yesterday marked a day of an extreme anomaly, a sign of how are world is changing. i have heard colloquially that are world is becoming more conservative. i think this may be true economically and politically, because of concentration power in the united states, europe, and the middle eastern countries that have a stronghold on oil and other important resources. the same can also be said for the political corruption that takes place in many african countries and even potentially, though this is arguably more complicated, in the 'bric' countries. regardless, i think that culturally we are divided in a large way. a large majority are certainly be headed more to the right (led in america by palin and glen beck), but one can certainly make the case that many subcultures are gaining steam and pushing the envelope to the left. a few countries have legalized gay marriage, for example, including my current home country, spain, my favorite countries, norway and sweden, and the country i hope to retire in, portugal. last year, my home state of iowa became one of only five states in the entire u.s. to legalize gay marriage as well. though the above is seemingly tangential it demonstrates that even if tea party conservatism is rampant, some places are beginning to budge on culturally liberal issues. enter the story of the day:
prince saud bin abdulaziz bin nasir al saud of saudi arabia was arrested earlier this year in the uk, and yesterday was found guilty of murdering his servant. this is incredibly interesting for a variety of reasons. first, i don't believe i have ever heard of a prince being prosecuted for anything illegal before. in fact, he was under the assumption that he had royal immunity to any kind of punishment. well, according to the british judge that sentenced him that certainly was not the case. next, the servant that was beaten to death did not just have a trivial connection to the prince, but was apparently was his manslave. prince saud, whose mom is just one of fifty kids of king saud (who died in 1953), was gay. this blew me away. as you should know, homosexuality in saudi arabia is considered extremely shameful and is, in fact, still illegal and prosecutable under law. furthermore, because he was found guilty in the uk, he must spend 19 years in prison there, where he will subsequently be released and, then, most likely prosecuted in his own country for the "offense" of being gay. it is likely that he will be exiled, barring some miraculous leftist turn in the middle east regarding gay rights, but can seek refuge in the uk if he so chooses.
thus, what seems astonishing to me is that not only was royalty justly prosecuted, but that he likely left his country to "escape" from his identity and express the true colors of his sexuality. unfortunately, like most rockstars his lavish lifestyle of cocktail parties and champagne baths caught up to him when the power went to his head. let me make it clear it wasn't because he was gay, but rather because he was irresponsibly wealthy and undeniably ignorant. you can break any rule and buy your way out of it, but you just can't kill anyone apparently. i wonder if those in saudi arabia know about what really happened? were they lied to about this anomaly? if they do know what is the word on the street, the talk of the town? do they make a precedent of him? what kind of reparations must be made if they do not so choose to denounce him, which is admittedly optimistic and even more unlikely? is going to prison just a blessing in surprise (use your imagination here)? what is to be of prince saud bin abdulaziz bin nasir al saud, the gay arabian prince? any thoughts?
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