An Alphabet Of Things I Don’t Like: S

~ beetleypete

Saudi Arabia.

This mainly desert kingdom has far too much influence outside of its own country.

And there are good reasons for that.

The proven oil reserves in Saudi Arabia are the reportedly 2nd largest in the world, estimated to be 268 billion barrels (43×109 m3) (Gbbl hereafter), including 2.5 Gbbl in the Saudi–Kuwaiti neutral zone. … The Saudi reserves are about one-fifth of the world’s total conventional oil reserves.

On May 20, 2017, U.S. President Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud signed a series of letters of intent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to purchase arms from the United States totaling US$110 billion immediately, and $350 billion over 10 years.

The UK licensed the sale of at least £4.7 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, since the beginning of the civil war in Yemen, but the real figure was expected to be higher as claimed by CAAT.

The top imports of Saudi Arabia are Cars ($8.87B), Broadcasting Equipment ($4.83B), Refined Petroleum ($3.72B), Gold ($3.33B), and Packaged Medicaments ($3.15B).

With a total worth of $33.50 trillion, Saudi Arabia has the second most valuable natural resources in the world. The country has the second-largest proven petroleum reserves and is the largest exporter of petroleum in the world. It also has the fifth-largest proven natural gas reserves and is considered an “Energy Superpower”.

Despite its archaic laws, human rights violations, treatment of women, and dominance by the family of Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, it seems that country can continue to do what it likes, where it likes, with no fear of any foreign reprisals. Even its blatant involvement in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center was blamed on Iraq instead, and the wrong country paid a heavy price for placating Saudi Arabia.

And those archaic laws I mentioned?

Criminal law punishments in Saudi Arabia include public beheading, stoning, amputation and lashing. Serious criminal offences include not only internationally recognized crimes such as murder, rape, theft and robbery, but also apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery.

Stoning? (To death) Yes that’s right. One of the punishments for adultery.
It looks like this.

Public beheading is done by a sword, in the main squares of the cities.
Like this.

In fact, executions are so common, the country has had to resort to advertising for more executioners. (Source: BBC)

Saudi Arabia is advertising for eight new executioners.
Apparently no special qualifications are needed for the jobs, whose main role is “executing” but also involves performing amputations on those convicted of lesser offences. The advert was posted on the civil service jobs portal.

Yet these barbarians are described by numerous western governments as ‘Our friends’.

Disgusting.

36 thoughts on “An Alphabet Of Things I Don’t Like: S”

  2. Its a horrible situation, indeed. Our western states are excusing themselves by guaranting better lives here only by selling weapons, and dealing with them. Even the international court houses are not able to stop the different cases of immorality. Thank you for mentioning, Pete! Lets hope sometimes – as sad this may sound – we will get a change. Michael

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  9. Arming Saudi Arabia has everything to do with the threat posed by Iran in the region. Iran not only poses a threat for Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, but also to Israel. I’m not in favor of arming Saudi Arabia (you’re right about the 9/11 attack), but I understand the reasoning behind it. The U.S. is now energy independent, and, in fact, has become an exporter of oil.

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts, David. For myself, I can see nothing better about the regime in Saudi Arabia than that in Iran. And I have little doubt that were it not for the takeover by the Mullahs, Iran woud still very much be a ‘friend’ of the west.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. I often wonder how much responsibility T.E. Lawrence should take for the modern state of affairs; he is widely regarded as a hero in this country, because of his stand against the Turks, but he also facilitated the creation of the Saudi kingdom with all that entails. I have nothing for contempt for the hypocrisy of our so-called leaders, falling over themselves to overlook the barbarity for the sake of the trade: that’s not the action of a civilised species. Cheers, Jon.

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