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Easier for a Camel to Go Through the Eye of a Needle…
by Keith Carey
Robin Leach of The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous shows flash and opulence through the television lens. If permitted through time travel, one of his choice assignments would be to walk through the palaces of Israel’s King Solomon around 1000 B.C. Interviewing Solomon, this is what he might have heard: “I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who where born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers and a harem as well—the delight of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me (Ecc. 2:4-9).” As you know, King Solomon’s spiritual state decayed as his life became more focused on his wealth and less on the God who provided the wealth.
Unfortunately, many of the rich and the powerful nations today have fallen into the same trap as King Solomon. There is something about the human psyche that makes us think that if our physical needs are secure that we don’t need God. Though there are differences in different regions of the world, the rich and powerful peoples tend to reject the idea that they need to be dependent on their creator. In this issue, we will see examples of this from various regions of the 10/40 Window.
Petrodollars and the wealthy Persian Gulf States
About one-half of the world oil reserves lie in four Muslim nations: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, the latter having nearly one-quarter of total reserves. World consumption equals 77 million barrels per day, or 28 billion barrels per year. This values to $700 billion yearly, if oil costs $25 a barrel wholesale. Arabian sheiks saw oil prices surge past $30 a barrel in 2000, putting many billions of dollars more into their pockets.
As we write this article, one of the big news stories is that the Saudis are announcing that they will cut oil production by five percent, driving oil prices even higher. Western governments could only express impotent protests.
How did a handful of oil–rich nations become so wealthy and powerful? It wasn’t always this way. The 20th century brought the end of Turkish rule over Arabia. Then in 1901, only 100 years ago, speculators uncovered oil in Arabia. Having won the allegiance of rival Bedouin tribes, King Abdulaziz al Saud forged the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. Since that time, Saudi Arabia has been a wealthy nation because of her oil wealth.
As one Arab minister said, “Nobody cared about us before the oil came, nobody will care about us when it is gone.” With this in mind, the Arab leaders use their wealth to their advantage while it’s still available.
Petrodollars financed the $10 billion Jiddah airport, greater in area than the Dallas/Fort Worth and Toronto airports combined. Within the airport a hajj terminal, designed by United States architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is made with Teflon-coated fiberglass. Upon completion, this was the largest covered space in the world. In 1980, the Saudis were planning a billion-dollar causeway, a 15-billion dollar-or-more gas gathering system, a five billion-dollar university in the capital city of Riyadh, and multibillion-dollar military cities. In a very short time Saudi Arabia has built modern infrastructure and settled many of the Bedouins into modern houses. And all of this is happening on a very inhospitable landscape. Benefactors funded the building of mosques through Central Asia and investors from a number of OPEC countries poured $40 billion into U.S. and European government securities and bank deposits in 1974 alone.
There are other oil–rich states in the Persian Gulf region: Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. John Putman described some of their efforts in The Arab World Inc. for the October 1975 edition of National Geographic. In 1975, Mohammed Mahdi Al-Tajir served as Sheik of United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) principal adviser but also the United Arab Emirates’s ambassador to Great Britain and France. Petrodollars grease Al-Tajir’s pocket. He began his public career helping reorganize the Dubai customs office. He also went into private business beginning with the gold trade. According to London newspapers, in 1975 he was one of the world’s wealthiest men. His holdings included farms in France, London’s Park Tower Hotel, real estate in Paris, shares in African mines, an oil well in Texas, Wall Street stocks, a new bank in the Cayman Islands, collections of pearls, and Persian carpets. Pictured in National Geographic, in front of Dropmore, a 300-year-old estate he had just added to his collection of English country homes, Al-Tajir quipped about his worth: “If I knew how much money I had, I wouldn’t be rich, would I?”
The elite peoples of India
Though Mumbai is noted for her poverty, she should also be known for her wealth. Ten years ago, this city was known as the high–tech capital of India. Though Bangalore may someday eclipse this city as India’s high tech capital, many wealthy ethnic groups live there. The Patels from neighboring Gujarat have made a fortune in Mumbai. As we saw last month, many of them are doing well economically in Western cities as well. This month you will pray for Jains who have migrated to Kenya to make their living. Like the Patels, other peoples have come from Gujarat to make their fortune in Mumbai. There are several Muslim groups like the Memons who have done well in business.
The Parsees, whose name means “Persian” in Hindi, fled their Persian homeland during the 10th century and established themselves in Gujarat where they became prominent in shipbuilding and trade. Later they migrated to Mumbai, where you will find about 80 percent of the estimated 100,000 Parsees who live in India. Prior to World War I when India was a British colony, the Parsees were at the height of their influence and exercised a near monopoly on wealth in the city. Three Parsee names still stand out: Tata (hotels, steel mills, trucks, chemicals), Wadia (textile mills), and Godrej (electric refrigerators and a host of other products). Philanthropy and civic responsibility have been Parsee touchstones for generations. Community organizations care for the Parsee elderly and for education.
These adherents of the Zoroastrian religion are experiencing rising unemployment and an impoverishment of the middle-class leading to increasing dependence on their relief organization. They may not be as influential as the 21st century progresses.
Though India is heading towards a strong industrial economy, it is still primarily a rural nation. The Jats are the most prominent rural people in India. They are powerful landowning people. Jats can be Hindu or Sikh. They are noted for using force to keep less powerful peoples in their place.
The Buddhist Elite
The Japanese are probably the best business leaders in East Asia. Though their country was mauled during World War II, they emerged as an economic powerhouse. Today, Japan is having economic problems, but their fine automobiles and electronic goods are in demand throughout the world. Officially, they are both Shintoist and Buddhist. But perhaps on a day to day basis, their corporation is their god. Many Japanese work 14–hour days, six days a week. Though Christian missionaries are welcome in Japan, only about two percent of the Japanese have expressed faith in Christ.
The conclusion of the matter
Pray
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