With over two thirds of it's population younger than age thirty, and a tiny but extremely rich upper class, Saudi Arabia may be looking more and more nervous over the next few weeks. People's faith in King Abdullah is getting lower every day, while petitions and thoughts of protest have become more and more common. What will happen to this oil producing giant?
Well, it does have a few things going for it. Chief amongst these is the amount of money that the leaders could throw at crushing dissent if things get out of hand. Additionally, King Abdullah has responded fairly calmly to the upset, giving the country's lower class a small economic infusion. It is also unlikely that the many countries that rely on it's oil will let Saudi Arabia fall into disarray. Will this be enough? With neighboring governments falling one by one, many do not think so.
2 comments:
It's an interesting dilemma for the United States most likely if some form of revolution, similar to what we've seen in Egypt and Tunisia and currently Libya, were to occur. While we would not like to interfere because we tend to "support" the willingness of the people to express themselves, Saudi Arabia is our prime source of oil. I would like to say that I doubt such an uprising would result in Saudi Arabia, but who knows after seeing all that which has occurred in the Middle East thus far.
I don't think it's that easy to tumble a place like Saudi Arabia down. It has always been a feudal kingdom, and it will stay that way because the rich have great connections to economic resources and religion. Plus, this may sound callous and it is definitely not intended to, it has a small population. Plus, the main "repressed" classes are a bunch of foreigners. Frankly none of them, except the very desperate or well-off, want to live there. Saudi Arabia is too complex and funky of a place to analyze what would happen if a revolution were to occur, but I highly doubt it will since most of the native Saudis have very strange priorities.
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