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Monday, December 19, 2011

International Speaking of Capitalism Sans Democracy

Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 8:38 AM

Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has made a $300 million investment in Twitter Inc., expanding his media empire into social-media sites and giving the billionaire a stake in an online forum that was widely used by activists in this year's Arab uprisings.

Prince Alwaleed stressed both the investment potential and growing clout of the short-messaging social network in announcing the purchase, which he said was part of a drive "to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact," according to an emailed statement from Kingdom Holding Co., which he heads.

Growing clout? Saudi Arabia basically bought a ticket out of the democratic uprising that consumed and still consumes large parts of the Arab world. Twitter has played an important role in these uprisings. Is the main goal of this "investment" to make a profit or to prevent real reforms? Remember, this country is run by barbarians:

Saudi women with sexy or "tempting" eyes may be forced to cover them up, according to a spokesperson for the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the news site Bikyamasr reports.

Bikyamasr quotes a spokesman of the Ha'eal district, Sheikh Motlab al-Nabet, as saying the group has the right to order women whose eyes seem "tempting" to shield them immediately.

The CPVPV was set up in 1940 to make sure that Islamic laws are not broken in public, Bikyamasr notes. It can force women to wear a loose black dress and to cover their hair and, occasionally, their face. Punishment for violators can range from fines to public lashings.

Capitalism can function under classical sharia law; Marxism clearly could not.

Comments (5) RSS

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It make sense that capitalism would be more or less compatible with sharia law. The Prophet Mohammed was after all a business man. He understood the importance trade far better than Jesus of Nazareth.

Posted by Ken Mehlman on December 19, 2011 at 9:08 AM

Is this buying him access to the tweets and accounts of the Arab Spring? Sounds like a good security investment.

It's not clear to my why Marxism could not function under sharia law.

Posted by bedipped on December 19, 2011 at 9:10 AM

I read awhile back that he and Bill Gates bought the Four Seasons together. Not this hotel or that, but the worldwide thing.

Posted by gloomy gus on December 19, 2011 at 9:23 AM

While I overall agree with this post, there are a couple of minor technicalities:

Saudi Arabia isn't really Sharia law, it's Wahabbism (not much better, obviously.) Strict Sharia law also has laws against "Usury" that prevent traditional Capitalist practices like interest rates, investment banking, etc. So Capitalism and Sharia wouldn't get along well in the strictest sense, but Capitalism and religious fanaticism seem to strangely coexist rather well in most cases.

Posted by Salmon on December 19, 2011 at 10:09 AM