Twitter campaign highlights poverty in Saudi Arabia

[LetsCookBreakfast]

(CNN) -- A few weeks ago, an Arabic campaign exploded on Twitter. The Arabic hashtag -- #الراتب_مايكفي_الحاجة (loosely translated as "the salary does not meet my needs") -- reached 17 million tweets in the first two weeks.

At its height, it registered 1.2 million tweets a day, and was not only the most popular hashtag in Arabic, but the 16th most popular in any language.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the campaign, which hints at a financially aggrieved populace, comes out of one of the world's wealthiest nations: Saudi Arabia.

"There's a feeling among some people that I guess you could characterize as anger. Others are disappointed, some think it's a question of (the Saudi government's) priorities," says Fahad Nazer, a Saudi political analyst with JTG Inc.The anger he refers to is fueled by growing unemployment and frustration at government spending. Nazer notes that the campaign gained particular traction following the Saudi government's announcement that it would give financial aid to Egypt's military regime.

"The government is giving handouts to Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia, and using a third of the country's budget for this year to pay for the Riyadh metro. Meanwhile, Saudi's are paying most of their salary on rent, private schools, private hospitals -- because public ones aren't good -- while salaries have practically stayed the same," laments Manal Al Sharif, a Saudi activist who gained notoriety for posting video of herself driving on YouTube. She is also one of the country's most vocal tweeters.

"There's a long list of things that are wrong," she adds.

Unemployment is higher than one might suspect in the oil-rich nation. Though official figures are hard to come by, there are approximately 1.8 million Saudis enrolled with Hafiz -- the country's unemployment benefits program -- according to Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher with Human Rights Watch.



Despite its popularity, the campaign has attracted critics who argue Saudis are already too reliant on their government. Nazer himself notes that the campaign risks oversimplifying what is actually a very complex issue.

Several factors, he argues, have fed unemployment, including a population explosion -- since the '70s, Saudi has grown from 6 million people to nearly 20 million, with an additional 10 million expats competing with nationals for jobs. Adding to the problem is the fact that in the past, many Saudis chose to study religion and languages -- areas for which there is little demand.

"It's a complex situation, as is true of any economy. People who try to trivialize or simplify it miss a lot of variables," says Nazer.

Regardless of where one stands on the issue, what's been particularly surprising is the willingness of Saudis -- who traditionally value cultural privacy -- to air their grievances in an international forum.

"It's true, we are a very private nation, and we don't want the rest of the world to know anything about us," admits Al Sharif. However, she says, it's a price many Saudis are willing to pay.

"Saudis are realizing that you can't isolate yourself from the rest of the world, because the only way we can communicate and read each other's views is through social media. It's our kind of parliament, where we can go and debate, and do things we can't do in the real world."

[ZubeirAwal]

All that money and they can't help their own citizens, ilahi ha laayo, amin.

[Insomniac]

I have seen all this shit with my own eyes.

[LetsCookBreakfast]

I honestly don't care about the people who put themselves in that position.

[Insomniac]

How can they put themselves in that situation? Did they chose for this to happen to them?

[LetsCookBreakfast]

African beggars put themselves in that situation.

[hydrogen]

$1b a day in oil money apparently and their people are in poverty. Reminds me of Marx's saying "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes" even though I disagree with it, it happens to be accurate in Saudi Arabia's situation.

LCB, it's not Africans who suffer the most, it's Saudis.

[gurey25]

When you have thousands of princess and princess and the house of saud is in the 10s of thousands and every saudi child is born with a million dollar riyal bank account along with a birth certificate, what do you expect?

The althanis of qatar can take care of everyone because they are too small, the same with alsaids of oman, and the many shiekhs of the UAE and Kuwaits emir but you need to practice proper economic development when you have 20 million.

The problem is compounded when you have a dysfunctional education system, most saudi graduates are next to useless in the modern work environment, with all that money they failed to produce an educational system better than somalias dozens of universities.

and you have all these graduates looking for a job, the government cannot employ them all and private companies would rather close shop than employ a saudi, or when forced to employ them by the government, they pay saudi employees to stay away from the office, its more efficient that way.

The UAE and Kuwait used to have the same problem but they are tackling it by overhauling the education system, and forcing higher standards.

[ZubeirAwal]

The kingdom of saud is disgusting, and it will see an end.

Indeed before the prophet died he hated 3 tribes, among them was Bani Hanifah, and from them is the saudi family.

[Insomniac]

@Gurey25
They are not forced to stay away from the office by private companies, they chose to do so themselves. They have this Saudisation process, whereby if you don't hire X amount of Saudis, the government will refuse any visas for foreign workers that the company might need. On top of that, the Saudi depend a high incomes. It is a cluster fuck. There are so many companies, where the Saudi turn up after Dhuhur prayers for work. It is also hard to sack them once you hire them. The KSA government's strategy of forcing the private sector to baby sit the Saudis will backfire. Outside of the oil market, they cannot even diversify properly. Companies avoid Saudis like the plague. As side from that, wealth disparity is pretty visible. More visible that I would have thought. I couldn't stomach it.

@ZA
What's wrong with you mate?

[Lillaahiya]

I'm surprised y'all are surprised. Poverty is everywhere.

[Insomniac]

I'm surprised y'all are surprised. Poverty is everywhere.

You haven't seen shit yet.

[hydrogen]

before the prophet died he hated 3 tribes, among them was Bani Hanifah, and from them is the saudi family.

Did you just call the Prophet a qabilist?

[Lillaahiya]

Not Saudi but I've seen abject poverty

[Hyperactive]

I'm surprised y'all are surprised. Poverty is everywhere.

exactlly. even here in doha, there is beggers and they are badow. you would hate to go malls in ramadan from amount of ladies and kids begging.

ps; those are african beggers. they are not even citizen or have papers. wa baqaya alhojaj. they dont know where they deport them cause they dont have papers.