This would be a good time for Yogi Berra to repeat his famous words — "It’s like deja vu all over again." Believe it or not, Saudi Arabia has fears of depleting another natural resource, but this time it’s not oil. It’s sand. According to BBC News and the Arab News newspaper, Saudi Arabia, which has more sand than oil, "has reportedly imposed strict border checks to enforce a ban on the export of sand." In addition, "There are fears that the growing demands of the construction industry could lead to a shortage in the desert kingdom." Bahrain and Iraq, two neighboring countries, would like to import Saudi sand. Bahrain needs the sand to reclaim land from the sea and Iraq will need sand with its reconstruction. The news about the sand ban doesn’t mention the need for sand in our own homeland. We need sand for children’s sand boxes, sand traps on golf courses, and we need sand for sandbags, which divert floodwaters and save countless lives and homes every spring. In addition, we shouldn’t forget our national need for sand for two-minute egg timers, hour glasses and, of course, sandpaper. Without a free flow of sand from Saudi Arabia, we could easily become a nation of unsanded edges and painful wooden splinters in millions of fingers. We should not overlook our need for sand in those free-standing receptacles for cigarette butts outside every designated non-smoking office building and business in our country. And how about those inflated clown toys we used to punch in the faces when we were kids and the smiling clowns wouldn’t stay down because they had sand-weighted bottoms? The list of important uses for sand is endless. Although we once faced a similar oil shortage before and the idea of drilling in the Alaskan wilderness area didn’t work out as some people had hoped, we must persevere in our quest for sand. We will have to gather sand from our other coastlines. Our largest supplies of sand could easily be exploited from the beaches of Florida, Texas, Hawaii and California. Of course, there would be a general outcry from environmentalists, sunbathers, vacationers and tourism people. Eventually those protesters might be convinced that our country’s increasing needs for sandpaper, two-minute egg timers and golf sand traps far outweigh the importance of their nearly extinct species of sand crabs, bronzed skin and souvenir T-shirts. Based on the need for sand, not only in the Mideast but in other parts of the world, Saudi Arabia and its sand-rich neighbors might decide to form a powerful coalition. Based on the concepts of the powerful Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, they could easily create OSEC, also known as the Organization of the Sand Exporting Countries. Sand and international politics will become as synonymous as oil and international politics. In light of the sand ban in Saudi Arabia and our own limited supply of beach sand, it might be wise for us to develop sand alternatives. We will need to test materials that are granular, such as coffee grounds, sawdust and ground glass. We will also need some very creative sandologists.
