Monday, May 23, 2005

Foreign National Workers

We had a frustrating encounter last night involving Kuwaiti authorities and one of the foreign national workers here. This worker has been delivering military newspapers to our base for over a year without issue when suddenly one of the Kuwaiti gate guards decides he no longer will be allowed to enter the gate. Now I would assume he did something severly wrong but the reason given was that his arabic was simply not good enough.

This sounded absurd to me in a country filled with foreign workers and I assumed an officer would clear things up. To my amazement the officer confirmed his underlings demands. His official papers were taken away and he was forced to leave the gate while we escorted him out. We had the hopes of allowing him through our own US gates, and I figured the issue would be easily resolved.

The next day he returned to see about retrieving his papers and was interviewed for over two hours, which allegedly ended with him exiting in tears and told he would be deported. From what I understand he's from India which has a notoriously high unemployment rate.
(which possibly explains this crazyness?)
.

I was enraged about all of this and I couldn't figure out why these Kuwaitis take so much pleasure in abusing their foreign work force as I've witnessed and heard stories about on several other occasions. From all I can gather it's a simple case of power breeding corruption in a country that is essentially a huge welfare state. Here's a quote pulled from this link at the BBC:


"Notoriously, the women who make up a third of the national workforce, among them many at the very top of business and academic life, still cannot vote or stand for election.
The state still owns most of the economy and employs some 96% of the Kuwaiti workforce, who are guaranteed jobs for life.

It's an irony of the Gulf War that the coalition led by Republican America and Conservative Britain should have ensured the survival of a vast nationalised industry in one of the world's richest welfare states.

Education and healthcare are free, housing and food are subsidised. And there is no income tax - not a single dinar.

It's hard to identify what Kuwaitis do other than work for the government or the government's oil."



You may want to me to concede that this is simply a different culture, but it's proposterous that these people could hide behind their culture to justify acts of oppression. For all the hassle modern democracies get about their overpowering mindless beurocracies at the very least I can appreciate that things like this could have a chance at being changed in those countries.

8 Comments:

At Thu May 26, 11:19:00 PM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the insight into conditions there, I never cared much for the mid east when I was there.(Navy, Bahrain, back in the 80's)

 
At Fri May 27, 02:04:00 PM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Jim,

Sometimes it is unbelievable the mean things that some individuals do to others. I having been reading all your posting and find it reassuring to hear your thoughts. You cannot imagine how big my two boys are getting. They keep us very busy. I miss you lots and love you, Lisa

 
At Sun May 29, 10:44:00 AM EDT, Blogger Dan-O-Mite said...

Jimmy,
Happy Memorial Day. It has rained here for two months straight, this weekend as an exception. There's only half a chance it will rain. I just got back from California on a biz trip, hollywood and LA are crazy. I've been wondering when you'd post again, we've missed hearing from you. Kendall wants to write you a letter, a real letter, and so do I. Is the address still good? Hope those rumors about you moving are false. They're going crazy here with the latest round of base closures, wonder if they're consolodating in the warzone too?
Have a burger or hot dog today.

 
At Sun May 29, 01:48:00 PM EDT, Blogger Jim Tourville said...

You'll have to fill me in on your LA trip, I'm online at 2pm eastern time usually.

The address I have should be good for another month at least, I'll let everyone know when it's no longer legit.

 
At Mon May 30, 08:50:00 AM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Jimmer,

I was thinking of you today and wanted to say hi. It doesn't seem quite right that I am home relaxing and you are working on Memorial Day. My class has finally finished their letters to you and some are pretty cute. I hope to get them out to you tomorrow. You can respond in one letter to the group of them if that is easiest for you.
I hope that don't move you from your comfy spot, either. It must be frustrating for you to see the injustices you described. You are over there trying to help them and they are too busy looking out for themselves and taking advantage of others. Keep your chin up.

Love you,
Jenn

 
At Tue May 31, 02:26:00 PM EDT, Blogger Jim Tourville said...

From what I've heard we may be moving to one of the nicer camps. What that means is better facilities, events and a good mix of people. I'm starting to have a change of heart, especially when the odors start rolling in from the smoke towers. It wont be fun on the day of the move but after a week or so I'd imagine we'll all be happy about the change of scenery. More on that soon.

 
At Tue May 31, 05:14:00 PM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jim,

Glad to hear you may be moving to a better spot! We hope you get the base you want. Who knows, maybe you'll get to see a show with someone famous in it. Bring that camera with you so you can share it with us. Love, Mom, Dad and you know who.

 
At Tue Jun 07, 08:49:00 PM EDT, Blogger Jim Tourville said...

Jenn do you have an email address I can write to? Send it to jamestourville@yahoo.com I have a question about some of the letters and an idea to run by you.

 

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