Riches beyond all that oil and sand

Saudi Arabia is known for all its oil, sand and restrictions on its women. That may become a thing of the past as the oil-rich kingdom seeks to zoom into the 21st century - with the resources to do so.

The NY Times reports on what is underway in the rather elusive kingdom of the Royal sheiks:

"On a marshy peninsula 50 miles from this Red Sea port, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is staking $12.5 billion on a gargantuan bid to catch up with the West in science and technology.

King Abdullah has broken taboos, declaring that the Arabs have fallen critically behind much of the modern world in intellectual achievement.

Between an oil refinery and the sea, the monarch is building from scratch a graduate research institution that will have one of the 10 largest endowments in the world, worth more than $10 billion.

Its planners say men and women will study side by side in an enclave walled off from the rest of Saudi society, the country’s notorious religious police will be barred and all religious and ethnic groups will be welcome in a push for academic freedom and international collaboration sure to test the kingdom’s cultural and religious limits.

This undertaking is directly at odds with the kingdom’s religious establishment, which severely limits women’s rights and rejects coeducation and robust liberal inquiry as unthinkable."

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