"Sixty percent of Saudis are 20 or
younger, most of whom have no hope of a job. Seventy percent of Saudis can not
afford to own a home. Forty percent live below the poverty line.
The royals, 25,000 princes and
princesses, own most of the valuable land and benefit from a system that gives
each a stipend and some a fortune. Foreign workers make the Kingdom work; the
19 million Saudi citizens share the Kingdom with 8.5 million guest
workers.
Other fault lines are getting deeper and
more explosive. According to House, regional differences and even “regional
racism” between parts of the country are “a daily fact of Saudi life.” Hejazis
in the West and Shiites in the East resent the strict Wahhabi lifestyle imposed by the Quran belt in the Nejd
central desert. Gender discrimination, essential to the Wahhabi world view, is
a growing problem as more and more women become well educated with no prospect
of a job. Sixty percent of Saudi college graduates are women but they are only
twelve percent of the work force. You can hear some of their angry voices in
this book." I should note that the author of the book, Karen Elliot House, has had a long infatuation with Arab potentates. (thanks Ali)