Golden Minerals Company

Ah the house of Saud... good f'n riddance if this actually goes down. There is hardly a regime anywhere with less legitimacy to lead than the Saudi Arabian kingdom.

The only reason this backwards kingdom has survived this long is that they have been thoroughly propped up by the US. The problem is... any collapse by SA spells serious, serious trouble for western nations and could pre-empt the peak oil scenario we are all so familiar with. There is no replacement for Saudi oil... whenever the world is in trouble, its good old King Fahd who says "don't worry, we will just ramp up our production". What happens if it's the King himself in trouble this time? Oil Sands? Ha... not a chance. Alternative energy? Nah, we've been too busy printing and spending imaginary money and watching the fake US jobless rate numbers to put much thought into the whole oil dependency issue. Nuclear Fission is about 50 years away by even the most optimistic guess.

In actual fact, many think the Kingdom has been bluffing anyhow and has far less reserves then they have stated... something we would find out about soon enough anyhow (I personally think it's true).

Here's my guess... the Saudi Kingdom WILL fall. Why? It's simply the most hypocritical and oppressive regime on the planet. Ask any Middle Easterner for a story about Saudis. You will hear stories about the abduction of little boys from other arab nations as 'camel riders' (to provide to sick pedophiles with money), you will hear of Saudi's men in Bahrain on wild drugged up, drunken, prostitute garnering hedo escapes... you will hear of a society where 90% of export and 75% of government income comes from only one source, but only a fraction is spend on the nation or on infrastructure. In this hypocritical soup many terrorists have been created due to their pure hatred of this wealth and power that parades as Islamic, but is anything but. It is in this Kingdom that the holiest site of Islam, the center of the religion, Mecca resides... which by the way is the second largest source of income in the Kingdom (all Muslims must make a pilgrimage there once in their life if they are able)... and yet hosts some of the least Islamic leaders on the planet.

Think about this: It is forbidden in Islam for a man to wear gold in public (as it is an obscene display of wealth)... it is considered the cornerstone of the religion to give charity to others, especially those closest to you (family, other Arab nations) and it is especially considered noble to give charity in anonymity. In addition, it clearly states that in Islam a rich man will find it hard to reach the kingdom of heaven... hmm how does this all compare with the current leadership and top business men in their nation? Not well eh?

I have personally watched them in many nations of the region. They reek of arrogance and power, they treat others like vermin and they are usually dripping in gold and other overt displays of wealth. Even the 'lucky' amongst the women have found ways to spend millions on black Abayas (traditional head to toe dresses) with things like DIOR spelled out in multi-carat diamonds across their back. They give next to nothing to their Arab neighbors who have been unlucky enough to find little oil. Even in their own country, unemployment is rampant. Per capita income is less than 25,000 USD despite enormous amounts of money inflow and a very small national population.

So who is oppressed there? Easier to ask who isn't really. All women (they can be forced to marry from as young as 10 years old), all Shiite Muslims, pretty much all non-western foreigners etc. Even amongst the Suni male population, there is little popularity for a government portrays itself as Islamic and yet has shown no problem with supporting any and all attacks on other muslims in the region. The cosiness with the US extended to the 2010 announcement to provide a 60+ BILLION arms deal to Saudi. While this relationship has been very good for the West, it is viewed as obscene and vile to the majority of the nationals.

Now why would the US sell so many weapons to an oppressive, non-democratically elected government with an abysmal human rights record (public executions, including stonings) despite all US rhetoric about freedom, democracy et al.? Perhaps they know what the Saudi King knows... he's not popular and Saudi Arabia is the Achilles heel of the US.

So... a nation with 200,000 soldiers armed with a gabizillion weapons will somehow fall to some little protests? Well, in my theory yes. You see they are close to the US and this has been made clear to everyone. They simply cannot shoot their own population (beyond a little here and there) to maintain control. If the King were to 'pull a Gaddaffi', the US would have absolutely no choice, but to say something, do something... perhaps even contemplate supporting "gasp" sanctions! If they didn't... any pretext they have ever had regarding a 'moral superiority' (no matter how thin) would evaporate forever. This is a worst case scenario for the US, and one which has never been more likely. The oppressed are gaining awareness of this. The King is OLD, all of the other leaders in the nation are OLD, the population is young and disenchanted, the spoils for any victor could not be higher, the environment in the Middle East is on fire. This is their time.

I can only hope so for the people of the nation and actually for all of us. Perhaps a real serious shaking of Saudi society will be what it takes to get the world to take a looming energy crisis seriously. On the other hand, I feel like a kid who just shook up a bottle of diet coke filled with menthos and am readying to open the cap (trepidation mixed with awe and anxiety). What will happen? God only knows, so grip your silver/gold and keep thinking the worst... "just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after you."

Soul with some on topic/OT weekend thoughts...