BBC 2 has broadcast a programme on Saudi Arabia on 8th November. The programme will offer "a fascinating insight into the conflicts between tradition and modernity in one of the world's most conservative and autocratic countries."
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Inside the Saudi Kingdom. Video hosted on Google. Lionel Mill presents an insight into the life of Prince Saud bin abdul Mohsen, one of the members of the secretive Saudi royal family, examining the conflict between tradition and modernity in one of the world's most autocratic countries. After seven years negotiation Mill films the life of a Saudi Arabian prince, and the result, even superficial and sanitised as it has to be, is revealing. Though he follows the comparatively urbane Prince Saud bin Abdul Mohsen, Mill paints a picture of a way of ruling (tribal, religious, monarchistic, entirely male) that to a Western viewer seems old-fashioned almost to the point of absurdity. "The West do not understand," is the gist of Prince Saud's comments on camera, and he's right. You can almost smell the stultifying effects of prejudice and self-satisfaction in every scene, though there are beauties to the ancient way of life, too. How long it can last in the face of global change is another matter.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA, is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south. The Persian Gulf lies to the northeast and the Red Sea to its west. It has an estimated population of 27.6 million, and its size is approximately 2,150,000 square km (830,000 square miles). The Kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of The Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam. In English, it is most commonly referred to as Saudi Arabia . The Kingdom was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud, whose efforts began in 1902 when he captured the Al-Saud’s ancestral home of Riyadh, and culminated in 1932 with the proclamation, and recognition of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the world's leading petroleum exporter. Petroleum exports fuel the Saudi economy. Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports and nearly 75 percent of government revenues, facilitating the creation of a welfare state, which the government has found difficult to fund during periods of low oil prices.
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