Despite oil wealth, Saudis feel poor

Sultan al-Mazeen recently stopped at a gas station to fill up his SUV, paying 45 cents a gallon - about one-tenth what Americans pay these days.

[Albert Fournier]

The Kingdom of Saudia.
Without its oil, the Kingdom of Saudia would have been one of the poorest countries of the world. The enormous flood of money from the export of oil makes Saudia a rich country. Instead of investing its wealth in the infrastructure of the country and developing basic agricultur and industry, the money is spent on promoting the Wahhabi doctrine of terrorism and hate to the entire non Muslim world as described at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2007/...

[Albert Fournier]

Saudis encourage extremism and build institutions that spread radical Islam.
Riyadh, flush with oil money, became the paymaster of most of the militant Islamic movements, which advocated terror. Even the most violent of Islamic groups, like Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, receives Saudi largesse. Official Saudi sources indicate that between 1975 and 1987, Riyadh’s overseas development aid averaged $4 billion per year, of which at least $50 billion over two-and-a-half decades financed Islamic activities exclusively. The SAAR Foundation alone, which has been closed down since 9/11, received $1.7 billion in donations in 1998. over the last 30 years, the Saudis spent $70 billion on propaganda, the biggest propaganda campaign in the history of the world. About the doctrine of terrorism and hate to the entire non Muslim world as described at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2007/...

[Saudi Arabian]

lol

spend some time to take a look at Saudi Arabia's announced budget for this year you nitwit.

and btw , wahhabism is an ibadhi sect founded in north Africa 1200 years ago. we aren't wahhabis but we are Sunnis however our enemies kept labeling us with that silly term to isolate us and create phobia toward us.

[Dez]

Israel is far from innocent when it comes to upsetting stability of the Middle East

[AbdulQ]

Dez wrote:

Israel is far from innocent when it comes to upsetting stability of the Middle East

The biggest threat is Iran. If they take over Saudi oil, they will become a major economic and military world power. Their development of nuclear weapons cannot be good for Saudi Arabia or the US.

[Saudi Arabian]

AbdulQ wrote:

<quoted text>
The biggest threat is Iran. If they take over Saudi oil, they will become a major economic and military world power. Their development of nuclear weapons cannot be good for Saudi Arabia or the US.

they can't take it a way or another.

first they'll have to pass those giant US Navy fleets.

secondly , they'll have to pass our own fleets.

thirdly , they'll have to pass our tens of attacker Tornados and F-15s

fourthly , they'll have to pass our brigades of the national guards and armed forces.

fifthly , they'll have to risk many things especially Saudi-sponsored insurgency on Iranian soil or Saudi-sponsored international military coalition strike like what KSA did to Iraq in 1990 war.

[Go US]

Saudi Arabian wrote:

<quoted text>
they can't take it a way or another.
first they'll have to pass those giant US Navy fleets.
secondly , they'll have to pass our own fleets.
thirdly , they'll have to pass our tens of attacker Tornados and F-15s
fourthly , they'll have to pass our brigades of the national guards and armed forces.
fifthly , they'll have to risk many things especially Saudi-sponsored insurgency on Iranian soil or Saudi-sponsored international military coalition strike like what KSA did to Iraq in 1990 war.

I agree.

[Semper Fi]

AbdulQ wrote:

<quoted text>
The biggest threat is Iran. If they take over Saudi oil, they will become a major economic and military world power. Their development of nuclear weapons cannot be good for Saudi Arabia or the US.

Sadly, it's George Bush 2 who accidentally made Iran so dangerous.

I hope people will start to realize how smart his father was to leave Saddam's regime standing after Gulf war 1. The elder Bush understood that it was existince of Saddam's regime that kept the peace in the region by balancing Iran's power.

All the people (and there were lots of them) who complained bitterly that we were abandoning our Shiite and Kurdish allies didn't understand the realpolitik of the region. History will show that George Bush 1 didn't make a "mistake" leaving Saddam in power, he did the smart thing.

What do we have now that George Bush 2 fixed his father's "mistake"?

We have a world where the former Arab Sunni state of Iraq is being taken over by the Shiites and by Iran.

Eventually this new Iranian super-state is going to try to conquer the oil-rich Gulf states. And unlike Saddam's Iraq before it, it might be big and powerful enough to get away with it.

[bd - a common US citizen]

Saudis feel poorer? Not all Saudis, I'd imagine.
How much of the wealth from oil actually gets trickled down to the citizens, while the oil barons are living in palaces and driving gold-plated luxury?
I am assuming the intent of the article was to show the plight of the common Saudi; but, if indeed the article was intended to "educate" readers by showing them that not all Saudis are reaping the benefits of big oil money, the authors/paper must believe there are some pretty naive readers that have yet to come to this conclusion over the years...
This article gives us a feel for the impact of inflation and unemployment on the average citizen, but how does it effect the oil families? Not much, I'd imagine...
My hopes and wishes go to the common Saudi citizen.

[Shiek al-oildrum]

It was Yessir Arafart that once said, " The Saudis need to learn how to pump olive oil ".

[southsiderosie]

Foreigners are a THIRD of the Saudi population, and yet there is 30% unemployment.

Perhaps Saudis would have fewer problems with unemployment if 1) their own citizens took more of the jobs that foreigners hold (often for religious reasons/separation of sexes, but also because these jobs have been devalued both economically and socially) and 2) there were fewer restrictions on women actively engaging in the economy. For example, there are 55,000 foreign nurses in Saudi Arabia - now what if Saudis held those jobs, and their wages were spent in the country rather than sent abroad as remittances?

[sultan Hamad]

that's right we're etting poorer, because we're robbed and embezzled by the gov.

[Semper Fi]

southsiderosie wrote:

Foreigners are a THIRD of the Saudi population, and yet there is 30% unemployment.
Perhaps Saudis would have fewer problems with unemployment if 1) their own citizens took more of the jobs that foreigners hold (often for religious reasons/separation of sexes, but also because these jobs have been devalued both economically and socially) and 2) there were fewer restrictions on women actively engaging in the economy. For example, there are 55,000 foreign nurses in Saudi Arabia - now what if Saudis held those jobs, and their wages were spent in the country rather than sent abroad as remittances?

Good advice, but it applies with equal force to the good old USA as it does to Saudi Arabia.

[Hellfire Missile]

sultan Hamad wrote:

that's right we're etting poorer, because we're robbed and embezzled by the gov.

Your Islamic government violates human rights by instituting Sharia laws which are Islamic laws.

Islam is the problem and you got to get rid of the problem before it gets bigger.

[Hellfire Missile]

The Truth About Muhammad: Quran is a Fraud!

http://www.youtube.com/watch...