*While the “Arab Spring” hasn’t sprung into fruition in Saudi Arabia, it’s obviously no coincidence that King Abdullah has been especially empathetic
these days. Especially to those with major reservations about autocracy, hard-line Wahhabism and corruption.
Earlier this year, the Saudi government gave (virtually) everybody a pay raise (only 10 per cent of the workforce is in the private sector) and then threw in two months of extra salary for all state workers. It will spend more than $40 million of its oil wealth on its poorer citizens, including funding for housing.
But the King didn’t stop with pre-emptive bribes. He has even upped the concession ante to include the truly touchy subject of women’s rights. Coming soon: Women will be able to vote. The monarchy, however, is still drawing a line in the sand on other gender-rights’ issues. Women will still need male consent to marry, for example, and they will still require male chaperones. And, yes, Saudi women remain the only females in the world legally prohibited from driving. In fact, it can be a lashable offense.
It certainly puts voting rights in an ironic context. Saudi women still need men to drive and accompany them to the polls.
Arguably, the “Arab Spring” still beckons.
* Some things just won’t go away. Among them: Cold War anachronisms and military-industrial complex vestiges.
We were recently reminded that Cuba isn’t the only remnant of America’s role in the Cold War. The U.S. just announced a major ($5.85 billion) arms sales package to Taiwan to upgrade its fleet of (145) F-16 fighter jets. The announcement also underscored this country’s commitment and obligation–harkening back to1979 legislation–to helping the island nation defend itself. No need, however, in the more nuanced, post-Cold War era to actually mention from whom. What Red Menace?
And that commitment would have been a lot more had certain Republican and Democratic lawmakers–as well as GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney–had their way. They want the U.S. to accede to Taiwan’s additional request for 66 new F-16s. According to the Obama Administration, that request is still under consideration. Left unsaid: There’s a lot of money, influence, jobs and political capital at stake here.
Something else that should always be under consideration is President Dwight Eisenhower’s famous farewell warning in January 1961. To wit: “…In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. …”
* All-too-familiar scenario: The U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, was attacked the other day in Beirut. He was there to talk to leaders of the Syrian opposition. His attackers were angry supporters of the regime of besieged President Bashar Assad.
The good news? They hurled tomatoes and eggs at Ford. In the Middle East, this is progress.