Neom: Saudi Arabia sentences tribesmen to death for resisting displacement

Re:Neom: Saudi Arabia sentences tribesmen to death for resis... by throwaway2203 on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @10:32AM (#33163822)

That's barely 2-3 generations vs 350 years of colonialism. Most of government and the civil service is aligned around colonial lines with heavy weightage on the top. As other commentators have pointed out, systemic poverty and a lack of education prevent the kind of uplifting that would allow the country to shrug off colonialism.

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Re:Neom: Saudi Arabia sentences tribesmen to death for resis... by FredPret on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @05:04PM (#33169234)

2-3 generations is enough to see an upward trend. South Korea went from proper third world to completely first world in that timeframe.

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Re:Neom: Saudi Arabia sentences tribesmen to death for resis... by throwaway2203 on Wednesday October 12, 2022 @11:08AM (#33178077)

I think there's been a pretty strong upward trend, but not much compared to South Korea for sure.

We had a setback in the 70s, first with the war with India and then 80s where Zia weaponized religion (with western support!) to fight the USSR in Afghanistan. We're still reeling from that. All the nastiest laws you read about in the news (death to blasphemers, rape victims getting jailed for adultery) are from that era.

But I think if you look at poverty, literacy graphs etc, you'll see an upward trend. Even democracy seems stronger than it was when I was a child, though I think we've regressed when it comes to media freedom.

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