As a homeowner who hesitates to spend the dollars to add on to my home, I must say I find this tidbit in AL Monitor’s weekly email concerning Washington lobbying intimidating:
Saudi Arabia began building the planned $500 billion city from scratch earlier this year, but its future remains in doubt. Several members of Neom’s board withdrew after Khashoggi’s murder in October, and the crown prince himself reportedly admitted to a business delegation that he expected “no one” to invest in the project “for years.” Teneo is notably tasked with helping to “rebuild and recalibrate Neom’s advisory board over time to ensure the organization has the right advisers and advocates.” (The advisory board includes Andrew Liveris, the former chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical, who is a senior adviser at Teneo).
The “crown prince” refers, of course, to Mohammad bin Salman, first in line for the throne of Saudi Arabia, better known as MBS, and associated with the murder of WaPo columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Whether or not this new city is needed or not, this sure looks like the 33 year old MBS is trying to salt away an heritage on the same order as Pharaoh Akhenaten, who notably built the city of Akhetaten as part of his effort to discard the old religion of Egypt and replace it with a worship of the Sun. While I think the analogy is a little stretched even at this point, it’s worth noting that Akhenaten was, post-reign, erased from Egyptian history by new dynasties; MBS’ ambition may be his undoing, as it doesn’t appear his association with the murder of Khashoggi has placed his eventual succession to the throne in any danger.
And that sure is a lot of money.
