Uh oh, now it's really on. Protest groups begin to form in Saudi Arabia

[ck4829]

Like their Arab neighbours using the web to rally against their regimes, Saudis seeking political, social and economic reforms have created a group on Facebook that by Tuesday had nearly 2,000 members.

"The people want to reform the regime" group calls for a constitutional monarchy, transparency, legislative elections, an independent and fair judicial system, anti-corruption measures and respect for human and women rights.

Among other demands, the group stands for "the equal distribution of wealth" and "seriously addressing the problem of unemployment" in the oil-rich monarchy.

Social-networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter have played a major role in Arab anti-government movements -- sparked by poverty and unemployment -- that have grown into major revolts in Tunisia and Egypt.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Saudi+reformers+start+Facebook+group/4242717/story.html

The clerics and thugs who harass people on the street (The ones who call themselves the vice police) have already declared the protests to be "anti-Islamic".

No word yet on whether the right wing and the media stating that the women's rights and fair judicial system protesters are somehow linked to Islamic fundamentalists and/or Bill Ayers and ACORN... but they probably will.

If these protests continue to grow (Especially in Saudi Arabia), then we will start to see the masks coming off of a lot of people.

[RandomThoughts]

1. great pick up there

Saudi common family is broke.



Intro to Pilot of Hogan's Heroes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJfSI4cKWLY

[Lint Head]

2. How about ending the beheading stuff?

[Capitalocracy]

14. I think that falls under the category of "respect for human and women's rights"

but if this thing gets big, I bet a few heads will roll before they achieve those goals. I wish them the best of luck.

[Cleita]

3. I knew it. I knew they would be next.

The poor are very oppressed and their royalty takes everything for themselves. I wonder how effective the rulers will be in suppressing press coverage.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. Saudi Arabia is not Egypt

You can be sure that the there is no higher priority for the House of Saud than monitoring and containing the Egyptian situation.

[Catherina]

26. Egypt is not Tunisia.

You can be sure that the there is no higher priority for the Mubarak regime than monitoring and containing the Tunisian situation.


How many times did we hear that?


Never underestimate the anger of an angry people. On second thought...

[ananda]

5. Gotta link to that FB page?

Please?

[ck4829]

9. Here are some links

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37137300413
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6552821854
Can't find that one group in the article though.

[ananda]

10. Thank you.

I also found these links, but I never found one with anything close
to 2000 members. Where is that one?

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Ok here is an investment hint... PEPTO

it will be consumed in spaces at Foggy Bottom, and every other Western Intel and Foreign Relations office in the West, not to mention Mossad and the Israeli Foreign Office.

[sharesunited]

7. You might rightly expect the Arabian peninsula to transform into an Islamic state run by clerics.

One that does not tolerate or indulge the (former) royalty.

It is, after all, the bosom of Islam.

Mecca. Medinah.

Not unlike the Holy See in this regard.

[Mojeoux]

8. God Bless the Poor.

Bless the guts of these people to go against the "holy rulers!" These are "interesting times."

[bobbolink]

25. We all need some blessings somewhere! I admire the tremendous courage!

[devilgrrl]

13. You mean that Saudi Arabia isn't a radical Islamic state ALREADY?

How much worse could they get?

[sharesunited]

15. At the moment, the clergy works for the royals. Yes, it can get worse.

[Exultant Democracy]

27. Don't tell me... it could get so bad that a bunch of Saudi's fly planes into American landmarks?

[loudsue]

38. That's what a lot of people forget : Saudis = 9/11 AND

a 6% ownership of Newscorp (Fox news, rupert murdock, propaganda) . Everything that has been going on in the world seems to be tied together pretty tightly. And it appears that our side --- the side of the PEOPLE of the world -- isn't winning. It's the UBERPEOPLE who have called the shots for all of us.

[Exultant Democracy]

40. religion may be the opiate of the masses, but FoxNews is the crank methamphetamine

[Jester Messiah]

11. Liking it.

Those harassment squads of theirs from the ministry "for the prevention of vice" are just bullshit incarnate. About time the younger generation stood up for themselves.

[Juche]

12. Wait until food prices skyrocket

My understanding is we are on the brink of a food price explosion, that is going to cause ripples of revolt everywhere when combined with internet access and this recession.

I hope the US undergoes some of this. Saddest part is for everyone fighting against injustice, exploitation and tyranny there is a teabagger fighting for those things. But maybe that is the case in every nation. These mideast nations have conservatives and plutocrats trying to put down the rebellions too.

[Lard]

18. You said it

It's on the way.

[tekisui]

16. If the people come out in Saudi Arabia in comparable numbers to Egypt,

SA will mow them down.

It would be a blood bath. What would the US do? Probably take the middle of the road, fuck the people, stance.

[Ikonoklast]

34. They've done it before.

The House of Saud has no problem using overwhelming deadly force in order to maintain their parasitic hold on that oil revenue.

[robdogbucky]

35. RE: that oil revenue

I wonder what this will mean to the equation and the direction of things to come?


WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices

US diplomat convinced by Saudi expert that reserves of world's biggest oil exporter have been overstated by nearly 40%


"The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show.

The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

The revelation comes as the oil price has soared in recent weeks to more than $100 a barrel on global demand and tensions in the Middle East. Many analysts expect that the Saudis and their Opec cartel partners would pump more oil if rising prices threatened to choke off demand..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/08/saudi-oil-reserves-overstated-wikileaks

[Bosso 63]

17. Saudi Arabia

It's just a matter of time until they collapse, then all bets are off.

[Dorian Gray]

19. Now this will be interesting

(not that what's happening in Egypt isn't.)

[thereismore]

20. 2000 members on Facebook is not a massive protest. Hardly a peep. nt

[slackmaster]

21. Heads will roll!

This is going to be fun!

[dkofos]

30. literally

[bemildred]

22. Nice get. Hang onto your hats. nt

[woo me with science]

23. Wanna take bets on how long they have Facebook and Twitter? nt

[Waiting For Everyman]

24. I think this needs to be global - in every country.

Here too. Everywhere has the same disease - just at different stages of development: wealth-fascists (and their hired lackeys and thugs).

What we need is a network of unions, encompassing most of the non uber-rich. And then, take that global.

Otherwise, we'll be playing whack-a-mole around the world - knock them down in one place, and they'll get stronger in another. Who has time for that? We need to get a grip on the whole gang of them at some point, especially through the banksters.

[robertpaulsen]

28. Be Careful What You Wish For - You Just Might Get It

This is part of a blog post that I wrote last week:

Sometime in the future, there will come a real day of reckoning for the USA. It may happen in the wake of revolution spreading across the Middle East this year or it may not happen until the 20's. But sometime in this generation we will face the day when we face the reality that maintaining an empire of friendly regimes protecting a http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-11-11/iea-acknowledges-peak-oil">permanently decreasing supply of non-renewable resources is economically unsustainable. As a result of this, governments in the future will have to focus on relocalization, regardless of whether they are 1st world or 3rd world countries, if they want to serve the interests of their citizens and alleviate the risk of a revolt.

Oh sure, we could get lucky where Saudi Arabia is concerned. Maybe the House of Saud can continue their stranglehold on power like the House of Kim in North Korea, just starve 'em into submission. Or perhaps a democratic uprising will result in a representative government that wants to remain allies with the US. But what if they don't want to? http://www.iags.org/futureofoil.html">Over 60% of all proven oil supplies in the world are in the Middle East. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_oil_politics#Saudi_Arabia">25 percent is in Saudi Arabia alone. 100% is currently priced in dollars. What if they decided to price it in another currency? Where is it carved in stone that the indigenous people of countries halfway across the globe must have our best interests at heart, even at the expense of their own? Are we prepared to use the same armed forces currently stretched to the breaking point in Afghanistan and Iraq to enforce our interests at the expense of a population trying to express the freedom for self-determination?

more...

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2011/02/be-careful-what-you-wish-for-you-just.html

[Matariki]

29. Wow. That's 2000 courageous people.

Wasn't a Saudi blogger just arrested for posting in support of the Egyptian protesters? Pretty repressive regime to go against.

I wish them well. Power to them.

[Uzybone]

31. LOL

Seriously...LOL

A facebook page.

[Gold Metal Flake]

32. A facebook page that could get a Saudi user beheaded.

What they are doing requires some guts.

[Uzybone]

33. Facebook isn't banned in Saudi Arabia

where did you hear that people could get beheaded by the Saudi govt for a protest facebook page?

[Gold Metal Flake]

36. I think using it to form protest groups is the oopsie.

[onethatcares]

37. it seems to boil down to employment

and for some reason, the entire world is suffering from underemployment and a lack of workers rights.

I may be missing something, but when men (and women) have an opportunity to provide for themselves and their families we welcome it.

At this juncture, everyone else seems to be as wealthy as the house of Saud while we peons are wondering if we'll be able to continue

to live in the homes we bought when they needed us.

But back to the original, what the hell happened to the jobs throughout the world? They couldn't have all gone to China.

[jobendorfer]

39. a fundamental problem

Mechanization, mass production, robots, and automation are erasing jobs on a vast scale.
A hundred-odd years ago, 80% of the U.S. workforce worked in agriculture. Today? 4 percent, and we're feeding a much larger population.
The world-wide demand for whatever kind of product, widget, whatever, can be satisfied by a workforce that is much smaller than the world's population. For example: how many people in the world work in the semiconductor industry? Probably a few million. But a few million is a tiny fraction of six billion.

This has far-reaching implications. We either go to some form of socialism, or to feudalism. We can't stay where we are.

J.