Saudis may be known for a lot of things, but let's face it – comedy is not one of them. Israelis on the other hand... have you seen The Zohan? In any event, it's not surprising that people in Saudi Arabia are outraged at something from Israel, but this time it has nothing to do with military actions or residential construction, and to be fair, while talk of boycotts is filling the air once again, they're not actually blaming Israel itself for anything. Instead, Nissan is the boycott target.
The spate was started by a commercial Israeli TV that depicts Arabian oil sheikhs getting medieval on a Nissan Tiida. The implication is that the car's fuel efficiency is harming the sheikhs' business interests. The Saudi regime, along with other oil-producing Gulf states, is threatening to boycott Nissan – which itself is collaborating on the development of the Project Better Place electric car system in Israel – if the automaker doesn't apologize.
more ...
If you're of the opinion that the religious right has too much influence on American politics, you should check out Saudi Arabia. The royal family has relied for decades on the support of fundamentalist Wahabi clerics who, in return for their support to the ibn Saud regime, have insisted on ever more stringent laws. Among those measures has been a strict ban prohibiting women from driving that has been in effect for 75 years since the founding of Saudi Arabia in 1932, but the Saudi government is finally preparing to lift the ban.
The government decision reportedly stems from an effort to placate a mounting women's lib movement, whose activists have been mounting rolling demonstrations by leading convoys of women driving around in the kingdom despite the law prohibiting them from obtaining driver's licenses or automobile insurance. According to the Saudi government, the ban will be lifted by the end of the year. Critics point out, however, that previous government commitments towards reform have not been met.
Considering that around 100% of its gross national product comes from oil, Saudi Arabia wouldn't be your first guess as the location of a burgeoning green car industry. In fact, oil is just about the only industry in this country, though the royal family is interested in establishing Saudi Arabia's own automotive industry. To that end, it's commissioned Lotus and parent company Proton to help build a research, development and test center that can be used by burgeoning Saudi Arabian automakers to produce vehicles that efficiently use the oil on top of which this country floats. Lotus is partnering with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) to get the project completed and populate the center with various engineers. It would seem the hope is that it would be the base on which a fledgling automotive industry could grow in the next ten years. We doubt, however, they'll be working on developing longer lasting lithium-ion batteries. As our friends at AutoblogGreen put it, the goal is "maximizing the use of the available oil in the least damaging way possible." But whatever gets developed will still require oil.
