03828cam a2200445 a 4500 115381 115381 17303993 BJBSDDR 20230411090726.0 a|||||r|||| 00| 0 ta 120517s2012 nyuab b 000 0 eng 2012018977 9780307272164 (hbk.) 0307272168 (hbk.) DLC DLC DLC pcc a-su--- 403 DS 215 H842o 2012 953.8 House, Karen Elliott, 24777 1947- On Saudi Arabia : its people, past, religion, fault lines--and future / Karen Elliott House. 1st ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. x, 308 p. : ill., map ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-289). Fragile Al Saud survival skills Islam: dominant and divided The social labyrinth Females and fault lines The young and the restless Princes Failing grades Plans, paralysis, and poverty Outcasts And outlaws Succession Saudi scenarios On pins and needles Endgame A journalist draws on three decades of firsthand experience to profile contemporary Saudi Arabia, offering insight into its leaders, citizens, cultural complexities, and international prospects. Through observation, anecdote, extensive interviews, and analysis the author navigates the maze in which Saudi citizens find themselves trapped and reveals the mysterious nation that is the world's largest exporter of oil, critical to global stability, and a source of Islamic terrorists. In this portrait, we see Saudi Arabia, one of the last absolute monarchies in the world, as threatened by multiple fissures and forces, its levers of power controlled by a handful of elderly Al Saud princes. The author writes that oil-rich Saudi Arabia has become a rundown welfare state. The public pays no taxes; gets free education and health care; and receives subsidized water, electricity, and energy, with its petrodollars buying less and less loyalty. The author makes clear that the royal family also uses Islam's requirement of obedience to Allah, and by extension to Earthly rulers, to perpetuate Al Saud rule. Behind the Saudi facade of order and obedience, today's Saudi youth, frustrated by social conformity, are reaching out to one another and to a wider world beyond their cloistered country. Some 50 percent of Saudi youth are on the Internet; 5.1 million Saudis are on Facebook. The author argues that most Saudis do not want democracy but seek change nevertheless; they want a government that provides basic services without subjecting citizens to the indignity of begging princes for handouts; a government less corrupt and more transparent in how it spends hundreds of billions of annual oil revenue; a kingdom ruled by law, not royal whim. She discusses what the next generation of royal princes might bring and the choices the kingdom faces: continued economic and social stultification with growing risk of instability, or an opening of society to individual initiative and enterprise with the risk that this, too, undermines the Al Saud hold on power Āl Saʻūd, House of. Saudi Arabia Civilization. Saudi Arabia Politics and government. Saudi Arabia Social life and customs. Saudi Arabia Religion. Arabia Saudita Civilización 24778 Arabia Saudita Política y gobierno 17821 Arabia Saudita Vida social y costumbres 16820 Arabia Saudita Religión 24779 7 cbc orignew 1 ecip 20 y-gencatlg lcc BK 0 0 lcc 0 0 RR BJB BJB RR 2021-09-22 0 403 DS 215 H842o 2012 00000140442 2021-09-22 00:00:00 1 2021-09-22 BK