Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (34921)	5/23/2005 10:02:50 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Respond to of 90947

I was there for a number of weeks installing and testing some software I had written for the ARABSAT ground station outside Riyadh. I remember Saudi men coming out of the Hyatt hotel rooms followed by 4 little figures dressed entirely in black - their 4 wives. The hotel was regularly raided by the Saudi religious police because it would not enforce Shari'a law- -it let women wander the halls without veils. City busses had a steel plate dividing it into front and back sections. Women rode in the back. Restaurants had to be divided into "family" and "single male" sections. Women could not drive or or own, run, or work in businesses where they MIGHT deal with men. People were divided into 3 classes: Saudis, Westerners, and we referred to as "the slaves". They were other Muslims brought in by the 747-full to do the dirty work. I saw them outside the ground station breaking rocks in 115 degree heat. I was inside an air-conditioned room and slaves regularly came around to ask whether I wanted coffee, tea, or a soft drink. They were treated like and spoken to as slaves by the Saudis. Alcohol was illegal, although openly available in the Western compounds. In theory, any plane in Saudi airspace could not serve liquor; in fact, the wheels of my British Airways flight were barely off the runway on the way out before the stewards and stewardesses started serving. Conversion of a Muslim to another religion was punishable by death for the converter and convertee. Practice of another religion was a crime. Many offenses were punishable by death. Each Sunday a crowd gathered around the main square in Riyadh to watch the beheadings. The religious police patrolled the crowd to make sure people watched rather than looked away as each beheading took place. It sucked. And Granny and company spend their time lambasting those who would end such atrocoities.