See also, King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh (all financial companies to move here, except they didn't), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology near Jeddah (new world-class university with the best brains money can buy, except it's not), the "smart city" Neom being built near the Jordanian border (mostly vaporware), etc etc.
I don't often get the chance to tell this, but I was - through a series of strange circumstances - briefly involved with the initial set-up of that university and I got so many war stories out of it.
This included:
* The contractors built the on-campus housing without drainage (...although money was allocated for drains, it somehow went "missing"). There was a rainstorm right before campus opening and most of the housing was destroyed.
* During the same rainstorm very expensive IBM supercomputer was partially destroyed. It transpired contractors had drilled through the damp-proof coursing above whilst fixing a light.
* A number graduate students were arrested in the first few months for fraternising outside of campus (inside the campus most morality laws didn't apply, but once you left you were on your own)
* One of the chemistry labs did a roaring trade in sid (the local arabic for hooch) amongst the faculty and staff
* Getting absolutely anything done relied on "wasta", which kind of translates as "clout", but encompasses a bunch of things including nepotism, who you know, and your skin color (Saudi, like much of the Middle East, suffers from significant racism. Faculty and staff who looked Indian or Pakistani had a very rough time of it).
That being said, there’s very little income tax in Saudi, so yes - you can be paid well.
I don’t regret my time in Saudi - it was an eye opening experience and I learned a lot, and met many fascinating people (both local and expat) - but I don’t know if I’d recommend someone pursue a career t ere.
Reminds me of 2009 Dubai rivers of shit fiasco.
Link, please.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-har...
>"It started like this. We began to get complaints from people using the beach. The water looked and smelled odd, and they were starting to get sick after going into it. So I wrote to the ministers of health and tourism and expected to hear back immediately – but there was nothing. Silence. I hand-delivered the letters. Still nothing."
The water quality got worse and worse. The guests started to spot raw sewage, condoms, and used sanitary towels floating in the sea. So the hotel ordered its own water analyses from a professional company. "They told us it was full of fecal matter and bacteria 'too numerous to count'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pQdjwliLMA
I think there also might of been some BBC documentary shooting raw shit flowing down the street among glimmering sky scrapers, plus you cant ignore the aroma of the city overall.