2008 Woodie Awards
American oil companies unfair to Saudi Arabians, speaker says
Jack Willems
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: News
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A University of Pennsylvania professor presented the history of relations between American and Arab oil companies Monday afternoon in Giffels Auditorium.
Professor Robert Vitalis, who holds a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he hoped to debunk the gospel of the amazing American oil company.
Vitalis' presentation gave the history of American oil industries' relations with Saudi Arabia. He was paid to speak at the UA by the Middle East center, said Joel Gordon, a UA history professor. Vitalis' book, "American Kingdom," contains the story of the Saudi Labor movement in the 1950s, which he described as "a remarkable and wholly forgotten moment in history."
The American oil industry has put out a myth about how the Arabian-American Oil Company and other companies modernized Saudi Arabia in the 1950s, Vitalis said. The industry has paid several writers to tell the story of oil companies improving the standards of living for Saudi Arabians while educating them to take over the industry, Vitalis said. He showed a film released by ARAMCO in the 1950s, which portrayed a partnership between the locals and white pioneers.
"They can't overcome the fact that the story is not true," Vitalis said.
After studying the practice of American mining companies in all areas of the world and taking a look at the records of ARAMCO in the 1940s and 1950s, Vitalis said the opposite was true.
While white American employees of the company were given suburban homes, a country club and quality schools, Arab employees were forced to live in straw huts with dirt floors, Vitalis said.
Despite its promises to give Arabs opportunities to move into management, the company never allowed them to advance and offered few educational opportunities to the children of the Arab employees, Vitalis said. Arabs had to drink from water troughs, he said.
Syrian, Italian and Pakistani workers were segregated from the Arab workers. Pay was based on race, Vitalis said. While reports have claimed that the Saudis wanted to segregate themselves, Vitalis said he believes otherwise.
Professor Robert Vitalis, who holds a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he hoped to debunk the gospel of the amazing American oil company.
Vitalis' presentation gave the history of American oil industries' relations with Saudi Arabia. He was paid to speak at the UA by the Middle East center, said Joel Gordon, a UA history professor. Vitalis' book, "American Kingdom," contains the story of the Saudi Labor movement in the 1950s, which he described as "a remarkable and wholly forgotten moment in history."
The American oil industry has put out a myth about how the Arabian-American Oil Company and other companies modernized Saudi Arabia in the 1950s, Vitalis said. The industry has paid several writers to tell the story of oil companies improving the standards of living for Saudi Arabians while educating them to take over the industry, Vitalis said. He showed a film released by ARAMCO in the 1950s, which portrayed a partnership between the locals and white pioneers.
"They can't overcome the fact that the story is not true," Vitalis said.
After studying the practice of American mining companies in all areas of the world and taking a look at the records of ARAMCO in the 1940s and 1950s, Vitalis said the opposite was true.
While white American employees of the company were given suburban homes, a country club and quality schools, Arab employees were forced to live in straw huts with dirt floors, Vitalis said.
Despite its promises to give Arabs opportunities to move into management, the company never allowed them to advance and offered few educational opportunities to the children of the Arab employees, Vitalis said. Arabs had to drink from water troughs, he said.
Syrian, Italian and Pakistani workers were segregated from the Arab workers. Pay was based on race, Vitalis said. While reports have claimed that the Saudis wanted to segregate themselves, Vitalis said he believes otherwise.
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