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On Saudia Arabia (2000)

by Karen Elliott House(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 1

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review 1: This book was written by a woman from dry dusty Matador, Tx. I thought I knew a lot about Islam and Saudi Arabia. I learned so much from reading this book. The Saudi people are a rather lethargic group that lack initiative and are happy with a government handout. Education consist of memorizing and repeating to the teacher. There is no questioning and discovery. The illiteracy rate is high so most of the Saudis are qualified to do only menial work. Since they consider this beneath their dignity the unemployment rate is forty percent and foreigners are brought in to do all the menial work at slave wages. The monarchy is passed from son to son of al Saud. Staring from the oldest to the youngest. They are running out of oil to finance their welfare programs and sons... more to sit on the throne. Many people fear that Saudi Arabia has a civil war in its future.
review 2: This book was excellent in explaining how tangled the past of Saudi Arabia has been and hypothesizing what events could unfold in the future. A few details I am still uncertain about after reading this:How public accompaniment of a male relative is required for females, while at the same time the author says the Saudi culture also encourages marriage between first cousins. This seems to go against the obvious division of sexes and I would have loved an explanation for this social contradiction.She also mentions that teaching is a profession 'filled by foreigners' and 'almost half of faculty is imported' but elsewhere says 'teachers are largely the same religious conservatives and are free to say what they will in a classroom'. So are these foreigners and conservatives one in the same? Or are the conservative teachers the actual minority? less

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