REPOST: A write up by a Kuwaiti journalist: Lately I noticed in the media a number of voices from amongst the Kuwaitis criticizing the number of expats in the country. This is nothing new. Some writers have exceeded the logic of common sense while whining about the expats. Every country has a right to determine its own demography. But the way many of our writers are portraying the entire issue is entirely wrong. They are portraying the expats as some sort of invaders who have come and conquered us. They depict them as if these expats have caused unemployment in our country. I laugh my head off at such suggestions. Which are these jobs, exactly? If we look at the jobs that the expats are doing, 90 percent of them are the ones that we Kuwaitis are not willing to do. Without mentioning the name of a columnist who raised a brouhaha about it, I would like to ask him: Which jobs exactly are the expats taking away from us? Are these the jobs at the Iranian baker’s shop where they have to wake up at 5 am to bake bread? Is it a taxi driver’s job, since he makes merely a few peanuts each month? Are these the jobs with the cleaning companies where they collect garbage morning and night? Is he talking about the jobs of waiters at small eateries or big restaurants? Is it the tailors’ jobs, Indians or Pakistanis living in small 3 x 4 rooms where tailors stitch dishdashas for our men? What about the jobs in the laundry services? Or is he envious about the cooks working in sophisticated restaurants or small corner shops? Or whether our boys and girls would accept to work in small fast food outlets selling burgers and French fries? Are we jealous of the construction workers laboring at 2 pm in 50 degrees Celsius temperatures? Or should I continue further? The butchers selling meat? Would my son agree to be a butcher, Sir, or yours for that matter? I ask this with due respect to all the butchers in the world because I do like meat. Or is it the guy who sits in the co-op for KD 200 a month whose job should be our target? My straightforward answer is that my daughter or son will not take up such a job. Must we envy the salesmen’s jobs at Grand Avenues in retail shops? Have you checked the salaries of these salespersons in the lavish shops where they work from early in the morning till late at night and go home by bus? And you know how efficient our buses are. They are just like Dubai’s terminal. Or salespeople in retail shops around Kuwait? How much do they make? Would your son or my son take up such a job? Or is sharing such an opinion just your way to prove yourself as a patriot and a hero of the nation, Mr Writer? Show me one Kuwaiti plumber who shows up when your kitchen sink’s pipe leaks? Who comes to your help when your car breaks down? Where do you take it? Have you visited the industrial area in Shuwaikh? Have you seen the way these boys work in the garages and inquired how much they get paid? It is easy to talk but to face facts is something difficult. I forgot the gardeners and the drivers and the half a million maids who work in our households. If you kick out all the expats, to whom will you rent all the buildings? To whom will we sell cars and who will eat in the restaurants where we eat? Be it a sambosa shop or a car dealership, how many are owned by Kuwaitis? Then we might sit at home and the government will give us salaries from the oil money. The day you see an expat carrying a building on his head at the airport, do stop him at the airport. If an expat lives for his social insurance and health insurance, then after 52 years, he will not have anything to stay for. So stop wailing and whining about the dysfunctional state of the country and find good enough reasons why we have high unemployment. Now let me talk about what jobs we Kuwaitis are doing. We are all employed in ministry jobs. The army and police jobs are all reserved for us. Many of our sons are doctors. We only employ foreigners because the number of doctors that we have is not adequate. Kuwaiti nurses are very few. We have enough pilots in Kuwait Airways. Kuwaitis are in managerial and high posts in many government and private companies. The same applies to banks. Because we do not have enough Kuwaiti teachers, we do not have a Kuwaiti teacher who is unemployed. The kind of jobs that we Kuwaitis do not want, the establishments are often owned by Kuwaitis. The employees are foreigners. Please, I can go and on with this article and extend it into a book. Save us the headache and do not use this as an excuse for the corruption and the stalemate in Kuwait. We need to fix our own house and not throw the blame at the expats’ doors. Mr Writer mentioned that there was a certain nationality which is outnumbering Kuwaitis. He did not mention it but I will it on his behalf. He is clearly talking about the Egyptians. Thanks to the iqama traders, these people sell their cows and all their belongings and give it to the iqama trader to obtain whatever job they can manage. It is not their fault. It is our system that is to be blamed. The day we are ready to do these menial jobs, I assure you that the expats will leave. By Badrya Darwish
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:58:20 +0000
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