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To: 2banana
None of the Saudis I knew felt that Islam entitled them to kill. They were a bunch of blue collar workers. The older men didn't know how to read or write, so they made their memories really sharp. Believe it or not, NONE of them were murderers. Amazing to meet and work with 30 Saudi men who HAD NO INCLINATION to murder.
The older ones had been around Americans for eons and were used to us. They had SEEN IT ALL.
The younger men were literate. The Saudis I met WERE hard workers.

You haven't been lived in the middle east so you REALLY have NO idea what you are talking about. There is NO comparison between Florida and Saudi Arabia.
1. Saudi Arabia is 99% desert.

2. Their source of water ISN'T an everglade; it is a series of VERY brackish underground wells across the country and the water is warm by sitting in the HOT sun all the time. NASTY tasting stuff.

3. They have the "hamzeens"--that is, 50 days during the winter the winds blow from the north. The entire country is DUST from thousands of feet up to sea level. Visibility is ZERO for some three days at a time. NO ONE drives outside.

4. Their ocean has these most poison sea snakes. We even saw a few when we took our little catamaran out. Not nice, though they DIDN'T bother us.

5. Their sandstorms shut down ALL the airports in the country.
Those sandstorms shut down MUCH of the Arabian Peninsula and Arabian/Persian Gulf. BTW, the folks in that part of the world call it the ARABIAN Gulf while we call it the PERSIAN Gulf.

6. The Arabian Gulf is, unfortunately, polluted beyond repair by the petroleum business. On some days the waves were pure petroleum. We had to wear special tennis shoes if we walked the beach...special in that the soles were CAKED in petroleum and couldn't be worn anywhere else. Eventually, we had to toss them.

7. The smoke from the refinery chimneys were of two colors: orange for a normal gas and H2S, a white flame. Breathing the latter made us all SICK as a dog. Fortunately, the winds blew AWAY from our house. If one breathed it too much we would break out in a rash on our face.

8. There were only trees in the VERY few oasis towns. There were NO flowers or wildlife any more as they were wiped out with the coming of the petroleum business. They were palm trees: date palms. The older Saudi men would come to our camp and shimmy up the palms to get the dates.
There was ONE beautiful thing the country had, a "desert rose," a beautiful rock, pinkish in color.

9. According to most folks over there, who had traveled everywhere, Saudi Arabia had the SECOND worst climate in the world, southeast Asia having the worst. I didn't think so. Saudi Arabia was WAY, WAY too dry while southeast Asia was WAY, WAY too wet. I preferred the latter place to live if I HAD to choose.

10. The mosquitoes there carried malaria for all of their history. When ARAMCO went there in the mid-1920's they had to spray the HOLY PIE out of the country so the ARAMCO workers wouldn't get malaria. The Saudi mosquitoes are MOST annoying but they ARE healthy now.
ARAMCO did/does do regular spraying to keep the mosquito population down, as FOREIGN workers from, primarily EAST Africa, go to the KSA as workers (CHEAP labor) and often HAVE malaria themselves. It's an ONGOING battle to keep the malaria at bay.
The ARAMCO workers use this HUGE Mercedes Benz truck with this equally HUGE spraying ability and they regularly GAS the camps. That's the only way to explain it--GAS the holy pie out of the entire camp. If you happen to be out taking a walk one evening the truck will NOT stop spraying for you and you breathe the fumes and COUGH and COUGH and COUGH and COUGH. Nasty stuff.

11. The fumes from the refinery made large HOLES in the metal of our cars, about five inches across...right in the middle of the hood or the trunk. THAT was how toxic it was. In the USA that would NOT be allowed.

12. The Bedouins were NEVER interested in the West, New York or in the British. They were TRIBAL people, moving across the desert according to their TRIBAL boundaries. They AREN'T too far removed from the Bedouin stage even today and they are as different from the Floridians as people can be. They were stone age until quite recently and were probably fairly content with their lives, since they didn't know any better.
______________________________________________________

Their young people are the salvation for their future. The KSA pays their brightest minds to get an education, usually in the USA. Most of them are men, of course, though the brightest women get educated abroad too. Naturally THOSE women are from the wealthier and more prestigious and powerful families. It's still atrociously misogynistic. I doubt that will ever change, but I could be wrong.

I think that's enough. I COULD tell you more about how the KSA and Florida are NOT the same or very similar but I think you get my point.

Please don't ASSUME that the Saudis DON'T work hard or aren't in the "right culture." You sound like a racist.

18 posted on 02/02/2014 5:26:40 PM PST by cloudmountain
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To: cloudmountain
They have the "hamzeens"--that is, 50 days during the winter the winds blow from the north. The entire country is DUST from thousands of feet up to sea level. Visibility is ZERO for some three days at a time. NO ONE drives outside.

This is a recipe for silicosis. How did you deal with it while in-country?

21 posted on 02/02/2014 7:48:56 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: cloudmountain

Sounds like you’re describing HELL!...I went to Iraq and I thought that was Hell. Maybe they are just sections of a larger overall area!


24 posted on 02/03/2014 6:11:05 AM PST by gr8eman (How ya doin Bob?...Bitchen!)
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