grdengrl@OPTONLINE.NET wrote:
Naw, they would just order the gardener to get more orchids for that
place. I met a number of the royals while I was there, considering there
were about 7,000 of them at that time it wasn't a big deal. A few of
them weren't spoiled and actually worked at making money and were devout
Muslims which meant no drinking or whoring. The rest - as Bill the Cat
would say: "Pfbth!"
There are ring roads around Mecca and Medina both, with signs that say
"Muslims go this way" which leads into the holy cities and "Non-Muslims
go this way" which takes you to the ring road. I have visited the outer
parts of both cities on several occasions and once even drove through
the middle of Mecca. I was with my pipeline foreman and we were both
dressed as Bedu so no one even noticed, the police just waved us on
through. Made quicker time that way but I was scared of getting caught.
I was working at Yanbu Industrial City as opposed to the old city of
Yanbu al-Bahr or Yanbu by the Sea or Yanbu an Nakhl or Yanbu of the
Wells. We had modern houses, modern roads, and American GM cars and the
Industrial City was designed and built by Americans as were most of the
plants there. It wasn't bad at first but as the company became totally
nationalized it got worse so we came home.
> In general I find the Saudi royal family and their history [and how they buy the world with their riches, not to mention the crap that their men get away with] quite bizarre and incredibly hypocritical.
> Mariana
It's not just the royal family that does it, all the rich Arabs, no
matter which nationality, have their black sheep in the family. The
older Arabs are a lot like us, they worked their way up and worked hard.
One of my good friends Said al Ghamdi (yes, same tribe as the 9/11
murderers but it is about the third larges tribe there) walked from
Jeddah to Dhahran when he was twelve years old to get a job as he was an
orphan. The route he took covered over 1000 miles and it took him almost
a year to make it, working his way when he could, begging food when he
couldn't. The company taught him to read and write both Arabi and
English and he went to college in the US eventually. Devout Muslim
without being a fanatic, good family man with only one wife, and a
loving father plus a good friend of mine. So don't paint them all with
the same brush just because all we get to see is the bad behavior of a
minority.
George
