Poverty in Saudia

[ZooZoo]

This Pic look like Indian suburban Cities...

 

[Aramagedon]

Poverty in the Kingdom of Gold
It is not easy for Saudi Arabia to acknowledge that poverty exists in its society known for its wealth of oil and natural resources, which fills its coffers with money — is not expected to accept its growing poverty crisis. The stereotypical image of Saudis places them nowhere near poverty. It portrays them as rich individuals that squander their money to fulfill their desire to consume unnecessary goods and wants. One cannot imagine a poor Saudi citizen living in a modest home and spending three-quarters of his salary to secure basic needs of food and water.

Acknowledging the presence of poor citizens

It took the kingdom quite a long time to concede to the presence of poor people. Perhaps the openness of Saudis to the virtual world and social networking sites pushed this reality to the forefront of the minds of officials and people. Many short films, videos and pictures exposed cases of poverty and introduced it to the government and citizens. These films discussed the suffering of families living under the poverty line, and showed men discussing the details of their miserable lives characterized by their low-incomes, which sometimes does not exceed $50 per month. One Saudi discussed how he is supporting his family, which is made up of eight married and unemployed men, while another spoke about how he was arbitrarily fired and posted his appeal to the king on YouTube.

What went wrong and how did the situation in the kingdom deteriorate to that extent?

The absence of accurate figures and official statistics for a long time made the issue of poverty in Saudi Arabia highly debatable. Everyone had a say on this issue, yet no one was able to propose a solution to uproot it. So far, no one has acknowledged the fact that the crisis is snowballing and that poverty is affecting the healthy environment that the kingdom wants to secure for its citizens. According to this year’s statistics, the government announced that the social security services have benefited around 800,000 cases. A case is a unit indicating one Saudi family, with the average family size in Saudi Arabia being between six to eight people. The Ministry of Social Affairs announced later on that its services would include families of up to 15 persons. Hence, according to calculations based on the aforementioned data, the number of poor people in Saudi Arabia exceeds 6 million out of 20 million, which is the estimated population of Saudi Arabia. The increase in the number of beneficiaries from social security services indicates a decrease in the size of the middle class, thus turning the latter into lower class.

Link to the US Federal Reserve

The Saudi economy suffers from being associated with the policies of the US Federal Reserve, which has suffered from a number of disadvantages in the past ten years. This link made the Saudi economy prone to massive inflation and led to a decline in the purchasing power of the Saudi riyal. This is despite the support provided by the government for basic goods and materials. The rapid increase in commodity prices did not go hand-in-hand with an increase in salaries, which led many families to suffer from the high cost of living. The society attempted to deal with this situation by pressuring the owners of companies and wealthy men to stop the increase in food costs, by boycotting them. The recent campaign was to boycott the purchase of chicken after the price doubled.

High cost of living and housing crisis

In addition to the high cost of basic needs, the recent period witnessed a housing crisis and an increase in the cost of rents. Statistics have shown that 80% of Saudis live in rented houses, and owning a house has become a dream for Saudis due to the rise in land prices and construction costs, which have reached unimaginable rates. This rise further pressured citizens earning minimum wage (which does not exceed $600 a month), who are paying for food, water and housing for families that are made up of at least six members.

Unemployment, which has spread throughout Saudi society and plagued a large segment of its citizens due to the presence of a foreign workforce, has led to further worsening the issue of poverty. The concept of family in Saudi Arabia falls within the scope of the extended family, in other words the children after marriage continue to live with their families.

What is the strategy?

The kingdom attempted to set a strategy to fight poverty. According to the minister of social affairs, the present plan is intended to treat corruption and its four main causes:
1. Finding a solution to unemployment that led Saudi Arabia rank second after Iraq with the highest unemployment rate in the Middle East and the Arab world.
2. Finding a solution to the housing crisis and the rising cost of rents.
3. Finding a solution to the issue of minimum wages and the rising cost of living.
4. Accelerating the implementation of development projects and balanced development projects between different areas.

Pumping money into the economy is not a radical solution to the issue of poverty; it is rather a temporary numbing of the situation that will make individuals further depend on aid. It would have been better to treat the roots of the crisis, instead of focusing on treating the surface of the crisis by distributing food supplies and depending on charity aid. The government could have provided the needy with food stamps, which would allow them to buy food at reasonable prices in shopping centers.

Jazan is the poorest city in Saudi Arabia. It is situated in the south of the country and the number of families suffering from extreme poverty amounts to 19,700. Al-Qasim is the least poor area in Saudi Arabia. According to the anti-poverty national strategy “the percentage of families living under poverty line in Jazan is 34%.” Najranin in southern Saudi Arabia is the second poorest area with 24.53% of its families living under poverty line, followed by al-Madinah, situated in the west, with 24.07%, and the area situated at the northern border with 23%.

 

[Indus Falcon]

This thread is a typical example of blind hatred. Nothing else!

 

[Aramagedon]

This thread is a typical example of blind hatred. Nothing else!

Stop kissing Suadi regime's feet. Suadis do not give a crap about their people. Many of their people are living with poverty. The only thing that they care is their own family.
Half of oil income belong to Suadi jovial princes and half belong to 28 million people!

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Keep posting photos of illegal African and Asian immigrants. None of those are natives.

Meanwhile in the real world Saudi Arabians have the 11th highest GDP (PPP) per capita and the 33th highest GDP (nominal) per capita in the world.

List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KSA is also the 19th biggest economy in the world and a G-20 Major Economies Member State.

List of countries by GDP (nominal) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

G-20 major economies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Iran on the other hand has a GDP (nominal) per capita that is 5 times lower than that of KSA and lower than that of Jamaica ( ) of all countries! A smaller economy than 9 million big UAE too.

List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Conclusion.

Anway I won't be too harsh on you Mohsenam considering that RM went out yesterday so I am a happy man. This thread made me even more happy.

KSA was not always rich.. For centuries it was land of traders, Dacoits and many ill practices... It was west who found oil and Arab country became rich...

There is a history of Arab attacking rich places (like Hinsusthan and Persia) to survive.

See what Arabs were doing before Oil boom...

तेल से पहले मोती निकालते थे अरबवासी - BBC Hindi

Your article is about pearl fishing in UAE where less than 0,5% of all Arabs lived 100 years ago and less than 0,5% of the 450 million Arabs live today. Nothing to do with KSA either. Keep entertaining us.

The Arabian Peninsula was always one of the richest areas in the world. Millenniums before Islam too. Open a few history books or just google the Incense Trade.

In fact plenty of South Asians and Iranians settled in the Arabian Peninsula. That's called mutual migration due to trade but what do you now about anything?

Fail.

This Pic look like Indian suburban Cities...

That's because the photo IS likely from South Asia or Iran. Nothing to do with KSA. Just google the photo. Another fail in a thread that was meant to fail from the beginning.

Farsis.

This is pure Arabian gold.

@azzo @JUBA @Full Moon @Frosty @Bubblegum Crisis etc.

Anyway what kind of joke thread is this @Horus , @Emmie etc.? I mean seriously guys?

Also what is Saudia? It's called Kingdom of Saudi ARABIA.

 

[JUBA]

At the end of the day the poorest Saudi out there is still richer than the richest Iranian

 

[PurpleButcher]

The stone age didn't end because stones became extinct.... if you know what i mean

 

[B@KH]

people in Saudi should start the Oil Nationalization movement in their country.

 

[Aramagedon]

The House of Saud is a Hotbed for Poverty

When we think of ruling families in a monarchist state, the pre-modern design points to the United Kingdom and Vatican City as “successful” post-modern governance. The UK employs what we call a Constitutional Monarchy, in which the title of King or Queen undertakes various ceremonial and diplomatic duties, while an elected Prime Minister holds most executive power.

The Vatican as we know constitutes an Absolute Monarchy in the form of an appointed Catholic Church official declared as Pope, meaning father. Western media gives heavy precedence to these forms of monarchist states, one being religious, the other hereditary, while dissipating the absolutist power of several other governing states in the Eastern world. The monarchy wielding the most absolutist power for the past 80 years has been the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia became a kingdom in 1932 as King Abdulaziz, also known as Ibn Saud, conquered most of Arabia following his capture of Riyadh in 1902. This led to the Saud family regaining power and controlling Arabia until this day. Unlike the UK, which has about 50 hereditary options in the line of succession for King or Queen, Saudi Arabia’s House of Saud has an estimated 15,000 members of the royal family vying for the throne. 2,000 of these family members control a vast majority of the wealth and power in Saudi Arabia. Here, the king holds absolute political power.

In most political states, corruption occurs in the form of politicians taking advantage of the state and, in a sense, stealing from the state. Here, the king is the state, so he does not have to “steal” from what is already under his power and ownership. This leads to corruption being a part of the inherent structure of its monarchist system, as opposed to a form of political undertaking.

Estimates of the royal net worth are around $1.4 trillion, which the over 10,000princes use as a means for political influence to keep the commoners at bay, while there is a new form of dissension brewing between the state and the people. The inevitable attack against the state is being constantly postponed by paying commoners to favor the state, while distrust among the people grows even larger.

Given the exorbitant amount of wealth Saudi Arabia possesses, poverty should not be an issue. However, about a month ago, a twitter campaign with the Arabic hashtag, #الراتب_مايكفي_الحاجة, meaning “The salary does not meet my needs,” reached over 17 million tweets in the first two weeks. At its peak, it reached 1.2 million tweets a day and was the 16th most popular hashtag around the world, while being the most popular hashtag in Arabic.

This is a massive online demonstration that shows Saudi Arabia’s wealth (precisely allocated to the royal’s) is not allowing for its common citizens to live a genuinely comfortable life. Meanwhile, the House of Saud is paying handouts that amount to about a third of the government budget to countries like Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia, while also paying for the new Riyadh Metro “mega project.”

The online protests against the disparity of wealth distribution are a sign of small demonstrations that have already been taking place in Saudi Arabia against the House of Saud. People are realizing the more they delay this process of rebellion, the more self-destructive this so-called revolution could be.

Change is occurring in Saudi Arabia, and a paradigm shift in this absolutist monarchy is seemingly shifting, albeit gradually.

At the end of the day the poorest Saudi out there is still richer than the richest Iranian

Who want you fool?
Most of your people are living below line of poverty while criminal Saud house is looting SHIA oil wealth mostly in Western countries.

 

[Frosty]

I do feel sorry for the African illegals in Saudi Arabia who preform hajj and never go back. Now, what's that have to do with Saudi Arabians?

 

[Saho]

You can't just pick one country, you just chose them to incite flamewar because of your flag, this Iran v Saud rivalries but hey unfortunately, poverty exist in every countries, you won't find any countries with 0% poverty rate so it's a useless topic.