As we boarded the plane, we were not met with the typical beaming but uninhabited smile. Instead, a Filipino air-stewardess struggled to conceal her discomfort as a male colleague held an early-teenage boy by the shoulders, straining to prevent him from racing off into the plane unescorted. The youngster, whose name was Fahoud, sported an uncomplicated, mischievous smile, and expressed his delight with the moment by making what would become a familiar sound, a wheezy, deep br eathing that soon glided into what resembled Arabic words. It was immediately evident that Fahoud suffered from some form of developmental disability. He was soon chased down by a band of identically dressed women , whose traditional Saudi attire meant that the only means of distinguishing between them was by their voices. An older lady, presumably Fahoud's mother, gutturally barked orders at the young man, imploring him to cease his capers and return to his seat. The ladies, however, were powerless against ...