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Inkluderar namnet: Karen Elliott House

Verk av Karen Elliott House

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Karen Elliott House, 64, retired in 2006 as Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Senior Vice President of Dow Jones & Company, and a member of the company’s executive committee. She is a broadly experienced business executive with particular expertise and experience in international affairs stemming from a distinguished career as a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and editor. Currently, she is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and author of “On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines—and Future,” published in September 2012 by Knopf.

Ms. House served as the Journal’s publisher from 2002 until her retirement and in that role was responsible for all news, editorial, sales and other business functions of The Wall Street Journal and its editions around the world.

From 1989 to 2002 she served as vice president international and then president international of Dow Jones, responsible for The Wall Street Journal’s print editions in Asia and Europe as well as for magazine and television ventures overseas. These included representing Dow Jones on the boards of CNBC Asia and Europe, the Far Eastern Economic Review and Vedomosti, a publishing partnership in Russia.

During a 32-year career with Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, Ms. House also served as foreign editor, diplomatic correspondent, and energy correspondent based in Washington D.C. Her journalism awards include a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for coverage of the Middle East (1984), two Overseas Press Club awards for coverage of the Middle East and of Islam and the Edwin M. Hood award for Excellence in Diplomatic Reporting for a series on Saudi Arabia (1982).

In both her news and business roles, Ms. House traveled widely over many years and interviewed world leaders including, Saddam Hussein, Lee Kwan Yew, Zhu Rongji, Vladimir Putin, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Natanyahu, Saudi King Abdullah, Hosni Mubarak, Margaret Thatcher, Richard Nixon, Helmut Kohl, George H.W. Bush, the late King Hussein and Yasser Arafat.

Ms. House also has appeared frequently on television over the past three decades including on Washington Week in Review, Meet the Press, and Face the Nation when she was based in Washington and more recently on PBS, Fox, CNN and CNBC. She has addressed many audiences in the U.S. and abroad as an executive of the Wall Street Journal and as an expert on international relations.

Ms. House has served and continues to serve on multiple non-profit boards including the Rand Corp., where she is vice-chairman, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asia Society, the German-American Council, and Boston University. She also is a member of the advisory board of the College of Communication at the University of Texas.

She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where in 1996 she was the recipient of the University’s “Distinguished Alumnus” award. She studied and taught at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics and she holds honorary degrees from Boston University (2003) and Lafayette College (1992). She also is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ms. House is married and is the mother of four children ages 17 to 39.

http://karenelliotthouse.com/about/

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Recensioner

On a Friday evening, with excitement and hopes to read an interesting book, I took this book by Karen Elliot.

In her preface, she claimed to be in touch with this country for over 30 years. Unfortunately, she delivers a mix of Wikipedia injected with American media narrative with steroids.

If you’ve watched power puff girls, the cartoon starts with Professor Utonium mixing sugar, spice and everything nice. He stirs all the ingredients and poof, Power Puff Girls appear (drum rolls). In a similar fashion, Wikipedia, Fox News CNBC and inject a bad narrative — poof this book appears.

The more I read, I became disappointed. If you walk over to an Average Joe in the West, he would regurgitate the same info and narrative of this book. Unfortunately, if this is where people in the West learn about a society which is non-Western, I say it’s bad scholarship.

I do not practice Islam. However, I want to take an effort in understanding a culture which I am not familiar. I'd rather not paint a narrative. Eg: "Wahhab preached a pure version of his Islam" Well, I am ignorant on various theological factions of Islam.

I am a non-Westerner reading this book. I am also a non-Saudi. I am a casual yet extremely curious observer of other-cultures. I wish, I could hear what a scholar who grew up in the Middle East comment on this society. A Scholar who has lived in both worlds.

Oh, I can think of Patrick Smith who wrote a book on, "Somebody Else's Century." He's a Westerner living in Asia (China, Japan, India). He was able to understand Asia (China, Japan, India) far more than any Westerner that I have encountered.

Patrick was more aware of intricate social concepts which are absent in the West.

I would not recommend this book to learn about Saudi Arabia. I am not sure what to recommend.

Deus Vult,
Gottfried
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
gottfried_leibniz | 5 andra recensioner | Jun 25, 2021 |
Excellent overview of a country on-the-edge and a country which the West cannot afford to ignore. A former WSJ foreign correspondent House has done her homework. This is a well written book that should be read by anyone who pays attention to the news.
 
Flaggad
Steve_Walker | 5 andra recensioner | Sep 13, 2020 |
There are several messages in this book all pointing to problems. None of them are at the boiling point, but the combination is in danger of coalescing to a crisis.
- The royal line is old, numerous, and almost powerless in effecting change.
- Royal succession has been contentious and will continue to be a problem.
- There are a ton of princes.
- Some of the people live in extreme poverty.
- The young men don't want to work except at cushy government jobs.
- The people have a sense of entitlement.
- Large handouts don't improve the prospects for country stability, they only reinforce the entitlement mentality.
- Since working is beneath the Saudi, most of the non-government jobs are filled by foreigners.
- The unemployment rate is sky high; for 20-24 year olds 39% (45.5% for women and 30.3% for men).
- Women aren't allowed in most jobs because they might come in contact with men.
- The educational system is really bad (teaching is unacceptable to the Saudi young men, and the women aren't allowed to teach classes with male students).
- Religion dominates their lives.
- The religious system is oppressive.
- Religion was used by the government to control the people.
- Religion hampers the government's ability to improve the country.
- Religious study squeezes out secular study & is largely memorization.
- Religious police are viewed by the author as a massive damper on improving the lot of the people.
- Religious leaders are divided along the radical - conservative spectrum.
- The Internet makes it easy for the young to see the conflicts, inequity, and ineffectiveness of their government...
- An exception (in many ways) is Saudi ARAMCO.

Many of these points were reiterated throughout the book perhaps to make sure that the reader didn't miss them. The reiteration was not annoying, but came across more as elaboration on a theme or as weaving themes together.

A few interesting statements.

"This resignation to living under corrupt temporal leaders and focusing not on improving life on earth but rather on securing a better life in the hereafter helps explain why oppressive and greedy rulers reign for so long in so many Arab countries." (Page 29)

"If Westerners love individualism, most Saudis are literally frightened at the mere thought of being different. To be different is to attract attention. To attract attention is to invite envy from peers and anger from family." (Page 31)


"The average age of the king and crown prince is 83, yet, as already noted, 60 percent of Saudis are under twenty. "(Page 221) Thus, they have very different value. How can those leaders satisfy the desires of the youthful population?

"Saudi Arabia is like a rich schoolboy and teacher's pet that seeks to mask his dependence on the teacher's protection by currying favor with the schoolyard bullies. While he goes to great lengths to avoid being seen as the teacher's pet, he also frets that the teacher will be upset at the bad company he is keeping. As a result, he is not respected or trusted by anyone." (Page 230)

The last few chapters sum it all up, so if you are not up to reading the whole thing, just read the end. However, the whole book is written in an interesting style.
… (mer)
1 rösta
Flaggad
bread2u | 5 andra recensioner | Jul 1, 2020 |
I have read a few books on the middle east and studied middle eastern history in college 30 years ago. So, not much of an expert. With that caveat I found the book to be highly enlightening. Especially found the chapters discussing the current and future prognoses for a shift in the role of the monarchy cause for concern. Although long a stable ally to the US the book highlighted the true precariousness of that view. I very much liked the chapter on the attempts of the Saud to rehabilitate the young jihadi. A well written book the doesn't seem to varnish or pull punches.… (mer)
 
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wrevans | 5 andra recensioner | Jun 21, 2014 |

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205
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#107,802
Betyg
½ 3.6
Recensioner
6
ISBN
3

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