Saudi Arabia is a country that has burst onto the geopolitical scene in modern times. Like a mirage in the desert, the view of this huge country is blurred. It is difficult to ascertain what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stands for as it undergoes rapid development and continues to see its importance increase on the global stage of geopolitics.
There are three distinct versions of Saudi Arabia;
Utopia for those who believe it.
Dystopia for those who see it.
Mafia for those who oppose it.
The ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is Mohammed bin Salman, “MBS”. The Saud family is made up of 15,000 members with ultimate power held by MBS. The ruling family’s mission is to make believe that Saudi Arabia is one filled with seemingly perfect conditions and amenities, a pure Utopia. To support this, in recent years there has been a Westernization of Saudi Arabia which has led many to buy into the narrative that this is a sign of a good house with a nice family that just happen to live in a bad neighbourhood.
To keep pace with the illusion of a Utopia, Saudi Arabia has turned to funneling huge sums of money into sports and entertainment. They have bought Newcastle United, hosted UFC and boxing events along with F1 races and last year launched their own golf tour, LIV. All of this is a distraction from the underlying Dystopia. Humans often idolize famous sportspeople. The more big events, bright lights and all the rest of that bollox that can be put on show, the more people will believe this idea of a Utopia. This “bollox” I refer to, is sports-washing at its finest. Expect Saudi’s excursions into this shady market to continue and as the need to distract from reality will continue to grow, their sports-washing-machine will come under savage pressure.
The Dystopia version of Saudi Arabia is already a world of reality for millions of people.
Not all Saudi’s are equal. You have members of the royal family; The House of Saud, and you have non-members. The non-members are further split religiously into those that follow Sunni-Islam, same as the ruling family, and those that follow Shia-Islam. Irish readers will be sadly too familiar with the issues that can arise from two sides of the same branch of religion sharing the one piece of land. Tensions among these various factions of the population have a strong and dangerous current beneath the surface.
To keep a lid on local tensions and divisions, the rulers of the Kingdom provide generous welfare to maintain a smile on everybody’s face. These handouts are directly financed by the rewards reaped from keeping the country’s oil hooked into the veins of the world’s economies. As of late, the level of state welfare has begun to decrease in line with Saudi’s shrinking oil reserves which is fostering a sense of distaste among the local population.
At the surface, it is difficult to see this Dystopian view. Many are afraid to speak ill of their almighty-overlord. There are many stories of people disappearing or being hauled off in public in the middle of the day. This growing sense of paranoia causes many to now be afraid to speak in the company of a mobile phone, for fear of being recorded.
Over the Christmas, I saw this myself while perched in a pub chatting to a friend home for the holidays who is working in Saudi. I asked how his job was going and before he answered, he took out his phone and switched it off before he spoke another word. My request for it to be turned back on so MBS could directly get an ear-full of my mind with 6 or 7 pints on board was declined, unfortunately.
To make matters worse, it is not just non-member Saudis that are beginning to see the State for what it is.
“Vision 2030” announced the construction of an immense scale of vanity projects such as brand new city in Neom called “The Line”. Covering a distance equivalent to the distance from Dublin to Limerick, this city will house 9 million people in a 500 meter tall mirror-walled “smart city”. This completely unconventional redesign of a city will be a playground for those with deep pockets; No cars, cool temperatures, train travel end-to-end in 20 mins, home deliveries of goods within minutes.
To meet this aggressive timeline to maintain the vison of the Utopia, you need a clear runway and lots of manpower. To clear the way, the tribes that lived on the site for generations have been forcibly removed. For manpower – the cheaper, the better. The migrant population of Saudi stands at over 13 million people, over 33% of their total population. Many of these migrants come from poor countries across Africa in the hope of earning a better life. Unfortunately the conditions many of them face is what has been described by Human Rights Watch as “inhumane, degrading conditions”. These exploited people are trapped in the Dystopia world in order to serve the needs of those in the Utopia.
Without a successful diversification of the economy, by continuing to rely on oil revenues, the piggy bank providing these generous handouts will shrink. With this inevitable pull back of the welfare system, the flow of people from the Utopia to the Dystopia will increase.
The Mafia version of Saudi Arabia is one that underpins the entire state with tentacles that are far reaching. The Mafia’s mandate is to keep the veil of a Utopia in place. Occasionally the world will get a glimpse of the Mafia state at work, stamping out the unwanted weeds growing in Saudi Arabia’s garden of Utopia, with a heavy hand.
Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist working for the Washington Post who had grown to see Saudi Arabia as a Dystopia and actively publicized his negative views of the Kingdom. Jamal was in Turkey in 2018 where he was lured into the Saudi embassy. From here, he was met by 15 Saudi lads who had been flown into the country specifically to do a job on him. Jamal was brutally dismembered within the embassy. The killing of a journalist in this fashion shocked the world as it showed Saudi Arabia and its leader MBS had no issue in behaving like a mafia.
At a G20 meeting shortly after this incident, many of the main players of global geopolitics turned their back on MBS. Despite this shunning, there was one little man that was happy to find out that he wasn’t the only crooked fucker at the meeting of world leaders;
This 2018 incident was a sad tragedy to the world. However, only a few months prior this incident, a bizarre series of events unfolded which was less tragic but just as shocking.
In the neighbouring country Lebanon, the Shia-Islam movement was growing in influence. MBS wasn’t the happiest with these developments as the Saudi family followed Sunni-Islam, so he concocted a remarkable show of aggressive and clumsy Mafia-like behaviour.
The Prime Minister of Lebanon was invited to pack his shorts and shades, and come to the Utopia of Saudi Arabia for a friendly camping trip with MBS himself, how cute. Excited to roast some marshmallows and get cosy with his buddy MBS, the PM stepped off the plane in Saudi into what he thought was the beginning of his trip to paradise. The trap was immediately sprung. The Mafia swooped in, the PM of Lebanon was quickly separated from his own bodyguards where his phone was confiscated and he was thrown into the world of the Dystopia. US intelligence suggest the PM was brought into a dark room, sat in a chair and slapped repeatedly. Under this intimidation and pressure, he was then handed a written speech and told to sit down in front of a camera to announce his resignation as PM of Lebanon.
This baffling event is the equivalent of Leo Varadkar being kidnapped by the English due to a growing Catholic sentiment in Ireland and being forced to announce his resignation. With the world faced with an obvious kidnapping and hostage situation of a world leader by a foreign power, frantic phone calls were made to Saudi from diplomats around the world demanding an end to this circus. After a few days of pleading with the Saudi’s, the PM was allowed to go home. Once home, sure enough, he announced he wasn’t going to resign after all. No official explanation for this bizarre event was ever given, but it revealed to the world the level of ballsy aggression the Saudis were willing to go to, to protect the vison of the Utopia.
In a normal world, the kidnapping and hostage situation of a world leader, followed by the brutal murder of a journalist would lead to repercussions and sanctions. This was far beyond that of the Watergate scandal or worse, the 2012 Mahon Tribunal that forced the resignation of the Irish PM, Bertie Ahern, after he took a few brown envelopes too many. Justice looked to be on track when Joe Biden condemned MBS saying he would make Saudi Arabia “a Pariah State” and that they would “pay the price” for the murder of Jamal.
Even non-political players such as Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post who Jamal worked for, condemned the actions. Jeff announced that Amazon would boycott an upcoming economics forum event in Saudi and even stall a $1 billion deal to build Amazon data centers in the country.
Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia is no normal world.
Not long after, there were rumours of Bezos having an affair and of “intimate photos” being leaked. Following this, Bezos’ 25 year marriage wasn’t long going up in smoke. It was then reported that Jeff’s phone was hacked, from a text he received directly from MBS himself. The message was clear to private individuals – don’t you dare tamper with the Utopian veil over the Dystopian state.
As for the players in the great game of geopolitical chess, as the great saying I just made up goes,
“Memory tends to be short when the supply line of valuable resources is long.” Geopolitical Irish Lad, 2023
Joe Biden declared MBS would “pay the price”, but this fist bump when meeting MBS in Saudi tells a different story. This fist bump marked a new era for the Saudi state. This historically poor, meaningless country is now one of the most powerful on the global stage of geopolitics, and can get away with Mafia like actions like no other. To understand how we have got to the point of one man being able to stand up to the global superpower, the US, subscribe for Part 2.
In the 4th paragraph, you mentioned that the royal family followed Shia Islam, which is incorrect. Otherwise, it's a really great piece.