Idle wonder

We have plenty of accounts of the corrupting effect of idleness on the rich of England in times gone by. Foolish or vulgar extravagance. Gambling. Alcohol. Other substances when available. Licentiousness and promiscuity. Perhaps viciousness - perhaps taking pleasure perhaps in the corruption or spoiling of others, perhaps taking pleasure in cruelty towards other people, servants or animals. No doubt the rich of other countries were often just as bad - not least the elites of the countries which we colonised. Say the kings and chiefs of Africa and India.

So I have been idling wondering about how this is playing out in the oil rich countries of the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the various small states clustered along its north eastern coast. Maybe they have to be careful about alcohol - or go abroad for it - but all the other vices are available, certainly to the men of their ruling classes. Do their sociologists worry about such matters? Have any of ours written treatises on them?

As it happened, a chance item in a recent Evening Standard provided some information on this front. It seems that one Dave Eggars wrote a novel touching on some of this called 'A Hologram for the King', now the subject of a not very good film. Book amazonned and I shall probably report further in due course.

There is also the post at reference 1, so not an original wonder, rather a wonder reprised. The picture included above, taken from the same Blue Sky page on Facebook, suggests that Kuwait Air is not the same thing as Saudi Air.

Not to mention the game of veils, as played in and around Tooting. This game consisting of spotting as many different ways of interpreting Allah's rules about women's public dress as possible. A rather lax recent example was a youngish woman on the tube expensively turned out in a expensive looking, long open front cardigan in chunky cream wool over smart white linen trousers, topped off by a very pretty and expensive looking flowery scarf covering the head. The sort of material which might otherwise have been made into a summer blouse or frock. Probably fancy make-up and fancy accessories as well, but I forget about them.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/depressed.html.