As Egypt’s world falls apart, is the ground under the feet of the Saudis beginning to shake?
A very small protest group assembled in Dubai, capital of the United Arab Emirates, this week to demand the release of prisoners the protesting women claimed were unjustly held. Nothing else happened.
Efforts to call protesters into the streets in Syria last week also failed.
But there was a rally in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, that followed the launching of a Facebook page de-manding more jobs and political accountability. Calls also have gone out for protest rallies next week in Bahrain and next month in Kuwait.
The response of the government has been to hand out more goodies. Kuwait, for example, is giving every citizen the equivalent of $3,600, plus pockets full of free food coupons. They say the gifts are to celebrate 50 years of independence.
But free money isn’t satisfying the yearning for free speech, for free political ac-tion.
In short, the autocracies in the Gulf are nervous. They can hand out cash as long as the price of oil stays high. But they can’t hand out individual freedoms without destroying the very foundations upon which their powers and privileges rest.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
