Here’s where Arab oil money is being spent, nay, wasted.
It was not until 2003 that a member of the Saudi royal family publicly acknowledged that the kingdom has poor people. And why would they dare notice? The Saudi royals are too busy leading supercilious lives of extreme decadence and indulgence with ill-gotten oil money. May that oil be cursed. The late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish once wrote that the Arabs’ state would be better without oil. And so true. It has corrupted the Arabs, allowed for renter-states and provided the basis of rule for awful regimes. And because Saudi Arabia sits on the largest reserve of oil wealth, a lot of money has gone to promote the Saudi state doctrine of Wahhabi – an extreme interpretation and practice of Islam invented by a kook, Mohammed Ibn Abd-Wahah, in the 1700s.
The Saudi royals siphon obscene amounts of oil while 30% of the Saudi population lives in poverty. One of the liberal members of the Saudi royal family – billionaire investor Prince Bin Talal – told the New York Times that roughly 30-40% of all Saudi oil revenue it devoted to the royal family’s expenditures and that every Saudi prince – and there are thousands – receive $100,000 for every year since their birth. So nearly $2million by the time they are 18. The above figure of 30-40% is relative to the prince of oil, which at that time was roughly $20. So when oil is above $100, the Saudi royal family – in theory – may need only, say, 6-8% of oil revenues to satisfy their appetite. In theory that it.
And where is that money going? Yachts on the French Rivera, homes in Cannes, endless nights in London clubs and brothels, and shopping trips to Paris. An utter waste. They spend so much money overseas that Spain and Morocco compete as to where the members of the royal family will spend their summers (maintaining homes in both nations), because wherever they go they spend lavishly in the local economy and bring a massive entourage.
While millions in the Arab world go without economic hope, the oil money is also being lavished on the White Man which the inferior-complex corrupt oil wealth Arabs never tire of trying to impress:
Prince William and Kate Middleton are set to receive their very own crown jewels worth £60million as a lavish wedding present.
In an extraordinary act of generosity, billionaires based in Saudi Arabia are trying to buy the couple a fabled set of coloured diamonds called the Rainbow Collection.
What a tragedy! If the couple has any decency they’ll say NO and offer that the money better be spent on the region’s indigent. I hope that this royal couple, especially in AID conscious London, will be informed and attuned enough to recognize the gaudily injustice of accepting such a gift from such a source from such an improvised region and do the right thing and offer to donate the money for a better cause. We cannot expect the Saudis to do the right thing, but maybe the British royals in compensation for their government’s support of the lousy Saudi regime.
