Despite what should have been a permanent “scarlet letter” in the wake of his alleged role in the dismemberment of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of one of the world’s most repressive nations, is back in the news flexing his monetary muscles.
The Saudi-financed golf league known as LIV Golf began its eight-city tour in London last month. (Chicago’s Rich Harvest Farms will host one of the tournaments in September.) Money for LIV comes from the kingdom’s $620 billion Public Investment Fund. Much to the annoyance of the PGA Tour, some of its top golfers have defected to this new “super league.”
The reason is obvious: the amount of prize money the kingdom is throwing at this league. According to Golf Digest: “The first seven events will each boast $25 million purses, $20 million for individual prizes and another $5 million for the team competition.”
Friends, this is blood money. Every. Single. Riyal.
The truckloads of filthy money have enticed the defectors to conveniently look past Khashoggi’s murder. As Phil Mickelson famously said last November, “They’re scary (expletive) to get involved with. … They killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay.
“Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The frightened Mickelson received somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million from his “scary” paymasters to sign on to LIV Golf.
The crown prince’s money has now landed closer to home. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign just announced that professor Andreas Cangellaris, the school’s vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost, will be exiting Illinois to become the founding president of NEOM U in Saudi Arabia.
If you haven’t heard of NEOM, you are probably not alone. This is a planned, pie-in-the-sky, 10,000-square-mile, $500 billion sustainable city set in the desert of northwest Saudi Arabia. Completion date is 2025, but if I were a betting man, I’d take the over on the completion date.
In a statement accepting his new post, Cangellaris said, “To change the world for the better, you need everyone to become a change agent. And this is what NEOM U will do by bringing together learners from the Kingdom and the world in NEOM’s living laboratory and immersing them in the learning of how the deliberate, responsible, innovative use of technology can improve our world and the human condition.”
Learners?
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For those unfamiliar with academic jargon, let me boil down the above quote to one word: gobbledygook. Lord knows how many meetings were convened to craft those say-nothing words.
Most Illinois residents have also probably never heard of Cangellaris, even though they’ve been contributing to his annual six-figure salary. Whoever said there wasn’t good money working for the state?
Perhaps this teacher of learners has offered his services to the kingdom for free. (Perhaps I will win the Nobel Prize in literature this year.) One can only speculate what his new salary will be, but it’s not a stretch to imagine it in the low seven figures. Will the new deal include a car and driver, along with a fully furnished, sand-free house, and fully reclined, first-class airline seats to ferry him to and from NEOM? Will there be a meet-and-greet with Mickelson?
Rule of thumb: When someone says it’s not about the money, it’s always about the money. So, should we assume that the shovelfuls of cash the crown prince is throwing his way are justification for Cangellaris to sully his excellent resume for a regime that President Joe Biden once called a “pariah”? Before he recently went on bended knees begging to the kingdom for oil, Biden said there is “very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia” and that he would “end the sale of material to the Saudis where they’re going in and murdering children.”
When Cangellaris shakes the soft hand of bin Salman, will the “change agent” understand that any criticism of the pampered prince and the kingdom will not be tolerated? Is he aware of the thousands of innocent women and children in Yemen killed by the Saudi air force that dropped U.S.-made 500-pound bombs on that impoverished country? Does he remember that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia? Does he ever think about Khashoggi’s family?
We humans can justify anything. It’s what makes us so maddeningly adaptable. Like cockroaches.
Stephen J. Lyons is the author of five books of essays and journalism. His forthcoming book, “Searching for A Way Home: Misadventures with Misanthropes and Family,” will be published next summer.
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