Saudi Arabia behind the facade

To Cztheday & to the (mostly) wonderful men of USA & OZ who know how to treat their women, NOT as a second thought...you & Hugh...sigh...Eden...

Eden!

Welcome back, lovely lady! We missed you! I hope you don't mind that I spilled the beans and told them all that you were off showing Hugh Jackman how to REALLY play a love scene. Yeah, he is great looking and has that super-fit body. But a man has to know what to do with his HANDS...

Love ya, babe..

Only one little girl in above pic...at the back...says volumes to me...sigh...

they need a french style purge of the royals and their ilk. perhaps they could have it in public and on PPV.

I have many concerns about Saudi Arabia, but if I were to pick one that stands out or above the rest it would be what I have heard about the educational "system" that molds their young people starting when they are toddlers. If their children are anything at all like OUR children, very few are inclined to question or resist their teachers until they are at least in their early teens. An awful lot of damage can be done to a young mind by that point...

It's starting/started all around the world in these enclaves...youth rising up against these tyrannical regimes...I pray with all my might, that this ground swell gathers momentum...great posts (as always...HR)...Eden...

Fuck saudi arabia.

Simon Reeve presents Saudi: The Family in Crisis', a This World' documentary, on BBC2 tomorrow night at 9pm. He is the author of The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism' (Andre Deutsch)

http://www.shootandscribble.com/sr/page6/page3/page3.html

Saudi Arabia has been a breeding ground for militancy for more than a decade, and Western and Saudi intelligence experts believe there are still several thousand extremists within the kingdom who are prepared to use violence. Many Saudis supported the events of September 11, and a majority at least felt a degree of satisfaction that America was suffering.

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I expected hostility. But, despite their anger at Western support for Israel and general fury at American foreign policy, Saudis do something many Westerners do not - they make a distinction between an individual and the government of his country. Everywhere I went, the Saudis were warm and hospitable. The shooting of the BBC's Simon Cumbers and Frank Gardner, shortly after I flew home, came as a huge shock.

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"We cannot rule the way we have been doing for the last 100 years. Better we change than have it imposed on us."

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Young women constitute 55 per cent of university graduates but just 5 per cent of the workforce. "This is a waste of money, a waste of human resources and a waste of brains that could really challenge this economy and get it out from the very low growth of around 1.4 per cent for the whole of the last 20 years," says Nahed Tahar, a female senior economist, who graduated in Britain.

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Internal dissent has been stifled. The few human- rights workers not in jail allege that prisoners are tortured and abused.

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To justify and legitimise its rule over its young subjects, the House of Saud turns to Islam.

police from the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice - roam streets, shops and restaurants enforcing their vision of morality. Saudi women are legally prevented from driving and - with scant religious justification - must wear the black abaya, which covers the body from head to toe. Yet women wearing the abaya pore over scraps of underwear in lingerie shops in Riyadh before combing the sprawling new Harvey Nichols department store for fashionable dresses they can wear at private house-parties.

http://www.shootandscribble.com/sr/page6/page3/page3.html

About 70 per cent of the population of the Holy Kingdom are under the age of 30, but all the rulers are over 70. An army of youngsters is simmering with frustrations. There are few outlets for youthful rebellion. Young people are so desperate for contact with the opposite sex that teenagers scribble their names and mobile numbers on bits of paper and throw them at someone they fancy when the mutawaeen aren't looking.
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Saudi Arabia is a land of staggering contradictions. All Saudis profess loathing for the American government, and the suffering of the Palestinians dominates the news. Yet Western shops and foreign fast-food restaurants do brisk business. McDonald's is hugely popular, although every outlet has separate sections for men and women and, like all businesses and shops, they close five times a day for prayers. Alcohol and cinemas are illegal, but video stores stock the latest Hollywood releases. Satellite dishes are officially banned, but most families have one. Public music is prohibited, and firms have been reprimanded for playing music to callers on hold, but English-language graffiti praise American rappers and Eminem blares from car stereos.

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