A crook locking up other crooks. That is rich. MBS is in trouble.

Saudi Collapse? In early March 1938 in a dusty corner of the Arabian desert, Max Steineke finally had the breakthrough he was hoping for. Steineke was the chief geologist for the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC), a venture owned by what we know today as Chevron. Steinke was convinced that massive oil reserves were beneath the sands. He just couldn’t find any. His prized oil well, what was called Dammam #7, had been riddled with mishaps, accidents, and delays, and it was costing the company a LOT of money. Steinke was about to be shut down when, finally, on March 4, the well started gushing. And Saudi Arabia was never the same. Today oil constitutes more than half of Saudi Arabia’s GDP and more than 90% of government revenue… and it is the reason why Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s richest nations as measured by per-capita GDP. But all that success also comes with risk: what happens when the wells run dry? Or when the oil price falls? That’s what they’re dealing with now. Saudi Arabia has been in and out of recession over the past few years due to the steep decline in oil prices. And the government is desperate to raise revenue. Last year the Saudi government announced “Vision 2030,” a long-term plan to diversify its economy and reduce dependence on oil revenue. The plan includes developments like a new beach resort on the Red Sea where women will be allowed to wear bikinis. This is pretty forward thinking, folks. The government also announced that it will sell a portion of the national oil company, Saudi Aramco, through an IPO on a major stock exchange– a move they believe will generate $100 billion for the government. But none of these options fixes the short-term problem. Saudi Arabia needs cash. Now. So over the past few weeks they’ve found their source: theft. Under the guise of a ‘corruption crackdown’, the government of Saudi Arabia has arrested hundreds of its wealthiest, most prominent citizens, and frozen more than 1700 bank accounts. The government claims that these men illegally acquired their wealth through graft and corruption. Now, to be fair, it’s true that there’s an enormous amount of corruption in Saudi Arabia. I lived in Riyadh years ago when I was a young intelligence officer, and the corruption was obvious from Day 1. For example, I remember mid-level Saudi army officers explaining how they would accept bribes and kickbacks to award small contracts to local suppliers. These were military commanders who were essentially stealing from their own units. For us it was unthinkable. But for them it was normal. They discussed it openly with each other, as if they were trading tips on how to steal even more. Saudi billionaire Prince al Waleed (one of the people who has been arrested) also used to speak quite candidly about how he made his initial fortune through bribes and kickbacks. So it’s clear that a lot of people in Saudi Arabia have made money in illicit ways. It does strike me as a farce, though, to see extremely corrupt bureaucrats and politicians arresting corrupt businessmen… and then confining them to the very swanky Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh. The timing is also suspect– the Saudi government needs the money and cannot afford to wait for their long-term plans to generate income. They’ve already started borrowing pretty heavily, issuing close to $40 billion of debt in a single year– that’s a big chunk for a country with a $650 billion GDP. But they know they can’t keep borrowing forever… hence the ‘anti-corruption purge.’ They’re now telling their captives that they’ll be free to go if they ‘voluntarily donate’ 70% of their wealth to the government. Estimates vary for the amount of money the government will bring in through this theft; the lowest amount I’ve seen is $100 billion (again, an enormous sum in Saudi Arabia). The Wall Street Journal reported that the Saudi government is targeting as much as $800 billion… an amount that’s larger than the entire Saudi economy. To put that number in context, it would be like the US government seizing $22+ trillion of Americans’ wealth– more than the value of every company listed on the New York Stock Exchange combined. All of this, naturally, is taking place without any trial or due process. They’re just seizing and freezing assets. http://www.valuewalk.com/2017/11/saudi-arabia-government-collapse/

That is like 6% of the registered voters. Is Somaliland's claim to SSC legitimate if all it could register in that region is 55K people. The actual number that voted is even lower I think.

Gabay Xaddi means Poetry Iron right? He must have been an important guy to have the president attend his funeral.

That is a very touching story. Thank you Suldaanka. I am not sure why this is posted in the politics area though.

Meet Sophia, a robot who made her first public appearance in the Saudi Arabian city of Riyadh on Monday. Sophia was such a hit she was immediately given Saudi citizenship in front of hundreds of delegates at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on 25 October. But as pictures and videos of Sophia began circulating on social media many started to ask why a robot already seemed to have secured more rights than others in the country. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41761856

Some interesting facts: Borama is the third largest city in Somaliland. The entire SSC region has less than 55K registered voters. This is a land mass that is almost 30% of all Somaliland. There are more registered votes in Gabiley than Ceerigaabo. Hargeisa's numbers are not impressive considering it was always considered the second largest Somali city.

Gobolka Maroodijeex:- waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 312,634 1. Hargeysa:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 222,975 2. Gabiley:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 58,087 3. Balli-gubadle:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 14,757 4. Salaxley:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 16,815 Gobolka Saaxil:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 78,842 1. Berbera:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 63,831 2. Sheekh:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 15,011 Gobolka Togdheer:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 178,506 1. Burco:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 144,954 2. Oodwayne:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 23,614 3. Buuhoodle:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 9,933 Gobolka Sool waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 71,096 1. Laascaanood:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 29,558 2. Caynaba:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 31,052 3. Xudun:- waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 5,341 4. Taleex:- waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 5,145 Gobolka Sanaag:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 85,222 1. Ceerigaabo:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 50,432 2. Ceel-afwayn:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 12,203 3. Gar-adag:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 17,962 4. Badhan:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 4,625 Gobolka Awdal:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 147,031 1. Borama:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 90,496 2. Saylac:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 26,547 3. Lughaya:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 15,185 4. Baki:- Waxa iska diiwaangaliyey 14,830

Bosaso, here comes fast internet! This is a major step forward for the region.

Gulf to Africa (G2A) Q: When did construction begin? Construction began in the second quarter 2016. Q: Capacity? Two fiber pairs – 20 Tbps Q: Who are the landing parties? The Somali operators are Golis Telecom, largest telecom operator in Puntland region, and Telesom Company, the pioneer operator in Somaliland. Ethio Telecom, incumbent government owned sole operator in Ethiopia, provides terrestrial termination into Ethiopia. Omantel offers landings in Oman. Q: Where are the cable stations? Salalah, Oman, then two landings in Somalia: Bosaso (Puntland) and Berbera (Somaliland), with a terrestrial extension to Ethiopia. Q: Expected completion date? Second or third quarter 2017 Q: Where is the route diverse? Redundant terrestrial links from Salalah to Muscat and from Bosaso to Ethiopia. Q: What other cable stations may be accessed from these landing points? Seamless and redundant connection to all Omantel cables landing in Oman, such as EPEG, SMW-3, FLAG/ Falcon, TW-1, POI, EIG, MENA, GBI, AAE-1, BBG, and SRG. Q: Who own the Somalia cable stations? Telesom Company and Golis Telecom Q: What is the exact terrestrial route to Ethiopia? Currently under deployment and the exact route cannot be disclosed yet Q: Are there target dates for the future extensions? No defined dates yet, currently in discussions with a number of partners. However, the configuration already includes a branching unit with four spare fibers in front of Salalah that are intended to serve the coast of east Africa and surrounding islands all the way to South Africa.

Good to see political maturity from Ciro.

The spot is actually better looking than few places I know here in the US. The Somalis are upping their game everywhere in the country.

Faroole is marrying another Somalilander again. Awguuryo.

^ No, they use wax to style the hair. Wax can give all hair textures a natural lift.

Boys get military training ... boys disappear. This is a vicious cycle with no solution. How many years have we been hearing army recruits being trained?

Isn't it sad that the migrants are running away from their home countries just to be sold in the Libyan market as slaves. From the looks of it, the guys in the video seem well fed before they came to Libya. I hope this news discourages future migrants from going to Libya.

If the Saudis didn't pay a penny in 2017, why are we expecting 32 million in 2018? Let me guess ... it is all about Qatar and Turkey.

So FW is saying it is over? I knew it.

This was supposed to be the most sophisticated and fraud-proof election in East Africa and by the looks of it, not much has changed from the old cheating days. Unacceptable.

Saxib, it is an expected reaction. I look at the faces of the kids in the video and you can see the hope and the despair at the same time. They all want and yearn for a better future, but at the same time, they feel hope is slowly slipping away.

The candidates need to compromise and put the interest of the people ahead of their egos. No violence, please.

This election may turn out to be one people wish they never had it. I hope common sense prevails.