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THE DESERT KINGDOM: BALANCING OIL, RELIGION AND REFORM
The world invades Saudi Arabia
Young men dressed in their traditional long white robes and sitting in cybercafés, cellphone to hand; women students shrouded in black, but more numerous than their male counterparts; companies that have grown in the shadow of the state and are now being privatised: as it begins to feel the pressures of globalisation Saudi Arabia is wondering about its future and its values. Crown Prince Abdullah is determined the economy should change but the forces of conservatism are powerful and vested interests innumerable.
by Alain Gresh
Day after day Riyadh nibbles away a few acres of sand. Its broad avenues, almost motorways, spread out in all directions. “Only five years ago there was nothing here”, people explain in the midst of an ultra-modern neighbourhood on the American model, with vast shopping malls, luxury boutiques, (...)
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Le Monde diplomatique, originally published in French, has editions in 25 other languages
