Okay,
okay, I know I've promised to blog about a bit too many more topics
than I can prolly take up right now, and I still promise to do so with
time, but for now, I'll just talk about something that's still fresh in
my mind and heart. I promise to blog about the engagement party I
attended last weekend AND about my host family's farm and all. And I've
some pictures I'd like to share sooner or later. And I can't claim that
it's because I don't have time--because blogging is one of those things
I'll find time for (another such thing is sleep). It's mostly because
I'm being lazy; other times, it's because the amount of stuff I've to
say in the blog post overwhelms me (it's exciting, I swear, but it's so
much it's also rather overwhelming); other times, I'm simply trying to
avoid the computer because the thought of checking my email and the
responsibilities I've to full while in Oman scares the shit out of me. I
want to have nothing that serious to think about! On a happier note,
though, finally allowing myself to check my email wasn't so bad after
all because there've been some good news academic-wise lately,
alhamdulillah. I'm too shy to note them here. Maybe another time, iA.
Also,
I cannot speak in English anymore being more focused on Arabic at the
moment. I find it hard to convey a simple point in English and forget
the most basic words in English when I talk. It's prolly good news for
my Arabic, though ... because, DEAR HUMANS, I'm starting to have dreams
IN ARABIC!!!! I'm even starting to think in Arabic now!! How successful
is that! Please #SayMashaAllah, though. So another reason I'm not
blogging is that I actually cannot write in English. And while I'm happy
starting a blog in Arabic, I also enjoying having readership, lolzuna.
Now about this thing ...
As
I've said about my Fus'ha teacher before, he's wonderful guy. It's six
of us (all females) in our class, and he's the only male present, and
as he tells us, he loves us like his sisters. We know he adores us like
crazy, and we adore him like crazy as well. Still, as an Omani, he's not
allowed to criticize his country or government (it's against the law,
and as a visitor in Oman, I'm not supposed to either - hence "The Gulf"
and not specifically Oman as a human rights abuser). So I understand
that he's not allowed to agree with anything that I presented on today.
He can, however, and readily does say that Saudi, Dubai, Qatar, etc. are
the real problems, and Oman is the best country ever; Oman has
absolutely NO problems; human trafficking doesn't exist anywhere (not
even in Dubai); racism doesn't exist here -- all humans, of all colors
and religions and sects and traditions and practices and viewpoints, get
along perfectly well like civilized humans all across Oman, and it's in
Saudi that they don't.
The
point being, naturally, Oman has no problems whatsoever. I sometimes
feel bad speaking negatively of Pakistan or the U.S. because I don't
wanna be seen as a traitor to my native country (Pakistan) or to my
homeland (the U.S.). BUT! Some truths cannot be denied and I think
should not be denied, and I feel like it takes a certain level of
comfort and love for your nation to be able to speak against it in a
respectful way with the intention of inviting dialogue as well as
working towards a more promising future for the future citizens and
residents of the country. Still, I do feel grateful that I feel safe and
comfortable criticizing the U.S. however and whenever and where I want
(not denying that everyone else feels the same way or that it's always
necessarily this safe to do so. Snowden, anyone? Well, okay, that may be a little different, but you get the message. Or then check this out: when an NSA recruitment session went horribly wrong ...
You get the message. Hopefully.
Oh, but there's something funny I just have
to mention right now that's relevant to this criticism stuff. When I
was in Morocco last year, my (white American) roommate and I decided to
take a journey to Tangier. (You all remember that, right? Okay.)
We were sitting in a first-class cabin (not expensive even in Moroccan
currency, so I promise this isn't to imply I'm rich and all - because
I'm not, and I'm happy this way), and the two other people sitting with
us were Moroccan. An elderly woman and a man probably in his 40s or so.
We were on a four-hour journey from Meknes to Tangier, so there was lots
of nice human bonding going on, and we talked about lots of things. In
Morocco, like in Oman, you're not allowed to criticize the government or
the country. And so, like in Oman, Moroccans will speak only positively
of the king and nothing negative will be tolerated about the king or of
the government at large. So the lady, the man, and I were talking about
my studies, my childhood, my life in America, Islam, the Qur'an, and
things like that, and at one point, I was saying something negative
about the U.S. government, and the lady's eyes widen as she points with
her head at my roommate with her lips on her mount, suggesting I
shouldn't say that out loud because the white American (the "real"
American) will tell on me or something, LOL. And I laughed and filled my
rommate in on what was going on, and we both laughed, and then I told
the lady that it's socially and legally acceptable for us to disagree
with our government and president and that I'm not saying anything
offensive or that my disagreement with my government doesn't mean I'm
being a traitor to my country. She was absolutely stunned. (Less as in,
"wow, so amazing that you guys have the right to speak freely," and more
as in, "Tsk, tsk - you have no respect for authority." It's all cool
with me, though. We see criticism differently because of our different
lifestyles and different upbringing and different rights and all.
Back to the point about our presentation, though ...
So
my friend does her part on Hispanic and Latin American migrant laborers
in the U.S., and one thing we forgot to bring up was this article I
came across yesterday. A heartbreaking discover. Turns out that Texas
has been "dumping the bodies of migrants into mass graves." Quoting the article:
"According to what the researchers could piece together, the bodies all came from one source: the Sacred Heart Burial Park in Brooks County. The people in charge of burying these migrants worked for a funeral home named Funeraria del Angel Howard-Williams. The funeral home was paid by the county around $450 per body to bury migrants found dead while trying to cross the border. Rather than treat the men, women, and children with respect and care, Howard-Williams appears to have pocketed the money and dumped the bodies with as little work as possible. The funeral home has had a government contract to dispose of the bodies for the past 16 years.
In a grisly irony, many of the bodies were found in plastic bags emblazoned with the word “dignity” on them – a brand Sacred Heart actively promotes."
In
my part, I discussed the kind of place that the workers live and sleep
in, their virtually complete lack of rights as migrants here, the utter
negligence of the government and the countrypeople on behalf of the
migrants when things go wrong between them and their employers. The
kafala system is what allows employers to sponsor migrant workers to
come and work here under them, and through the same system, the
employers are able to take away the worker's passport (and honestly just
do whatever with it that he or she wants) and to threaten and abuse the
worker because now the employer literally owns this person's freedom.
Omanis will justify this taking of the passport with suggestions like:
"Because then they run away!" And so I was like, "?! So what if they run
away? Maybe they wouldn't run away if they didn't have to." We're
humans, and most of us really are just trying to survive, and we'll
escape whatever situation we're in for a better one. Every human should
have the right to movement and to work wherever she/he wants or can, and
taking away their passport from them is unfair in every way. In some
examples that I've heard about, the employer has the power to ensure the
migrant's deportation by taking their passport to the police and
accusing them of this and that, and the migrant is then never allowed to
work in that country again. My host sister gave me this example of her
maid who ran away and then they took her passport to the police and she
was deported. I was supposed to laugh at this because she thought this
was hilarious, and I was like, "No, this is not funny. And it's not
fair." And she goes, "She shouldn't have run away." And I'm like why the
fuck not?! But since this was about how amazingly her family treated
her and the maid was just selfish and greedy and wanted better for NOT
REASON--how dare she--I didn't want to continue the conversation.
We
also talked about human trafficking, sex trafficking (just a bit,
though), and sexual and other abuse of the migrant workers. We were told
none of this true, and none of this, especially human trafficking,
exists.
Again,
we wanted to send the message that the Gulf isn't the only region where
this problem exists, and I hope/think we conveyed our point well. But
the discussion was then more about the Gulf because ... guess it! Our
teacher was like no, no, none of this is true :) He questioned my
sources and suggested that I read authentic material *like government
documents* that talk about the value of these migrant workers and their
human rights and all, and I let it be known that I never have and never
will trust ANY government findings or claims because they're never
truthful. While every sources has its limitations and biases, I think
any governmental sources should be the last thing we trust. We should
read them and keep ourselves informed about them because it's important
to have a variety of sources of knowledge and information, but relying
especially on governmental documents is a crime against humanity.
Whether it's the Gulf, American, Mexican, Pakistani, Afghan, or whatever
else - you should know better than to trust the government in sharing
the truth about ANYTHING with you.
But
as I've said before, our teacher's quite open to dialogue and to
respecting others' opinions and knowledge. We know that sources of
knowledge are censored, everywhere but especially in the Middle East,
and so it's possibly that people in the Gulf do not personally and
deliberately support any human rights violations, and as individuals,
many of them may be wonderfully kind and merciful to their domestic
workers and others who work for them. But as a society, it's a whole
different story, and we know that every society has its flaws (which is
why I don't get this whole "Oman is the best thing in the world. There's
nothing to disagree with here" business. Something is definitely wrong
if everyone's saying this.)
So, yeah, that's all for now.
Also, Ramadhan is coming up!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! InshaAllah.
Wow. That's a heavy convo sprouting from your presentation. Glad you have the people around you thinking about these things from a different angle, if nothing more.
ReplyDeleteThanks to conversations with you about the issue and your knowledge! That's what continues to inspire me!
DeleteHi Shehnaz, try reading this book by Andrew Gardner: http://www.amazon.com/City-Strangers-Migration-Community-Bahrain/dp/080147602X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403761379&sr=8-1&keywords=andrew+gardner+migrant+labor or any of his articles. He's an anthropology professor at the University of Puget Sounds and has been living, working and researching in the Gulf for several years. What is important to consider is that the kafala system not only hugely discriminates against the worker it also is not without fault for the "receiving" employers, especially families employing domestics help or gardeners. While of course it is legitimate for any human being to try to better their situation hiring a migrant domestic help/gardener/worker is also a high investment on the family's part. They have to pay a (rather high) fee to the agency, pay for the worker's work permission and the worker's ticket. The worker also have to pay a fee to the agency and mostly arrive in the Gulf indepted for their first tow-year contract. If the worker turns out not to like the situation (this may be due to outright exploitation or abuse, but also due to homesickness, culture shock, language barrier or just not getting along with the employer on a personal level) and try to switch employers or "run away", both sides, the employer and employee end up with a pile of high costs having been paid for essentially nothing. Of course the migrant laborer will have to carry much greater ramifications than the employer but still it's a huge investment for many families, and sometimes only the women who rely heavily on domestic help to realize their own dreams of a career (as gender roles have not changed a iota in the Gulf with women entering the job market; Gulf society still demands of women to have many children and be the sole responsible for their upbringing and all housework. so if the wife is too busy due to her professional life she simply transfers her duties to another female, like her own mother, her nieces, older daughters or a domestic migrant help). So really the only one winning in this kafala system is the agencies and probably the states that want to prevent making migrant laborers a valid part of society following their own aspirations and partake in the dynamics of labor market and society.
ReplyDeleteThat said the situation of migrant laborers depends also heavily on their country of origin's will to protect them. In Oman the embassy of the Philippines has effectively enforced a rather decent minimum wage (compared to other nationalities), makes sure Filipino housemaids are paid according to their qualification and not only according to their nationality and gives abused housemaids shelter. Other states don't seem to judge this type of action necessary...
S.!! As we say in Urdu, thank you, meri jaan, for reading and commenting! Apologies for the late reply (and I also just realized I still haven't written about the engagement party I went to like three weeks ago, lol. Oops. I'll do it right now, I bromise!)
DeleteThanks for the reference to the book! I'm starting to become more interested in this issue, so I'll go ahead and take a read.
I can imagine how much the sponsors have to deal with and what kinds of risks they have to take in order to get a worker. Still, I wonder why these governments try so hard to feed these families and sponsors' egos by limiting the freedoms and choices of the workers. After all, the whole system exists as a mark of prestige for the privileged families of the Gulf. Apparently, Syria started doing the same thing (importing workers from the outside as a demonstration of their wealth and status) before the wars, and India and Pakistan are doing the same thing as well; having a worker/maid/etc. from the same village or same country denies the family the opportunity to abuse the workers because if the worker is an international, then the families don't have to worry about letting the workers off on vacations or family emergencies and whatnot. Of course, there are always good humans, and it cannot be possible that all of the wealth families are this merciless.
I'm relieved to hear that the Philippines government ensures its people's rights in the Gulf! That's why their salary is higher than, say, the South Asians' or the Ethiopians or others and are generally treated much better. Oh how I wish other governments cared just as much about their people, too!
It's sad :(
ReplyDeleteYes! Terribly! I also just learned that their salary depends on their race :S The Philippinos get the most paid, Ethiopians the least, and the South Asians somewhere in the middle. Why is humanity so effed up!
DeleteI'll write more on this, too.
How's that weird, though? All Muslim countries differ from each other, so I'm not sure what stands out to you about Ibadhis.
ReplyDelete