As a dictator, what exactly do you do to keep your subjects from rioting  when your neighbouring dictator friends are dropping like flies?

Well, if you just happen to have $300 billion or so tucked away from your oil sales to the US you can always try outright bribery dressed up as a gift to mark various national events (via Yahoo News) :

Kuwaiti ruler grants $4 bn, free food to citizens

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Monday ordered the distribution of $4 billion and free food for 14 months to citizens as the oil-rich emirate prepares to mark national occasions.

Each of the 1.12 million native citizens will get 1,000 dinars ($3,572) in cash as well as free essential food items until March 31, 2012, the KUNA news agency cited state minister for cabinet affairs Rudhan al-Rudhan as saying.

The Gulf state, whose financial assets top $300 billion, will next month mark the 50th anniversary of independence, 20th anniversary of liberation from Iraqi occupation and the fifth anniversary of the emir’s ascendance to power.

The announcement was made following an overnight meeting of the cabinet. The 2.4 million foreign residents of Kuwait are excluded from the grant and the free food.

Inflation in Kuwait soared to 5.9 percent in November, the highest in 20 months on the back of high food prices which rose by 12.3 percent.

It’s definitely one way to keep everybody quiet for a while and certainly saves having to disappear to the USA on a long visit for some supposed surgery just in case the natives get a bit too restless :

Since flying to New York on November 22, Abdullah, 86, has undergone two rounds of back surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital, first for a herniated disk and then to repair several vertebrae in his spine.

The royal court said on December 4 that the surgery was “completely successful” and that the king would undergo a second phase of physiotherapy.

I am pretty sure he will be having several more rounds of physio whilst watching the chaos unfold across the region.

My only thought now is how long until Europe sees the riots spreading?

Albania has already been at it for a while so, where next?