2011-03-05

"No kingdom is an island, particularly when it sits in a sea of revolution."

THE hole in the doughnut is Riyadh. On the map of revolt in the Middle East, the House of Saud is surrounded - Mubarak, gone; Jordan, restive; Iraq, roiling against corruption and poor services; Iran, opposition ballsy; Bahrain, dangerous; Oman, awakening; and Yemen, a powderkeg.
Combine all that with the extent to which Saudi Arabia's army of overeducated and underemployed youth are wired to the rest of the world by new-age media like Twitter and Facebook, and it becomes clear that all is not well in the world's biggest gas station.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/kingdom-adrift-in-a-sea-of-revolution-20110304-1bi0b.html