Dear Saudi Friends

Dear Saudi friends, You need to fix this, you seriously do. Two days ago, I was writing you that I believed you. I even tweeted to the French minister of the economy and to the French president that France should be at the Future Investment Summit. But then, yesterday, I went up the rollercoaster again and believed the masses who say that the Crown Prince has done it. Yet, I can tell you, I WANT to believe you, I really do and this rollercoaster has just been unbearable so far. You might think I am weak in character, but I am not. The problem is on your side, much more than on mine. In the end, the scenario is now clear in my mind. I don't think your Crown Prince is guilty but if this story should teach you anything beyond what you have already learnt is that your communication absolutely, desperately, frustratingly sucks. As I said already in my previous post, you lost the battle of the communication in this case because you even refused to engage in that battle. Your...

Dear Saudi friends, I haven’t slept properly for a week, I must have lost weight too. This last week has been one of the most challenging week in my life. I had observed your Crown prince for 2 years and I just couldn’t accept what people said, that he was an assassin. I thought this man was nothing but pure light and here was everyone saying that he was the prince of darkness. I personally wondered how I could ever recover from being so wrong about someone I had spent so much time observing. People say that power spoils those who have it. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I ever had to face such a strong moral dilemma. Now the truth has come out. I am hungry again. In my personal case, what tipped the scales was this article a French journalist I had always respected published the day before yesterday. Apparently she just published a book about the Crown Prince after leading an investigation. And she said she thought the Crown Prince was behind Jamal Khas...

As anybody interested in Saudi Arabia, I read the Crown Prince’s interview with Bloomberg. As a communication professional, I also tried to figure out what image of the Crown Prince this interview projected, what impression it left me beyond the very detailed information that was shared. See, I am a big, big fan of your Crown Prince, I think he is a great chance for Saudi Arabia and for the region, and I am trying to follow everything he says or does. I think I see a potential in him that he is even unaware of. Much to my surprise, the interview bored me. I read a big chunk of the transcript, but then after a while, it bored me and I couldn’t get myself to finish it. If I am being honest, it wasn’t just boredom, I was annoyed by some of the questions and by some of the answers. It was the typical, quite dull business interview. In the back of my mind, a voice kept pestering me “Bloomberg?! What acting head of state gives such a long interview to Bloomberg, especially sin...