Most arabs take the pride in the fact that they are the privileged ones as it was on their lands that the three most prominent religions followed by people today started there. After living for about 5 years in the middle east, the arab culture made me realize why these religions were really brought on this planet and primarily focussed at the arabs. It was really surprising to see in countries like KSA people are still divided on the basis of the tribe they belong to. Jobs and even salaries are alloted on the basis of their tribe. Atrocities particularly against the people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are very difficult to pen and describe.
Most of the people from these countries are treated like slaves. The poor people of the south east asian countries are given a very wrong picture about the lives of the foreign workers in the middle east. The agents woo this people and fuel in giving a very beautiful picture of the petro dollar lifestyle. I had the opportunity of living in Riyadh were I used to see a lot of young south Asians toiling really hard to make both their ends meet.
For such people the day begins at 6:00 am in the morning when buses come and pick them up to take them at various construction sites deep in the dessert. In summers particularly, the situation gets really worse when the temperature touches 50 degree centigrade and when the project deadline is near. The day ends in the evening at 8 when they come back and so tired by the days work that they just hit the bed to prepare themselves for the next day. Some really needy people earn some more extra bucks by cleaning cars or taking some other job after 8 in the evening.
Inspite of such a hard work these people make about $300 per month out of which they end up spending most of it for food and clothing. The worst part of it is that these poor people are financially so badly debt ridden which they had taken to reach the petro rich Arabian lands that they cannot afford to go back to their home country. Also their passports are held by the company or by the agent (Kafeel) without whose permission the person cannot leave the country.
The situation is also not that good even when it comes to the educated class. A white skin manager is paid at least 3-4 times more than the south asian manager who works almost or sometimes more. The Arabs have developed a mindset that people from south asian countries can be exploited without having to answer any one. It was really funny to see some of the locals in KSA really astonished when the owner of Reliance Industries, India came to Riyadh. They were curious as how on earth could an Indian be so rich that he and his team required three huge aircrafts.
Although religion is followed very fervently in Arabian lands physically, most of the arabs have failed miserably in understanding the basic essence of why the religion is into existence. There is no doubt in my mind that this creed of people was so messed up that the wise man sitting above decided to provide some guidance to them.
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