"Desert Kingdom with Oil Wealth" a Saudi Arabia Travel Page by atufft

We were in Saudi Arabia between Gulf Wars. The tape was still on our apartment windows from the previous occupant, and the building that was hit by an Iraqi SCUD missile was not yet bulldozed. Despite this, the city was unaffected by the war, except that the British English teachers were having their contracts terminated and the American English teachers were moving in. I was one of those contracted to come from California and teach the young men my dialect of English, as well as how to read and write. They were very interested in movies, music, and computers from California, particularly in view of fact that the supposedly illegal satellite dishes were popping up on rooftops everywhere in the city. Trade shows for computers were frequent, although at the Institute of Public Administration where I taught, an old mainframe still supplied the internet e-mail link over green phosphorus screens and UNIX command language. Elsewhere in town, internet cafes were becoming very popular. Meanwhile, the government had in a communications center a large number of censors screening e-mail for dirty pictures and political content. Some of these people were my students who were majoring in political science. Beyond the city of about two million was a vast empty desert, which we once crossed by bus to visit Damascus and the rest of Syria. In the thousand mile long distance were abandoned villages of mud buildings, as these towns were not render obsolete by the oil wealth.

Starting in the 15th century, Saudi family dynasty was created in the Riyadh area in defenseable refuge from the Mamluke Empire of Egypt. During the Ottoman Empire, the Turks frequently invaded the Arabian Peninsula and held portions of it, but during the 18th century a conservative branch of Islam was created under Abu l-Wahhab. Known as the Wahhabis, the Saudi dynasty collaborates with them to begin the process of conquering the entire peninsula. By mid-1800's, Mecca is conquered, but soon thereafter the Wahhabis were driven out by the local people there, and so the Wahhabis and the Saud family regroup themselves and establish their capital in Riyadh. This was a time of civil war and division among clans in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly in the face of Ottoman manipulations, and the first Saud dynasty collapsed. However, by 1902, the great leader Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud retook Riyadh, and began a third attempt to unify the peninsula in the name of the Saudi clan. Abdul Aziz remains in collaboration with the Wahhabis during the mostly bloodless efforts to gain control of Mecca, Medina, and Asir in the south. However, after 1926, when Abdul Aziz names himself guardian of the holy cities, he begins to also pull away from the Wahhabis alliance, particularly in view of the discovery of oil and his desire to bring technology into the country.

The reigning Saud family does so under a complex process of princely influences and agreements. Thus, the ministers and the king while very secretive in their control of the oil wealth, recognized the power of Wahhabis Islam and the growing power of non-Saud citizenry within the country. The former retain control of the ministry of religion, supervising an army of Wahhabis who enforce their conservative brand of religion on all citizens, including expatriate workers who have been necessary for economic growth since the discovery of oil at Dhahran in 1938. Regarding the other clans and citizens of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi rulers have managed to buy them off with annual salary suppliments based upon oil revenues, and to expand the economy by importation of technology and business opportunities. Unfortunately, as the country expands past the 25 million mark in population, there is bound to be some turmoil as the oil wealth must be divided among so many people.