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3/13/2004 » Rants | 
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Saudinomics
The absurdity of oilfare
The Saudis say only natives can work in jewelry and travel, banning the South Asians they've imported for decades because the natives don't want to get their nails dirty while collecting their oilfare checks (via Not Really Indian and The Acorn). They round up South Asian travel agents and throw them in jail. Then they decide they can achieve full employment by fiat. A wave of the hand, and voilà! Magically avoid actually having to create jobs.
"The Saudisation campaign will continue until the authorities achieve 100 percent Saudisation in the gold market and the travel agencies," deputy Labour Minister Ahmad al-Mansour said in response to the detentions.
'Beatings will continue until morale improves!' Did siccing the police on businesspeople improve the economy?
Sales have dropped substantially since the raids started... "[The company] has not been able to find qualified Saudi staff in time... [H]ow can you leave the reservation and ticketing jobs to be handled alone by untrained staff, who might write LHE for LHR (Lahore for London) on an airticket?"
And these guys are supposed to be our allies? It's Idi Amin redux. Even stupider, it's Soviet, it's banana republic nationalization, it's Indira Gandhi.
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