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| Arabia | |
| What a spin! Eye on Saudi Maids Reveals Child Abuse | |
| 2005-03-27 | |
| As somebody who lived there for a number of years, I can tell you this is COMPLETE BULLSHIT!! Maids as well as all the labor hand in that shit hole are terrified of even saudi born mosquitos! They will never, ever beat a saudi child because they know that death or torture is to follow! JEDDAH, 27 March 2005 — Many Saudi families have installed secret cameras in their homes in order to monitor the behavior of their maids. The families are supposedly interested in seeing how the maids treat their children, especially since violence against children is increasing in the Kingdom. Umm Sultan, a Saudi mother working in the educational sector, has had more than eight maids in the past few years. She has had to change them because of abuse of her children. She said: "I suspected that my maid was abusing my child when he always ran to me and said he didn't want to be with her." Umm Sultan decided to take a friend's advice and install a camera to see what was going on. She said: "The maid left my child crying for hours while she took a bath or watched TV. When the child was hungry, she took the bottle, shouted at him and then threw the bottle at him. In the end my child cried himself to sleep. I could not watch the tape so I called my husband and showed it to him. The maid was deported the same day." Umm Sultan's story is generally typical of what the secret cameras reveal. Maids, on the other hand, strongly object to being secretly filmed. They said it was an invasion of their privacy. An Indonesian maid stated, "Nobody has the right to film me or any other maid. We refuse to have our private lives filmed. I will not agree to being filmed." Foreign consular offices in the Kingdom have different opinions. Muhammad Salheen, from the Indonesian Consulate, understands the motives that drive many Saudi families to install secret cameras. At the same time, he pointed out: "Just as Saudis are entitled to their privacy, so are maids. Saudis could avoid the stress and violence which may come from their maids by specifying exact work times and rest times. Many maids are driven to violence as a result of stress because of the absence of laws and regulations related to their work." Ahmad Ali believes that secret cameras are important in every house where there are maids. He described his experience when he discovered that his maid was beating his young child. He said: "Thank God I discovered how my maid was beating my child, because of secret cameras." The secret camera business has brought huge profits to stores which sell them. Ahmad Al-Shawi, the manager of a big camera observation company, said the number of Saudi families asking for the service is increasing every month. He said: "Secret camera prices vary. They run from about $550 to $1,300. The price also depends on the size as most Saudi families prefer the smaller ones that cannot be seen or discovered."
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| Posted by:TMH |
| #14 As someone who lived in SA, I'll say that TMH's assertions regards Saudi Arabia are absolutely correct. Perhaps a maid employed in her / his own native locale may be abusive, but you can bet your ass that one in SA would not be - for fear of her / his very life. Maids and "Houseboys" are commonly terrorized, starved, beaten, and sexually abused by the Saudis, both the males and females -- and there is no escape. Even if they had squirreled away cash to buy a ticket, the "employer" / "sponsor" keeps their passports. You can't run away to the nearest Catholic Church and beg Father DoGood to sneak you out of the country - no one is sympathetic to your plight. No. One. They are no different than indentured servants, who are often "fined" for "misbehavior" and there is no recourse. They are routinely held beyond their agreed contract and routinely paid less than was agreed and routinely charged for anything the employer provides. Those who are "live-in" cannot leave the house, period, without permission. Talk about making a complaint to the Labor Ministry is completely laughable without a company behind you or in large numbers. Top it off with this: The Labor Ministry won't even give you an interview if you don't have a native Arabic speaker to represent you - this is common in all dealings with the Govt... it "makes work" for indolent useless Saudis and other Arabs from the GCC who are not from connected / wealthy tribes. There is no recourse. Asking for trouble would bring it in spades - there's plenty of abuse coming at them from the Saudis, they don't need to, and I say won't, go asking for it. In the Asian country I've been in long enough to employ domestic help, Thailand, I've neither seen nor heard of any sort of child abuse. I did not have children there with me, so no first-hand knowledge one way or the other. None of my Thai friends with children was financially independent, lol! In Saudi, it would be absolute suicide. They are already abused and unprotected beyond the wildest dreams of any American or Westerner. To buy into this Bullshit is to be utterly suckered, lol! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-03-27 6:37:37 PM |
| #13 TMH, speaking as someone who has employed a number of Asian maids (when living in Asia), I know that abusing young children is a common way for maids to exact revenge for real and imagined abuses on them. I don't condone it but I understand why it happens. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-03-27 5:50:32 PM |
| #12 Ship - Lol - I'm afraid Shelties might explode from all the excitement, heh! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-03-27 5:28:31 PM |
| #11 No wait a second.... my sources inform me that a Sheltie would herd them off in a second. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-03-27 5:14:14 PM |
| #10 LOL! .com except it could never happen. The dawgs would throw themselves in front of the herd to keep them from the cliff. What you want is a Tasmanian tiger.... rats... whers that .jpg? I had it... fooey. Anyway. A cat who hates folks. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-03-27 5:12:27 PM |
| #9 tt - LOL! That conjures up all sorts of hysterical images for me, lol! Hmmmm. Herds joggers, eh? I'm picturing the Marin Co Massacre... 2 or 3 of these awesome dogs send hundreds of Bay Area joggers off one of the palisades into the icy shark-ridden waters... Oh, um, sorry. Daydreaming again. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-03-27 4:43:17 PM |
| #8 Have a friend with a Great Pyrenees. Great dog, not a wanderer but she can't let it outside in the early morning and the evenings, because it herds joggers. As in, she comes out front to see 5 or so nervous people standing near her fence - one moves and the Pyr moves in to keep the guys/gals together. I guess it figures the car traffic is dangerous - no sidewalks there - and it needs to protect its funny looking 'sheep'. Heh. |
| Posted by: too true 2005-03-27 3:47:45 PM |
| #7 The collies of course! The chillrun run and scream after a few nips on the ankle. Course it makes them easy to mass. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-03-27 3:38:02 PM |
| #6 The collies or the kids, Ship? heh .... |
| Posted by: too true 2005-03-27 1:54:15 PM |
| #5 Well, I've used border colliers who were sometimes too aggressive with the nephews but hey! That's just the way they are. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-03-27 1:53:07 PM |
| #4 Fortuneately, I never had to install cameras to watch our maids - there weren't any. Mrs. Bobby and I raised all three of our little darlings wihtout hired help! Wotta concept! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-03-27 1:46:53 PM |
| #3 They just want to make a video of the manly muslim men raping their maids..... Rape is almost a religous obligation in Islam you see... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-03-27 10:08:56 AM |
| #2 Of course not, JFM! We're too busy reviewing all those alleged porn CD's that were siezed earlier this week. This will take a considerable amount of time |
| Posted by: Shiek Yerbouti 2005-03-27 10:07:26 AM |
| #1 But of course, Saudis wouldn't even think in looking at the camera while the girl disrobes. |
| Posted by: JFM 2005-03-27 9:42:39 AM |