jowey

KAUST - CSDiary
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And then there is "Dubai".......


This is nation building, regardless of whether this is a monarchy like England had or not. The King is attempting to move his country into the 21st century. If this works and he can prove to his religious fundamentalists that things can be accomplished where genders work together his country and therefore the ME community will evolve. Saudi is the home of Mecca, where they go and this is why Bin Ladin did not like the royals.

Our meddling probably set back such initiatives by years. One could say they profited from their oil / wars, they would have anyway.....

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Heretic

Rather space-age looking for a barbaric government.

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"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

jowey

Maybe they are not so barbaric and we have been conned

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TrueBlueAmerican

What kind of liberal arts program do they have?

Heretic

Their government is. That's one of the reasons the Saudi people are so pissed at us propping them up.

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"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

JeffinCO

"Equal access across ethnicities and genders."

...but if you're a female, you'll have to find a ride.
......with a male family member, of course.

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"Oh, what a lovely little.."

jowey

Watch out, when I was there the royalty were the educated ones trying to bring about change. The problem was that the people followed the Mullahs, so remove the royal house and the country reverts to its fundamentalist base. So yes, the Saudi people may be pissed at us propping the royals up. Osama Bin Ladin was pissed at us for propping the royals up, that was why he was kicked out.

What this University demonstrates is an initiative to "publicly" rise above the religious traditions and that the King managed to give acceptance to the idea - this is a step.

I believe in one article it stated that women would be allowed to drive in that region.

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Heretic

A scant few out of some 7000 princes.

The Mullahs are partnered with the "royal" family. Everything they say has the government's approval.

Have you read Robert Fisk's The Great War For Civilisation: Conquest of the Middle East? His description of the royals shows they're as oppressive, reactionary and overendulgant as any medievil lords you could name.

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"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

jowey

They are very far from benevolent lords, I did not care for their attitudes both here in this country or over there. When they were being trained over here in America I did not care for the American women being bought by their money or their comments about them. In their own country they were arrogant, we were treated well because of our service. In hindsight their arrogance is small compared to ours.

Their country just came out of being tribal and nomadic into the 21st century. The women being covered up was a result of tribes stealing the women from each other.

The Mullah's are partnered with everyone over there, it is a Muslim country. Dealing with the Mullah's is part of politics.

The point here is progress is being made, yet this is not being acknowledged. It is not being acknowledged that they are trying to evolve. Maybe in a century their monarchy will go the way of England's.

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Heretic

Yes, I get all that. And, as Mat Damon says in Syrianna they'll go right back to that once the oil's been sucked dry as if by industrial leeches.

But that doesn't mean we should reward that sort of backwardness.

That's true in many Muslim countries, however the more extreme Saudi Mullahs take it to a whole nother level.

At least with Hezballah linked Islamic groups they jump right into recovery and rescue mode after an IDF hammering of innocent Lebanese.

I dare say they could evolve faster and shouldn't be coddled until they step up a few more rungs.

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"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium