Quote:
Originally posted by oktjabr
Hmm. I agree that it'd be catastrophic to western countries if SA would be hijacked by a militant fundamentalists - but I have heard two theories of the dilemma of Saudi Arabia - (or why the government is on a verge of collapse).
The other one is that the problem is actually lack of reform in government and that pressure is held back only with massive amounts of money coming in from the oil revenues and thus "bribing" off (installing them in useless but well-paid desk jobs) the citizens of Saudi Arabia and just paying for the foreign workers from the poor countries to do the dirty, laborous and lowpaid work.
Another one is that there is huge pressure generated by the social inequality and corrupted fatcat Saudi royalty and that the militant fundamentalists are using that in their propaganda.
I wonder which of these two views is closer to the truth or are they perhaps intermingled.
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There is an additional source of pressure: population growth has outpaced that of oil revenue. Per capita income in SA is a fraction of what it used to be. Instead of preparing young people for productive careers, the educational system is theocratic, with a large component of anti-West dogma.
Thomas Friedman once described this condition as "The Curse of Oil" - meaning that the oil wealth had caused lack of investment in human capital and has resulted in masses of disaffected, idle young men who are prey for religious fanatics.