Article

2005-05-23 Arabia

Saudi police arrest 92 at `deviants' party'

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Steve 2005-05-23 14:28|| || Front Page|| [11143 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Looks like it's up to Kevin Bacon to teach the Saudis how to dance - and love - again.

Posted by BH 2005-05-23 14:47|| 2005-05-23 14:47|| Front Page Top

#2 It starts out innocently enough with the man dresses, funny hats and eyeliner. But before they know it, they are in full body makeup, dressing like Boy George, dancing to David Bowie hits. Such are the subtle ways of Shaitan.

Posted by ed 2005-05-23 15:07|| 2005-05-23 15:07|| Front Page Top

#3 ROFL!

---- Beverage Alert! ----

Oh baby, you guys owe me a half bottle of Windex each, shit! *applause*

"When I think of a place to hold a gay transvestite dance, Saudi is the last place that comes to mind."

Steve, lol, I worry about belaboring the point, which I once made rather often back in the old days on RB, but Arabia is the current Home of Gay. Greece may have given them a run for their money back upon a time, but there's no comparison, today.

It's very simple, actually. I'll speak to the situation in Saudi, since I know first-hand what the "game" entails. Obviously, there are two parts...

You're a young woman. You are a marketable commodity. Dowries are just like real estate prices - they fluctuate but, on the long-term scale, just keep on rising. Daddy will ~~sell~~ arrange for you to marry. The considerations will be influence and wealth. Period. If your family is already near the top of the pile that is the society under the House of Saud, you might be able to soften Daddy's heart a little to keep him from peddling you to an utter brute or Wahhabist. Maybe. I worked in an area at Aramco that dealt with the Dept's that actually had Saudi wymyns. To get on-board, the wymyns had to come from such influential families. I came to know one of them as well as circumstances permitted - I pushed it once by speaking to her outside the building (read: in public, gasp!), causing her brother to throw quite a fit - a sort of Big Brother and Answer Man for things Western. Her father was the extreme of tolerance and she told me about the whole game, including the other extreme and what fell between. She knew she was one of the luckiest femalians alive in SaudiLand.

You're a young man. You family's wasta, dat be raw influence and connections, will determine what your future holds. If you are very fortunate, you will be able to attend a university, such as KFUPM (King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mining in Dhahran) and, if you graduate - we'll leave the curriculum of Wahhabism vs Engineering aside for the moment, and if you are sufficiently awash in wasta, you might be offered a job at Aramco. That's a helluva chain of ifs 'n buts, folks. You are the creme de la creme (read; Lucky MoFo) of Saudi non-Royal society. Your marriage prospects are thusly described... Your family will want the best mix of alliance and price they can find. Men getting married seldom move up (in wasta) by marriage, it is lateral or neutral on average. A chance to marry up would likely have a price tag beyond the family's and young man's means unless the young man is tapped (there are a few "sponsor" types around) for great things due to natural abilities - I knew one such guy at Aramco, so it can happen. But for the average creme de la creme Aramcon Saudi, price is the dominant issue. It's a trade off - your time as a bachelor to accumulate wealth and status + whatever the family's wealth and wasta brings to the table vs. the brides on the market. No, you prolly won't see her face until the deal is made - and even then perhaps not. Better be on good terms with your Mother - she's the only one likely to know if your bride is a dump truck or a Maserati before negotiations get serious, heh. On average, and yes this is real, you will not be able, despite your Aramco job, et al, to afford marriage before you're around 30. Got that? This is about the best of the lot for non-Royals.

It get progressively worse, as you would expect, the further below this creme de la creme thingy you go...

Okay, back to the Lucky MoFo at Aramco -- now do the math about male virility, hormones, and age. Most young Saudis have, as outlets, homosexuality, hard work to improve their lot financially, religious fervor, or suicide (overlap with the fervor thingy here) as options.

Sort of makes much of what we see and hear about Islam, particularly as practiced in Saudi, a little bit clearer and a little (a lot?) more boggling, no? And hell, let's face it, I've uber-simplified and sugar-coated the reality. Not to put too fine a point on it, it's fucking insane.

On a final note, a personal one, in my early days there I happened to tell a Saudi "friend" about a certain birthday of mine, when I took Marilyn and Carolyn, The Titty Twins, an "open minded" pair (or quartet, if you will), to the drive in. A very good time was had by me, I assure thee. I can't recall how many times he had me repeat this story, for him alone and for the benefit of others who he knew and dragged over when he saw me, but it was often - more than 10 for certain. I like to think, in some small way, I did my part to promote freedom, if only to describe what it was like to almost suffocate under the weight of sweater meat, heh. I told him a couple of other stories, but that was his favorite. Prolly had something to do with the multiple wives thingy.

Okay. I'm done. Won't repeat all this for another year or so, I promise, heh.

Posted by .com 2005-05-23 17:16|| 2005-05-23 17:16|| Front Page Top

#4 Sounds like a society tailor-made to generate large numbers of frustrated, crazy, angry, repressed males who get enraged at the thought of liberal Westerners having all the fun.

Posted by Dave D. 2005-05-23 17:48|| 2005-05-23 17:48|| Front Page Top

#5 Not that it's being done on purpose, or anything.

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2005-05-23 17:54|| 2005-05-23 17:54|| Front Page Top

#6 .Com, you can blather all this valuable info all you want in my book.

Posted by Ptah">Ptah 2005-05-23 18:00|| http://www.crusaderwarcollege.org]">[http://www.crusaderwarcollege.org] 2005-05-23 18:00|| Front Page Top

#7 I want to hear more about the Titty Twins. Details, please, including a blow-by-blow account of the evening.

Posted by Dave D. 2005-05-23 18:15|| 2005-05-23 18:15|| Front Page Top

#8 Ptah - You aren't thinking about naming names, are ya? Not me, bro. I'm not the Black Helicopter Conspiracy Freak, I just prefer not getting more than the 400 spam emails per day I get now - and opening myself to the asshats I sometimes decide to have fun with hereabouts, heh. So I hope the posts, though anecdotal, are good enough, lol! Seek out an expat non-idiotarian Aramcon for confirmation and much, much, more.

Posted by .com 2005-05-23 18:16|| 2005-05-23 18:16|| Front Page Top

#9 Dave - do you want the 35 yrs later recollection, in all its glorious lurid wonderful detail -- or the truthful glorious lurid wonderful detail? ;-)

It was My Wildest Dreams, Realized, lol! I consider just getting them to double-up one of my greatest achievements in life. They were in serious competition with each other, you see, and I turned that seeming show-stopper on its head as the coup de grace argument... me being the "judge", of course. Another coup idea that sold it was pointing out how different they were, whoa - Big JuJu to twins, my man! Each was a "winner" - in a different "category", of course - making me a friend for life and leading to a few repeat performances when the circumstances were right, heh. My reputation soared, lol! I took some small measure of pride in having reconciled them to being friends, again, in fact. Made me feel I was ready for the ITT Truckdriving and International Diplomacy course, doncha know... Sigh, the things we do for ~~freaky circus-style no limits sex~~ peace and harmony in the world. High School. Sigh. Prolly the most insane thing I've ever experienced - including SaudiLand.

Posted by .com 2005-05-23 18:36|| 2005-05-23 18:36|| Front Page Top

#10 I dated twins in high school. At the time, thought I was only dating one of them; years later, found out they'd been taking turns. Bummer. It would've been so much more interesting if I'd known...

Posted by Dave D. 2005-05-23 18:48|| 2005-05-23 18:48|| Front Page Top

#11 Oh - that's terrible! And a far more common example of identical twins' behavior - Marilyn and Carolyn were not identical twins - which was a key, I'm sure. Just think: just smidgen of healthy competition, instead of conspiracy, and voila! Win-Win-Win! Lol!

Posted by .com 2005-05-23 19:00|| 2005-05-23 19:00|| Front Page Top

#12 Mr. Wife's hatred for all things Saudi is only less than yours, .com, by the amount of time he spent there. He was involved in several production start-ups at one of his company's plants over there, as the product development engineer. Each start-up, as all you engineers know, takes about 6 months, with the PD engineer wandering in and out taking samples for testing, optimizing the process, and so forth. Mr. Wife did fly back to the States at intervals, just to reconnect with reality. You can imagine, especially after some of .com's more lurid tales, how much he hated the place; no man was ever more grateful to be able to use his wife's religion as justification for turning down a transfer opportunity.

Anyway, Mr. Wife, in explaining to me why he never went into Saudi coffee houses, explained that only the man on the receiving end is deemed homosexual over there. The other guy is just doing what men need to do (I suppose when no goats are available, or something --ick). What a messed up society!

Posted by trailing wife 2005-05-23 21:49|| 2005-05-23 21:49|| Front Page Top

#13 Latin America is the same - only the catcher, not the pitcher, is considered joto

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-05-23 21:51|| 2005-05-23 21:51|| Front Page Top

#14 Aren't there any, uh, slightly more relaxed venues within plane distance at which the guys can blow off... steam?

Posted by someone 2005-05-23 22:01|| 2005-05-23 22:01|| Front Page Top

#15 That's what those 1-hour marriages are for, or so I've heard.

Posted by trailing wife 2005-05-23 22:06|| 2005-05-23 22:06|| Front Page Top

#16 There is also the possibility that, having reduced women to chattels,the men are desperate for some real companionship. There are some interesting similarities between the scene .com describes and Demosthenes as quoted and expanded upon by Will Durant: "We have wives to bear us legitimate children, concubines for daily health of our bodies, and prostitutes for variety." Men were legally required to marry by age 30 but put it off as long as possible, then married a girl of about 16 who had never been allowed out of the house, except for the occasional religious festival. So they had no real relationships with women except for their mothers and sisters; and even there, mothers and sisters were deemed inferior to the males in the tribe. Guaranteed screwed up personal lives.

Posted by mom 2005-05-23 22:12|| 2005-05-23 22:12|| Front Page Top

#17 Okay, some quick visuals... Bahrain was a popular venue - make a run over the causeway which connects it to Saudi. You have to pass thru the borders, with all the attendant immigration and customs hassle, but, on average, it would take no more than 45-90 minutes for the whole thing. Then, once in Bahrain. you'd encounter Saudis everywhere, malls, restaurants, hotel bars, etc.

One of the funniest moments I ever had over there was in 92 at the Starlight Lounge - basement of the Gulf Hotel. There was this really stupid musical group - 2 men playing organ and synthesizer, black lights, and these 3 young wymyns wearing white gloves. The lights went out and they did this silly-assed routine with the white gloves glowing - nothing else could be seen. The Saudis loved it. Totally apeshit hooting and hollering. Not sure why, lol!

Then the lights same back up a little and there were Saudis running up the aisles toward the bathrooms, throwing up en route. We had been warned not to sit on the aisle bu old hands as some didn't make it to the john before those sweet Singapore Slings and such suddenly decided to reappear. Target vomiting was what we called it. I was astounded to hear Bobcat Goldthwaite use the same term several years later in a comedy routine.

There are more stories, but watching the Saudi dance was something else. Standing, arms extended toward the ceiling, swaying and sorta chanting along with the music - the whole "nightlife" scene in Bahrain was surreal. The only wymyn you'd see in the bars were pros - and they gravitated to the expats (Duh, wonder why?) and mainly during the day. At night, well, everything was pretty much already set for the night.

There were the usual "special" hotels that were known for companionship. One of the best was only about 4 blocks from the Grand Moskkk in Manama. Over time, the femalians changed from mainly Syrian and Egyptian to Eastern Europeans, Russians, mainly. All those blonds were, of course, a popular commodity.

I can say no more! Lol! Surreal is how I remember it.

Posted by .com 2005-05-23 22:50|| 2005-05-23 22:50|| Front Page Top

#18 mom: Well, the rich at least had female relationships -- with hetaerae.

.com: More tidbits!

Posted by someone 2005-05-23 23:26|| 2005-05-23 23:26|| Front Page Top

#19 Lol - you'll get me banned!

On topic (maybe that'll save me, heh) in the same hotel, The Gulf, I encountered both hetero and homo situations. The bldg isn't square - it has jogs in the hallway which are tricked out with a couch or chairs, lamp table, potted plants, etc. Little "nooks". Well, rounding one of these jogs I came across one guy down on his knees with his head buried in another guy's lap. That'll put you off breakfast.

Is that what you had in mind, or something less Arab, perhaps? Lol, sorry - but it is rampant there and most expat guys try to avoid the places where it's in your face.

Try Googling up details on a BBC documentary, "Death of a Princess". If there's anything online... The Saudis were apoplectic about it and dire threats were issued to the BBC and UK Govt to stop it from being aired. As far as I know, it did air once, but everything was then locked away somewhere. I was told about ti - did not see it - and thus can't verify I have it right... It's supposedly about a Saudi Royal Princess who was part, just one of many young Royals, in a sort of sex party thing. They'd traipse off into the desert and have no-shit orgies. I don't recall exactly, but there were maybe 20 in the "club". Anyway, they were cautioned to stop, but didn't. Somehow this Princess was singled out, probably with her father's agreement or complicity - Saudi fathers can do some pretty strange shit regards their daughters. She was "tried" by the Wahhabis, found guilty, sentenced to death, and beheaded. I have the image, somewhere showing it. I haven't seen it since I last changed PC's, but everything was backed up, so I've got it somewhere. Anyway, they are, indeed, incredibly repressed - and some just throw caution to the wind when they get a taste, I guess. She obviously thought she was immune. I recall she was directly related, too, and that was part of why she was made an example of. Pretty fucked up, huh?

Posted by .com 2005-05-23 23:50|| 2005-05-23 23:50|| Front Page Top

23:50 BH
23:50 .com
23:26 someone
23:18 Phil Fraering
23:17 Atomic Conspiracy
22:50 .com
22:24 badanov
22:19 CrazyFool
22:15 Alaska Paul
22:14 badanov
22:12 mom
22:12 Jotch Slomotch9945
22:12 CrazyFool
22:06 trailing wife
22:01 someone
22:00 trailing wife
21:58 trailing wife
21:58 Anonymoose
21:54 trailing wife
21:51 Frank G
21:50 mom
21:49 trailing wife
21:48 Penguin
21:31 Pappy