XPost: alt.flame.airlines, alt.politics.immigration, alt.airline   
   XPost: rec.travel.air, alt.travel.uk.air   
   From: ixnayamspay_klaatu@earthops.net   
      
   Matt wrote:   
   > "Miguel Cruz"  wrote in message   
   > news:g3xFc.143$iK.2604@news.itd.umich.edu...   
   >   
   >>Matt  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>Yes, then there was Desert Storm, when the troops came in to Saudi   
   >   
   > Arabia,   
   >   
   >>>but then most of them left.  Saudi Arabia is no more Westernized today   
   >   
   > than   
   >   
   >>>it was 20 years ago.   
   >>   
   >>This conclusion seems to be based entirely on having been there 20 years   
   >   
   > ago   
   >   
   >>but not since. I don't get how that provides a basis for determining   
   >>anything.   
   >   
   >   
   > When I was there, the first Burger King was just opening up, so maybe you   
   > are right about western name brand stores popping up.  And you're right, I   
   > haven't been there in 20 years so maybe things have changed....I just doubt   
   > things have changed that much.  Ok.....lets see.  Can women now drive, or   
   > vote or go out in public wearing shorts?  Are the newspapers and television   
   > no longer censored?  Do they still close down the shops several times a day   
   > for prayers?  Do you still have to be a friend of the Royal Family to have   
   > any position of power?  Is alchohol now allowed in the country, or pork, or   
   > Coka Cola?  Are there now laws regarding selling illegal copies of music CDs   
   > or tapes in shops?   
      
   No, but in 20 years the population has at least octupled. What was   
   formerly a very uncrowded place where anyone who had a complaint could   
   go stand in line for a few hours and personally have words with their   
   monarch, and generally receive a stipend or a loan or special   
   permissions, now you have a country with increasing poverty and   
   unemployment, and far less wealth to share among far more people. The   
   government is increasingly inaccessible and thought to be more   
   unresponsive to the needs of the subjects.   
      
      
   --   
   The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may   
   often assume the appearance, and produce the effects,   
   of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy.   
                      --Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)