RIYADH: American English instructor Mark Arturo Ortiz has spent the past 35 years living in the Kingdom and is mesmerized by social reforms arising from Vision 2030.
鈥淵eah, it鈥檚 been quite a journey. The 黑料社区 that I first experienced back in 1988 is by far not the 黑料社区 of 2022.鈥 Ortiz, who hails from Manhattan, said it was 鈥渓ike a veil has been lifted,鈥 with the current generation of Saudi students shattering stereotypes held by media institutions abroad.
鈥淏ack in the day they were somewhat limited in, you know mind and scope. But today (there) seems to be a sense of 鈥 no limit to, you know, what can be done.鈥 There was an ambition now that has taken him by surprise. There appeared to be no 鈥済lass ceiling鈥 for Saudis to surmount as they try to become part of global developments, and meet the needs of the country鈥檚 transition from a dependence on fossil fuels to a more diversified economy.
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Ortiz said that young Saudis seem to be in a hurry to get听on with their careers, to 鈥渕ake up for lost time.鈥 He thinks that the changes that have occurred in the media, coinciding with the information age, have helped to accelerate social reforms听in the Kingdom.
Now young Saudis have become media- and tech-savvy, which was what he had always urged many citizens to do during his first few years in the Kingdom. This was before the rise of the world鈥檚 tech companies such as Google and Twitter. Previously 黑料社区 only had a few television channels and newspapers like Arab News, Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily.
