Saudi National Day Special: Graffiti Youth

Today marks the anniversary of the Saud clan taking over Arabia and naming the land after themselves. Here is a report on one aspect of what they've spawned:

College dropout Abdullah al-Alwani wanted to stand out among his friends, but he couldn't afford a splashy car or brand-name clothes. Bored by a lack of things to do in this conservative kingdom, he decided to make his mark by spray-painting X 5, his chosen nickname, hundreds of times across the city.

Mohamed Jamal Abo-Umara, the newly appointed official in charge of Jiddah's beautification, spent months on Alwani's trail. He alerted the police, told local newspapers he was looking for X 5 and offered a $1,300 reward to anyone who could lead him to the city's most prolific graffiti artist.

In May, a journalist offered to introduce the two men to each other on the condition that vandalism charges be waived, and both agreed.

But the June encounter, widely covered by the local media because of X 5's notoriety, ended up addressing not just the graffiti problem but also what had fueled it -- a host of frustrations faced by Alwani's generation.

Since then, Alwani and his graffiti buddies have appeared smiling and apologetic in dozens of magazine, newspaper and television interviews, focusing a rare spotlight on Saudi youth.

Like many of his generation, Alwani, a slight 20-year-old with an Afro tinted volcano red, is buffeted between the Western culture piped into his life via satellite television and the Internet and the strict religious culture prevalent around him.

"I want graffiti walls like they have in the West. We need soccer fields and basketball courts in every neighborhood," said Alwani, who prefers low-riding jeans to the traditional white robe commonly worn here. "And I want to dress the way I want without people making fun of me."

Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy and one of the world's most socially repressive societies, also has one of the world's youngest populations, with more than 50 percent of its 22 million citizens younger than 21.

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