Bolding mine. A cite please for the assertion, that Pakistani and Sudani doctors are more experienced with vetinary work (I know this not to be the case for Pakistan, where being a Vet is highly regulated) and that the Saudis hire people Vets to treat humans in their hospitals.
AK84
No cite as this is pretty obviously hyperbole. It was actually a standard joke amongst the Westerners and Saudis that for one reason or another had to go to a public hospital and survived the experience. Truly, the docs in those public hospitals are appallingly ignorant and downright dangerous for anything worse than a minor cold. If you had something seriously wrong with you it was better to just stay home than to let them get their hands on you.
Regards
Testy
Way down south in Libya, all the cops have wooden legs,
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft boiled eggs.
WRT, shall we say, illiberal islamistic type of education in Saudi Arabia, I do have to wonder if perhaps it serves exactly the same social purpose as liberal humanistic education over here. Namely, while the smarter cohorts are studying useful vocational subjects like engineering, accounting and similar, everybody else is getting a diploma in underwater basketweaving which society requires as credentials for hiring, marriage within the middle class and other pursuits completely unrelated to the subject matter allegedly taught. And AFAIK Saudi measures to promote less collegial BS and more vocational training for skilled work occupations are about as popular as their equivalent in America.
Education is our past. Education is our present. Education is our future, shudder.
You mean a degree in Art History won’t set me up as the next Steve Jobs?
As for the OP, almost every dictatorial, authoritarian nation on the Earth tries to represent itself as the greatest, happiest, wealthiest, most all around awesome place there is. Just look at North Korean propoganda. And then you scratch the surface and see the violence inherent in the system. People tortured, killed and/or disappeared for daring to say that it isn’t all that awesome there.
Thanks for the info. If you look at modern SA, it seems a country totally sustained by oil exports. Can it even feed its population?
And, what happens when the oil runs out?
it’s a bunch of cities in a desert. The area of the Peninsula most suitable for agriculture is known as Yemen ;). I guess the House of Saud thanks their lucky stars continually that they were never allowed to grab that place and have to spend oil money on what eventually turned out to be lots of additional millions of people.
Here is a discussion of Saudi boondoggle of growing grain in the desert http://www1.american.edu/ted/SAUDI.HTM .
At current population they can very well pay for any foods to sustain population.
What happens when oil runs out is a big question, but they have maybe 2 or 3 generations before this.
It it not a bunch of cities in desert. It is a bunch of cities on the edge of the desert. Where the Saudi cities is like Las Vegas.
It is not a good thing, of course
I just wanted to correct the concepts about Qaddafi and his regime.
Lets stand on the points one by one…
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There was a very low tariff on electricity in Libya, but the government was escalating gradually this tariff (1.6 cents / KWH), after the crisis broke in febraury 17th electricity was granted for free to all libyans.
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There have been interests on loans, which was very high and against Islamic practices, which made a lot of libyans not benefit from loans. It was about 15-20 %.
And its too complicated to get loans as a libyan has to provide strong guarantees to get granted one. -
Regarding housing in Libya, its true Qaddafi issued law no. 4 giving a house to every libyan. But instead of building new houses to libyans, he gave allowance that every libyan finding an empty house or even renting a house has the right to privatize this house even without getting back to his real owner. This built distrust between libyan people who dont dare to rent to each other!
Libya is a rich state, and the government can incur the costs of granting a house to every libyan even for free instead of adopting this law no.4 confiscating properties from its original owners and giving it to others!
About Gaddafi’ father who died owning just a tent, I would say he was a bedouin and preferred not to leave his tent. But on the other hand, Gaddafi and his sons are owning luxurious houses in and outside Libya.
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Education and Medical treatment are free in Libya. Deadly correct! But the lows of education and medication are very low that even performing appendicitis operation in libya is life-risky and all libyans have to travel to nearby Tunisia or Egypt or other countries seeking good treatment, even for very simple operations.
Education standard in Libya is very poor. That most libyans have to send their kids after they get high school for courses abroad to improve there performance. -
Subsidizing farming is not very clear. But it might be true. No encouragement, just through connections to get loans on lands and most people dont pay back due to lack of transparency and crediblility. Agriculture in libya is going backwards.
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Funding libyans for medicaitons is true, not as mentioned, it was at the very begining like that but later it hindered due to corruption.
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Libyan cars are not subsidized in Libya. The government once bought cars from abroad on the bank price (0.35 Libyan dinars for dollar) and sold it to libyans on this price whereas the real price for libyan dinar in the market is (1.25 libyan dinars for a dollar).
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Petrol price in libya is as cheap is 0.14 cents / liter this is true.
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Libyan has foreign reserves of 167 US billion dollars…true
The great man made river is not Qaddafi brain storm. It was many years before Qaddafi that this project was submitted for discussion.
Libyans are paying for the Great man made river by paying a monthly tax which is covering its cost and no funds from the government inspite the oil rich country revenues. -
Paying for unemployed is not true and infact, employed libyans themselves are suffering from low salaries due to Law no 15 which equalize all employees with salaries whether seniors or juniors.
Average salary is about 200 USD / Month, Highest would be 400 USD / Month for general managers ( Too low for a state rich country) -
There was something called libyan portfollion where incomes from libyan reserves are paid to libyans, but just few libyans benefit from this and with a lack of transparency. Its more regime show-off than reality.
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Giving birth to children doesnt grant you anything in libya
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every three loaves of bred are for US 0.3 (true)
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NO clue about % of libyans with high educaiton but in general libyans with education (including doctors and engineers) are suffering from low standard education.
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As we say, the Great Man Made River, was a project planned and discussed during the kingdom Era but was set aside due to lack of funding at that time, as libyan oil was discovered later after that. Its might be a beneficial project, no one can deny that, Gaddafi wanted a project to who his glory, and people are benefiting from this project…