projects in Saudi Arabia. Algosaibi asked if the Finns were
more interested in PVC or MTBE. The Minister also asked whether we had an interest to get

61
involved if the third partner of the joint venture would come from the Far East. Algosaibi
recommended this, because it would open the Far East markets. He was going to steer in this
direction on the Board of SABIC and to support the entry of Neste Oy as a partner.
The Nordic Investment Bank was, at around the same time, active in preparing an Arab-Nordic
seminar in Finland. I had introduced the NIB management to the Saudis and was working with
my sleeves rolled up to get Saudi participants to the seminar in June in Helsinki.
Algosaibi visited, with his spouse, Finland in September. The main host was Nokia’s CEO Kari
Kairamo. At his request, I went in advance to check all places and flew in a helicopter along the
route which Algosaibi would be flying.
During the visit, the Minister and I developed and joked about our not so serious Finnish - Saudi
Arabian collaborative project. More seriously we had developed a number of projects, some of
which became effective. We had lunch on the premises of Neste Oy in Sandviken, when Ghazi
suddenly told the hosts that he had developed a new collaborative project with me. He refused
to tell the content, but was referring to me but I returned the ball to him. From among the hosts
the Minister for Trade and Industry, Seppo Lindblom , asked me with a ministerial voice to inform
about the project.

62
I told them with a serious face of our project, which was the interbreeding of a camel and a
moose. This would give us the camoose, which would cope as well as with hot desert sand the
snow in the North. It could be used for transport, in which case the small packages could hang
on the horns etc. I explained the use we had planned. The room became completely silent. The
Minister looked at me, surprised, and I was expecting once again at least to be fired from my
governmental function. The Chairman of Neste Oy’s Supervisory Council was Ulf Sundqvist. He
started laughing and others joined. The lunch had been very stiff which made the Saudi Minister
to take up the project. Now the lunch became a success in every way. I stayed on in my function.
The whole visit was a success.
The Arms Dealer Adnan Khashoggi
Before we moved to Saudi Arabia, many expressed to me their views on Adnan Khashoggi. His
Finnish visit had been very impressive and he was internationally known as an arms and aircraft
dealer in Saudi Arabia. The visit to Finland was arranged on Martti Huhanantti’s initiative. Mr
Raade, the CEO of Neste Oy, thought it was over dimensioned. My predecessor was seen to have
stumbled in Saudi Arabia in a too complicated effort to analyze the exercise of power in the
country. After Khashoggi’s visit to Finland, the Ambassador had tried to find out what kind of man
he was. He asked Mahmoud Malhas, who was the secretary and “arranger” of Crown Prince
Fahed bin Abdul Aziz, his opinion of Khashoggi, without knowing about their close friendship. The
Saudis were offended when they were studied this way.
Huhanantti had given to Minister Olavi J. Mattila a very positive
image about the importance of Khashoggi, which Mattila had
carried forward to the President of the Republic.
Undersecretary of State Arvo Rytkönen was interested in the
Khashoggi contact, which went via the Saudi Arabian
Ambassador in Stockholm. The official relations with Finland
were kept by the Saudi Arabian Ambassador in Bonn Ibrahim.
When Rytkönen was the Minister of trade and industry, he had
visited Saudi Arabia in 1975.
The Saudi Arabian Ambassador in Stockholm had visited Finland. Hietarinta had went with him
to the President’s residence Tamminiemi, where the Ambassador gave to the President of the
Republic letters from the King and the Crown Prince. Raade had tried to prevent the visit. I met
Huhanantti and spouse at the Hietarintas. He said that it was important to the Saudis that a
person was "sincere", meaning true and open. The Saudis are in close contact with each other. It
was not possible to tell one Saudi something negative about another. King Feisal had had a
negative attitude to Finland. He had visited Finland during the Olympic Games in 1952 and
nobody had been paying attention to him. That Finland's first Ambassador to Saudi Arabia was
moving from the quite unimportant country Lebanon to Jeddah, was not welcome to the Saudis.
Khashoggi came to Finland with the right to offer oil and give a $1 billion loan. He was surprised

63
to find that the Finns were not interested to negotiate these offers. He had agreed with Crown
Prince Fahed about his visit to Finland.
Finnish companies traded a lot with Saudi Arabia in the years following the Khashoggi visit.
Khashoggi’s company Triad International Marketing was not an important intermediate, as far as
I know. Thanks to his contacts with Cronwn Prince Fahed and many others, Khashoggi opened
trade channels to aircraft and arms industries, and many other big project hunters. The company
did not actually buy or sell. It gave advice on to whom to turn for a certain project and received
naturally compensation for its advice. Part of the compensation was redirected to the
representative of the person with whom the project was discussed. Such trade was unknown to
most Finnish companies. Why had Khashoggi been in Finland? He had been given a picture of a
untouched country producing important raw materials and semi-finished products, where to find
a lot of interesting production for international deals. This was not the case. Both hosts and
guests in Finland had a wrong picture of the opportunities offered by the other. Arms trade was
not discussed in Finland I believe.
I went, in due course, to explore Khashoggi’s Triad International Marketing SA Company in
Riyadh. The company's actual place of residence was in Vaduz in Liechtenstein. The company
operated in Riyadh in an old office building, from where it would be moving to new premises,
which is currently one of the Khashoggi brothers was building. I met the Executive Director Karl
Petersen, as well as the second man's Todd D. Shelton. The company's office space was modern
and there was even in the late evening a very busy traffic. In the context of the visit Khashoggi’s
company had negotiated with approximately 30 Finnish companies. I got to see the summary of
the negotiations. I remember the companies Neste, Kemira, Kone, Valmet, Rauma Repola,
Jaakko Pöyry, Suomen Autoteollisuus, Finnlines and a consortium of Finnsport and Huber. About
each company one page was written in the summary or, in some cases, only a few lines. With
many companies no base for cooperation had been found, but in a few cases cooperation had
been agreed upon.
I asked how the projects with the Finns were proceeding. The only open projects they
remembered were the shipping cooperation with Finnlines, where the company Valmet would
supply the ships, as well as the Finnsport coaching project. The shipping company was estimated
to prove to be profitable only after the entry into force of the law in Saudi Arabia, which would
oblige to use only the Saudi Arabian flag for transports. Sea captain Salminen had been
undertaking an assessment of the situation. I asked how Finnsport’s opportunities appeared. I
was told that they were expecting the next budget. They did not confirm that we would have
opportunities in the next budget.
According to the company, the Finns had been discussing and discussing again with them but
they had not earned anything and they were fed up with the Finns.
The Finns had been offered a project to build and lease ships to the Saudi oil company ARAMCO.
The Finns had, however, informed that they first wanted to get the shipping company finalized.
Secondly, a new project was presented for a joint-venture production of heat exchangers in Saudi
Arabia. Finnish companies were requested to invest in this project. In this context, they told

64
pretty boasting that they had arranged for the German construction company Holzmann the big
Tabuk port project, and said that Finns too would be given similar opportunities.
It was clear that the company actually had contacts. I attended a dinner at Todd Shelton’s
beautiful home. Among the other guests were the Norwegian air force’s former deputy
commander Major General Hans Wergeland and his wife. There was also the former U.S.
Ambassador to Pakistan, recently retired, who had served previously in the Philippines, Thailand,
and in several other countries. The other guests were quite interesting local top businessmen.
Dinners were part of Triad’s contact activity, and, of course, were often of significant use.
Acquiring information about new projects and preliminary indication to companies what
project’s were possible was a main activity of Triad. They said directly that the price was not
always the deciding factor. Various personal preferences and other similar reasons could steer a
project to a higher priced bidder. For the knowledge of whom to turn to Triad wanted to get a
reward from Finnish companies. Understandably, they hunted for the biggest projects, which
rarely interested the Finns.
On the role of women in Saudi Arabia
The role of women in the country, following closely its cultural traditions, naturally differed quite
a lot from the gender equality found in Finland. A woman could not, for example, buy a plane
ticket abroad
without the
permission of her
husband or
another head of
the family. Of
course, she had no
right to travel
without
permission.
However, there
was already some
change. Women
could work as
doctors and
teachers in the
universities that
were treating and
teaching other
women.

65
The blackest veils were used by the Royal family's female members, of which there were
thousands. When one of these women, wrapped in a black robe and veil, passed by, most often
a strong perfume scent stayed in the air intoxicating the environment. When an aircraft left from
Jeddah to Europe, the plane was first filled with women wrapped in black veils. After a while the
veils were removed and dark eyed beauties dressed in haut couture from Paris, Milan or New
York fashion rooms were sitting on the plane. The outfits were really impressive. The jewelry
should not be forgotten. It was also really impressive.
The modern women would have been happy to drive a car. Now, a woman was already in
difficulties if she sat in a car that was driven by someone other than her father, husband, or an
employed driver. I got to hear a plethora of arguments as to why a woman was not allowed to
drive. One Minister explained to me quite a special reason. He said seriously that a woman could
be involved in a car accident while driving a car. That created the danger of being raped by the
police or some other man.
There were efforts to arrange modern opportunities for women. The Women's Bank was one of
them. Women could do business in the Bank. The staff was only women. Men had no entrance
to the Bank. There is no reason to smile. After all, we have a sauna for women. IT was not possible
for a woman to do business within a normal bank. There were queues in banks. Most of the men
in the queues were both Saudi men harassing and migrant workers, who lived in Saudi Arabia
without female contacts. Due to their needs they pinched and grabbed the women.
Friendship with Saudi families resulted in frequent invitations. One had to learn the local customs
and habits. Dinner invitations annotated usually as time of arrival either 8.00 p.m. or 9.00 p.m.
The Guests were expected not to arrive before 10 p.m, or even better not before 11 p.m. After
the arrival the alternate serving of coffee and tea began. The guest would already be a little bored
of coffee and tea when, at last, about one or two a.m. in the morning, or should I say night, the
dinner finally began. There was always a lot of food. It was served on buffet tables. These were
different from the Finnish buffets as the Arabs often did not circle the table to choose among a
variety of delicacies, but stopped by the table at one serving platter standing there and started
eating there, so others could not come close, before they had finished. Fortunately, there were
always enough serving plates on the long buffet tables.
Local weddings were not arranged so that the male and female guests would be together. The
men were at the wedding neglected or even ignored. The wedding was primarily a celebration of
women. The groom, was, though, at some point of the Feast brought out to greet female guests.
Not that it was pretty harmless. My wife had to some wedding brought along our daughter
Annika, who was visiting us during her holiday. She was tall and blond. Many considered her
beautiful. In the USA people thought she was the blonde female singer from the Abba group. The
groom greeted also our daughter and forgot to free her hand after greeting. A confusing situation
arose, but intervening relatives resolved it.
Wedding parties were frequent. Great jealousy was created when my wife received an invitation
to the Petroleum Minister Yamani’s daughter’s Maha wedding. We already were good family
friends. The wives of ambassadors could not understand that only one of them was invited. The

66
so-called protocol in thinking sometimes overrules common sense. To official celebrations all the
representatives of the foreign powers, only the oldest of the diplomatic corps, or no one are
invited. This does, of course, not apply to a private wedding.
The King's brother, Prince Abdullah, who since then has been Saudi Arabia's ruler and now
deceased, invited all the heads of missions’ wives to the wedding of his son in Riyadh and all flew
there, since a common transport was arranged. As mentioned no woman could travel alone. The
festive wedding in evening dresses continued in the local way until the next morning. Prince
Abdullah came up with the proposal one day later. The embassy ladies preferred to return to
Jeddah. The reason given was to Abdullah was that they had only one evening dress in accordance
with the invitation for one evening. Prince Abdullah did not consider this as any kind of a problem.
Large fashion houses, such as Dior and Yves St. Laurent were represented in Riyadh and could
immediately bring their collections to the hotel for befitting. The ladies would be able to choose
outfits that appealed to them. One of the ladies laughed and said they should have mentioned
that they also had jewelry for only one evening. The prince’s offer was not accepted and the
ladies returned to Jeddah.
Some fashion houses arranged the first joint fashion show in Jeddah. My wife went there as there
also went the spouses of other ambassadors and other local spouses. When the show ended our
driver Muhammad was meeting the ladies and asked them to leave through the back door, where
he had directed all the other drivers and cars. In front of the House were representatives of the
religious police, who were about to arrest all women without veils.
European wives did not use veils nor black robes. All used permanently long skirts and longsleeved
outfits. The European women considered it fun to look at the cloak room when shows
began. On all of the hooks identical black robes of the Saudi ladies were hanging.
The widow of the late king Feisal, Princess Johara, lived in Jeddah and often organized receptions
for women. She was a kind person who desired company, but names in another language
produced a bit of a problem for her. During all the years of our stay she was using the name
"Madame Finlandia” for my wife.
My Lebanese colleague’s spouse was a close friend of my wife. While she was visiting Beirut a
Lebanese Christian Minister came to Jeddah with his daughter. My colleague asked my wife to
be hostess at a dinner for the Minister so that the Minister's daughter could be invited to
participate. I was traveling somewhere. At the end of the dinner there was a lively discussion on
different issues. One of the Saudis asked my wife whether a Christian woman accepted the local
custom, which allows a man to have four wives. My wife's response was that she would prefer
the custom that a woman would have four men, since these are often on business trips away
from home, a comment that was remembered by all the Saudi men at the dinner.
Our daughter Annika studied in the United States and married an American school friend, whom
she had learnt to know in the International School in Germany. After the American civil ceremony
we decided to organize a church ceremony in our garden in Jeddah. It was not easy, because
Christian churches, and priests were not allowed in the country. Among the Americans we found
a priest, who was in the country in another position. He wed our daughter on a beautiful day, of

67
which there was no shortage of. There was no lack in Jeddah of warmth. On the wedding day the
29. December the temperature at midnight was 29 ° C. I keep quiet of what it was at noon.
At dinner there were many guests. The groom, whose name was Jimmy, did not, understandably,
know almost anybody, but sought, in the direct American way, to discuss with the guests. One of
the interlocutors happened to be in the country's secret police, a German educator and
counselor. I knew of his mission, but usually did people nor most of our guests not know. Jimmy
was friendly and asked what the speech partner did. He answered carefully, "I'm in business".
Jimmy, of course, continued, asking, "What type of business". I thought it best to steer the
conversation to other topics.
I had to deal with this guest’s profession also in another way. The country did rarely grant visas
to journalists. The secret police man asked once when he was visiting in my office if he could call
my German colleague. He called and asked my colleague if he remembered that he had helped
two German journalists to get visas to the country, disguising themselves as Mercedesmechanics.
My colleague remembered. My guest said that during his trip back to Germany, one
of them had been accidentally shot at Beirut's airport. He ended the call, saying in conclusion,
that journalists should not enter the country in the disguise of another profession. I learned
lessons from this call, too.
I was in Riyadh negotiating project agreements, during the days before the state visit of the
Swedish King, living in the new Intercontinental Hotel, the best at that time. My wife had received
an invitation to the occasions of the King’s visit. She arrived accompanied by my Norwegian
colleague, whose wife was in Norway. The two arrived at the hotel and my wife asked for my
room key. That was not possible at all. She was welcome to get a key to the room of the
Ambassador of Norway, where he had already rushed, but understandably not to the
Ambassador of Finland’s room, as she had not arrived with him. Fortunately, the hotel had just
received a Finnish General Manager, Olof Jurva, who worked with good results in Riyadh several
years, taking care of of the hotel really nicely. He was able to resolve even this dilemma, and my
wife got into our room.
The desert, excursions and tours
Unique driving habits and high heat were not barriers to car trips to the surroundings of Jeddah,
to the Red Sea or the desert. I drove even longer trips. Two times I drove across the Arabian
Peninsula and back from the Red Sea. Once to the Hormuz Strait and once to Doha, the capital
of Qatar. Interesting 3500 km journeys. The sand was not in short supply. On the first trip was a
lack of roads and of places to pump gasoline. Even with the best will one could not call them
service stations. On the second trip there were both more and better roads and more service
stations. Partly they were magnificent. Because the time between the trips was four years, one

68
could admire the speed of development. When I, for the first time, headed my car from Jeddah
to the South, I assumed, based on hearsay, that I would find a road. The road turned out to be
hundreds of miles of tracks in the desert. They often divided. A compass did not work in the car
very well. Here and there was drift sand or salt-desert mud, where a car was stuck like on glued
fly paper. Fortunately, not our car. I had slowly learned to assess where in the desert one could
drive. The temperature outside was in the shadow more than 40 °C. There was no shade except
inside the car. The interior temperature remained tolerable as long as the engine ran the air
conditioner. The excursions were not harmless. Expatriates died from time to time. In those
circumstances it was necessary to drink 16 gallons of water a day. In the desert water was
precious and you were supposed the give water to those in need. Once we helped a Bedouin in
need of water.
The Finnish construction company YIT operated within different parts of Saudi Arabia. The waste
water treatment plant project in the Holy City of Medina was managed by Rauno Puskala. On his
invitation I drove with my wife to his family’s home outside of Medina. Their children circled in
our neighborhood and were very tense. They were waiting for something. Tired of waiting they
finally asked: "When will the Ambassador come?” They were waiting for something special. I was
very usual. I did not forget the issue.
Mecca was near Jeddah. After Mecca came the city of Taif in the mountains. Taif was the
summertime residence city of Saudi Arabia. A good mountain road ran from Jeddah via Mecca to
Taif. It was of course, not allowed for Christians or other non-Muslims. We used a mountain road

69
bypassing Mecca. First there was no road. There was only the construction site for a future road.
Once as we returned from the capital city Riyadh
we reached the road construction site in the middle
of the night. It was dangerous to continue in the
dark, but we wanted to drive home. Our car lights
hit suddenly sign "End of the Road" in English. As a
resident of the area who had already experienced
many odd things I got out of the car to check what
the shield meant. It meant what it said. About 20
meters from the sign the road came to an end. The
drop down was about 200 meters. Of course there
was no banister or rail. There was the sign. I decided
to drive in another direction, but I did not know
where. After a while we met a second car. It was a
taxi coming from Jeddah and asked us where Taif
was. I told from where we came and continued in
the direction from where the taxi came. Slowly we
came down from the mountain. Gradually a new
fine highway between Jeddah and Taif became
ready and Christians were allowed to use it.
The camel is the Desert ship and in the desert it’s a
fantastic animal. It can travel long distances without drink and without food. The camel herds
were interesting to monitor. They moved in a very dignified way, stepping softly. They create a
sound like the sound of a gargling human.
The camel herds could be dangerous. A collision between a car and a camel can well be compared
with a collision between a car and an elk (moose). Once, when we were on our way back after
midnight from the Petroleum Minister’s home in Taif to Jeddah a car came on the otherwise
empty road against us. I dipped my headlights. When I put the headlights back on I found myself
driving at high speed into a
camel herd crossing the
road. I braked and let the
car slide sidewise on the
everywhere-present-sand,
partly covered asphalt road.
The camels were, however,
too close. I discovered a
narrow gap in the heard
and steered into it. I was
waiting for the impact. But
nothing happened. When
my hands stopped
trembling I continued my

70
driving. I felt a strong vibration. Braking on the sand had affected the tires so that they felt square,
almost like in cartoons. We vibrated home. I had been driving very fast and the temperature had
been high. I bought new round tires to drive normally again.
Together with Minister Yamani we drove to meet Bedouin tribes that he was familiar with. My
wife had to be with the women. I got to drink alternately coffee and tea, and to watch the
Bedouins perform dances until a Bedouin feast was offered. At the insistence of the Petroleum
Minister, also my wife was brought to the meal and to follow the dancing. This derogation from
the tradition made the Bedouin Chief very angry. Oil money, however, has a deterrent effect on
the waves. The dance did not totally remind us of dance in Finland as all dancers were men who
danced to Arab rhythms in a long row of waving their legs and swords. I was invited to the
dancing, and waved also both. Fortunately, my sharp sword did not hit anyone.
Dining on the floor and eating with ones hands, but only with the right hand as the left serves
other purposes, I enjoyed, as the food was good. The main course was always a whole sheep.
When one of the hosts or guests had eaten, he immediately rose from the table, or, to reiterate,
from the floor, while leaving his place. After all the men had eaten came the time for women and
children to come to the same "table" to eat. They were followed by the servants. The older Saudis
frequently called the servants slaves. Slavery was not prohibited in Saudi Arabia until 1962. In
Oman and Yemen, the ban came into force even later in the year 1970. Slaves, however, had
been treated well, so they stayed as servants.
The Bedouin way of drinking coffee is usual in the Arab world. In meetings, when waiting for
hours in anticipation of a meal, at official ceremonies when waiting for the King was coffee and
tea offered, as per
usual.
The coffee, which
included a large
amount of
cardamom, is
offered as a
greenish
pleasantly
scented brew in a
small eggcup sized
cup. The cup is
taken with your
right hand and
held in it. When
the cup is empty,
the host or
servant fills it up. The guest continues to drink and the waiter to serve until the guest understands
to wave his cup. Now serving ends. Otherwise, it's hardly ending and more coffee is brought.

71
Arabic coffee is good even for a sensitive stomach. The coffee jugs are beautiful with their long
round beaks.
Years later, I was in Ethiopia. Using cross-country cars we drove along with Finnish development
aid financed power lines and afforestation as well as plantations built out in the openings created
by cutting wood. Our car was carrying us through a number of small villages to a province, high
in the Highlands to the region of Kaffa, from where coffee originated and where it is still grown.
Supposedly the monks started in the Middle East the use of coffee after observing how the sheep
became more active after eating the coffee bush fruits. The monks also began to eat them. In
medical writings coffee is already mentioned in the year 900 AD. At first the coffee beans were
eaten or were added to wine. As a drink made from roasted coffee beans coffee became known
in the beginning of the 1300.
From Ethiopia coffee was
exported across the entire Middle
East region. Mocha, a port city in
Yemen, has given its name to the
Mocha-coffee, considered the
best coffee in Finland. Coffee
spread from Ethiopia through
Yemen to the rest of the Middle
East, and from there to Europe.
Dutch merchants spread the
cultivation to the West-Indian
Islands. In Central and South
America, growing began in the
early 1700’s.
The story is so told that Captain Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu carried a coffee plant to the island of
Martinique in the West Indian archipelago. From this plant, it is spoken of, came the majority of
the coffee bushes in South America and the neighboring islands.
Brazil became in the mid-1800’s the leading coffee producing country. Africa, where coffee
originally came from, developed only after the Second World War into a major coffee exporter.
I have visited coffee plantations in Costa Rica as well as Colombia. Coffee bushes are growing at
a high altitude in a high humidity environment, where humidity condensates from clouds and
forms drops dripping from leaves and flowers
First the water-cooked, chopped and roasted coffee beans were drunk together with the coffee
grounds. Spices were added to the drink. Arabian coffee still has lot of spices, especially
cardamom. Turkish coffee has the coffee grounds in the cup. Fortunately, all is not coming into
the mouth.

72
Turkish coffee reminds me of a coffee-oriented political problem. We were driving through
Yugoslavia, where we, whenever we stopped to rest, ordered a Turkish coffee. The journey
continued to Greece. I warned my wife many times not to talk about Turkish coffee in Greece.
Turkey was not and is still not a popular country in Greece, so Turkish-brewed coffee is there
called Greek coffee. When we had crossed the border, I ordered, on our first break, of course,
Turkish coffee. My wife’s facial expression was saying a lot, but that happened frequently. My
order did not lead to anything. My wife fixed the problem by ordering Greek coffee, which we
were immediately served.
A coffee drinker should know the varieties Robusta and Arabica. By speaking of them, one gives
the impression of a coffee connoisseur and is given the same admiration wine connoisseurs enjoy
when they apply their wine vocabulary.
Coffee usually grows in the Highlands in a humid climate. Among the glossy green leaves of the
coffee bush appear beautiful white flowers. The flowers wilt quickly and are replaced by coffee
cherries or coffee berries. There are two beans in each of the flesh-covered cherries. The green
cherries ripen to red. The ripening time is between six to fourteen months. The flesh is washed
away from the beans by letting them first ferment. The flesh can also be removed mechanically
from dried coffee cherries.
The removed yet still green coffee beans are ready for the market and will retain the taste for a
long time. Not until roasting the coffee aroma comes out. Because the roasted coffee easily loses
its aroma it has nowadays become usual to grind roasted coffee and compress it hermetically.
The Desert is beautiful

73
The desert is beautiful. In particular, in the evening or in the morning, when the Sun is low. The
night sky with bright stars in Saudi Arabia was an impressive sight as well as the desert by
moonlight. The desert is by no means dead. Here and there are found oases, which are like those
remembered from the adventure movies. Surrounded by Palm trees and other greenery one can
find a clear well, the source of a rivulet, which leaves there and only a short time later dive into
the desert sand. Deep below the desert there are large water reservoirs, which now are used,
which is not only a good thing. There can be small fishes in the rivulets. From where did they
come? There are bushes in the desert. Often thorny, so that they would be left in peace. Around
them, butterflies and other insects are flying. Sometimes you may face a locust swarm taking off.
We know the locust plagues and immense damage to crops in Egypt.
On weekends, we circulated in the desert if there was free time from my work. The weekend as
such, it was difficult to define. We in Finland have our weekend on Saturday and Sunday. In Saudi
Arabia, the weekend accounted for Thursday and Friday. The Embassy was closed Thursday and
Friday, as the Saudis’ dealings with us increased on Saturdays and Sundays. Of course attempts
were made to reach us from Finland on Thursdays and Fridays, so there was rarely time for desert
trips. Ostriches and antelopes had been hunted to extinction via being used for nightly hunting
and also daily hunting from off-road cars. There were camel herds in the desert and large
numbers of vultures, which fed on and quickly cleaned carrion, which was always available. In
the desert one could find interesting things. There were Saudi diamonds, sand roses and water
melons.

74
Saudi diamonds could be found in dried up river beds. They were stones, who were translucent
when the Sun was settling down. By
grinding the raw stones they were
transformed into diamond-like
jewelry stones. I have not asked
experts for what they actually are.
It is alleged that they are citrines. To
be diamonds they are not
sufficiently hard, but it is fun to
imagine them to be diamonds. I
have always, as my hobby, when
asked, mentioned diamond
collection.
When heavy sand dunes move
slowly from one place to another, they will also move to places where the soil is wet after a rain.
Over the years, rose flower-like sand roses crystallize under the sand dunes. One can dig up the
sand rose, when the dune has continued on its journey. We went sometimes digging and gave
sand roses to our friends as a gift.
Visits to the desert in the evening were not harmless. As I drove I in the desert with a borrowed
American limousine the tire exploded. I opened the boot and I picked up the spare tire. It had
already exploded and was empty. Fortunately, I was so close to a larger road that I was able to
return to the road on foot. I got by hitch-hiking a ride in across-country car driven by a Bedouin.
He was overtaking uphill in the dark with the principle of "Insha Allah". Because my driving and
method of overtaking is very different I left the car with a white face. Fortunately it was dark, so
nobody could witness my paleness.
*
During our years in Saudi Arabia the projects began to be completed. Hotels were built, each one
more luxurious than the earlier. Roads and City quarters were built. The air traffic and the
airplane fleet improved. The planes were usually flown by American pilots. The requirements to
place Saudis on all tasks grew stronger. The pilots should also be purely Saudi Arabian. Foreigners
were good enough as stewardesses, flight attendants and stewards. The purser, their boss, was
often a Saudi.
I boarded in Riyadh a recently acquired Jumbo or Boeing 747 to fly to Jeddah. I used to fly several
times a week, this about one thousand kilometers in distance, because most of the ministries
were in Riyadh. The Foreign Ministry was in Jeddah. There was an announcement to the
passengers that the flight crew was completely Saudi Arabian. I appreciated the Arabs, but I not
so much in an aircraft cockpit, especially in a new plane.
The machine rolled to the runway and began its take-off acceleration. Then it braked. There was
an announcement of a technical problem. The plane returned in the direction of the terminal
building, but turned back to the runway and accelerated again. Now it even took off. The

75
passengers could hear an ever-increasing level of noise. The tumult rose. Even though I had many
years ago been able to rid myself of my fear of flying, this situation was able to reawaken it
somewhat. It did not really make anything easier that the purser dug out a prayer mat and began
to pray on the aisle. The reason for the noise became clear when the plane’s landing gear finally
was pulled up much later than usual. Maybe there was a technical problem. We landed
successfully at the destination.
I always tried to live in the country in the manner of the country’s culture, but on odd occasion I
strayed. My hobby was
photography and I wanted local
images. Photography was of
course not forbidden. . It was
prohibited to take pictures of
people without prior permission
or a building without the owner's
prior permission. It was
forbidden to take pictures of
Public buildings. Airports and
passenger planes were
considered as military targets, so
taking pictures was considered
espionage. Photography,
however, was allowed as I
already mentioned. I decided to
take a picture of one of the Jeddah souks (markets). I was then still relatively new entrant in the
country. I was immediately surrounded by a crowd of slim, strong Arabs, who grabbed me with
plier like fingers, and began to drag me towards a dark corridor. Fortunately a qualified police
came and freed me from who knows what. I do not think that the crowd was going to show me
a better picture taking position.

76
I was later careful. The next time I
had trouble from my interest in
photography was when I tried to take
a picture of Kuwait City’s symbol, the
beautiful water tower. The photo
included a patrol car armed with a
machine gun. From there they
shouted to me and asked me to come
closer. However, I was not worried. I
knew that the authorities would let
me go, as long as I would dig out of
my pocket my diplomatic card. I had
forgotten that I was wearing just a
shirt and pants and had no papers.
They were in my hotel room. The
soldiers dragged me to a higher
ranking colleague, until there was
one so high ranking that he believed
the explanation I gave in poor Arabic
language and let me walk away.
*
Petrodollars were, in the seventies and eighties, used to import a lot of German, British and
American limousine vehicles to Saudi Arabia. About these luxury vehicles, one could tell you a
lot. Our youngest son, Rolf, was serving an apprenticeship in the Mercedes import repair shop
and had, due to his language skills, the ability to help in the sales department during vacation
time. To him came a Saudi, who claimed that the Mercedes Benz 350 S is not a good car. On the
question of why this Saudi should consider it a not so good car, he said that he had driven his car
against a lantern post and that it no longer worked after the accident. The matter was easily
resolved. Two Mercedes 500 SE vehicles were sold to him. These Mercedes Benz vehicles were
more expensive and, therefore, better cars. As a precaution, he bought two, so that in the event
that he might again hit a lantern pole, there would at least be a backup car.
There were a lot of these Rolls, Mercedes, Cadillacs and Buicks in use. Once my wife Inger and I
were in the Asir Mountains, in the southern part of the country taking part in a ceremony, which
was held in a specially built tent, in a small valley. When the ceremony came to an end, it started

77
to rain. The access route turned out to be a dried river bed. In the rain it immediately became
slimy and slippery. The only way to get out of the valley, however, was to drive as quickly as
possible, so that the wheels would not slip, but then one was forced to do a sharp turn to avoid
a big boulder in front. The first car drew straight into the stone. This gave rise to a most
interesting new sport. All the Saudis took their turn to speed up from the valley and turn in front
of the boulder avoiding a crash. A sizable part of the cars were wrecked, made unusable.
Everyone shared in this really sincere fun. I had fortunately not my car with me, so we walked
away to wait, so that we could continue in one of those vehicles that were still intact. I asked a
little later whether it did not become somewhat costly to smash so many cars when there was
really no need for it. The happy Saudis, who walked on the muddy ground with their long shirts
wrapped up to their waist, said that it was nothing worth giving much second thought to. These
cars belonged to a local business man, Abdullah. Abdullah would buy new cars the following day,
so no damage. I presume that car selling companies liked these types of customers. The intention
was to take us to another event on a helicopter, but the helicopter never left because the pilot
was too engaged in the limousine sport. Fortunately, we made our way with an intact car still on
time to our next destination.
In southern Saudi Arabia it was raining more than in other regions. That is why it paid off to build
there a reservoir and a dam. When it was almost complete, it started to rain and the basin began
to fill up. The builders found they had left the as yet not installed shut-off lock parts of the dam
above the lock, where they had come under the fast flowing water. There was no possibility to
regulate the water flow due to the uninstalled lock parts now under water. The water crashed
with full force on the turbine vents.
Our youngest son Rolf was diving in the Red Sea and also worked as a diving instructor at this
time. Now he was offered the opportunity to fly to the South of Najran to rescue those parts of
the locks left in the basin. So he flew there in a plane, where he was in the company of Bedouins
and their sheep. On arrival he that all the inhabitants carried a weapon. The tribes were restless.
It was customary to shoot up into the air. Our son instead, dove into the water and slowly got
lifting cables attached to the sunken lock parts so they could be towed up.
*
My wife and I drove from Helsinki in the summer of 1980 by car to Jeddah. First we crossed the
Baltic Sea on a car ferry, then we drove through Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia and
Greece to the Mediterranean Sea. We crossed the Mediterranean from Greek Patras via the
Greek island of Crete to Alexandria in Egypt on a ferry and continued again driving via Cairo to
Suez, from where an Egyptian car ferry was supposed to leave to Jeddah. The ferry was supposed
to leave. No schedule was available and there was no ferry in Suez harbor. Close to the harbor,
in the shadow of a wall, were people laying around, who were supposed to travel with the ferry
to work in Saudi Arabia. My wife did not want to go through the ranks of these resting people,
especially as the crowd consisted of only men. Finally we found, in the small city Suez, a physician,
who at the same time was honorary consul for Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He was able to
arrange a hotel room, which one with great difficulty could call a hotel room, where we went to
wait for the ship, which luckily arrived he next day.

78
The physician
had seemed
pleasant, so I
recommended
to my colleague
in Cairo that he
would be made
also honorary
consul for
Finland in the
sign of Nordic
co-operation.
This was done.
A A few years
later, the
Finnish Consul
in Suez and his
family came to
visit us in Jeddah. The initiative was his, and he did not announce the visit in advance. The family
had decided to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. It is not really possible for a Christian to visit Mecca,
so we have only been at the shut-off gate on the road leading out of the city. Now I had at least
reached Mecca with my car, of which I was very proud of. After all, I as a Christian had a car,
which had visited Mecca.
On and in the Red Sea
Saudi Arabs were very hospitable. The food was always good. Because it was pretty greasy, it was
also nutritious and, as the military used to say, it was also sufficient. When someone was about
to host an important guest, one would butcher two sheep, so that it would not appear that the
meal was modest. In my view there was always at least ten times the amount of food than what
was in fact required.
We were invited to a small motor boat trip. As on the Red Sea in the vicinity of Jeddah were a
number of motor boats, I assumed of the trip would be on a boat, which in Finland we called
muscle boats, or otherwise with a relatively big, perhaps Italian motor boat. I was really wrong.
This boat was more the magnitude of a passenger ferry. We were about ten on the trip. I
estimated there should be food for around thirty. Somewhere, however, there had been an error,
so food was catered for a much larger group of people. All the guests did eat properly. On the
buffet tables one could not observe signs of anybody having eaten. Such are hospitable meals.
In the old days, the Saudi Arabs would eat on the floor. Table cloths were spread on the carpets
and on these was consumed the meal. I always tried to arrange these kinds of meals for the
guests at the time, as they were impressive. Due to the Petrodollars, however, there were

79
everywhere big hotels and great restaurants, where the meals were served on tables. The meals
were buffet meals, but after the guests had taken food a couple of times, food was additionally
served to the guests tables. When first all the usual Mediterranean appetizers had been eaten,
came fish, after the fish one served chicken, and after the chicken arrived steaks and other beef.
In between a variety of sausages was served. Only when all of this was eaten came the main
course or the sheep. The Saudis do not eat pork. I do not know where, in the course of these
types of meal, pork would have been served, if it had been allowed.
Modern times entered the cities, and were accompanied by fast food restaurants. The most
common fast food was, according to the neon signs “ Broasted Chicken ". I am familiar with
roasted chicken and broiled chicken. I still do not know what broasted chicken is, because I never
tried it. This was not due to snobbishness. There were no Ambassadors’ dinners nor lunches in
restaurants at the time. It was not always possible to eat at home in the residence. I was then
eating local fast food. On a rotating skewer they fried sliced lamb, spiced with onions and salads
and wrapped in circular warm Arab bread. The name was "shawarma". In Europe you can find
something similar under the name "kebab".
*
As into the photos I took on land frequently would sneak in prohibited items, I began to
photograph underwater life with an underwater camera. The likelihood that I would get into
trouble photographing by
accident a submarine was
very small. The Red Sea
coral reefs are a great
target. I used a snorkel but
not diving bottles, because
my ears were not,
according to my doctor,
suitable for actual scuba
diving. My ear drums had
been damaged in the past.
A lot of sharks were
swimming around the
reefs. I was swimming and
the sharks were swimming.
According to the experts, i.e. my son Rolf and his diver friends, they were not dangerous, except
when irritated. How could I conclude when a shark was irritated? I had however, been swimming
around them and among them observing them a number of times with a cold feeling in my
stomach, but no problem had occurred. At the Rabigh reef, I swam out from the outer edge of
the reef in order to take a good picture of a big reef shark, about two meters long, passing by.
But the shark turned outward swimming away in the direction of the darkening, blue water,
which annoyed me. Observing the shark I saw it turn and change direction. I also observed that I
was the new direction. I did exactly what you should not do. I swam full speed to escape. On the
reef, out of the water, I turned and met the shark’s expressionless eyes.

80
I often faced sharks in the Red Sea. They were somehow exciting, because they included, at least
imagined, danger. A shark swimming against me startled me every time, even if they swam
passing by. My son Rolf dived and fed sharks with fishes he held hanging from his hand. We had
thought he fed them with meat purchased for our dog. It turned out that he fed the meat to
moray eels. Once he escorted me and my son-in-law Jimmy to have a look at barracudas. It so
happened that we did not encounter a swarm of small barracudas as expected. We came across
one really big barracuda, which was floating in the blue water outside the reef, where we also
were. It resembled a submarine and opened its mouth, what my son had told was a warning. My
son turned to show my son-in-law and me something interesting, but he did not see us. And he
could not see us, as we had fled the scene as small fishes in Finland flee a Pike, and lay panting
on the beach. We got a ticking off. Friends are not left behind. The scolding boy was absolutely
right, but the barracuda was really impressive and had impressed us.
There were not many roads in the Saudi Arabian deserts. Mostly there were tracks and wheel
prints. On the few roads were still fewer signposts. Even the landmarks were generally similar.
The Hill on the right or the Bush on the left was the general landmark on driving directions. Also
a big stone or two large stones was a general direction. The result of this were frequent aberrant
drives, which usually ended happily. Sometimes they ended in getting caught in the mire. If
assistance was available within a reasonable period of time, these cases of being caught in the
mire would conclude happily. Here and there were mire-trapped vehicles that had not received
help. Their trip did not end happily. On the desert were places with the famous drift sand which
was capable to swallow a man and even a car. Then no car remains visible, even if the journey
would have finished very unfortunately.
In those conditions I drew often amiss, but always happily. When we were, for the first time, on
the way to Rabigh, which has already been mentioned, which we did not yet know the direction
to, we used false landmarks and arrived at a cove. We went diving and waded with diving and
snorkeling equipment along the shallow beach. Many times we saw a stingray take off. We took
care of not to step on the whip-like tails of stingrays lying on the sea bed. The tails had very toxic
spikes. We avoided also to step on dead corals which were darker than the sand. They could have
been stone fish, which have deadly toxic back spikes. We moved and watched out, we watched
put and moved, but we were not able to reach the reef and deep water. The water level in the
shallow cove did not exceed a meter. We came back, disappointed, to our car guessing that we
were in the wrong place.

81
We did not foresee how wrong the place was. Our son’s diving friends made it later clear that we
had been wading in a really dangerous cove. It was known for its hammerhead sharks, which are
very dangerous to humans. Generally, it is not known that most shark attacks happen in shallow,
below one meter deep water to people wading or treading water. That we knew, but we didn't
know in what kind of place we were.
The Red Sea underwater world around the coral reefs is, through diving masks, enormously
beautiful and colorful, until, for example, humans destroy the corals. Different sea animals, sea
anemones and corals give color. Everywhere swim both big and small fish. There are numerous
big mussels, cowrie shells and other species. This underwater piece of nature is beautiful, but
one must understand it, because it is very dangerous. There are cone shaped shells, which shoot
deadly poisonous arrows, if you try to take them in your hand (Conus textilus). Beautiful Butterfly
fish or zebra fish swim slowly like floating. They are poisonous. Poisonous Stone fish resembling
the bottom stones or corals I mentioned already. Touching fire coral produces slowly worsening
bad skin rashes which renew themselves, or if the coral scrapes the skin, difficult wounds. When
water movement pushes a diver on top of corals then wounds and scratches are generated that
become inflamed. All of this and other dangers like sharks, barracudas, moray eels and, in shallow
waters, fast swimming reef fish, which flank fins, which are like razor knives and still other
dangers that one is prepared to overcome in order to get the opportunity, while sucking air from
a diving bottle or a snorkel, to monitor underwater life.
*

82
Alcohol is not available in Saudi Arabia. Not in hotels nor restaurants. There were exceptions to
this rule, however. One very special exception was a Greek shipping magnate John S. Latsis and
his Passenger ship in Jeddah port. The ship was in a well-guarded area. One got to the area only
on Latsis’ invitation. All that happened to the ship or had taken place, I do not know. We were
there on a number of occasions. The ship's interior was like a passenger ship in the 1930s. As
soon as one entered the door one was greeted by a natural-sized Black doll in servant’s outfit.
The salons of the ship and also the corridors were if not otherwise familiar, then from Hollywood
movies. On this ship all sorts of alcoholic drinks were served. Latsis had in Saudi Arabia a unique
special status.
It was claimed that Latsis was as rich as Onassis, whom everybody knows. It was also said that he
paid the press for not giving him publicity. He had started his ship-owners activity by shipping
pilgrims in the Red Sea. He was also in the oil sector. The leading Greek oil company Petrola was
his. He liked to appear even on festive occasions in Saudi Arabia dressed in a club jacket and a
skipper cap. I learned some things from him. I saw him walking along the corridors of the major
Saudi ministries. He opened the doors of the Minister’s and senior officials and went in to say
hello. He had no issue to discuss. If the recipient was in a hurry, he just waved his hand at the
door. In doing so, he remained on everyone's mind. In this way he had created the relations that
brought him close to the Royal Family. When one of the members of the Royal family was about
to leave the country or returning to the country, was Lasis among the escorts and recipients. I
observed this after being there myself, for the same reason. Again, no important matters, but his
presence drew attention.
Latsis’ ship was commanded by retired Admiral Margarites . A Greek officer, who told me that he
is still thinking best when walking in the room back and forth. He was accustomed to think while
walking on the bridge. With Admiral Margarites we, once a while, organized dives among reef
sharks of Jeddah.
There was always good food on the ship, and sometimes there were several members of the
Latsis family, including his good looking daughter. On occasion the ship was transferred to the
Yanbu port. Latsis was building an oil refinery there. Other individuals and foreign businesses did
not get such authorization. Sometimes even Latsis got into trouble, also with his oil refinery.
"This is Saudi Arabia. Take it or leave it”
We lived for five years in Saudi Arabia. I like this country and its people. I also had good contacts
with many Saudis representing the liberal elite. My stories describe the chaotic time, which arose
when the relatively poor Bedouin country, which, admittedly, had crude oil and, therefore, oil
production, all of a sudden in a few years became one of the richest countries in the world, as
per measured by gross domestic product. The Petrodollars cascaded and the country was driven
into an explosion of development. Migrant workers came to the country nearly as many as there
were, originally, local inhabitants. Advisors, consultants and experts came from all parts of the

83
world. Building contractors, engineering offices, architectural offices and businessmen from
every sector came and built “housing compounds” all around to accommodate their workers.
During this period much amusement occurred and I have tried to describe it.
Already when I came Saudi Arabia I met the CEO of a very significant American Consultancy, who
said the words of the title: “This is Saudi Arabia. Take it, or leave it. So foreign was the modern
technology and Western culture to these people, and so much money did they receive in such a
short space of time, that a lot happened that was amazing.
To Saudi Arabia one was not allowed to bring alcohol, not wines nor beer. The Embassies were
no exception. The only form in which alcohol came to Saudi Arabia legally, although I do not know
whether it was drunk in that form, was a limitless amount of well-known perfume brands in as
large bottles as possible. My wife was not happy when a Finnish guest leaving a reception, when
shaking hands with her, was in his other hand holding a large bottle of Eau-de-Cologne, which he
had taken from our bathroom’s mirror shelf. The not so sober guest did not want to return the
bottle when asked to do so. With the support of the other guests it finally succeeded. The next
day, he was probably happy about the incidence.
The embassies were expected to serve smuggled alcohol. The glasses were wrapped in a
serviette, so that nobody would know what was in the glass. Whether it was Coca-Cola or whisky
was, therefore, difficult to define. All the liquor was smuggled in with the furniture lifts. It was
reported that to the British Embassy some friendly customs officer had announced that the
Embassy people should soon enter the harbor tu pick up the furniture lift because, according to
the documents, a grand piano in the moving container had begun to leak.
In Saudi Arabia worked a few million foreign guest workers. They were from all continents.
Professions ranged from Professors to construction workers. Some of them tried to make ale and
wine out of raisins and other fruits bought from shops. The hardest thing was to acquire the
yeast. The Saudi Arabian elite had it easier. Publicly people very much resented the consumption
of alcohol. At the same time, it was offered to the guests, which were known not to talk too much
talk, in some of the homes. In Saudi Arabia one was able to say that the law was the same for
everyone, but it was not always followed diligently. Relations and position also had a part to play.
Hypocrisy in terms of alcohol consumption can be explained. Although Saudi Arabia has always
been a deeply Islamic country, where the provisions of the strict Wahhabi sect are followed, there
has not always been a prohibition of alcohol. During the time we lived there prohibition was quite
necessary, as about 3 million foreign workers lived in the country, men without wives and
families, with the exception of a few experts, who had a family with them. Alcohol would have
led to difficulties in the country, where women are treated very differently than in Finland.
However, the ban was put in force before the oil crisis in 1952. Until then, Non-Muslim foreigners
had been allowed to bring alcohol for their own use to the country. To the Kings prohibiting
decision then it is thought to have contributed to an incident, in which the Saudi Prince Mishair
was involved. The story is that the Prince sought in the night to enter the home of his friend the
British Vice-Consul Cyril Onsman. Because he was intoxicated, he was not allowed in. Angered,
he first shot at the outer door and then fatally the Consul who tried to get help through the
window. The Prince was sentenced to prison.

84
It is well known, that Ramadan is a time of fasting. In Saudi Arabia, Ramadan was taken very
conscientiously. During the day, one did not drink nor eat. Not to drink was in a 40-to 50-degree
heat quite a performance. Foreign visitors were offered the opportunity to eat in some corner in
their hotel. To eat or drink, so that other people could see it, however, was not allowed. During
Ramadan, people were very tired and the work performance was not at its best during the whole
month.
This applied to daylight time. During night time religion does not require fasting. Therefore drinks
and delicious dishes were collected and stored a long time before Ramadan. The month of
Ramadan was for many a time of nightly non-alcoholic celebration and eating. I think this is a
very peculiar way to fast. It was the cause of workers tiredness and not the fastening. Who is able
to work a day after celebrating the whole night maybe sleeping a few morning hours? The streets
were at night just as vibrant as in the last days of Christmas shopping during opening hours in
Europe. All the shops were open and everything ells functioned in the cities in the night.
In the hot desert there is no tropical greenery, which quickly covers the waste from being seen.
Therefore, car wrecks were left as a memory of the accident and what had happened. They were
not covered. There were many wrecks. The desert winds and sand storms sometimes polished
the car wrecks. That kind of junk I have not seen anywhere else.
The roads were driven in accordance with the "ins Allah" method. This meant that, as well during
the night as the day cars and other vehicles were driven at full speed and when a car in front was
reached it was immediately overtaken. It did not matter if there was another car coming against
or not, because human destiny is predetermined. Therefore, one should always overtake,
because that was the fastest way to get forward. Of course, this was not always successful. Very
magical was also the fact that if on the road were only two cars driving in different directions,

85
they managed to collide. I do not know why, maybe the drivers were looking too closely on each
other. If both cars drove 100 – 150 km per hour and collided front to front it resulted in very
impressive-looking car wrecks.
Traffic accidents were not, however, always this serious. It could happen that people did not die,
but were merely injured. In due course, the police arrived to the scene. The police did not provide
first aid. Instead, the police immediately began to question those involved. If the parties were
unconscious, they were shaken as long as until they would regain consciousness, in order to be
able to tell how the accident happened. This way of treating damaged had led often to a bad
outcome.
One of the interesting features of the Saudi Arabian justice were less severe road accidents. Both
opposing parts were put in the same cell. They were told when they had resolved the issues of
guilt and agreed over everything, they were free to go. I think this is the perfect way to solve
smaller car accident cases, where there is no serious injuries to people, without having to burden
the courts of justice.
A car driver got to watch out for some surprising things. The poor Yemeni families were
sometimes using their old relatives to earn money by pushing them in front of a car on a busy
road or street. The motorist was not able any longer to avoid an accident and the pushed person
tended to die. The car driver was released from a prison sentence, which easily otherwise
threatened, especially, expatriate drivers, who had to pay the victim's family blood money. That
had been the intention. It was told that the victims themselves had accepted the plan.
Law in Saudi Arabia was hard and the order good. Sharia law uses the death penalty and the
amputation of the hand of a thief. When the courts decide to use such penalties it raises
considerable attention in the press in the Western countries. Fortunately, there was not often
the need to use these punishments. Their existence kept the crime rate low. On any alley was a
man able to walk around any time even at night without worry and without fear. A woman was
not supposed to move outside in the night time.
When the harsh penalties were used, it happened in public and it was mentioned in all the news
media. Thus, the potential impact of the rare heavy sentences was the best. The stoning of
women, of course, is a very cruel form of execution and public flogging defamatory. Stoning was
implemented so that already the first stones led to loss of consciousness and flogging, so that
one essential of this punishment was simply in its disgrace.
Justice practices are really not my field. In many instances, however, I have been left to wonder
how much in my own country the victims of crime have to suffer without any support, when the
criminals with their free legal assistants receive a mild human sentence. In practice, the length of
the sentence will be shortened and the criminals as soon as possible allowed vacation, if they
have received a prison sentence. Somewhere between these two systems fair and just practices
for everybody must exist.
The law should always be the same for everyone. It has not always been, since in authoritarian
systems those with good relations were able to influence the result. This did not apply to serious
crimes, but applied anyway to some. I was able to take advantage of the fact that with good
relations it was possible to help one’s own citizens, which, for various reasons had got into

86
trouble with the authorities. Some had dared to photograph landing passenger planes in the
evening sun, and received a spying charge, one had driven against red lights. A brazen crime was
to bring alcohol in one’s suitcase, if one had already lived in the country and knew the rules. One
Finnish hero got two years in prison for bringing to the country two beer bottles. It should be
noted that he was drunk and started to threaten the customs official, which was definitely not
recommended. Turning to the relevant Governor I got him free and out of the country.
Our lunch guests once were disturbed by hearing loud clatter. There had been a crash. That
happened outside our House once in a while. A little after that the doorbell sounded. Some
moments later came a Sudanese servant to tell that something had happened. I asked him to call
the police, and to help the possibly damaged. When this did not solve the matter we went to see
what had really happened. Someone had been speeding and ended by crashing into the rear of
the last in the row of our guests’ parked cars. The cars, which now took less parking space, as
they were partly on top of each other, were severely damaged. When, after a long waiting time
we finally got an interrogation by the police to begin, he tried to arrange a fifty-fifty sharing of
the damages. Half of the cause was the Somali driver who had crashed into the parked cars and
half of the parked cars owners. That was the view of the police. The parked cars owners were not
satisfied with this solution. When they went the next time to the interrogation, the situation had
completely changed. It was revealed that the driver had given wrong personal identification. The
police used now the hit and ask method. He always hit first the driver and then asked a question.
Quickly, the person concerned pleaded guilty, but naturally he was unable to pay anything.
Generally, we as Europeans had easier bigger trouble with the police, than the Arabs themselves.
One Arab drove through red traffic lights and police stopped him. He got out of charges by getting
the police to believe that traffic lights really are only for Europeans. In Europe there are all over
traffic lights, because the Europeans are not able to drive without traffic lights. As the Arabs again
are able to drive without traffic lights, it explains why in the Arab world at the time there were
almost no traffic lights yet, so it is understandable that an Arab cannot be condemned for leaving
a traffic light unobserved. He is able to drive without. This is how the Arab got out of his
predicament.
One of the Finnish also tried to drive through red traffic lights. He did not get out of his
predicament as easily, but was thrown into a prison cell. When in Saudi Arabia in those days
somebody was put in a cell, nobody was informed. The prisoner was not allowed to contact
anyone. When we, on a released prisoner's tip, were able to contact the Finnish prisoner, he had
already been more than a week in a cell. In Saudi Arabian prisons, at least not in the pretrial
prisons the prisoners did not always get enough food. Food was brought relatives and
acquaintances. This's poor Finn’s relatives and acquaintances did not know that he was in prison.
I doubt there were any relatives in the country. Fortunately, he had some money and he was able
to bribe a guard to bring him food. The diet the guard brought was very one-sided. The person
concerned lived for more than a week on eating only bananas. When we met he told me that he
would never eat bananas. His hair was also cut in the prison, but that was, of course, only good,
because in jail it’s difficult to keep one’s hair clean.
The country's culture, which is based on the Wahhabi traditions of Islam, had strict rules. Women
tended generally to be veiled. One could not imagine a woman behind a car’s steering wheel. The

87
men carried out a large part of the shopping. The women lived in harems. The concept “Harem”
is not odd when you know that it is the plural "harem" of the word “hurma” Arabic for woman.
Women did not, therefore, live in anything peculiar, they lived together in their home. In a
traditional Saudi household guests were not brought to that part of the house, where the women
and children lived, i.e. the harem, they were held in other rooms. The rules were harsh and they
sought to preserve the old traditions and culture. That is why to those who came to work in Saudi
Arabia, and who wanted to live there, certain obligations were set. The principle was: "This is
Saudi Arabia. Take it or leave it. "
This way the Saudis protected their own culture and their own traditions. From similar cultures
people are now arriving in Finland. We do not require them to comply with our customs and
habits, instead we give them our support, so that they can maintain their own. We let them also
openly maintain their own religion which was not allowed to us in their culture. The Saudis gave
priority to their own culture and the preservation of their own traditions as well as the
strengthening of their own religion. In Finland, there is reason to remember the saying "Maassa
maan tavalla tai---" (“In a country according to its habits or out---“). It is not an obstacle to the
provision of jobs for immigrants nor integration.
Saudi Arabia's neighbors were "stepping countries".
A derogatory word “stepping countries” (“jalkamaat”) was used in the foreign service for
countries where an Ambassador was accredited and worked, in addition to the country where he
resided. The aim was not, of course, to derogate the countries. Maybe the word was referring
back the time when the head of mission arrived on a horse or by boat and literally stepped on
the country. Of course, the same applies to the arrival by plane, by train or by car. I used three of
the mentioned ways to arrive. I was Ambassador residing in Jeddah also in Bahrain, Qatar, Oman,
the United Arab Republic of Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is composed of seven
Emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain, and Ajman.
I went to each of the countries as
much as possible, sometimes
because of oil, most of the time
because of projects. At the same
time, I tried to learn to know these
countries and the people in them. I
toured the United Arab Emirates,
visiting all Emirates and did not
leave out the desert roads. There
were no tourists yet at the time in
these countries. To Dubai and
Fujairah began the first organized
trips when my trips ended. The

88
climate in the winter months in the countries of the Arabian Gulf were most wonderful for visiting
Europeans.
Bahrain, called the Green Island, a small Island State in the Gulf of Arabia, was not very green
when I moved around there. One could drive around the island and at the same time, the entire
State, in a matter of hours. Green was represented by the Palm forests, where damage began to
appear due to the vibrant construction work. The Emir ruled his State, where in the capital city
Manama, there were new palaces, but primarily old Arab buildings. Delightful were the Arab
sailing ships called dhows which one could still see in the ports of the island and more generally,
in the Gulf of Arabia or the Persian Gulf. I should have said that only the name Arabian Gulf was
accepted in the countries of the
Arabian Peninsula. The capital city
of Bahrain is Manama, as already
said. Manama was the city of pearl
fishers, before the Japanese
invented the cultured pearls. On the
Bahrain deserts one could find a lot
of archaeological remnants. On the
island and the nearby East Coast of
current Saudi Arabia lived, about
6000 years ago, the Dilmun culture.
From there, I found myself stoneage
tools.
In Bahrain foreigners worked in
construction and other tasks.
Bahrain was relatively liberal. The
rulers were Sunni Muslims, but the
majority of the population were
Shia Muslims, two sects of the
religion of Islam, who do not
particularly admire each other,
except that Islam unites all. Foreign
families were allowed to go to the
Emir’s beach. The sandy beach was
beautiful and there was a small
Palace of the Emir, from where he
could use his binoculars.
Near the city there was a beautiful
oasis with a flowing well of about
five meters in diameter. Local boys
jumped into this well and their glee sounded far in the palm forest. Close to the well also the
Finns had built private residences. The builders were not among our best known businesses. The
names, at least, stayed in my memory, as this building project was dealt with in Courts of law for

89
a long time as the parties involved accused each other for the various problems that arose. The
point was to keep the parties out of debt captivity, which was not always completely successful.
The country's Foreign Minister, Sheik Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa was a deeply cultured
and impressive person who was familiar with the problems of the region as a whole.
Unfortunately, the limits of the State did not allow him the influence, which he would have been
able to take full advantage of.
When I studied the impact of the surrounding countries on Saudi Arabia, I observed, that the
activity of Iran's fundamentalist regime again was causing fear. In Bahrain a coup against the
Sunni rulers was planned. Bahrain was the smallest country in the region. If the coup attempt had
been successful and the Government would have fallen, the Saudis assumed, and had assumed for
several years, that the subversive activities would be continued. After the Government of Bahrain
fell, the next to fall would perhaps be in Kuwait, then in the UAE and finally Saudi Arabia. For this
reason, the Bahraini events were taken very seriously. Immediately after the events stronger
support for Iraq in the war against Iran was publicly emphasized.
The island nation of Bahrain was the only Gulf country, which was not almost entirely, but only
about 50 % oil dependent. A road bridge between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain was in the pipeline.
When I visited the country later, it had been about four months completed. Border controls with
customs and immigration officers were still missing. When they were in place, it would take a
few months, before the bridge opened. I had the opportunity to drive across the bridge. Close to
the bridge linking the mainland and Bahrain were, on the Bahraini side, the then Saudi Petroleum
Minister Yamani, the former Saudi Industry Minister Algosaibi and the Saudi Defense Minister
Prince Sultan in the process of building houses for themselves. As Emir of the Eastern Provinces
of Saudi Arabia ruled King Fahad’s son Prince Muhammad.
In Saudi Arabia there were no significant changes in Bahrain expected after in the opening of the
bridge. The bridge was built also due to security policy reasons. At that time, some hundreds of
Saudis arrived on weekends by plane to Bahrain, where lifestyles were more liberal and less
restricted. The amount was estimated to increase in the future. The addition was estimated to
be a few hundred. For those who were looking for entertainment and night clubs were Cairo and
Bangkok better travel destinations.
*
Normally an Ambassador begins his function operations by leaving a credential letter from his
Head of State to the Head of State of the country concerned. Sometimes he had in the Arab world
to act even before the credential letter had been presented.
With Qatar weapons sales were discussed. Colonel Vuorimies from Valmet Oy, had received
some orders and was actively expanding his operations. Patrol boats, assault rifles, grenade

90
launchers and bazookas were subjects of negotiations. His sudden death in August 1978 broke
off the started negotiations.
I flew to Doha, Qatar's capital city to present my credential letter with my wife Inger .I was
dressed in a dark suit, my wife had a long-sleeved blouse and long skirt, such as local customs
required. The Protocol was meeting us in front of the stairs as we came out first from the aircraft
into the very windy Doha. Naturally we stepped out of the plane in a very dignified way as
required by the situation. A little disarray was caused by the fact that my wife’s skirt behaved like
Marilyn Monroe’s in a classic movie. The wind blew her skirt up over her head and her hands got
tangled in the skirt as she tried to pull it down fast. I happened to see the hilarious look on the
face of the
American pilot of
the aircraft. The
others remained
dignified.
The next day I was
presenting my
credentials. Such
ceremonies are, in
all countries,
solemn. In most
cases, they include
the Ambassador
inspecting an
honorary company
and the playing of
the national
anthems with the
Ambassador
standing in front of
the honorary company. I inspected and I was standing. I have heard our National Anthem played
in many ways, although it is customary to send the sheet music in advance. What I heard this
time was peculiarly enjoyable. I kept my face dignified, but it was not easy.
Then we moved on toward the head of State’s, the Emir Khalifa Al-Thani’s reception room. In the
large entrance hall laying around was a bodyguard in Bedouin costumes. The weapons were
pointing in different directions. As a pastime of the guards, many of the weapons were directed
on me. I was happy when we got through the entrance hall, then weapons fire sometimes also
accidentally.
Exactly this guard had been receiving from Finland beautifully chrome-plated assault rifles. The
buyer had wanted gold-plated, but gold-plated that were not delivered, because it didn't hold in
test firing. It should have been delivered. These weapons were not bought for shooting, but for
the honor guard. In addition, they could afford to buy new ones if the gold plate would have

91
peeled off. The rest of the ceremony went smoothly discussing with the Emir of Qatar the
possibilities of cooperation between Finland and Qatar.
Qatar is not a naturally beautiful land. The desert is mostly rocky ground, where hardly anything
grows. The country, however, produces oil so it was able to buy a sea water distillery, and then
to water the capital area planted with Palm trees and other vegetation, so that the scenery
improved.
I arrived once by car from Jeddah through the Arab peninsula to the Qatari border and I gave my
passport for inspection after filling out the immigration papers. As Ambassador to Qatar I
expected the inspection be very fast. That was not the case. The inspection took a long time and
we waited. The members of the family traveling with me, wife and son Joakim, began to get
bored, and I got frustrated. I was tired after the long drive. My questions about the reasons for
the long wait did not receive a response. Finally a friendly customs officer came, who had been
in Finland, on a customs training course. He explained the issue. I had given a wrong first name
in the immigration form. The passport had a different first name. I had been annoyed before by
the fact that our diplomatic passports were still only in trench language, as in many countries
English would have been understood somehow. My passport read: "Monsieur Kai Helenius”. I
had in the Immigration form given the first name "Kai". I fixed it quickly. I apologized and I wrote

92
in a new immigration form as my first name "Monsieur". All were satisfied and the journey
continued.
In Doha, in company with businessmen I got into a problematic situation. One of the gentlemen
felt in the middle of walking in the shopping alleys of the souq a urgent natural need. It was not
appropriate to go to the side of the street, as some now do in Helsinki after excessive beer
drinking. No acceptable place was found. In all gateways there were always people. In one of the
shops was a large flower planting. I spotted the look of the person who had been holding back
for a long time, and I ran away quickly from the store, to show that I was not in the same
company. I came back after some time. Nothing had happened. On my return, I discovered that
behind the planting was a big mirror, so any transaction would have been seen through the shop
window from the street. Even men have concerns.
A second gentleman had really bad luck in a similar situation. Our small plane made in a violent
lightning storm, landing at the Larnaca airport in Cyprus. The wind against us was so strong that
the fuel would not have been enough to achieve our objective. The landing was a real experience.
The aircraft constantly swerved in the thunderstorm so badly that the pilot considered it
appropriate to let us know that the up and down bending wings of the jet will bend but not break.
When we landed, I ran together with a second passenger, in the dark, due to our natural need
quickly to the wall of a shed. The third passenger delayed on the plane, and followed then our
trail. As he stood in front of the shed wall suddenly bright lights came on. What we thought was
in the dark was a shed of the terminal building, from where an angry person rushed out talking
loudly and rightly about completely inappropriate behavior. We apologized humbly, and not
without reason.
*
I had to fly a lot on the Arabian Peninsula. The distances were long and negotiations frequent.
Mainly one was able to use commercial flights, but small planes were often available. Several
Saudis had one or more private jets. The oil companies had their own and so on. Connections
with route planes not in all directions were not available, so a charter jet was, for busy
delegations, often the only sensible solution.
I joined a Finnish delegation that flew in a chartered Norwegian jet. We flew first to the capital
of Yemen, Sana’a. We were negotiating there a couple of days. Our next aim was Muscat in
Oman, both on the South end of the peninsula. The night before our departure we tried to reach
the plane’s Norwegian pilot. Him we did not reach, but at the bar we found the plane’s co-pilot
who was just able to talk. He said the pilot was resting. We asked whether the gentlemen were
able to fly the next day, and got a positive answer.
The next day we departed slightly late. The pilots did not have all the paperwork and permits in
order on time. We also got to hear that we would have to fly to a detour. A direct flight was not
allowed. We did not, however, get further than the runway. We accelerated, braked and stopped.
The plane, which was not very new, had developed technical failure. It could not be fixed the
same day, because a spare part had to be flown in.
We were in a hurry to Oman. I called the Prime Minister of Yemen, who had been our host. Space
was arranged for us in the route plane to Jeddah. I had already called there to arrange a plane

93
for our flight to Oman. One of the familiar Saudis lent his plane. He asked us to pay the overnight
hotel fee in Oman for the pilots. There would be no other expenses for us for the Learjet into
which we were
packed like oil
sardines in their tin.
without anyone of our trade delegation disturbing the other by snoring.
We reached Muscat
in the small hours, so
we were, the next
day, not very alert.
We met Members of
the Government and
representatives of
the economy of
Oman. Luckily for us
we were offered,
continuously, Arab
coffee, so we spoke
our sometimes too
long presentations
Perhaps it is appropriate to point out that Salem bin Laden loaned us his plane, a member of the
same family as Osama bin Laden, well known through press and television. Salem was a nice,
modern chap. From his plane above the Hormuz Strait I made my first satellite phone call. He had
a jet pilot's license. Often he took care of the take-offs and landings with the main pilot sitting
quietly next to him.
He died in Texas. In
an accident flying
an ultralight plane.
At that time the
landing was not
successful.
One Oman visit
included a
helicopter tour to
the Green
Mountain. I will
never forget it.
Flying through
narrow mountain
passes, with an
Omani helicopter

94
was really thrilling, because the weather was worse than usual. The mountains, of course, were
beautiful.
Oman was an interesting country. The capital Muscat brought to mind “Thousand and one
nights”. Those stories were from around Baghdad, which now brings other things to mind.
Muscat’s City Centre looked like the most beautiful old Arabia. Close to the Sultan's (King’s) Royal
Palace were located the US and British embassies. In front of them was a prison island, from
where in the morning, one heard the clatter of shackles, when prisoners arrived to the boat
bringing food supplies for them. The island looked like a hill and the chains clattered on the slope.
I got to know His Majesty Sultan Qaboos better than usually because his uncle was in
collaboration with the Finnish mining company Outokumpu Oy. The presentation of my letter of
credentials was a very solemn event, which was followed by a discussion with the Sultan. During
the discussion, the local traditional delicacy helava was served. Helava was eaten from small
white enameled metal bowls with a blue border, with the right hand without a spoon. The enamel
bowl reminded me of my childhood’s washing bowls. It seemed strange in the glamorous Palace.
Surroundings. The sweet Oatmeal-like delicacy was memorable, but I did not ask for a recipe. In
Finland we could serve at similar events a dish called “mämmi” (malted rye) in a small basket
made from birch bark with a wooden spoon.

95
I had the opportunity at a later time to further discussions with the Sultan. This was supported
by the already mentioned uncle, Sheik Mustahil, as well as the content of the interesting
discussions. The Interesting discussion topics included additionally to Finnish Omani relations and
trade Middle East policy and history, but also the probability of Star Wars. Not Reagan's
rearmament competition, but the possibility that sometimes there would in the space be a
conflict between different solar systems sometimes. Indeed, there have been a number of films
on this topic.
I had also to convincingly prove to the Sultan, as earlier to the Saudi Arabian Royal family, that
Finland was not a Communist country. Some of the companies from a neighboring country were
using that rumor to get a better competitive position. The Soviet Union was then not popular in
in Oman.
More popular was the former protector the United Kingdom. The Sultan was a Sandhurst
educate, whom the British helped to power replacing the conservative rather. They thought it
would increase their own influence, but Qaboos turned out to be a modern and independent.
However, he continued to use British military experts. In the Omani capital Muscat in a military
ceremony I saw for the first time paragliding soldiers.
The more than 300 kilometer long sandy beach “Batinah” of Oman stayed in my memory. There
I watched the birds and the fast moving a periscope-eyed crabs, which quickly fled into their holes
when I approached. I have many memories. From the beach I remember especially one crab
which did not escape but approached me bravely waving its only claw. We stared at each other,

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and then we both turned away. The tide water became a memory for me and especially for a
visiting Finnish businessman group. All members of the group left their excess clothes in on the
empty sandy beach, although I warned about the tidewater, when we went for a walk. When we
returned, what I anticipated had happened. Fortunately all pieces of clothing were still swimming
around in the shallow water, drying slowly in the hot humid climate.
In Oman, the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean coastal State, I watched, for the first time, an
exhibition consisting of mere holograms. The chairs were so authentic that they invited one to
sit down. More spectacular than the holograms, however, was my wife’s and my first visit to
Sheikh Mustahil’s home. In the front of the house lay Bedouins who, when we arrived happily
shot into the air to our honor. The host let us in and we sat down into deep arm-chairs. The host
kicked the Bedouin servant who wanted to serve coffee first to me. The second kick made it clear
to him that he should serve my wife first, which he did unwillingly. Time after time he forgot this
serving order. The Sheikh was familiar with our culture, The Bedouins did not. It would be
wonderful if the old Bedouin culture would survive, but it is not likely.
Oman was internally and externally peaceful. The declining level of oil prices was damaging to the
poor state Oman, which will not be able to proceed as it was planned, so economic activity
decreased to some extent. Oman was the only Gulf country which had given to the Americans so
called support point rights. At the time in Oman were under construction four separate
American military bases, built by Americans and financed by Americans. These military bases
were controlled by the Omanis. Therefore, they were not actual bases, but support points. They
would be ready if the United States would need them in some crisis.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar the GCC had during the second half
of 1981 formed the GCC or Gulf Cooperation Council, which was the first so large formal
effort to economic cooperation between the countries.. The cooperation was extended also to
internal and external security.
*
The mountains are beautiful also in Yemen as are the terraced plantations. Presenting credential
letters in the Yemen Arab Republic was, in many ways, interesting. I was the first Finnish
Ambassador to Yemen. The country had and has a lot of tribes with regional power. In these
regions the Government does not have any power. The Government's power was told to end in
a 25-mile radius of the largest cities, so the capital city Sana’a and the commercial cities Taiz and
Hodeida. In this country, ruled once the Queen of Saba. From her time was, close to the desert,
the city of Marib the world's first dam construction.
The presentation of my credential letter to the President of the Country Ali Abdullah Saleh in
1979, was done through a very militaresque ceremony. In the front of the car the protocol had
given me the police escort and an off road vehicle equipped with a machine gun. Behind my car
was another machine gun equipped off-road vehicle. In front of the Presidential Palace stood an
honor guard company, and a little farther away a manned antitank cannon looking out of the
Palace. The ceremonies took place without any problems. My Japanese colleague was presenting
his credentials the same day. This was his third flight to Sanaa to do it. On previous occasions, he

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had to return empty handed, as the Presidents Ibrahim al Hamdi († 11.10.1977) and Abdul Karim
al Ghasmi († 24.6.1978) were murdered during his stay.
Everything else in Yemen did not run smoothly. There were even two Yemen. North Yemen or
The Yemen Arab Republic and South-Yemen the Democratic People's Republic of Yemen. Because
the countries had agreed to unify into one nation-state, with Sanaa as capital I did not
recommended to accredit an Ambassador in the South. This position was influenced by the fact
that East German men trained terrorists there and I thought that Finland had more commercial
interests involving the other peninsula countries. During my successor’s time this "imbalance"
was fixed. The countries were later unified as was agreed.
The diplomacy of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, was very unusual. From the
nation's capital Aden an Extraordinary Ambassador was sent to deliver a letter to the President
of North Yemen. The message was in a sealed attaché case and should not be shown to anybody
else. When the Ambassador then opened the case in the president’s room both the President
and the Extraordinary Ambassador died in the explosion. I was pleased that I was Finland’s
Extraordinary Ambassador. Our diplomacy was more usual.
To our diplomacy, as to all international diplomacy, belong verbal notes and the exchange of
notes. It is not a question of anything else than of a name given to the form of the exchange of
letters between Governments. Also to Yemen we had to send different types of enquiries and
presentations in the form of verbal notes. We never received an answer. When I went to see the
Ministers I did get a response, but a important written confirmation for Finland was still missing.

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been an improvement.
I found the reason why. In the Yemeni
Foreign Affairs Ministry nobody was willing
to write the verbal notes that we needed. I
chose a new road. When delivering a verbal
note I also delivered an answer addressed to
us. The Yemeni authorities signed the
answer and so the exchange of letters was
working just fine. We received responses
faster than ever.
Politeness was, in the Yemeni culture, at a
high level. It was not as striking as in the
afternoon the completely usual Qat-leaf
chewing, preferably as a big wad in the
cheek. This shrub had taken living space
from other agricultural products, because it
gave a better price. In addition, it was the
main import article from Somalia. Qat
contains the drug amphetamine. It really was
chewed by almost all of the men in the
shops, open-air markets and in homes. It
took away both thirst and hunger. It is
claimed to even increase the potency. Car
drivers chewed it also. I did not notice any
influence on driving. Any changes to the
driving habits in the country would have
Back to the politeness. The Yemenis are usually slim. Finland's Honorary Consul was not skinny.
Rather on the contrary. Even his brother was not lean. Rather on the contrary. His driver was also
not skinny. The car was an American limousine with a wide back bench. My wife was sitting with
me on the back bench. We belong to those of statistically normal weight. We recommended to
our Consul who sat with his brother and driver squeezed on the front bench to move to the back,
where we had a lot of space. As a polite Yemeni he replied: "you guys are so fat that you need
the whole bench". Obesity was a sign of value in the country.
Once the main role of the diplomats at the Court of the country of their assignation was the
prevention of war, unless their ruler wanted just the opposite. Now the world has a lot of
organizations and unions, which have the same role. The start of a war in a crisis region, however,
is one of the things for a diplomat to detect and inform ones government about as soon as
possible. If for nothing else, then for the preparation of an opinion statement. Today the
information comes through media and news agencies, but the official announcement is the
official announcement. The situation was frequently tense between North Yemen and South
Yemen, even if they had agreed on unification. The bomb loaded Ambassador was an example,
even though he was innocent.

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I received during the course of one afternoon information, that the South Yemeni troops had
crossed the border to North of Yemen and continued to move forward. War had broken out. I
dictated immediately a telegram to the Ministry and promised to come back to it, when I could
acquire more detailed information. A
few hours later I discovered that the
telegram had not been sent. The
typist in the office had not got it
finished, when her workday ended
and had gone home. It was
important to follow carefully the
working hours or require overtime
payment. The war did not really
matter. Fortunately, I got the
message sent. The next day, it was
obvious that this had been only a big
border scuffle. Fighting in Yemen did
not threaten Finland, but I wanted to
give as accurate a picture as possible
of the situation, so I used all of my
channels in order to get information.
In Yemen worked also Finnish
construction companies. I had to find
out if their staff was in any danger.
According to the information I
received, there was no imminent
danger and nothing more was on the
way. Now in the e-mail time similar
problems no longer arise. Diplomats
write their messages themselves
without the need of secretaries.
The Yemen Arab Republic was in the
worst shape of the mentioned
countries. The government’s power did not reach almost anywhere. Saudi Arabia supported on
one hand the government and, on the other hand, the tribes in the North. These were
supported by letting a main part of the imports of sugar and fuel to the Yemen Arab Republic
be smuggled in from Saudi Arabia. In this way, the Government did not earn any customs’ duties
and lost even more power. In the country worked the National Democratic Front (NDF), which
was an Organization of resistance, mainly financed by Libya and supported by the Democratic
Republic of Yemen.
The NDF had clearly strengthened. The situation in the Yemen Arab Republic was currently calm,
but no one in Yemen did expect I to last for long. The Saudis, on the one hand, and the Soviet
Union on the other hand, were seeking to increase their influence in this country. If there would be
any significant changes, they could affect the entire peninsula.

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When I came to the Arabian Peninsula I wanted of course to leave my credential letter also to
the ruler of the United
Arab Emirates, the Emir
of Abu Dhabi HRH,
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan
al Nahyan, but that was
not easily done. The
country was proud and
wanted an Ambassador,
who were residing in the
country. I was told that I
can operate freely, all the
Ministers and others
would meet me, even
though I have not
delivered my credential
letter. In that way I
worked, but I used my acquaintances and relationships constantly to stress the importance of
delivering my credential letter. Usually an Ambassador has to wait for the ceremony a few weeks,
sometimes longer. I had to wait 3 years and 361 days until I solemnly presented my credentials
in the UAE. Maybe this is the international record. Many left the UAE without ever presenting
their credentials. They will not be counted.
I presented my credentials in Abu Dhabi during the end stage of my time on the Arabian
Peninsula. We had already agreed on my move from Saudi Arabia to Finland at the turn of the
year. My move had been made earlier, presumably, when Pär Stenbäck became Minister of
Foreign Affairs. He wanted to help some of those of his Swedish People’s Party in Finland to new
better tasks, which was the usual horse-trading. My home language is Swedish, but I am writing
my first name Kai with an I at the end, when those speaking Swedish normally write with an J.,
so I was one of the replaced. The Minister noticed only later that my mother tongue was Swedish.
I moved to Finland at the turn of the year 1982-83.
One of my last official tasks during my time as Ambassador on the Arabian Peninsula was the
finalizing and signing of an Agreement on Scientific, Technical and Economic Co-operation
between Finland and the UAE, which had been negotiated for a really long time. My job was
to negotiate the content and wording of the agreement with the purpose of increasing the trade
between the two countries. I negotiated this agreement for a long time. The text was changed
several times here and there. Finally, we agreed on the final text and the time of the signature.
Just before signing, a new English language text was given to me. It was full of language errors.
Changes to this text the counter-party no longer accepted. I called Finland by phone and
explained the situation. It was agreed that we sign, because the relevant content responded to
our wishes and the changes did not damage the agreement. This agreement with its peculiar
English language is now part of Finland’s international agreements.
Kai Helenius

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