Article

2004-07-29 Arabia

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Posted by ed 2004-07-29 12:10:16 AM|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 "resembling slavery"

Resemble my ass. There is slavery - all over the Magic Kingdom. In very very few places are expats actually given the protection on the books called Labor Law. If you do not work for a Gov't agency, and Aramco is an example, then you are quite literally at the utter mercy of your employer. And the treatment runs the entire range, from good to abysmal.

In '92 I saw it first-hand, as I didn't live in a compound - I was out in the regular shit of Al Khobar, very close to Thoqbah. The poor Indian guy who served as security (he did everything you can imagine under that ruse) for my apartment bldg came to SA for a promise of a job that paid 1500SR / month (approx $390USD). He paid the bodyshop that sold him into slavery for 2 years $1000USD + 1-way airfare to get the "job".

When he arrived, he was offered 700SR (approx $182USD) - take it or leave it. There, without a ticket, he had to take it. Then he was stuffed with about 15 other guys into a 2 bdrm "apartment" and charged for "meals" out of that 700SR - about which he didn't give details on how much they cost, but had a lot to say about how little and how lousy it was for the price. And he worked 16 hrs / day. Multiply him by 5 - for the others who worked in that bldg. Multiply by about 5 million who don't work for a Gov't entity.

If expats like me hadn't paid him to "guard" and wash our vehicles at the bldg, he and his family would've starved. I was gone before his contract was up, so I don't know what became of him. Consider that, in addition to everything, he had to save money for that 1-way ticket home, too - assuming the asshole Saudi he worked for ever released him and gave him back his passport.

I'll not repeat the whole incident where we expats in the bldg found that there was a Filipino nurse locked in the rooftop apartment, held hostage there by the bldg owner. After we found out - and railed at the bldg Mgr that we'd call the police if she wasn't released, she disappeared. Released? Who knows - the asshole Saudi owned several such apt bldgs - and lived in Riyadh.

All of the Human Rights orgs together aren't worth warm spit. They only go where they're allowed, see what they're allowed, know what they're told. They pick on the countries who do the best job regards human rights, not the ones who don't even acknowledge the term. Besides, they'd have a hard time that they're definitely not accustomed to: no 4-5 Star hotels, no wymyn, lousy food, and no booze. Better to holler at the US or the UK, as NY and London are soooo much nicer than Riyadh.

The Islamic World is an utterly and universally dysfunctional collection of despots, thugs, and insane mullahs. The quality of life ranges much wider than most of us will ever see - from incredibly awful to amazingly opulent. The "leaders" of these Islamic shitholes will never do any more than apply a little window dressing or create a farcical showplace for such HR fools to "inspect" and report on. Joke. Total joke.

*flush*

Posted by .com 2004-07-29 3:30:21 AM|| 2004-07-29 3:30:21 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Another valuable insight .Com - many thanks.

Posted by Howard UK 2004-07-29 7:29:16 AM|| 2004-07-29 7:29:16 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm more and more convinced we should have feinted straight ahead as our forces started to move and turned sharp left.

Posted by DLS 2004-07-29 8:13:02 AM|| 2004-07-29 8:13:02 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 .com, Good story. There are many stories available like that or worse. Where Filipino women are routinely raped by their employer and/or his/her family members -- or outright prosituted to his friends and family. But what are the women to do? Run to the Philippine Government (Arroyo) who are more interested in having their workers in the ME?

Posted by CrazyFool 2004-07-29 10:07:35 AM|| 2004-07-29 10:07:35 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 What does this have to do with Bush's Unilateralism and breaking a multitude of Int'l Laws?

;-)

Posted by danking70 2004-07-29 1:05:39 PM|| 2004-07-29 1:05:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 just wanted to chime in with the others.. nice post .com, 's posts like that which convinced me way-back-when to start reading rantburg regularly.

Posted by Dcreeper 2004-07-29 1:09:49 PM|| 2004-07-29 1:09:49 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Sooner or later a day of reckoning is coming for these low-lifes. Too much of their sh*t is spilling out into our world.

Posted by virginian 2004-07-29 1:33:14 PM|| 2004-07-29 1:33:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Thx, all. As CF points out - there are, literally, millions more - many much much worse. The Treat Williams movie Escape: Human Cargo (based on the book Flight from Dhahran) is a true story. Worth a look for how even a powerful businessman is helpless if isolated there. The best, however, was a 1980 documentary run on PBS called "The Death of a Princess" - second item on this page. Note it was suppressed because of our State Dept - via Warren Christopher.

Usually you only keep virulent strains of pathogens in Level-4 confinement... SA is the world's primary repository of the Dark Ages of Man.

Posted by .com 2004-07-29 6:59:03 PM|| 2004-07-29 6:59:03 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 If SA was one of the last to give up slavery, is HR implying that the Sudan has given up slavery?

Posted by Super Hose 2004-07-29 10:39:17 PM|| 2004-07-29 10:39:17 PM|| Front Page Top

11:22 Cloon
10:47 Frank G
10:46 Frank G
08:08 GreatestJeneration
07:52 Cloon
00:37 .com
00:03 Jeff Hamlin
20:49 .com
20:21 Cloon
20:11 Cloon
19:22 .com
19:01 Cloon
14:07 .com
13:51 Cloon
00:18 Derek Morey
07:40 WCW
14:43 paul m johnson 111
12:19 growler
09:59 ed
09:36 rkb
06:55 Dragon Fly
03:55 FlameBait93268
03:43 FlameBait93268
03:18 Super Hose