Ali Al-Mousa

Al-Watan newspaper

 

 

Al-Watan newspaper stole my thunder by recently publishing a report on global economic outlook, a study released by a research center, which suggested that Saudis would be the sixth richest people on the earth in 2050 in terms of per capita income.



I read the complete 40-page report issued in English on the last night of Ramadan. Then I decided to safeguard it in a special file till a future date because I may not be able to bring you glad tidings today that could be true.  I underlined the word “could” in the study, which was repeated over 1,000 times so that our grandchildren might benefit from the projected bounties in 2050. 



Meanwhile, the 2012 model Saudi (Saudi living in 2012) is suffering under four financially suffocating seasons — beginning with the summer season, followed by Ramadan, Eid holidays and then the “back to school” season.

On a personal level, I know I have a remote chance to be alive until 2050 due to reasons related to family history and my family members’ life expectancy.



It may be possible that I will live to be among the sixth richest people in the world in terms of per capita income, but the money will surely be spent on hospitals and pharmacies – the cartel that is devouring us, both meat and bones, today while we rank the 30th place in the world.



So how will the Saudi citizen’s condition be like when base income in the Kingdom reaches $93,000 in 2050 as the report predicts? I won’t deny that the science of futurology is based on indices and readings, but to my mind the science is fraught with unknown variables despite the fact that last year I have studied it more than what I have read in the past five years. 

What is of concern to me is how will the Saudi citizen be mentally and not in terms of his pocket in 2050? Will my great grandson go to school with a different curriculum or will he be studying the same material as his grandfather of 2012, the way my youngest son studied the same textbooks on reading, Arabic grammar and history that I studied in 1973?



Will the Saudi fundamentalist realize that denying a sect or ideological minority as nonexistent is inevitably impossible? Or will we bottle-feed the grandsons of our grandsons in 2050 with the same hereditary social ills? Would they be accused of westernization if they turn to the West for household staff, especially since the economic futurology report places European countries in the lower rungs of the list?