Originally Posted by
kungfu panda
I take an entirely different view. The middle East is a very volatile region and Saudi Arabia under the Monarchy has pretty well remained stable and maintained a relatively peaceful status quo despite Iran trying to surround them on 3 sides. They keep a pragmatic, peaceful relationship with Israel. Domestically, the vast majority of Saudi's are very happy with the system and live comfortably as part of a well educated middle class. Rapid, positive changes have been made with regard to Women's rights, so much so that young Saudi men complain that they can no longer get jobs easily as 75% of new jobs go to women.
Rocking the boat from the outside is a bad idea. It would take so little to push ISIS into power and we'd have large numbers of people executed.
In my opinion, Saudi Arabia has a very reasonable system given the region. It could certainly be a heck of a lot worse.
As long as they cut off heads and bodyparts, cane people and stone people in public (beheadings can be seen in downtown Riyadh on fridays - something to do to enhance the work/live balance on your 8 days off...) I don't see anything "reasonable" in the system. Don't get confused by shiny new buildings, mega projects and festivals - Saudi Arabia is a very deeply conservative society and I would not consider it a place that many expact pilots with given experience should move to - unless they are really desperate to find a new job.