In 20 years time, Saudi Arabia is going to be a very different place, since they almost own the world now and the USA Stock Markets. Watch and learn as they buy and own the EU and USA (I'm not joking). They will be the Masters and you will be their slaves...
Mugs like you will also be their slaves. They don’t like you, you are inconsequential .... they tolerate you just for the time you are of use, just as Tim has pointed out about working in these places. They will dump you like the poo in the trucks when they have what they want!
They have every intention of modernizing. They just can't do it overnight like some imbeciles believe they should. They don't have to do anything but keep their country together and modernization is something that will occur naturally and organically. If no one likes it, then they can butt out of their internal affairs and live a quiet life in Cyprus. They know what they are doing, and every Saudi citizen is still guaranteed a job, universal education and health.
Well, 1400 years and counting and in the countryside very little has changed in that time. It will never change outside the isolate Islands of glitz and glitter.
If you think you are better than them, think again. I can say that Western Society is friggin corrupted and full of child molesterers, but I dare anyone to even have a pornographic image in Saudi or even try and smoke cannabis. Yeh, they behead people in public, but no one fiddles with any kiddies either.
But they rely on the Westeners to do all the things they are either too lazy to do or do not have the skills to do ..... and that is almost everything.
Arabs ..... are not child molesters, they invented the practice! Where have you been hiding? The rape of young boys is common practice, not the little Princes .... but the poorer 'village' boys that dare not open their mouths as they would be called liars and suffer accordingly. Arab men frequently rape their house maids and they then get punished if they open their mouths and accuse, usually imprisoned and then deported. Pornography is rife, as is drug taking and alcohol abuse but the perpetrators are all from the elite classes with power and money. You really do live in cloud cuckoo land!
You obviously know as much about Islam as you do about the monetary system and banking ..... which is just about zero! The thing that holds these countries back is their faith! But the Elite, which appear to be the level of society you have been associated with, of course have exempted themselves from many of the restrictions Islam imposes on the masses. Exactly how long did you spend with your up-market Arab friends to gain this incredible insight into a religion that we in the west know virtually nothing about except the very basics and you don’t even understand them? Stop preaching until you have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the subject!
I was last in Saudi 20 years ago and have never been to Dubai or the UAE, apart from stop-overs but, the religion has not changed in that time. It would be easy to show affluence in any city but it is usually enjoyed only by the Elite and the very rich. You don’t seem to accept this? Things are not going to change anytime soon for the very reason that their religious teachings cannot change ......... they are the word of God (Allah)
The Koran is believed by all Muslims to be the word of God and is the foundations of the Islamic faith. These revelations, or the "Sign of God", which Muhammad reported as being related to him by the Angel Gabriel, form the verses of the Koran and are regarded by all Muslims as the unaltered “Word of God". Besides the Koran, Muhammad's teachings and practices are found in the volumes of The Hadith and are used as the basis of Sharia Law.
Note: The Muslim’s book of faith, The Koran, does NOT have ‘Amendments’ like the US Constitution, as you seem to hypothesize. It is not a document for negotiation; it is a fixed doctrine and has remained unchanged for some 1400 years! All the Saudi’s can ever do, is to get the Islamic Scholars to re-examine the word of their Prophet and it would take centuries to achieve even a minor deviation from those teachings!
As far as true Muslims are concerned .......... God’s word, is God’s word and will not change.
So your idea that Islam is a progressive religious culture that will change in any significant way over time, is a complete misconception! Those ‘Muslims’ that now distort/ignore/abuse the verses of the Koran to serve their own needs, are acting outside the content of their Holy book and also the teachings of their prophet. If anything changes it will be The Elite’s status when the ordinary Arab rises up against these abuses of their religion, which they take very seriously, and the countries in the gulf will revert to what they were when the West found them.
I think I will stay in Cyprus and enjoy the good life here.
Tim: You are right about the level of wages. What make them sound as if they are very high is that the normal working week is 60 hours (70 if you could get the extra day o/t)and it is tax free, at least to Europeans. The Americans had to pay 'hypothetical' income tax! The free accommodation I had was always good, not luxury, but up to EU standards and our food was always prepared by Philipino's and was also very good. They way TCN's were treated was vastly different because they did not work for major Western companies but local contractors.
