News articles: appearances

[qatarperegrine]

Why is that the BBC writes so much more on the Gulf than anyone else? Today it's an article on Why appearances matter in Saudi.

In other news, I just learned that Robin Cook died this weekend. Alas, poor Robin. You were one cool dude.

Comments

More likely

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

It was more likely to be motivated by wanting to play them off against each other. If the Sauds controlled the entire peninsula, why would they need the British? ;-)

Also, a lot of these "nationalities" were created simply to pay off some local war-lord or ally. Take the Hashemite Kingdom of [Trans] Jordan, for example. The grandfather of the late King Hussein, "King" Abdullah bin Al-Hussein (the official biography) was actually a very prominent horse-trader who did a LOT of business with the British before and during the World-Wars. They rewarded his loyalty by "giving" him a country, the east half of the British Mandate of Palestine, which technically wasn't thiers to give. :-p

Re: More likely

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the story with the Al Thanis (ruling family) here in Qatar is pretty much the same. But don't tell them I said so. :)