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As you’ll be aware, two major disasters have afflicted Saudi Arabia in the past fortnight, each causing multiple fatalities. First, a crane ‘inexplicably’ crashed onto the most sacred Mosque in Islam, killing dozens. Then, a stampede during the traditional ‘stone the devil’ ceremony (not far from the site of the first incident) killed hundreds more.
On the off chance anyone finds this incompetence surprising, let’s build a context for it. In the first case, the Saudi construction industry is globally regarded as an institution of thinly disguised slavery. The workers, usually imported from impoverished areas of the Indian sub-continent, are provided with little training, guidance, insurance or protection. In this sense, the only wonder is why cranes aren’t falling on the hour.
In the second case, this is far from the first time that Saudi security forces, in total numbering barely 100,000 men (and only men, of course), have found large-scale co-ordination projects impossible to manage. A wave of animal chaos condemns countless families to an early, pious demise every year.
And this dysfunction, of course, is not isolated but general. Saudi Arabia is plainly not a developed country. Not by any measure. Though the Human Development Index continues to mistake wealth for sophistication, the nation is merely a third world state splashed with unlimited resources.
Like any crackpot regime, the Saudi government – knowing no better – wastes every dollar of (unearned) revenue on a bloated military and on spreading propaganda abroad (the result of which has been the rebirth of Sunni Islamic militancy and the deaths of thousands of Western citizens). Security and policing are brutal, often savage and yet also notoriously inefficient. The education system is appalling. Illiteracy is rife. Women are granted no rights whatsoever. Obesity is a national characteristic. Despite all the investment available, the national life expectancy is the same as in penniless Libya. The hospital system, while slightly better than the school system, is little more than a crude institutional plagiarism from the civilised world, and one that would collapse without that world’s continued instruction. Agriculture is non-existent (though, as other barren countries have shown, not impossible). If oil is subtracted from the equation completely, the economy is less productive than Jordan (a country with population of 6 million to Saudi’s 31 million).
Saudi Arabia is a brat country. A spoilt, lazy, bloated brat. Unaccustomed to ever working for a living, a brat never develops intelligence or a worthwhile skill. Money comes in whatever the case. So why do anything other than grow fat and play computer games? Why move with the cultural times at all? Why not freeze the clock at the very moment black gold first ejaculated from the ground?
I am an Islamophobe, admittedly. But I do nevertheless feel bad when innocent people die. Saudi incompetence has cut short the lives of a great number of people this week; people with futures, dreams and histories. They firmly deserve the blame of their co-religionists, as well as our unending contempt for their staggering lack of competence, compassion and innovation.
D,LDN
It’s high time the brat is disciplined!
It’s high time his trust fund money is stopped and it’s high time he’s forced to work like the rest of us. (Electric cars, please become viable soon! It’s high time, both for real progress of mankind and also for the health of the environment, that oil becomes useless again.
I long for the time when oil sells for less than $5. It will happen within 20 years, mark my words. DTMW & its readers, do you want to place a long bet with me?
It’s high time the brat fights his own fights, (instead of bribing others, especially his Western ‘friends’ who he secretly hates with a passion, with more hatred for the West, than the supposedly anti-West Iran, a hate born out of actual impotence and cowardice. At least the Iranian is man enough and brave enough to say to the West: I don’t like you!
The brat is more devious and more dangerous therefore)
It’s high time the brat is exposed for what he actually is: A devious, uncultured, cowardly, impotent, semi-civilized ugly, unfit obese stinking piece of !
I think the era of electric cars is very close. The trouble is that the idea is usually presented wrapped up in the science of global warming. Many people will refuse to upgrade for that reason.
A state as unequal as Saudi can’t go on indefinitely regardless of wealth. The people hate the regime. The regime hates the people. Ultimately, there will be a ‘spring’ of some kind.
No. The Sunnis, who are 85% of the population, are quite happy with the regime.
The regime is Sunni, fanatically so, are so are the people, mostly. The Saudi people are generally extremely conservative Sunnis.
The regime also provides them with a good quality of life, almost free money handouts, South Asian and African ‘servants’ and keeps a harsh but desirable peace within.
If you think the people of Saudi Arabia are against the regime, you are mistaken. The (Sunni) people (& beyond) of Saudi Arabia will always stand solidly behind their current regime.
Most Islamist Sunni groups openly despise the Saudi monarchy. The Saudi royals are NOT real Muslims. They are decadent playboys, and the people know it.
Little more than hillbillies in sheets with lots of moolah. A disgusting society. Indulged by the West, hated by their neighbors and the world’s biggest meddler in so called “religious politics,” i.e., exporting hateful salafism. All fingers point to the saudis when it comes to muslim violence. They practically invented it. Why a blind eye is turned to these scum is an obscenity in and of itself.
It’s all about money. Our leaders are just as morally corrupt as the Saudi royals. Money trumps morality.
Although Germany and Sweden have made a stand of late – refusing to sign military contracts with Saudi, referencing their human rights record.
http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/03/swedens-feminist-foreign-minister-has-dared-to-tell-the-truth-about-saudi-arabia-what-happens-now-concerns-us-all/
Saudi has the West under its thumb. This is humiliating for every thinking European.