Saudi Arabia

1
Saudi Arabia
2
Thesis

• Saudi Arabia is a semi modern nation because they
  are economically advanced and are making programs
  and advances with technology and political
  rights. Unfortunately, compared to the western
  standards of modernity there are large amounts of
  human rights violations and poor distribution of
  wealth that negates the progress that the country
  is currently making.

3
Overview

• Saudi Arabia borders the Persian Gulf and the Red
  Sea and is North of Yemen.
• There are 27,019,731 people in the country.
• It is 100 Muslim, 90 Arab and 10 Afro-Asian
• The Language spoken is Arabic

4
Politics

• The type of government is a Monarchy
• The King and Prime Minister is ABDALLAH bin Abd
  al-Aziz Al Saud
• As of now all legislators are appointed by the
  king
• They intend to start having elections for part of
  the legislative branch
• Only men that are over 21 would be able to vote

5
Economy

• Most of the money gained goes to the Royal family
  because they own most of the oil fields and keep
  the income.
• They are trying to increase the amount of jobs by
  replacing foreign workers with Saudis in the oil
  industry.
• 14.9 of the population lives in poverty

6
Rights

• Women are not allowed to divorce their husband.
• Women do not have the right to vote.
• Have the death penalty for increasing consumption
  of heroin and cocaine and drug trafficking. Also
  for murder or rape.
• Constraints on freedom of speech.

7
Examples

• 11 academics were arrested for openly criticizing
  the government.
• People are arrested or killed by the secret
  police for things ranging from terrorists to
  political critics. The government does not report
  any of those killings or arrests.
• A man beat his wife for picking up the phone and
  fractured 13 bones in her face. She made it
  public and finally got to go in front of an all
  male jury to present her case. Her husband was
  sentenced to 6 months in jail and 300 lashes. He
  only served half of his sentence and it was not
  reported if he was lashed.
• Contrary to that, a man was arrested for
  possessing a bible and allegedly selling alcohol.
  He was sentenced to 10 months in prison and 300
  lashes. 8 months into his sentence he was
  deported backto his native country of India.

8
Education

• There is a 78 literacy rate (84 of males and
  70 of females)
• 1.4 of the population are physicians.
• 5.8 of the gross domestic product were devoted
  to education.
• 78.8 of the education fund goes to pre
  elementary and elementary schools.

9
Heath

• Infant mortality rate for males is 14.71 deaths/
  1000 births and for females is 10.83 deaths/ 1000
  births
• Life expectancy for males is 73.66 and for
  females is 77.78
• No one in the country has HIV or AIDS
• 5 of the population has no access to a water
  source.
• 5.8 of the population will not live past 4
• There was a program in the 90s that tried to
  make heath care free for everyone in the nation.

10
Technology

• 9.2 million people have cell phones
• 208 airports
• 117 television station
• 2.54 million people with internet
• A main reason there are these advances is because
  of the high number of foreign workers.

11
Conclusion

• Saudi Arabia is partially a modern nation because
  of the money that is coming into the nation
  because of oil. Yet, the majority of that money
  is going to the royal family so there is a poor
  distribution of wealth.
• There is an abundance of human rights violations
  that push that modernity back.
• The western standards of modernity do not
  classify a monarchy as a modern form of
  government.
• There is a high literacy rate so that shows a
  good amount of education, yet there is not a lot
  of money from the government that goes into the
  education system.
• There is good heath care in the country that
  supports its modernity.