The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

The Saudi Arabian King at Marbella, Spain:
The Court Amuses Itself

Sep 9, 2002

Four hundred members of the Saudi court took their usual vacation in Spain in August. They arrived on a Boeing 747. A fleet of limousines brought them to the palace of King Fahd and to the luxury hotels at Marbella. Three hundred suites and rooms were rented in luxurious hotels on the coast, while 600 Mercedes were transported for the weeks of the visit. The luxury stores were ready for every little care for the well filled pockets of the members of the court, going so far as to close for any other customer. For the men, there was the casino, where it isn’t rare for a gambler to lose 150,000 dollars by the wee hours of the morning.

All together the court spent 5 million dollars a day during its luxurious vacation, while the unemployed of the region wait by the hundreds in front of the palace, in the hopes of being hired for thirty or forty dollars a day.

The mayor of Marbella called the stay of the king "100% positive." No. This type of thing is 100% nauseating.