Saturday 9 April 2011

Loren Steffy: Markets in the Middle East shackled - Houston Chronicle

When I first arrived here in the kingdom, my government liaison seemed concerned about my plans.

I'd flown into the Eastern Province, the heart of the Saudi oil industry, which also happens to be the heart of political unrest here. Demonstrations in the kingdom have been more muted than in other Arab countries, but they've been significant enough to get the government's attention.

Visiting journalists are assigned a government representative, who can be helpful in arranging interviews and navigating the Saudi bureaucracy, but who also controls what we see. The protests, my handler in Dammam assured me, are overblown.

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