John Kerry called it 'a sad day' and added 'the world has lost a revered leader' while David Cameron said 'He will be remembered for his commitment to peace and for strengthening understanding between faiths' so obviously they are referring to a different King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia because the one i knew was an evil son of a camel.
Whoever this other King Abdullah was, he must have been a lovely guy because even the EU’s commissioner for economic and financial affairs, described him as 'a personality of peace and strong leadership' and the French head of the IMF, went as far as praising Abdullah as a feminist, saying 'he was a strong advocate of women'.
Whoever this cross between Ghandi and Mother Theresa was, it certainly wasn't the King Abdullah who flogs bloggers, denies women even the basic human rights, beheads prisoners and bans any religion that isn't Wahhabism.
So the evil King is dead and they have a new one, Salman bin Abdulaziz, so when all the Western leaders rush to the funeral i'm sure they will nicely ask if this new king chappie will bring in freedom of religion, female equality, less of the beheadings and lashings and generally drag his country into the 21st Century. Oh and if you can stop funding terrorists, that would be very much appreciated thank you very much.
Unfortunately, the new King has signalled 'continuity' and 'adhering to the policies which Saudi Arabia has followed since its establishment'.
The West will just have to continue looking the other way as far as human rights in Saudi Arabia are concerned then, at least until the oil runs out and the military contracts dry up anyway.
2 comments:
It's a peculiar conundrum, because if they try to drive change too swiftly, the Byzantine interconnections that prop up the kingdom may unravel and lead to some very nasty Wahhabists owning 60% of the world's oil. They are making progress, but at a glacial pace, and to avoid violence, such change actually has to be glacial. I mean, they still have middle-aged men wearing ties and working for banks who would kill a wife who expressed a desire to drive. The best thing we can do is keep moving away from needing Gulf oil, and thus quit funding the Middle Ages.
True Don, if it wasn't for the oil it would be a very different story so it all ties in with the Saudi's trying to hold back the fledgling fracking in the states. Keeps the US dependent and therefore less likely to ask some awkward questions.
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