No Sign of Enforcement as Gold Shops Saudize (This is strange)

[54anickel]

Saudization of certain economic sectors? Anyone hear of this before?
:shrug:

&category=Kingdom

RIYADH/JEDDAH, 22 February 2004 — Yesterday was the final day for jewelry shop owners to replace some 25,000 foreign workers with locals under the government’s Saudization drive, sparking fears that the business could suffer setbacks as a result of the loss of qualified manpower.

Inspection squads were expected to go from shop to shop to ensure that owners are complying with the order, said Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Hazaa, director of the National Program for Training and Employment in Makkah, last week.

snip>

Yesterday’s move is the first in a series providing for the Saudization of 25 economic activities — mostly in retail — over three years.

Under the plan, employers in each of the designated activities must hire at least one Saudi national within a year. Fifty percent of their workforce must become local by the second year, and the proportion must go up to 75 percent in the third year except in cases where 100 percent Saudization may be required.

more...

[SaddenedDem]

1. The Saudis are no dummies

They have no intention of allowing outsourcing, or corporations which allow immigrant employment.

They realize that with outsourced services, the terrorists could take out too much infrastructure with the cutting of phone lines and communications.

Americans, on the other hand, can't see past the nose on their face.

[saigon68]

2. What a Wonderful country to live In?

</Sacasm>

[madrchsod]

3. the saudi`s

per cap. income is down to 7000 per citizen. they have a massive unemployment problem that is leading to widespread discontent with the ruling class..hey just like here in the usa! i guess the saudi`s and the workers of the usa have something in common-no jobs.

[PA Democrat]

4. Population growth

They also have rampant population growth. I read that the average Saudi woman has 6 plus children. The mullahs forbid any type of birth control.

[DUreader]

5. Saudi unemployment was my first thought as well.

Is it a PR campaign with no enforcement? My guess is yes.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. Yes, not unlike denouncing tax breaks for outsourcers ;)

Whether it will be as effective in Saudi Occupied Arabia as it is in the US remains to be seen.

While it has been interesting to watch bush come to have more in common with the House of Saud than one might imagine, oddly enough Americans are more reluctant to change their government (as opposed to changing figurehead or rhetoric) than many if not most places on earth, who do not have the constitutional power to do so, and preventing this from happening requires increasingly large infusions of US tax dollars. Washington may be stupid, but not so stupid that they do not realize that the odds of any self-chosen Democratic government in the region putting US business interests before the concerns of the populace is hovering steady at zero.

For those who are unaware, the Saudi royal family enjoys the near unique honor of being almost universally hated, including by factions who are diametrically opposed to each other.

Extremely conservative Muslims hate them for being dollahos with lavish lifestyles while giving lip service to a very strict and wacky interpretation of Islam, and for collaborating with Israel

Crusade fans hate them for being Muslims and for being Arabs

Moderate people of all faiths and persuasions hate them for being dollahos who collaborate with Israel

Modernists hate them for being dollahos who oppress their own people to keep the dollars coming, and collaborating with Israel.

The similarity to bush's position is found both in the predictable dislike of him by the American left, while the majority have no problem with his policies but can't stand him, and recently, the right is becoming disenchanted with his cognitive dissonance gambits, which they do not recognize as such, nor do they realize that the likelihood that he is the author of them is slim to none.

[ewagner]

6. Could it be

that the Saudis think that if they :

1. Eliminate poverty (or at least mitigate it)
2. Create jobs and employment opportunity
3. Create a satisfied and comfortable middle class

Then they can avoid a revolution?

It sounds like some pretty desperate social engineering to me....

[JCMach1]

8. Oman is the only country in the Gulf where a policy like

this has actually worked.

I think it worked there,because most of the population have failed to benefit from the oil boom.

Saudis are a different kettle of fish... many of them resentful of the boom to bust economy that has happened...