Saudi Arabia Is a Dictatorship and We're Best Friends With It (A Rant) 🛢️😤

A FriedReads Rant About Modern-Day Slavery, Starvation, and the Silence of the World

October 2026

I didn't care about Saudi Arabia.

I want to be honest about that. I didn't care. It was just another country. Another name on a map. Another place I'd never visit. I didn't think about it. I didn't read about it.

Then I started looking. And now I can't stop seeing it.

This article is about what I found. It's about the migrant workers who are trapped in a system that looks exactly like slavery. It's about the starvation of Yemen and the hundreds of thousands of people who died while the world looked away. It's about a journalist who was murdered and dismembered inside a consulate. It's about a crown prince who lives in luxury while people suffer.

And it's about the uncomfortable question that nobody wants to answer:

Why is this country our friend?

The Kafala System: Modern-Day Slavery

Let me tell you about the Kafala system.

On paper, Saudi Arabia says they banned slavery decades ago. On paper, they're a modern country. They're a member of the G20. They're a US ally. They have skyscrapers and malls and luxury hotels and everything that comes with being a wealthy nation.

On paper.

In reality, the whole economy runs on a system that looks exactly like slavery. It's called the Kafala system. It's a sponsorship system. Millions of workers come from South Asia, Africa, and other places looking for a better life. They arrive with hope. They arrive with dreams. They arrive ready to work.

The second they land, they are trapped.

Here's how it works. Your employer owns your legal status. That's it. That's the whole system. Your employer controls whether you can stay in the country, whether you can leave, whether you can change jobs, whether you can do anything.

Your employer takes your passport. That's the first thing. They take it and they keep it. So you can't leave. So you can't run. So you can't escape.

They force you to work insane hours. Sixty hours a week. Seventy hours. More. They don't care. You're not a person to them. You're a machine. A machine that doesn't need sleep. A machine that doesn't need food. A machine that doesn't need rest.

They withhold your wages. For months. For years. You work and you work and you work, and you get nothing. You can't complain because if you complain, your employer reports you as "absconding." Suddenly, the victim becomes the criminal. The person who was exploited is now the person who is arrested. The person who was abused is now the person who is deported.

That's the system. That's how it works. That's how it's always worked.

Amnesty International did a report on the Riyadh Metro project. The workers who built it paid up to $1,432 in recruitment fees just to get the job. They worked over 60 hours a week. They endured extreme heat. Some earned less than $2 an hour. Passports were confiscated. Housing was unsanitary. Discrimination was rampant.

These are the people who built the metro. These are the people who built the infrastructure. These are the people who make Saudi Arabia look modern and advanced and futuristic. And they are treated like disposable garbage.

And the leadership? The people at the top? They're living in mansions. Gold-plated mansions. Penthouses. Private jets. Yachts. Everything you can imagine. Everything you could ever want. Everything you could ever dream of.

They don't care about the workers. They don't see them. The workers are invisible. They're not people. They're not human. They're just a means to an end. Just a resource to be exploited. Just a tool to be used and thrown away.

The Yemen Blockade: A Starvation Event

Now let me talk about Yemen.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war. They backed the internationally recognized government. They fought against the Houthis. They imposed a blockade.

The blockade starved the country.

Not metaphorically. Literally. The blockade prevented food and medicine and supplies from getting in. The blockade prevented people from leaving. The blockade prevented the country from surviving.

Hundreds of thousands of people died. From starvation. From disease. From a war that the world ignored. From a blockade that nobody talked about.

The Houthis say Saudi Arabia conducted over 274,000 airstrikes since 2015. They targeted civilians. They targeted hospitals. They targeted schools. They targeted anything and everything.

And no one was held accountable.

The people who died in Yemen are forgotten. The people who starved are forgotten. The people who cried and screamed and begged for help are forgotten.

But the crown prince? The man who ordered the blockade? The man who starved a country?

He's still there. He's still in power. He's still living in luxury. He's still our friend.

The Khashoggi Murder: State-Sanctioned Assassination

Jamal Khashoggi was a journalist.

He was a critic of the crown prince. He wrote about the abuses. He criticized the system. He spoke out. He was a voice for the voiceless.

And he was murdered for it.

He went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He needed papers for his wedding. He walked in. He never walked out.

He was killed by a team of Saudi agents. A UN Special Rapporteur concluded that he was "the victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution" for which the Saudi state was responsible.

The crown prince denied involvement. The Saudi trial was a sham. The world moved on.

But here's what gets me.

They sent an autopsy specialist with a bone saw.

Think about that. They didn't send a diplomat. They didn't send a negotiator. They sent a forensic doctor who specialized in cutting up bodies. They sent someone to dismember him. To cut him into pieces. To dispose of him.

The crown prince knew. The crown prince approved. The crown prince ordered it.

And nothing happened.

The US intelligence community concluded that the crown prince approved the operation. The US Treasury sanctioned some people. But the crown prince? The man at the top? He faced no consequences.

He's still in power. He's still in luxury. He's still our friend.

Why Is This Country Our Friend?

Here's the question I can't stop asking.

Why is Saudi Arabia our friend?

Why is it a close ally of the United States?

Why does it have a special relationship with us?

Why do we partner with a country that runs on modern-day slavery? A country that starves Yemen. A country that murders journalists. A country that oppresses its own people. A country that treats migrants like disposable tools.

Why?

The answer is oil.

The answer is money.

The answer is wealth.

Saudi Arabia has oil. Saudi Arabia has money. Saudi Arabia has wealth. And we want it. We need it. We depend on it.

So we look the other way. We ignore the abuses. We sign arms deals. We invest. We partner. We pretend.

We pretend that Saudi Arabia is a normal ally. We pretend that the crown prince is a reformer. We pretend that Vision 2030 is going to make everything better.

But it's not.

Vision 2030 is a rebranding campaign. It's a way to make the world forget about the abuses. It's a way to make the world look at the skyscrapers and the malls and the luxury hotels and forget about the workers who built them. Forget about the people who died building them. Forget about the people who are still suffering.

NEOM. The Line. The futuristic city. The luxury tourism. The global sports events. It's all a facade. It's all a show. It's all a way to distract the world from the horror that is happening behind the scenes.

And the world is playing along.

The global community is playing along.

We're all playing along.

And the people who suffer? The people who die? The people who are exploited?

They're invisible. They're forgotten. They're ignored.

And the crown prince? The man who ordered their suffering? The man who ordered their deaths?

He's living in a gold-plated mansion.

He's living in a penthouse.

He's living in luxury.

And we're shaking his hand. We're calling him our friend. We're inviting him to the White House. We're visiting his country. We're signing deals with him.

What is this?

What kind of world do we live in?

The Silence

Here's what gets me the most.

The silence.

Not just the silence of the US. Not just the silence of the global community. The silence of everyone.

No one is talking about this.

No one is outraged about Yemen. No one is outraged about the Kafala system. No one is outraged about the migrant workers who are trapped and abused and exploited.

No one is outraged that a journalist was dismembered inside a consulate. No one is outraged that a crown prince ordered it. No one is outraged that he's still in power.

We talk about Israel. We talk about Palestine. We talk about the occupation. We talk about the settlements. We talk about the genocide.

And we should. We absolutely should.

But why don't we talk about Saudi Arabia?

Why don't we talk about the country that starves Yemen? Why don't we talk about the country that runs on slavery? Why don't we talk about the country that murdered a journalist with a bone saw?

Because of oil.

Because of money.

Because of wealth.

I'm writing this to mainly get it off my chest.

Not because it will change anything.

The Final Line

Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship.

It runs on modern-day slavery. It starves Yemen. It murders journalists. It oppresses its people. It treats migrants like disposable tools.

And we're best friends with it.

Because of oil. Because of money. Because of wealth.

The people who suffer are invisible. The people who die are forgotten. The people who are exploited are ignored.

And the crown prince? The man who ordered their suffering? The man who ordered their deaths?

He's living in a gold-plated mansion. He's living in a penthouse. He's living in luxury.

And we're shaking his hand.

What is this?

What kind of world do we live in?

There's my rant.

🛢️😤

Allen

FriedReads.com | Still ranting. Still dying inside. Still angry.

October 2026