وضاعت المنامة
This picture was not taken somewhere in the streets of Mumbai or Hyderabad, nor is this a protest rally in support of Benazir Bhutto against the controversial emergency rule imposed by General Musharraf, sadly those are the streets of Manama, evident only by the Masha’allah sticker seen on the minivan at the bottom right corner.
What’s strange is that there is not a single Bahraini in sight, and what’s even stranger is that each and every single one of those cheap laborers has a job that doesn’t only suffices his expenses, but casually does extend to sending a proportionately large portion of their monthly income to their families back home.
Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way against those people or the nations flooding our markets with cheap labor and have nothing but absolute respect for those hard workers who chose to leave their country, family and friends behind in search for the green buck, let’s not go deep into the economics here and talk about their true effect on our labor market, how about we talk something we can understand and relate to.. The Culture -or what’s left of it at least-
Picture: AlWasat Newspaper- 19/11/2007 – Pages 14-15 – Click for the full size
Sir.
These people have build your TINY kingdom, if they were not their you all must be sleeping in Ramal and MUD houses, So thank them and pray from GOD that you do not go back to those old days.
That’s right. I agree with Pervez. If the so-called hard-working Bahraini did not have so much pride and took on jobs that these people take, then you wouldn’t have to write this post, and half of these people would be looking elsewhere for work.
But no. We have to pretend we’re as rich as the Saudis and the Kuwaitis and that we don’t do the “shit” jobs because we’re much better than that. We all want to be bankers, don’t we? Bankers are rich, plumbers are not. Isn’t that right?
I wouldn’t solely blame the Bahrainis on this one -I myself a casual victim- I truly believe that cheap labor is a curse to the labor markets and without proper regulations and/or control things will easily get out of hand, we’ll end up with a situation worse than what we have in the picture. The US has the same problem with Mexicans, in Lebanon it’s the Syrians and so on…
You simply can’t have a flow of cheap labor without proper control, that if we get some control over other problems making things worse like free visa workers, illegal workers and those who refuse to leave the country even when their work permit is long expired..
Incidentally, I agree with all of the above. This picture speaks volumes.
i wonder how many in that picture have a Khalifa somewhere in the background responsible for bringing him over?…as in Salmon.
Bahrainis(generally) are constantly complaining about the number of foreign menial labourers in Bahrain…always wanting them to all go home….I would sincerely love to be here the day (if ever) that it does happen. bahrainis would be knee deep in garbage(that they threw on the ground)…would have to be parking and getting out of their car to enter the cold store(the horrors)…might have to break a sweat and wash their own car, water their own garden….and raise their own kids(hardly bears thinking about). The rest of us that were raised to believe we should be doing these things for ourselves will be pulling up chairs….popping the top on a cold drink and have a good laugh while Bahrainis struggle to figure out how to sew, iron, cook, dig a hole, fill it up, and build…well anything. Let the good times roll!
I totally agree with you and with Odd. Cheap labor is a curse but its the attitudes of the people as well that has led to the necessity to find cheap labor. Time and tide waits for no man who thinks only of personal gain, aka the banker-wannabies. Its time we stopped living a lie. We are a poor family living amongst the rich and pretending to be rich!! How many houses have I seen in Riffa that are really old and derelict but with a lexus or a land cruiser parked in the front? These are the banker-wannabies. Its not “3aib” to work in construction or maintenance or other industries. We have cheap labor and our streets have been transformed into Malabar streets becoz of our own attitudes! We need to wak up and smell the sewers.
Peace,
SoulSearch
@Coolred:
That is an absolutely absurd, bizarre and an unfair statement to make; while it’s true that a sudden change of that magnitude will have a huge impact on our labor market, nobody called for it and nobody –including myself- has proposed this as a solution to this dilemma.
For one thing, Bahrainis are not as much laborly inactive like our neighboring countries –where the number of the immigrants is 3 or 4 times the number of its own people- it’s not uncommon to spot Bahrainis washing cars in public car parks, working flipping burgers at some fast food chain, or even janitors and plumbers.
You see, when 70% of the entire nation is getting less than 400 Dinars a month (as per the latest statistic) it does make sense to consider those hundreds of thousands of imported workers that are stressing the resources of this country.
What you fail to see here is just because we care about our own people, requiring laws and regulations to get the most of our country’s resources this does not mean that we have some sort of grudge against any alien.
To my bleeding-heart friends who want to point out how much those cheap laborers contribute to our society because they LIKE their gardener and housekeeper and they like to pay less for fixing their water pipes at home, or nothing to collect their trash every morning: spend some time in the real world of our crippled labor market and see the TRUE costs.
Higher insurance, Medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, more stress on our limited electricity and water resources, overcrowding, new diseases etc., etc., etc. As for me, I’d be glad to pay more for fixing my own water pipes, or more for the municipality for trash workers.
How many times have i heard a Bahraini say these words….”the govt should send all the damn foreigners home and let Bahrainis have those jobs”….or by “those” jobs were those Bahrainis just referring to the air conditioned desk jobs….?
Im not saying it would be feasible or even desirable to send all foreign labour home…what I am saying is that Bahrainis better learn how to serve rather than be served before the day comes when they wake up and realize all the labourers that are treated like animals here…have found greener pastures elsewhere.
as the local bahraini population expanded out of the tight houses and neighbourhood that defined manama, and moved to the ‘suburbs’ where bigger houses, less traffic, and more privacy were ensured, the price of these old, dying properties dropped in value.
who moves in? those who need to be close to the city, as they have (or wont spend) their feet for transportation, or a bicycle at best. they need cheap rent, which is provided for by the old, ailing properties. they need a place where they can feel home, which is little mumbai every friday in souk manama.
my mother still “commutes” to my grandfathers house every evening.. everyone of my uncles and aunts moved out, so the house is usually empty. we have all been separated, tossed around to different areas of the country, adn only see each other once in a blue moon, when it used to be that we were together every day…
eid in manama is not the same. most go, but there are less family members, and more foreigners… i wonder how it will be in years when everyone starts departing… where will be celebration eid/geraoon etc 20 years from now? will it be in the same place? or in our ‘rural’ saar home?
its sad.. its really sad…
coolred; already happening. with the degradation in the value of the dinar against the rupee, and the rise of higher paying jobs back home, most of the indian labor find it more attractive nowadays to go home…
هل كان بالامكان الحد من هذه المشكله لو تم تحديد مناطق تعيش فيها العماله الاجنبيه بشكل منظم
لن ننكر ما قامت به هذه العماله في البلد من جوانب ايجابيه
ولكن العماله لم تعمل هنا لسواد عيوننا ولكن لحاجتها كما هي حاجتنا لها فهي تعمل لتوفير لقمه العيش ولا وعيب في ذلك
لسنا افضل منهم ولكنه الاقتصاد المتوحش الذي لم يعد يرحم احدا
اما الجوانب السلبيه فهي تدوينه لحالها
في النهايه
اعتقد ان الشعب البحريني تخلى طواعيه عن عاصمته لصالح الاجانب
Why is it that some people become a bit hostile when speaking about regulating immigration policies ?
I ask those people to look at the picture again and see whether it reflects a Bahraini arab capital … is that normal ??
Secondly, we are not against non – bahrainis coming to the country and benefiting it, because I know for sure that there are some jobs bahrainis are not fit to work in !
Do you find a bahraini sitting infront of a sewing machine designing abbayas ( arabian cloaks) for example ! or doing heavy duty construction work in high peak mid – summer for long hours? The first thing to acknowledge is that there are some jobs bahrainis my not accept to work on, and therefore benefiting from non – bahrainis comes in.
But everybody should also agree that it is not acceptable to have thousands roaming around in Bahrain illegally and because of that they are also unemployed!
I don’t understand why semi skilled Indian laborers are still working for paltry wages. With Rupee strongly appreciating against Dollar and increasing wages in India and an exploding economy, it’s time for them to go home.
I the GCC countries are the only countries in the world with this underlying attitude amongst all levels of their nationals that they are above doing certain types of work – of course I am generalizing here and there are few exceptions to this rule however the majority rules. Take a look at any other country and you will not find say 99.99% of the population with this attitude like you find here in the GCC. With this attitude no GCC country will ever be self sufficient and there will always be unemployment! You can not have a society where everyone works in an office and everyone has a job! This just can’t happen. People without skills and/or education naturally must assume “menial” jobs or else be unemployed, it’s as simple as that! That’s Bahrain’s future. There’s no changing the unemployment problems until this attitude no longer exists.
Then there is the issue of “under-employment” which is when someone is employed however at unlivable wages. As long as there is no minimum wage set that is standard for everyone Bahraini & expatriates, there will be under-employment because of the fact that expatriates are allowed to work in Bahrain for any wage which drives the average wage down. They are will always be the first choice because they are cheap and employers can basically get away with violating what little rights they do have. Unfortunately greedy business owners in Bahrain due everything in their power to block any regulation from being implemented because it will affect their pockets! What a shame, with this situation, you better expect to see a lot more foreigners here!
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