I object to Imperial funding the training of terrorists.

"The campus is still a work in progress."

I know another one like that.

So how do our new partners feel about the old dress code that temporarily banned headscarfs? Will the Rector get a mandatory four year prison sentence for it? A Disgrace!

Terrorists??? Wtf? Was that a joke?

People make mistakes... and I hope this is not one. Besides, partnering with an institution with academic alliances from some of the best States unveristies, surely this is a good thing for Imperial.

This is blatantly about money, I mean the University is even built yet - it clearly isn't based on academic reputation and standing - not only is it about money it is with a country with an appalling record of human rights. I hope this means the library redevelopment will be f**king plush.

Reading the full press release, KAUST seems to be concentrating heavily on research within clean technology, renewable energy etc etc. Do the Saudis know something about oil supplies that we do not? I am suprised that the worlds biggest oil producing country would concentrate on these things.

yes of course they know something we don't, the oil is in their country. are you implying that the rest of the world doesn't know that oil is running out?

it is promising that a country so rich in oil would be investigating renewable energy but not at all surprising.

countries like saudi arabia, with little natural resources except for oil have a unique concern about dwindling oil supplies. it is not at all suspicious and in fact makes perfect sense for saudi arabia to invest heavily on different sources of energy

I was suggesting that maybe the impetus is starting to change for the countries having a big interest in oil. This is the first time I have ever heard of Saudi Arabia doing anything to slow down oil usage. I would have thought a university such as KAUST would have mainly been involved in ways to get more oil. Even they have accepted that something is going to have to change.

So what, next we're going to start working with Iran to develop nuclear power together?

What a disgrace...as an institution we shouldn't be openly backing a country with a pitiful human rights record. I wonder how many women will be at this university...(although having said maybe that's why IC are forming links with them...)

I wish IC had a backbone and didn't just think about the money all the time.

Clearly the Saudis are realising when their oil dry up new well technology is going to make Canada a big ass oil producer and them nothing - a poor dystopia where you have part of your body amputated for being homosexual, and flogged for being drunk, and in the ONE election the country EVER had, only men could vote.

To Wtf:

Then you better go and hide because Arabs and Arabic speaking countries are going to get very influential in this new century, along with India and China, while the opposite happens to the US. From a historical point of view, the fundamental re-balancing of power is inevitable and apparently we are witnessing it everyday now.

Re I don't like Amnesty, but this is a joke,

How about George Bush and Guantanamo Bay? Is that Garden of Eden to you?

Re cynic:

Seriously, you have your point of view, and they have theirs. You need to respect theirs, just like they respect our acceptance of homosexuality, alcoholism and hooliganism.

acceptance of homosexuality is the respect of personal freedoms. personal freedoms should not be looked upon in terms of cultural relativity, they are universal. homosexuality (which is not negative) should not be equated to alcoholism and hooliganism (which are negative)

Re df:

How about casual sex then? Is that negative to you? I think that's personal freedom, but many will think otherwise.

Headscarf may be bad, but is being the cover girl on FHM good? How about being an escort girl then? Surely that's personal freedom?

I don't think it is possible to separate the negative from the positive, the bad from the good and the evil from the just. It is all perception and points of view.

Also, it is without a doubt that we are doing more damage to the environment on a daily basis than the average person from those countries - just think of our carbon footprint and amount of generated waste!

my opinions on casual sex don't matter. consentual sex between adults is a personal freedom. there is no disagreement about that. the disagreement lies in the question should this personal freedom be curtailed.

don't justify intolerance as a 'point of view', homosexuality is not a vice or an evil; there i've seperated negative and positive. homosexuality is not negative and it is positive because it is an expression of a humans right to pursue happiness (and it doesn't infringe on other people's right to pursue happiness)

Since when does the Arab world 'accept' our tolerance of homosexuality, of freedom of religion (and, should we so choose, from religion), and, most of all, female emancipation?

They rail against us as godless, heathen, and decadent; demanding that we change our ways and trying to impose their medieval beliefs on us by force.

Sadly, this joke of a government has bent over backwards in the name of multi-culturalism and is making their job easy for them.

Despite all of our shared criticisms of America, Spencer, Saudi Arabia is a lot worse, as some of the more informed live posters have pointed out.

I don't think we should be supporting America in that respect, but equally we can't manage without them because we had already formed links with them no doubt pre-9/11. We could quite easily manage without forming more links with more despotic regiemes. At least America makes a constitutional point of having free speech.

I don't wish to generalise by branding an entire race of people one thing or another, but as a country, Saudia Arabia does not deserve our support. It would be a very different story I'm sure if Iran wanted to make a link. maybe west-friendly Oil has something to do with all this?

Save the Child

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Regards

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