I am taking a class on Saudi Arabia culture. There is a continuing education program in the community with classes on all kinds of subjects. The classes started up again this Summer after being shutdown for over a year for COVID-19. 4 people are in the class and the teacher is a woman who retired from Saudi Aramco.
Some fun facts I have learned so far:
Saudi Arabia has no rivers. The teacher traveled to USA to see Niagara Falls and was explaining to the class how much water there was at the falls. The Saudi people are always fascinated by large bodies of fresh water since water is so scare here.
Saudi Arabia has in the last 5 years started trying to attract companies to build in the Kingdom. Teacher gave an example of how Saudi Arabia was the largest customer in the Middle East for Procter and Gamble, but P&G has no physical presence in Saudi Arabia. Now P&G has built factories here.
Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 so it is a very young country. The founding father who United the area was King Abdulaziz. He had 22 wives over his life from which he had 45 sons and 55 daughters. You know towards the end of life he was pressing to get to an even 100 kids. He has thousands of grandchildren. Every king since the 1930s to this day has been a son of King Abulaziz.
A benefit that Saudi Aramco provides is an additional house if you get a second wife. It is unreasonable to expect multiple wives to live in the same house. I have had many conversations at work with Saudi co-workers some who have multiple wives. The first point that always comes up is you have to be very wealthy to have a second wife because you need to essentially support 2 separate households. The second point is it a good idea to have the separate houses in two different cities.
Matthew of Arabia 