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Comment by siculars | Hacker News Reader

I've been taking many DEI trainings at Google. I'm wondering how that will work at a Google Riyadh office.

Is DEI a global truth? Does it survive contact with reality in KSA (and other locations that don't share western liberties)? What is the internal messaging to employees of multinationals investing so much in DEI when they work in (or travel to) KSA? Can I drive myself to the office if I'm a woman? Do I need to be escorted to work by a man? Are my questions outdated and I need to be educated on life in the KSA? What if I'm a Christian? Where can I go to Sunday Mass in Riyadh?

So many questions...

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DEI = Diversity, equity and inclusion.

KSA= Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

(Just in case others have a hard time, it look me a moment to parse KSA as not “knowledge, skills, abilities.”)

I’m not sure how people post publicly to a worldwide forum expecting everyone to know the meaning of acronyms. Thank you for posting these.

A varying-in-size part of everyone believes that the whole world is the 5 people closest to them.

google Riyadh KSA?

Forming that question presupposes that you know that KSA refers to a place, as opposed to e.g. an organisation or a division of alphabet

> Does it survive contact with reality in KSA (and other locations that don't share western liberties)? What is the internal messaging to employees of multinationals investing so much in DEI when they work in (or travel to) KSA?

Was that not enough information to tell, at very least, that KSA refers to a location?

That's not lateral thinking enough.

The point of googling is to find the relationship between "KSA" and "Riyadh".

(Aside the textual clues already mentioned)

Yes to all and no to all too. The reality in the country is that all is forbidden and all comonplace at the same time. You will find laws saying women (or men) can or cannot do X but then you will also meet woman on the street doing X openly. The country is dominated by class and priviledge levels. The laws apply differently to different people. So the best question to ask is who will you be working for? Who is your employer/sponsor/protector going to be? What are thier chosen rules?

I think we all know the answer to that.

Saudis will get special treatment because they have money and oil. Their barbaric treatment of women and decades of financing terrorism (Wahhabism) will be ignored.

DEI is mostly about profit. It’s profitable in the US to virtue signal via DEI but not in KSA.

> I've been taking many DEI trainings at Google. I'm wondering how that will work at a Google Riyadh office.

Google is already hypocritical enough to virtue signal DEI stuff and then discriminating anyway in the US.

I would expect Google in the KSA to just plainly play by the local rules.

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