Unrest in the Middle East is conspiring to make one unlikely office in Tysons Corner mighty busy while easing the budgets of thousands of Saudi students in the U.S.
The Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission — in the process of moving from D.C. to a new space in Tysons — learned last week that King Abdullah will use part of a $10.7 billion infusion of funds for social programs to finance scholarships for the country’s students studying abroad. The mission facilitates Saudi scholarship students in the U.S.
Though it wouldn’t be very kingly to admit, reporters in the U.S. are saying the “social program” moneys might as well be “subjects, please don’t protest against me” funds.
Call them what you will, Saudi students on hand at the cultural mission were “euphoric” and “ecstatic” about the king’s attempt at benevolence, according to an equally euphoric and ecstatic report in the Saudi-owned Arab News. Some apparently “jumped for joy” while others gathered in “happy student pandemonium.”
Reading it, one would hardly believe there’s any angst among Saudi young people about their home country’s 40 percent unemployement rate among 20-24 year olds. (So Mubarak believed, as well.)
The money will allow for about 13,000 new Saudi students in the U.S. over the next few weeks, according to the newspaper, bringing the total to about 45,000.
