A Chat with a Migrant Worker

Migrant workers have been a fixture in Kuwait for around 40 years now and comprise a substantial amount of the population here as well as in other Persian Gulf countries. Some notable statistics include that 2/3 of Kuwait’s population of 3 million and 80% of the UAE’s population of 4 million are non-citizens.

In the beginning of the development of the Persian Gulf countries, in which Kuwait took the lead early on, many of the needed workers were brought from other Arab countries, most prominently Egypt and Palestine, due to their ability to speak Arabic. But over the years, many foreign migrant workers came from the South Asian countries, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and from the Philippines, and more recently Indonesia. These migrant workers come to the Persian Gulf with the hopes of more opportunity for work and higher salaries, a portion of which they send back to their families in their home countries as remittances. Thus, the economy of the Persian Gulf countries supports the economies of several countries with substantial remittance sending migrant populations in the Persian Gulf, notably Egypt and the Philippines.

But the promises made to migrant workers aren’t always as advertised. The hopes for better salaries and adequate working conditions are often betrayed. In a country as expensive to live in as Kuwait, the Bangladeshi servants in one public library for example, whose job it is to prepare tea for the librarians and keep the place clean, receive 30 KD or about a $100 a month, with housing and transportation to and from work already covered by the company sub-contracted to provide the servants by the government. Even if you added the cost of housing and transportation to their salary, it would not total more than 50 KD or $175.

Yesterday, when I went to the local shopping area in my neighborhood to print the surveys I am using to conduct my research, I had a nice chat with the migrant worker in the copy/print shop. He had a clean-cut appearance and was from Bangalore, India. He looked in his 20s, about 25. He told me he made 100 KD ($350) per month. He grumbled a bit about why the Kuwaiti owner paid him so little. He said Egyptians get paid more because they can read and type in Arabic, which makes sense.

But in a country where a decent apartment that another Fulbright Scholar is renting for 325 KD per month, more than 3 times his salary, I asked him how he gets by on just 100 KD. First he began by telling me that he sends 70 KD ($240) to his family back in India and lives off of 30 KD ($100). He helps to support his parents and two younger sisters and a younger brother. From his 30 KD he spends 13 KD ($45) for monthly accommodation and some meals in a flat shared by bachelors, with about 10 bachelors to a flat. That means he has about 15 KD ($50) left as disposable income per month. The remainder is probably used for mobile phone or international calling expenditures, clothes, and food.

He manages to get by on $50 a month of discretionary income for himself while more well off members of society here easily spend that kind of money on themselves for dinner. The wealth gap is flagrantly conspicuous, but an accepted aspect of the developing global economy.

Another interesting aspect of this migrant worker I met was his background. In the copy shop, recordings of Qur’anic chants were blaring from one of the computers. Seeing as he was the only one in the shop, I surmised it was he turned on the chanting and not an Arab Muslim co-worker. However, he looked more like a Hindu Indian. There are some noticeable differences in appearance that allow Indians to discriminate between Hindus and Muslims. As a result of my curiosity, I asked him if he was Muslim. He replied yes but with the clarification that he was a convert.

And so I inquired further: “Did you become a Muslim in Kuwait?” With his response being: “No, me and my family converted in India.” Followed by: “Alhamdulillah [Praise be to God] we found the right path.” I asked him his name which was the Arabic name Suleiman. His original name prior to his conversion was Mohan Krishna and very Hindu in type, and he was from Brahmin caste, the highest caste in the Hindu religion. Krishna was the prophet-founder of the Hindu religion. However, he said extended family relations with his Hindu family are good and that they are on speaking terms. He also said they didn’t convert, implying his family had already tried unsuccessfully before hand. When I asked about what kind of friends he had, he replied that he prefers friendship with Muslims over Hindus, which in addition to previous statements conclusively revealed his proud Muslim religiosity.

Although I had enjoyed speaking to him and learning a little bit about the life of South Asian migrant workers, I had to go off to Kuwait University and distribute my surveys. I’ll probably see him again when I go back to print more surveys. And although he may be paid minimally, he appears fine and well for the most part and I’m sure his family looks forward to his remittances.

Lecturer suspended after breastfeeding fatwa

Cairo (Reuters) May 21, 2007

CAIRO'S al-Azhar Islamic University has suspended a lecturer who suggested men and women work colleagues could use symbolic breastfeeding to get around a religious ban on being alone together.

The lecturer, Ezzat Atiya, had drawn on Islamic traditions that forbid sexual relations between a man and a woman who has breastfed him to suggest that symbolic breastfeeding could be a way around strict segregation of males and females.

But after controversy in the Egyptian and Middle East media, university president Ahmed el-Tayeb suspended Mr Atiya overnight pending an urgent investigation into his opinions, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.

Mr Atiya is the head of the department that deals with sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and the university is part of the al-Azhar institute, one of the most prestigious in Sunni Islam.
Mr Atiya's unusual opinion was widely publicised by Arabic-language satellite television channels and featured in a discussion in the Egyptian parliament.

The Dubai-based channel Al Arabiya quoted him as saying after five breastfeedings the man and woman could be alone together without violating Islamic law and the woman could remove her headscarf to reveal her hair.

But a committee from al-Azhar said his proposal contradicted the principles of Islam and of morality.

Mr Atiya had said he had drawn on medieval scholarship to justify his position. The opposition party newspaper al-Ahrar overnight quoted him as saying he retracted his views because they were based on the opinions of a minority of scholars.

Excuse Me..!!!! Was that a....???

So I was standing in line to buy Persian bread at the bakery in the local shopping center of my neighborhood in Kuwait. The system is that you bring your own bag to take your bread home in or a newspaper to wrap it in.

I was standing in line with my bag while the person in front was flipping through a newspaper that he would later carry his bread in. I was looking over his shoulder to see what was in the paper, and as he turned the page my eyes fell on what I could not believe I just saw. There before my eyes was an advertisement section with ads, in Arabic, for penis pumps and breast enlargers with pictures of the devices along with the descriptions so that I had no doubt as to what I was reading.

I paused for a moment to reflect on this bizarre and surreal juxtaposition. Here I was in one of the most conservative Arab states where the majority of the citizenry believes it is forbidden in Islam for men and women to shake hands and where the government forbids and makes illegal co-ed university classes. Yet it was allowed to advertise devices with such lewd purposes and without any hint of discretion. Why would co-ed university classes be forbidden while the importation of an obsessive Western cultural trait with large phalluses be tolerated?!?! Such are one of many contradicitions in the Middle East. Yet it didn't seem to raise a glance from the paper's reader in front of me.

When his turn came, he spread his paper, accepted his bread and wrapped it within it, and cheerfully walked home without a thought as to the contents of the paper.

Immigration makes America Rich

A friend of mine mentioned to me his feeling that American civilizatoin is in decline. I had similar thoughts before I left the US last fall. But I have come to appreciate certian things about America that I think will still make it stay on top for a while. I've certainly found that the Middle East is not on the incline. And I learned that the one thing the truly keeps America on top is that it is the destination for the world's disillusioned educated and hard-working. It is the immigrants that make America richer than anything else. You see this everywhere. The smart and educated from Syria and Egypt such as doctors and engineers move to the states, add to this the Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, and Eastern Europeans, and you have roughly the best of the world in one country. When those smart, educated people stop immigrating to the states, that's perhaps when we may look for some sort of decline. Maybe in India and China they'll soon start staying as those countries improve. But they aren't ready to do so in Syria and Egypt. Just about every person I asked in Syria to tell me their life goals said it was to leave Syria to Europe or America. A German friend of mine in Syria who taught a German class said all her students with the exception of one were doctors. They were studying German to go an specialize there. I asked why Germany, and she said because the door to America was closed to them. Well.. it is still open to Syrians. But it is much, much more difficult to go to America that people stop trying. And that is our loss, America's loss. And in this case, Germany's gain.

Extremely Ostentatious Kuwaiti Wedding

In other news, I went to a ridiculously ostentatious wedding last Friday. There was a famous Lebanese signer there, Nawal al-Zoghbi, which was preceded, you won't believe it, by a transvestite, and also Lebanese and very famous, who imitates Arab singers. The image of a transvestite entertaining a posh Kuwaiti co-ed wedding party was unfathomable to me before and is very ironic for this conservative gulf state. The party I went to was mixed for men and women. There was another party the previous day just for women. Kuwaitis normally hold two wedding parties separated by gender, one for men and one for women. Just the cost of hiring Nawal al-Zoghbi for both parties was at a discount rate of 20,000 Kuwaiti Dinars = $70K. The total cost for both parties was estimated at around half a million dollars. Now that is ostentatatious consumption.

Volunteering at the Scientific Center

Well, a week ago I was going through a reflective period of where I was in my Fulbright experience. And positive changes have taken place. I dropped out of college and got a job. That's an exaggeration, but I just wanted to say it that way since it is ironic. I stopped going to Arabic classes at Kuwait University and instead go to learn Arabic from my uncle everday at the library where he works. Today, I started volunteering at the scientific center in the aquarium and education departments. The scientific center is mainly an aquarium. I went scuba diving this morning in the main tank with the sharks and fishes. I hadn't dove for about 2 years, since I had trouble getting my buoyancy underwater, but it was a cool experience. I will be helping to clean the tank of fish exrement and other debris using a sunction hose. In the evening I went back to the scientific center and became acquainted with the education dept responsibilities of what they do, explaining things and giving demonstrations for example. It was interesting to working inside the water tank in the morning and then outside in the evening. In one day of working at the scientific center, I've gotten to know more Kuwaitis than in all my 3.5 months prior. And I got to know guys and girls. And I like that the director of the aquarium dept has made it aware to all the Kuwaitis that I am here to learn Arabic and to speak to me in Arabic. That's great, because that is what I've been wanting, an environment to get to know Kuwaiti youth and hear Arabic spoken and speak with them in Arabic. I feel I finally found a daily routine that suits me for the rest of my time in Kuwait.

Equality??

I've been taking some classes at Kuwait University where I've gotten to know some of the Kuwaitis there. I just spoke to a friend today where I mentioned to him I've been working on a survey to find out the values of Kuwaiti youth to women's rights. I told him some of the sample questions I'll be asking, the first one being do you believe in the equality between men and women. And to my surprise he said no. I didn't know what to say. He graduate from a British high school in Kuwait and we had previously spoken about the different cultural mentalities toward women between Kuwaitis who graduate from Western high schools versus government schools. So I expected that going to a British school where men and women are in mixed classroom environment, would lend itself to the belief in the equality between men and women. But, my friend didn't disagree because he felt men superior to women. Rather, he felt that men and women weren't equal because of creational differences. But, now I will go have dinner with him and his friends.