Seven Saudi businessmen were recently listed among the world's 1,000 billionaires by Forbes magazine. Their total wealth was estimated at about SR187.5 billion. Many wealthy Saudis are engaged in benevolent and charitable activities. This shows the strength of our economy and reflects the growing self-reliance and increase in wealth that leads to a strengthening of the bonds of solidarity in our society. It is comforting to see that a part of this wealth reaches the poor and destitute.
Wealthy people in our country are not just the seven on the Forbes World's Billionaires list. Some might be richer than those who were listed by Forbes magazine. These people have amassed their wealth away from the public eye or media hype. Sometimes they quietly pay zakat to the needy. Others may be greedy and avoid paying zakat, but there is no doubt that wealthy Saudis have enormous economic power and no one can ignore them. These people are capable of altering and transforming the lives of families which live in abject poverty, by elevating them to middle class status. They can easily spend a large amount of money on charity by building hospitals, schools, treatment centers and homes for the elderly and destitute. These people can be instrumental in creating jobs for thousands of unemployed youths as well as in helping the poor get married. They can also support charities and voluntary societies. I have visited several charitable societies that are engaged in all types of social projects. All of them spoke about the financial problems that they face in carrying out their day-to-day activities. They said that the financial support they receive from the government is insufficient to meet their expenses. Moreover, they add that financial assistance from businessmen is not up to their expectations. As I have said, there are several businessmen who use their wealth to help the poor. Some of them have established charitable societies that have become the pride of the nation. But what about other wealthy people? When are their millions of riyals going to be put to work to improve the lives of the poor and needy? There should be a list of rich people who are the most charitable so that all wealthy members of society would compete with one another in spending their money for humanitarian and charitable purposes.
