"Stop treating us like a banana republic" SA tells Canada in way of human rights
21 replies, posted
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/28/saudi-foreign-minister-demands-canada-stop-treating-it-like-a-banana-republic
“You can criticize us about human rights, women’s rights … that’s your right. You can sit down and talk about it, but demand the immediate release? What are we, a banana republic? Would any country accept it?” said the foreign minister, Adel Al-Juebir, at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, as world leaders gathered forthe United Nations general assembly.
Their sexy fashion choices are clearly the reason for this. Who wouldn't go to their local Banana Republic to pick up those tea-cosies immediately?
Saudi is fucked, keep 'treating them like a banana republic'
the US should stop blowing them and do so as well
“You can criticize us about human rights, women’s rights … that’s your right"
If it was a woman saying it, would she have the right to do so?
I lived in Saudi Arabia for six years. To call them a banana Republic would be entirely too generous.
Fascinating! Would you mind sharing some of your experiences?
Well, it was back in the 1990s and I was a kid. My father was an editor in the Riyadh Daily, a major English publication there. I don't know to what degree SA has changed since I lived there, but back then the Mutawas (Religious police) were a real terror. It wasn't uncommon for women who were out by themselves to be arrested, beaten (and if they were pretty) raped. If they were lucky they turned up again weeks later. Some disappeared without a trace. Back then, women weren't allowed to drive, were forced to wear niqabs when out in public (This is a niquab, for anyone who wants to know.) and were generally treated like second class citizens. The royal class (Anyone with sufficient money or connections to the royal family) treated the country like their playground, driving recklessly in huge, expensive cars, doing what they pleased with whomever they pleased. If their stupid antics ended up killing someone, the law looked the other way.
My family is Catholic, so I remember having to celebrate Christmas in secret with relatives and friends, posting actual lookouts to warn of the Mutawas, because such things were illegal in the country. They may still be, but as I said, I've been out of the loop for a while.
From Wikipedia:
Proselytizing by non-Muslims, including the distribution of non-Muslim religious materials such as Bibles, is illegal. The country was reported to have passed a law recommending the death penalty for anyone caught carrying or smuggling a Bible into the country,[12]although the claim of the death penalty later was recalled by the original source of the information.[21] Muslims or non-Muslims wearing religious symbols of any kind in public risk confrontation with the Mutawwa'in. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, approximately 50 "Call and Guidance" centers employing approximately 500 persons work to convert foreigners to Islam. Some non-Muslim foreigners convert to Islam during their stay in the country. The press often carries articles about such conversions, including testimonials. The press as well as government officials publicized the conversion of the Italian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Torquato Cardilli, in late 2001.[22]
I heard stories all the time of priests who were caught by the Mutawas being flayed or beheaded.
So you see that, for me at least, I didn't exaggerate.
Fuck Saudi Arabia.
I know Dubai does, or at least did a few years back, but does the KSA do public executions?
'Cause that's a thing in that part of the world. Banana republics at least produce bananas.
Yeah, public beheadings are a thing there.
Curious, how did he manage a job like that? I would have imagined it being impossible to get any kind of job outside of manual labor without being a Muslim.
Well, the guy who ran the newspaper back then was a solid sort. Muslim himself, and royally connected, but actually a worldly, intelligent man. He saw my father's writing and offered him a work visa.
In SA, as with the UAE, one can only be a citizen if one is born there and if their father is a Saudi citizen. Children of foreigners don't get citizenship. So people like my father tend to operate for years on work visas, which also cover his family.
I would also like to toss my hat in the ring and say fuck Saudi Arabia.
SA has less legitimacy than an actual banana to begin with
No one in the west likes Saudi Arabia, but everyone likes money.
They're worse than a banana republic. At least bananas are a resource that can be replenished. SA is a petrol republic and once they run out of oil they are going to be in trouble.
Wow, incredible story. It feels like peeking into an alien world.
Is it really that strange? It doesn't seem so to me, but I suppose it'd be hard to imagine for someone who's spent their entire life in the US or Canada...
But that's why I'm so staunchly outspoken against fascists, the corrupt GOP and the religious right. My experiences in that place taught me where all of those ideologies eventually lead.
From Wikipedia:
>In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the exportation of a limited-resource product, such as bananas or minerals.
Politically unstable? Check
Economic dependence on export of limited resource product? Check
Well you are one.
Lol they're not even ostensibly a republic.
How about we stop treating them like one when they stop being one -- if you can even consider them to be a position that high.
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