Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I cannot believe that all government buildings and Buckingham Palace are flying flags at half mast (in addition to David Cameron and Prince Charles flying out to Saudi) in order to show solidarity with a vicious dictatorship. Does anyone feel differently? What the hell is going on?

Saudi Arabia is Brutal regime where Men women and children are flogged on a daily basis.


Hangings, Beheadings and Beatings (Lashing)..


Even Stoning to death but more rarer these days.. since 2007.


Yet GB and many other countries have given Saudi Arabia

their blessing and continue to trade with them..


What price Oil. ?


Much info available on Google but far too disturbing to post here.


DulwichFox

It's not about oil as such, it's about arms sales. We are one of the world's biggest producers and sellers of arms (in the top four no less) and Saudi is our biggest customer. This homage to the king's death is about business, and business doesn't care about human rights.

I don't know enough about it to really comment, but someone on the radio was suggesting that the human rights atrocities are more to do with the religious leaders that the royal family.


Like I say, I don't know too much about it, but it was another viewpoint.

FWIW I wrote elsewhere:

Are we junkies who hate the pusher but love the drug?


Of course King Abdullah was a ghastly and inhumane leader of a corrupt and vicious dynasty, but I wonder if our fawning politicians and royals (and those of dozens of other countries) are, in fact, a lightning rod for our own hypocrisy.


Our civilisation could not exist without copious quantities of cheap fossil fuels, not just for transportation, heating and power, but for large-scale agriculture, plastics, fabrics and a multitude of uses for which there are no viable alternatives ? at least not ones which would keep us in the comfort to which we've become accustomed. And, of course, Saudi Arabia is and has been for some time the world's no. 1 oil producer and will be for decades to come.


Not only that, but the UK's massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia means tens of thousands of hi-tech ? and ordinary ? jobs in the UK. So the blatant corruption associated with these deals is seen by politicians, however cynically, as smoothing the way to ensure that these jobs and skills are safe. The UK arms industry is responsible for some 22% of world 'defence' exports, employing some 300,000 people here and constituting more than 10% of our manufacturing industry.


Yes, it's horrible, but if we have a hopeless addiction to oil, it's not much use complaining that our 'pusher' is a violent and evil crook. And if we rid ourselves of our oil addiction (never mind our reliance on arms sales), we will make ourselves poorer. Are we prepared to accept that?

DulwichFox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Well they took out Saddam and Gadafi so why not

> this mob ?


In short, because this lot have more money. If we started taking out people merely because they were murderous, slave-trafficking scum, half the developments in London would still be on the drawing board, and the City would have to find an honest way to make a living.

Good post BNG and of course there is some truth to this. There is a degree of necessary compromise and Real Politik, but we are talking about trade with the Saudis, not charity from them.. Both parties get something from these contracts, we don't need to fawn, as if we owe them something. World 'leaders' could actually come together and demand change far more forcefully. The behaviour this week has been cowardly and shameful.

The fear from the West, though, is that should they criticise or undermine the Saud regime, any internal uprising would destabilise the oil markets.


The West's nightmare scenario is a anti-Western theocracy taking over in Saudi. Remember that bin-Laden was a relative of the Saudi royal family who renounced them for allowing US forces into Saudi as part of Gulf War I.


A Saudi Arabia that doesn't sell oil at cheap rates or buy western arms is a terrifying prospect for those concerned.

Sa still produce at less than $5 a barrel or whateves - cheapest around- they can wing low oil prices until everyone else has dropped out. Indigenous US oil production is its death throes, not much left, hard to get. expensive to get out - hence the move towards shale and biomass based alternates. UK is stuffed and Thatch spunked the proceeds when it was affordable ( little bit of politics there) , now its nowhere near competitive


truth is, there isnt anyone who can compete on reserve or extraction price with the wahhabi wankers and they know it

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • hallo, Do you have a suitcase for a student going to Ghana to teach sports? Taking a parachute, cones, mini hurdles, batons and dodge balls and a pump, then leaving it there for the school If I could have any old suitcase please it would be amazing! Thank you
    • Looking to borrow a gazebo for birthday party this Saturday, can you help? Julian - 07961463111
    • Whilst I agree, I have been thinking about this recently in relation to some of the other posts on here about anti social behaviour. We are all products of our upbringing - our experiences at home, school and beyond - plus whatever we have inherited genetically which might affect our behaviour (the nature/nurture thing). So in this case, if people haven't been brought up to love and appreciate trees and other wild things, plus as you say they may be deeply unhappy (or have other undiagnosed issues) it's easy to see how they could have ended up doing this. Also, it's possible they had quite low intelligence and didn't really grasp what they were doing and the effect it would have on so many other people. But that's just surmise and possibly completely wrong. From what I've read about it, they seemed to be two mates egging each other on, like two big kids. I'm not for a minute excusing what they did, and it's right they should be punished, but I really hope they might get some sort of rehabilitation in prison (it would  be appropriate to have them do some kind of community service like planting saplings, wouldn't it, or working in woodland conservation). And the same goes for phone robbers and shoplifters (rehabilitation, not planting saplings), though for SOME  shoplifters there might also be other issues at play, not excluding poverty. Sorry Jasonlondon,  I've gone off at a real tangent here, lucky it's in the lounge! Oh oops I've just noticed it isn't. Sorry admin. Oh, and then there's a whole philosophical discussion to be had about free will and determinism ..... 🤣🤣🤣
    • Thanks! I'll find out in a few weeks when I get the results! It was one of those disconcerting things where a disembodied voice keeps booming  at you to breathe in and hold it, then breathe normally. Apart from that it was OK, all completely painless. I imagine there will be quite a few people going from ED, though I presume it covers the whole Southwark area 
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...