Our friends the Saudi's

[Larkin]

You know, when you think about it, they are a lot like us. They cope with the same social problems, they worry about their children and they care about the future.

Our leaders share with the house of Saud, a unique and intimate relationship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjtfaLtLT7s

They have hot button issues too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYpR1dLV8L4

Their youngsters are just like ours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI8jZZuuRUc

The patience of parents are often tested by their children just like here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJupNDIKkEk

They have serious problems that must be dealt with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reeAwlQ7DJ8

In any event, the future looks bright.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs5ntGMunhQ

[djm]

Some of those links were both worrying and amusing in equal portion.

I will be travelling to Riyadh in november for a few days to meet my distributor and attend the ag show there:

http://www.recexpo.com/recweb/show_overview.asp?id=97

[charred_heart]

Saudi Arabia Web Cam Girls!!! Awesome, thanks!

Saudi is a joke. djm, do you want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes?

[LastRailway]

...

The patience of parents are often tested by their children just like here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJupNDIKkEk
...

How crazy can somebody be? :grin:

[djm]

Saudi Arabia Web Cam Girls!!! Awesome, thanks!

Saudi is a joke. djm, do you want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes?

Yes please.

I can't say I like the place TBH in fact KSA is my least favorite place to go in the whole MENA region. I have spent the best part of a week argueing with the MoA over the rejection of 20k litres of product (failed analysis). It was tested before it went independently and is on spec. It was part of a 40k litre batch, they have failed the 10 litre bottles and passed the 5 lite bottles - nonsensical.

[stopharian]

Hah

I probably should put these in the brushes with greatness thread..........


I used to work at a restaurant on a ski mountain where

His Royal Highness
Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud (at the time the Saudi Ambassador to the US) would come for lunch while he was skiing.(he has a 55,000 sq. ft home a few miles from my house.) His security force would always call ahead and we would cordon off a part of the restaurant. The Bodyguards(British Ex. MI-somethings) would always come prior to his arrival and check shit out. Of course his entire entourage would eat with him and the would all have fine wine and caribou crepes etc. but of course he and his #1 wife would always order first and he would always have a beer and a hot dog. Granted it was a kosher;) beef hot dog, but he didnt know that.

If there was anything I wouldnt expect a muslim prince to eat for lunch it would be a beer and a hot dog.



-one of my best friends growing up had a father who was the caretaker at a home owned by one of the Prince Faisals. It was a great place for a kid to grow up because therre were swiming pools and arcade sized video games and snowmobiles and the safety of bulletproof glass in all the windows.

The saudi bodyguards were always mislaying things like briefcases full of money, no shit. The other great one was when they came to my friends father and explained that they were missing a briefcase and that if it was found that it shouldnt be touched as it was actually a machine gun disguised as a brief case.

[Larkin]

From djm, I will be travelling to Riyadh in november for a few days to meet my distributor and attend the ag show there:


I ran this set of youtubes as a parody because we are uninformed about the true nature of the relationship.
Aside for professional obligations in Saudi Arabia, fill us in. What are your gut level impressions?
Thx Lark

[nonperson]

Yes please.

I can't say I like the place TBH in fact KSA is my least favorite place to go in the whole MENA region. I have spent the best part of a week argueing with the MoA over the rejection of 20k litres of product (failed analysis). It was tested before it went independently and is on spec. It was part of a 40k litre batch, they have failed the 10 litre bottles and passed the 5 lite bottles - nonsensical.

My dad still laughs at the time he went to the kingdom to install machinery into a new factory; there was just one working plug in the factory for over fifty workmen.

[Butlerk]

I think this sort of thing holds true for the vast majority of the places in the world. People get opinions about a country just based on information they get from international news and such. But if you take a look at the lives of the common people, you'll probably almost always see something you can draw a parallel to. Teenagers doing comical and stupid things for fun seems like something you can find no matter where you go :).

The brother of a good friend of mine lived in china working with university students for a while, and he basically said the same thing. Like so many places, the government is messed up, but there are good people simply trying to live and be happy wherever they happen to be.

[djm]

I ran this set of youtubes as a parody because we are uninformed about the true nature of the relationship.
Aside for professional obligations in Saudi Arabia, fill us in. What are your gut level impressions?
Thx Lark

The place is very corrupt, it's hard to do business if you are not prepared to oil palms (and I am not). Most work is done by the huge ex-pat population with for the most part British managers and Pakistani workers.

The government is struggling to maintain control these days as it is harder for them to control the media than it used to be. Islamic fundamentalsm is growing and is well armed and increasingly well organised. Westerners are not very safe there any more, and most workers live in compounds protected by armed guards.

The government has a difficult job balancing a strongly anti western population, with it's need to extract money from the west. It has armed itself to the teeth with mainly British equipment and is trained by the Brits.

The government controls the media, in terms of papers, radio and TV, and polices the internet too. The perceptions of most Saudi citizens are fed to them this way.

In terms of people, well most Saudis I know are down to earth enough, and at least pretend to be devout. As a bloke it is easy enough to work there, but I am still apalled at the treatment of women (I know this is ethnocentric ). They can't drive, and you will not actually see a woman in your time there (they will be totaly covered). Restaurants have male entrances and female entrances, lest anyone see a woman. Also no drink which is fair enough as it is their country.

On the plus side the infrastructure is good, good roads, good hotels, good telecoms, and the place is very clean.

I find that the English are much less liked than in the past, these days we are regarded as little better than 'Americas poodle' and I have to spend a lot of time on the defensive when talking with farmers. This is quite uncomfortable but it goes with the territory.

The last time I went there we had a takeaway after my seminar, a white transit van arrived with a whole goat that had been barbequed, which you pull meat of by hand using flat bread. This is quite tasty, and makes a change from the usual arabic meze.

I would say about half the adults still wear traditional dress, but younger people mostly dress in western style clothes.

The country is very wealthy, and Saudi nationals do have a reputation for being rather lazy. They work for something to do, mostly in government which is overstaffed.

When you need things like import permits you have to get them stamped by loads of people, and if they are out the country it will sit in a tray for weeks until they get back. Backshishe is very common.

I was not surprised by the beer and hotdog comment at all. The upper classes have to be seen to be ultra islamic (hence the Wahabi sect) at home, but some of the princes have whole hotels in Egypt full of booze and prostitutes.

Riyadh is a very new city built in the early 70s with oil wealth, and as such lacks character. Jeddah is older but still lacks character. In fact I prefer the less safe but more characterful Southern neighbor Yemen which has retained more of it's traditional culture. The area around the Yemen border was formerly Yemen, and is more like this (qat chewing etc). I can't comment on Meccah and Medina as I have not been there. Oman is also nice (Muscat is a decent city).

Most of Saudi has no precipitation at all, but the South West bit near the border does get rain, and there they grow mango and papaya so I travel there sometimes.

I could give a lot of detail about agriculture there, but it's boring to most people so I will keep it brief. It is based on pumping water from ancient aquifers which are not being replaced and will run dry eventualy. They do not need herbicides (switching the water off kills everything very quickly, so no weed buildup).

Most crops are grown using pivot irrigation, this is on a vast scale. I work on heat stress, and can get 40% yield increases so business there is growing nicely for me. Other crops are grown in tunnels, with fans to keep the heat down.

If the government did not heavily subsidise fuel for the pumps, then agriculture there would be uneconomic.

Please bare in mind that this is a view from someone that only travels there for maybe 2-3 weeks a year and as such is hastily formed. I am sure another poster like Charred Heart could give a better picture.

Picture is a mango plantation in the South East.

[nonperson]

only travels there for maybe 2-3 weeks a year more than most of us do!

[MacGuffin]

Moved from Arts & Entertainment.

[Larkin]

Thank you djm. i enjoyed reading that.

When Prince Bandar resigned his position as Saudi ambassador to the United States, he was heard to say that he wanted the opportunity to work in the private sector so he could make some real money
Also, he wanted to spend more time with his wives.

[stopharian]

Thank you djm. i enjoyed reading that.

When Prince Bandar resigned his position as Saudi ambassador to the United States, he was heard to say that he wanted the opportunity to work in the private sector so he could make some real money
Also, he wanted to spend more time with his wives.

It must not have worked out for him because he is trying to sell his house in colorado..........

For $140,000,000(yes that is the correct amount of zeros)

[Kathara]

It must not have worked out for him because he is trying to sell his house in colorado..........

For $140,000,000(yes that is the correct amount of zeros)


Aaaa, now I see why people were suggesting I went to Saudi!

[NoahFence]

With friends like these, who needs enemas?


It must not have worked out for him because he is trying to sell his house in colorado..........

Maybe he just doesn't like Colorado?

[djm]

Well I will be going to this next month http://www.recexpo.com/recweb/show_overview.asp?id=97

Waiting for my visa to be granted at the moment (you have to get an invitation letter from a sponsor company sent to the KSA embassy).