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Unemployment is high. Official figures mask its severity. Young people comprise two-thirds of the Kingdom's 26 million population. An estimated 40% of 20 to 24 year-olds have no jobs. Even well educated Saudis are affected. So are most women.
Around 80% of workers are non-nationals. Most are regional migrants. With no rights whatever, they work for near slave wages. Saudi citizens are shut out.
The Kingdom is largely Sunni. Minority Shiites are marginalized and persecuted. Deep-seated social tensions result. Eastern Province areas are especially affected. Around 90% of proved Saudi reserves are located there.
Significant human rights abuses are commonplace. They include extreme injustice, arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, torture and other physical abuse, public whippings and executions, radical Sunni Wahhabism, corruption, lack of transparency, violence against women, human trafficking, and total lack of freedom.
The combination of poverty, monarchal privilege, and despotism is combustible. Protests erupt. They began principally in Qatif. They spread to other parts of the country.
Last March, large-scale ones followed the arrest and detention of senior cleric Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amer. At issue was his call for constitutional monarchal rule. Security forces responded brutally.
At the time, political analyst Mohamed al-Massari told Press TV that "counter-force" would respond to state repression. "We still have people who are willing to defend their honor with arms," he said. Expect thousands to take to the streets.
Attacking women is especially "stupid," he added. It will have "dire repercussions," he predicted.
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