[Starvid]

I just read this story about young men in Saudi Arabia. It feels especially close as they are about my age and live in a pretty high tech country, but the differences are so vast. They have lived so constrained and twisted lives, so complex and absurd, and this has affected their values, world view and behaviour. This last thing... They seem so childish. I feel sorry for them.

And these people, these people we have to rely on. They have a huge amount of cheap oil. Which we absolutely positively need. It's a mad world. The article: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/11/ ... php?page=1

I don't really know what we are to discuss here... But I would like to hear if somone else just has some immediate reflections after reading this article. If the moderators think this post should be in some other part of the forum, please do move it.

[edit - moved thread to Open Discussion Forum - markl]

[patience]

Just what the world needs. Nations of frustrated young men who think that war is a duty, taught very different values from the countries they will interact with later in life. With this sort of situation, it is a wonder that bargaining for oil is not more screwed up than it is now.

[RedStateGreen]

I bet there's a lot of underground homosexuality in such a segregated, repressed society, especially among the men.

[ColossalContrarian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RedStateGreen', 'I') bet there's a lot of underground homosexuality in such a segregated, repressed society, especially among the men.

[kpeavey]

I've not read the quoran/koran/coran/couran/courrant/courrantandrave so I am not familiar with the value and belief system of a predominantly muslim nation.

I do find the tradition of inbreeding to be beneficial to me, as a resident of a country capable of taking their resources militarily.

The problem with the virgins is that 2 days later, all you have is a bunch of whores. I think they may not be thinking things through.

[BigTex]

And don't forget, no manual labor. Wouldn't want to get the toga dirty.

[Eli]

Oh yeah that is an interesting thing over there. If you call a plumber you will get two people who show up, one will be Saudi and the other will be an immigrant from India or somewhere else.

The Saudi will bark orders and try to act like he understands plumbing while the other guy does all the work.

It is a truly screwed up society, all that pent up anger and frustration and the obsession about honor and saving face. Your sister falls in love and sleeps with someone, and to preserve the family honor you her brother kill her. Expletive deleted. brilliant!

This is a place where they will explain how to properly beat your wife, which is in the Koran and a recommended practice.

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Eli', 'O')h yeah that is an interesting thing over there. If you call a plumber you will get two people who show up, one will be Saudi and the other will be an immigrant from India or somewhere else.
The Saudi will bark orders and try to act like he understands plumbing while the other guy does all the work.
It is a truly screwed up society, all that pent up anger and frustration and the obsession about honor and saving face. Your sister falls in love and sleeps with someone, and to preserve the family honor you her brother kill her. Fucking brilliant!
This is a place where they will explain how to properly beat your wife, which is in the Koran and a recommended practice.

[ShinyOldLady]

I think it's 72 virgins, not all female. As Jeff D says, "Why not 72 slutty broads who know what they're doing?"

Seriously though, Islamic men have always given me the creeps.

[manu]

Your solution is to not use oil. It was done for thousands of years.
Starvid, looks like oil is now closer to 160 (like I predicted)than 60 (like you predicted). I think you should go and invite those poor Arabs to Sweden and you can all go dance on that nuclear waste ship! Ha ha ha ah.

[dorlomin]

But I believe that the whole virgins thing is a mistranslation. There is a small but growing academic group of al Quaran experts who are applying western techniques of literary analysis to the book and the hadiths etc and they are coming up with some interesting answers.
Apparently it was not as fixed a document as people assume today.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_pr ... 84631.html

[KingDavid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dorlomin', 'B')ut I believe that the whole virgins thing is a mistranslation. There is a small but growing academic group of al Quaran experts who are applying western techniques of literary analysis to the book and the hadiths etc and they are coming up with some interesting answers.
Apparently it was not as fixed a document as people assume today.

[thylacine]

Everyone's very quick to go demonising a whole nation based on a single newspaper article. I'm sure if you went to the deep south of the USA you could cherry-pick a few good quotes from young men about how slavery should be reintroduced or somesuch. Would it then be OK to apply the impressions gained from those few rednecks to the whole of the USA? I'm sure there are plenty of fuckwits in Sweden as well who, if you spent time with them, would lead one to taking a very dim view of our nordic cousins.

I worked in KSA for a few months, mostly with people from Jeddah and found them to be quite normal and friendly despite living in a weird, middle ages-meets-the 21st-century sort of country. Most of the young men I worked with were just interested in soccer, talking shit with each other and watching MTV. Interestingly, I was informed that Osama Bin Laden supports Arsenal FC.

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', 'A')nd don't forget, no manual labor. Wouldn't want to get the toga dirty.

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('manu', 'Y')our solution is to not use oil. It was done for thousands of years.
Starvid, looks like oil is now closer to 160 (like I predicted)than 60 (like you predicted). I think you should go and invite those poor Arabs to Sweden and you can all go dance on that nuclear waste ship! Ha ha ha ah.

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('thylacine', 'E')veryone's very quick to go demonising a whole nation based on a single newspaper article. I'm sure if you went to the deep south of the USA you could cherry-pick a few good quotes from young men about how slavery should be reintroduced or somesuch. Would it then be OK to apply the impressions gained from those few rednecks to the whole of the USA? I'm sure there are plenty of fuckwits in Sweden as well who, if you spent time with them, would lead one to taking a very dim view of our nordic cousins.

I worked in KSA for a few months, mostly with people from Jeddah and found them to be quite normal and friendly despite living in a weird, middle ages-meets-the 21st-century sort of country. Most of the young men I worked with were just interested in soccer, talking shit with each other and watching MTV. Interestingly, I was informed that Osama Bin Laden supports Arsenal FC.

[americandream]

If my history serves me correct, weren't us westerners enthused with the prospect of helping certain feudal elements in the Islamic world (Afghanistan and S Yemen come to mind) rid themselves of those nasty egalitarian types. Perhaps turnip head could refresh my memory.

[Eli]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dorlomin', 'B')ut I believe that the whole virgins thing is a mistranslation. There is a small but growing academic group of al Quaran experts who are applying western techniques of literary analysis to the book and the hadiths etc and they are coming up with some interesting answers.
Apparently it was not as fixed a document as people assume today.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_pr ... 84631.html

[big_rc]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RedStateGreen', 'I') bet there's a lot of underground homosexuality in such a segregated, repressed society, especially among the men.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('big_rc', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RedStateGreen', 'I') bet there's a lot of underground homosexuality in such a segregated, repressed society, especially among the men.