Helicopter Ben Step Aside, Meet Enola Gay Abdullah: Whorism Goes Global


(Click on images to enlarge.)

And so the scramble to buy people’s love and undying affection moves beyond the Casual Encounters section on Craigslist. After Helicopter Ben and Teleprompter Barack came up with the brilliant plan to give $2,000 to every underwater homeowner, Saudi Arabia blows everyone out of the water with the biggest social whoring attempt to date.

“King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced financial support measures, worth an estimated SR135bn ($36bn), in a bid to avert the kind of popular unrest that has toppled leaders across the region and is now closing in on Libya’s Muammer Gaddafi. The measures include a 15 per cent salary rise for public employees to offset inflation, reprieves for imprisoned debtors, and financial aid for students and the unemployed.”

Unfortunately for Saudi, Bahrain tried this and failed. Also, once you start down this path, there is no turning back, as people demand more and more. Just how many printing presses does Saudi Arabia have? At least we now know that the political system that follows capitalism after its violent end is always and everywhere whorism, in those brief moments before total anarchy takes over and the inevitable systemic reset button is finally pushed.

From the FT:

Saudi Arabia’s ruling family has thus far been spared the type of popular discontent that has toppled presidents in Tunisia and Egypt and brought Libya to the brink of civil war.

The announcement of the Saudi relief measures coincided with King Abdullah’s return to the country after three months. He had been abroad for medical treatment. Among those on hand to greet him was King Hamid bin Isa al-Khalifa of neighbouring Bahrain, which is struggling to contain a surging opposition movement.

The cash-rich Saudi government has pledged to spend $400bn by the end of 2014 to improve education, infrastructure and healthcare. “The king is trying to create wider trickle- down of wealth in the shape of social welfare,’’ said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi. “The budget can handle that, but it is an aspirin to ease medium-term pain, not a solution for the long-term housing, and unemployment issue.”

Obviously, only the most deluded can hope this is anything remotely close to a long-term strategy. The heroin drip is now fully active and the public will simply demand more and more in exchange for not rioting one more day.

Critics said the sweeteners did not address the Saudi public’s political aspirations. Protests, political parties and labour unions are banned in the conservative kingdom. “We need a new higher education minister, a new health minister, reform of the judiciary and codified laws – not hand-outs,’’ said Turki Al-Balaa, a 34 year-old businessmen.

“We want real change. This will be the only guarantee of security of the kingdom,’’ added Hassan al-Mustafa, one of 40 Saudi rights activists and journalists who signed an open letter requesting an elected parliament, more rights for women and enhanced anti-corruption measures.“A constitutional monarchy closer to the Kuwaiti model is not an impossible target to achieve right now.”

As we reported earlier, the Saudi says of rage are coming. If Bahrain’s failed attempt at whorism is any indication, the Saudi regime has about 1 month of existence left.

Hundreds of people have signed up to a Facebook campaign calling for a “day of rage” across Saudi Arabia on March 11, although it is not clear if any protests will materialise. Analysts said the late date suggested that activists wanted to give the government time to introduce reforms, and not a real desire to take to the streets.

“We don’t want money,” a female student from Jeddah said on her Twitter feed. “I want to know that I’ll be protected under a written constitution for the rest of my short life.”

A lawyer wrote that the Saudi people seek “dignity, reform, freedom of expression, transparency, justice, respect, wise governance, not grants’’.

Two words of advice on what to do with all the money Uncle Sam (or now Abdullah) gives you in exchange for the latest ass pounding: Buy oil.

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/23/2011 23:33 -0500

Source: ZeroHedge

3 thoughts on “Helicopter Ben Step Aside, Meet Enola Gay Abdullah: Whorism Goes Global”

  1. Dear Sir/Madam,

    We would like to use the image of Helicopter Ben in a presentation. Is this okay? Do we have to pay to use it?

    Yours sincerely,

    Kassie Ross-Smith
    Stanhope Capital
    tel: 020 77251825
    email: [email protected]

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Kassie Ross-Smith Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.