Man I will settle for JUST one Saudi individual such as yourself to have the mindset you have! Just keep multiplying your thoughts. It may take four more decades, however, we 'the outsiders' need to know that even if the
smallest of progress is being made.
Cheers and enjoy the slow progress. It doesn't matter. You'll succeed one day. And I'll be the first person congratulating you guys!
Change in KSA is generational. Each generation is a complete Alien to the one before it. The great grandfathers of this generation used to go to work in Egyptian, Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian farms and as street cleaners because we didn't have any money and they would send this money back to their families so they can live.
The grandfathers of this generation are divided into Three:
Group A(70%): They followed their father's footsteps and were working outside as well to bring money to their families.
Group B(28%): Went to schools to study the alphabet and numbers and how to read and write. (Note: Most before this were illiterate)
Group C(2%): They were the elite of the society they were the ones who got a college degree early on mostly from foreign countries primarily Egypt, Syria and to a lesser extent the US. (This 2% was worth its weight in Gold and to this day we stand up and salute them)
------Oil Wealth started to kick in between these two----
The fathers of this generation further divided into three groups:
Group A(50%): Only completed primary school and high school to get a government job (A secure job) of which just getting that was enough for one to replace the foreigners who were taking care of everything (Mostly from other Arab countries).
Group B(45%): They went to college and most of this Group went on to become school teachers to replace all the Egyptians, Syrians and Jordanians who were taking care of school teaching the previous generation.
Group C (5%) : These people went on after college to get masters and PhDs to teach in universities who are mostly newly built and are the first generation to actually bring knowledge and cultivate it here even though most of their jobs are administrative.
And finally MY generation who I am still not sure of the Educational mix up of yet but this is what I know:
Group A (40%): They could not get score enough scores in High School and SAT and CKT exams to get into universities they instead mostly have to get Diplomas and go to community colleges to give themselves an edge so they can achieve the required minimum to get into the workforce.
Group B (40%): They have gotten into Universities and are Studying Medicine, Engineering, Computer Science, etc etc. And are the basis of the first actual civilized educated society.
Group C (20%): These are people who are on the King Abdullah Scholarship program which exposes them to western culture and values of how to make a civil society and are intended to cultivate Group B's heading as well as their own into a more Liberal open minded society.
As you may have noticed I tried to cover the percentages that matter in the society. People who are just sitting on their ***** doing nothing will hardly make a dent on the society except on the earlier generations.
Anyways what I meant by this long post is people say "Saudi Arabia is modernizing slowly" while in fact it is doing it very very fast. Frog leaping ages at a time at record speed. Despite how slow it may seem to you.
Okay let us use examples shall we??
In the great grandfather generation tribalism was extremely high, the concept of state or country was absent to most of the population (West being an exception since it was part of Ottoman and were fairly a bit more educated than their eastern, central and southern counterparts). Tribes would even go to war with one another over the silliest of reasons.
In the grandfather generation law and order has been established and the concept of state, rule of law and government begun to sip in but they still had baggage of the previous generation however they shed off the extreme tribalism concept which was slowly replaced with the concept of the state, however for instance in this generation riding a bike was considered a homosexual act which was punishable by public square flogging by the religious police. TV was the tool of the devil and satellite dishes were shot down with guns and rifles and the ones inside would be dragged and flogged for his breaking of law (Government tried liberalizing at the late stages of this generation to disastrous effects).
The father generation rebelled against stupid Bicycle laws and started their own push into a more open minded society by not caring what other people wear or what they watch in their houses or any of those things and instead they would mind their own business and government further regulated the laws to make sure they are clear and no one is punished over stupid things.
My generation is rebelling against Social Norms just like the older one except now we have internet and access to outside the world better so our rebellion against more stupid conservative laws are more overheard by outsiders than before, trust me what the older generations fought was much much worse than say "Women driving" however this one is much much more loud due to outside world greater access into Saudi society even though just by taking a peek and making judgements which I call being ignorant. Right now this generation is trying to do all things liberal societies do and IS doing like (Dating etc.) however I highly doubt this will be a secret thing in the Sons generation.
WoW I don't think I ever summarized Saudi Society history in such a manner before.
The father generation reb
