Word: saudi
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been unthinkable. A group of Saudi commoners telling their prince outright that the country needed to be shaken up? Preposterous. But these are extraordinary times, as the small group of businessmen pointed out during a meeting two weeks ago with Prince Salman, governor of Riyadh and younger brother and confidant of King Fahd. "This is the biggest challenge we have ever faced," said one entrepreneur, mindful of the menacing forces of Saddam Hussein gathered just 300 miles to the north. Said another, summoning his courage: "We have to confront our internal issues...
...matters, the group asserted, demanded urgent attention. First, the nation's defenses must be stiffened. Prince Salman nodded in agreement. Second, the businessmen said with some trepidation, the people of Saudi Arabia must have a greater say in the affairs of the land. The prince, reported one participant, listened to this second petition, "but he didn't like what he heard...
...remarkable that he heard it at all. The candor of Salman's visitors was a manifestation of how the tremor from Kuwait has shaken the fixtures of Saudi society, one of the world's most conservative realms. For the first time since the visionary warrior-statesman Abdul Aziz, generally known as Ibn Saud, proclaimed his kingdom in 1932, Saudi Arabia has been confronted by the alarming threat of conquest. In coping with that challenge, the country and its 14.5 million inhabitants find themselves poised on the sword edge of change. The modernization and enrichment of Saudi life produced...
...foreign defenders have saved Saudi Arabia from Saddam so far, but at the same time the influx of troops has underscored the country's vulnerability. Like the boy who called the bluff on the emperor's new clothes, the Iraqi leader made it plain that Saudi Arabia was not quite the muscular Arab power it appeared to be. "Saddam showed that we are a paper tiger," notes an economist in Riyadh. "Our ability to defend ourselves is a joke." That realization augurs a revamping of the Saudi military. Less easily fixed is the ! breach of the implicit contract between...
...this year are expected to top $60 billion -- have enabled the House of Saud to create a modern state almost overnight and, in the process, buy the continued fealty of its subjects. First-class medical care is free. So is education from kindergarten to postgraduate levels. Each Saudi family receives 750 sq. yds. of free land and a 30-year interest-free loan of $80,000 to build a house on it. Entrepreneurs get huge interest-free loans to start businesses. And no one pays taxes. "A Saudi," King Fahd noted recently, "has to be very unlucky, very stupid...