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| Arabia |
| Saudi reform is pretty much dead |
| 2004-10-04 |
| Note that the Interior Ministry's gained the upper hand on this one. Looks like al-Harbi's been doing his job and that Louis's been able to rein the hard boyz and get 'em back on track with the Master Plan since al-Muqrin achieved room temperature ... Just a year ago, democratic changes in this absolute monarchy seemed to be gathering steam. But what observers saw as a promising opening has been stymied as an influx of oil money and victories against militants linked to Al Qaeda have reduced the urgency surrounding reform. A number of signs point to retrenchment. A law issued recently by the Council of Ministers makes the signing of petitions by government employees, or speaking critically of the government to the press, punishable by firing or jail. A trial of three reformists charged with dissension and other crimes, which started in August and was open to the public, has been closed. And in King Fahd's annual speech last month to the Shura Council, an advisory group, reforms were ignored, analysts say. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #8 One word, Benjamin: nuclear. Get nuclear plants on line, the sooner the better. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-04 4:27:23 PM |
| #7 They actually do that Mike? I mean the pre exit videos and such like that there? |
| Posted by: Troon Snorong Shipman 2004-10-04 4:24:37 PM |
| #6 The writer made a mistake. SR130 billion = $35 billion, not $3.5 billion. $1.00 = SR3.75 Sad story, but what can you say about the MK? It's a society where everything is upside down. Tradition is good, but we have to be modern; OTOH, we have to be sure to be ONLY modern, not Western. Too much baggage there. How to be modern and not be influenced by the West? We'll have our youth attend orientation sessions before departure to Western schools. We'll show them videos of Madonna, Britney, Jerry Springer, nightclubs, and alcoholics and tell them this is the danger that lurks before them. etc... No, we'll train them here! We'll import Western training experts who will show our youth the way. What? Recruitment is a little thin right now? Perish the thought! Let's have a conference full of international speakers on how to jazz up our image so that we appear to be moderate. Only in the Magic Kingdom. |
| Posted by: Chicago Mike 2004-10-04 1:38:43 PM |
| #5 JQC---Right on. It is going to take a major world effort, but if we want to avoid these cycles of war with ME nutcase countries we need to seriously lessen our dependence upon foreign sources, esp ME oil. The problem is how to do that. New technologies will take time. However, I can see that advances in nuclear technology and especially in radioactive waste handling and recycling could bring more nuclear plants on line. This would lower demand for natural gas and oil, which could free up more domestic oil for transportation while technology advances on that front. We should be making this a major part of government policy. And we should be working with consumer nations of ME oil like Japan to help us all out. They are much more vulnerable than us. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-04 11:27:26 AM |
| #4 1, 2, and 3 are right. Let's get independent from oil in the mid-East. The question is how do we deal with our own loonies here? The environomental facists, the non nuclear crowd, and the vested interests? We also need to develop all other sources of power asap. The oil is a limited resource. The pressure on supply, the demand, and the price is just going to keep going up. It sets up things up for more wars in the future. |
| Posted by: John (Q. Citizen) 2004-10-04 9:33:36 AM |
| #3 Reform would mean that the royal family would eventually have to share power and wealth and that the clergy would eventually have to allow dissent from stupidity. . |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-10-04 5:24:51 AM |
| #2 Saudi reform is pretty much dead Now all that remains is for the Saudi royal family to be pretty much dead. Somehow, they manage to make the British royals look like responsible contributing citizens. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-10-04 12:56:54 AM |
| #1 I do not think that reform ever started. They just started talking about it and then.......it went away. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-04 12:55:35 AM |