Yesterday,I heard a very interesting radio documentary concerning Saudir Arabia on NPR radio. The journalist who did the documentary was named Goldfarb. Unfortunately I was driving while listening to the documentary and couldn't take any notes (I'm relying on my defective memory).

Goldfarb mentioned that Saudi Arabia does not have a "proper" constitution or legal code. The Saudi's believe their holy book the Koran is suitable as both constitution and legal code. This really astounded me. I once tried to read through the Koran and failed in the effort. It's complete gobbly-gook (much worse than the Old Testament). One could extract almost any sort of meaning desired through selective quotation from the Koran. How can a modern state be run with the Koran as its constitution?

Some disturbing things that Goldfarb mentioned:

1) Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product is almost entirely based upon oil (there seems to be no concern about what will happen after the oil runs out).
2) Unemployment amongst Saudi nationals is very high (over 20%). Most jobs for Saudi nationals are busy work government jobs being paid for with oil money.
3) Most menial and technical work is done by foreign workers.
4) The birth rate amongst Saudi nationals is quite high. Apparently there is a population bomb ticking.
5) Religious indoctrination is extensive through out the Saudi educational process. Even university level engineering programs require many courses concerning Islamic indoctrination.
6) The Saudi flavor of Islam is very conservative and supposably lends itself to Al Qaida style radicalism.
7) The only thing that really holds Saudi Arabia together is the Al Saud family. If the Al Saud monarchy was over thrown then the whole country would fall apart.
8) Shiites are a persecuted minority in Saudi Arabia. This persecution comes directly from the dominant Sunni culture and is not directly motivated by the government.
9) Saudi Arabia is a full blown theocracy. If you oppose the government, not only are you guilty of treason but you're also a heratic.
10) A popular belief in Saudi Arabia is the Al Saud royal family are essentially puppets of the American government. Therefore if one is dissatisfied with Saudi Arabian politics then a good way to vent this dissatisfaction is through attacking the United States, i.e. al Qaida.
11) Saudi oil money is generated by the Aramco Corp. which was initially setup by the American Standard Oil Corp. American petroleum technology keeps Saudi Arabia running.
12) Oil money basically flows into a "black box" controlled by the Al Saud family. They then redistribute this money as they see fit.

Based upon this information, it seems that Saudi Arabia is a disaster waiting to happen (to some extent the disaster has already happened). Also it seems that Al Qaida is an unintended artifact of Saudi Arabia's culture and government. I was left with a very helpless feeling after listening to this documentary. The Saudi Arabian goverment and social structure struck me as being very "brittle". If the United States tried to pressure the Saudis to reform too quickly then the whole business would collapse in a heap resulting in something that was much worse. However Saudi Arabia as it is currently structured appears to be pre-programmed to self destruct within a generation. It's a lose-lose situation. If we (the United States) do anything then the Saudi's will fail now. If we do nothing then they'll fail within 20 years. I guess(?) it's better that they fail 20 years from now. Maybe we'll have our energy alternatives up and running by then. Also if things in Iraq work out to our favor, maybe we could use that future Iraqi government to counter balance the Saudis. The best solution would be to divorce ourselves from the Middle East altogether. Unfortunately as 9/11 demonstrated, the Middle East's problems will simply come to us whether we are engaged or not.

Gary