# Saudi Arabia or North Korea: where would you rather live? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378 "2010-07-03T01:41:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/41 "2010-07-04T06:50:32Z")
I wouldn’t want to live in either place. But I feel North Korea is clearly worse than Saudi Arabia. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/42 "2010-07-04T06:58:29Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Anyone voting NK is taking the piss (unless they’re Jewish). > > There are a million and one things wrong with Saudi Arabia, which has shocking values and laws, particularly with regards to women’s rights, but seriously - c’mon. I suspect most votes against SA are either ideological or due to knowing next-to-nothing about the two places. SA is hotter than hell and women don’t exist as human beings. NK is heaven in every sense of the word in comparison. Sign me up for a day in the rice fields if I can go home to my homemade beer and the ability to date women. ---
**Author:** ![lemac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f19dbf/32.png) [@lemac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lemac)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/43 "2010-07-04T07:24:14Z")
North Korea has concentration camps, a lunatic dictator who threatens war every other week and is completely isolated from the rest of the world… It’s probably the worst place in the entire world to live in (barring actual warzones) Saudi Arabia isn’t even in the same league as North Korea when it comes to shittyness. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/44 "2010-07-04T07:35:05Z")
> [@lemac](#): > > North Korea has concentration camps, a lunatic dictator who threatens war every other week and is completely isolated from the rest of the world… It’s probably the worst place in the entire world to live in (barring actual warzones) > Saudi Arabia isn’t even in the same league as North Korea when it comes to shittyness. Saudi Arabia has a religious police that makes Fred Phelps look sane. How much more fucked up can you get than to force little girls back into a burning building because they didn’t have their heads covered? Do they cut your hands off in NK concentration camps for minor offenses? Do they cane 75 year old women for talking to men? Seriously, NK looks like Disney World in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/45 "2010-07-04T07:53:42Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Saudi Arabia. I suspect I would see fewer miserable people than in North Korea. And that would be because you don’t see that many native women in S Arabia. I’d have to pick Korea, not because I think that I’d like it there, but because I’m female. Even if I’m a white Western female, I couldn’t put up with the misogynistic laws in S Arabia. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/46 "2010-07-04T08:07:31Z")
I don’t know much about SA or NK. I just think it would be a little less hassle for me to be in NK and i say this as a nonchristian white woman without a male “guardian” So, please fill us in AK84… ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/47 "2010-07-04T08:17:26Z")
NK for me. At least they’re godless atheists. I’ll take anything over life in a theocracy. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/48 "2010-07-04T09:25:58Z")
Interesting how many people here are saying “North Korea, because I’m female/atheist/both”. From some of the people who’ve been there, what’s life like in Saudi Arabia for a heterosexual male who isn’t an atheist (or can keep their lack/differences of faith to themselves), doesn’t drink alcohol (or not enough to be bothered by no longer having access to it), and doesn’t mind halal food? ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/49 "2010-07-04T11:28:01Z")
I know and like a fair number of Saudis. I could ‘convert’ during my time there and go on Hajj. I’d love to add Hajji to my name. Plus I could hang out and chew the khat with **ClockworkMelon**. This is all assuming that **Ms. Attack** wants to go there. That may be a harder sell. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/50 "2010-07-04T12:13:28Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Interesting how many people here are saying “North Korea, because I’m female/atheist/both”. Or more accuratly, "I am a bloody ignorant, uneducated buffoon, with preconceptions based upon second hand information. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/51 "2010-07-04T13:00:06Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Or more accuratly, "I am a bloody ignorant, uneducated buffoon, with preconceptions based upon second hand information. Well enlighten us then instead of insulting us. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/52 "2010-07-04T13:02:06Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Or more accuratly, "I am a bloody ignorant, uneducated buffoon, with preconceptions based upon second hand information. **AK84**. Dial back on the rhetoric. This is still IMHO, not the PIT. **samclem** Moderator ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/53 "2010-07-04T13:43:37Z")
^ What, factual statements ain’t allowed. I have travelled enough of the world to know that one should never have any preconceptions about any place, I had some about the Southern and some Mid Western parts of the US travelling there as a young S Asian male, and yet I found the experience to be fantastic, the food good the people friendly. I can comment about S Arabia because I lived there, I have never been to N Korea and thus I am unqualified to comment. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/54 "2010-07-04T13:46:57Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Well enlighten us then instead of insulting us. I did and you chose to ignore it it seems. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/55 "2010-07-04T14:17:56Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > ^ > What, factual statements ain’t allowed. > > I have travelled enough of the world to know that one should never have any preconceptions about any place, I had some about the Southern and some Mid Western parts of the US travelling there as a young S Asian male, and yet I found the experience to be fantastic, the food good the people friendly. > > I can comment about S Arabia because I lived there, I have never been to N Korea and thus I am unqualified to comment. Your experience as a male won’t be the same experience as a female. And calling people names is not “factual statements”, it’s being a jerk. If you can give cites that women of whatever religion or origin are NOT systematically repressed in S Arabia, by all means, let’s see them. Not just your experiences, but facts. From other people. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/56 "2010-07-04T14:20:15Z")
You said you enjoyed living there for two years. Great, why then is it ignorant and uneducated to not want to live there if one doesn’t like the idea of a misogynistic theocracy? I’m sure NK is no picnic either, but given the choices as laid out in the OP plenty of people have opted for NK. I really don’t think it is blind ignorance or sectarianism that has made people choose this. They know the best way they want to live their lives and given the OP choice they believe that NK is the lesser of two evils. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/57 "2010-07-04T14:22:33Z")
Saudi Arabia, the pay is better. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/58 "2010-07-04T14:54:01Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Saudi Arabia, the pay is better. Do you think I could get a job teaching English in Saudi Arabia? ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/59 "2010-07-04T15:02:46Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Your experience as a male won’t be the same experience as a female. Not only was he male, but he was a small child. I’m afraid I don’t take the memories of children as a solid basis for how things actually are. I know that my understanding of the world around me when I was eight was pretty far from complete. Either way, he has yet to convince me that as a woman, I would not be faced with systematic discrimination in Saudi Arabia. Are my preconceptions incorrect? If they are, I would be glad to know it, and glad that the women of Saudi Arabia are in a better situation than I had previously thought! ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378/60 "2010-07-04T15:59:31Z")
^ I was a small child when I lived in S Arabia true, but I have been back many times since including about 8 months ago, for periods ranging for a few days to nearky 3 months. On many of these visits I have had to travel with women, muslims women, non muslims, white women and have dealt with expats living in Saudi. So frankly **Kyla’s** assessment does not hold much water. Heres one (admittedly recruitment) bit for S Arabia [http://www.ihrcanada.com/myth.htm](http://www.ihrcanada.com/myth.htm) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-arabia-or-north-korea-where-would-you-rather-live/545378.md?page=4)