McDonalds and Bidoons
I'm very angry at the world today...While having grown up with the luxuries of life (al-hamdulla)...our daily issues are based on a thing or two of mostly no significance...yet..to us they are problems..until of course I'm having a massage...the Filipino lady would tell me her sad stories..."Madaaaaam...you know my owner....she didn't pay my salary this month..Maddaaam...what shall I do?"..then of course there's the Indian lady plucking my eyebrows telling me that she didn't travel this year to visit her family because she didn't make enough money this year...the sad stories never end...but somehow wherever I went..there were people servicing me and telling me their sad stories)...I always enjoyed lending an ear to listen to them...somehow feeling that I could cheer them up....I also later would feel silly about any problem that I was over analyzing about and felt that it was a sign...these people had major problems..my problems where petty compared to theirs...
But later...when fate played a role and I heard another problem..that's when I began to get angry...
A few years back I was working for an American media company and they'd asked me to hire a temp to work as a "mandoob/driver"....while recruiting..I met a young boy who was desperately looking for a job...we later hired him since he fit the bill..and as his boss I evaluated him as a polite, hard working, mature and intelligent...he was..basically...street wise...By the time the company decided to move out of Kuwait..we became good friends and I decided to adopt him as my younger brother...his struggles in life were many...but the harshest was that he was a Bidoon...( did you ever stop to think of what that word really means...ya3ni in English it means without..he's just without!)....
After leaving the company the only people that would hire him were McDonald's...another American company...he would always tell me entertaining stories about his life at McDonald's...how some Kuwaiti customers would go up to him and tell him how they were so proud of him to be working there thinking that he was Kuwaiti...he'd never burst their bubble and tell them that he wasn't and that he was actually Bidoon...he'd just smile and tell them thank you....
As days went by, I found myself wanting so much to help him...so I decided to ask every single person that I know if they could find him a job...I typed his resume for him and added whatever experience he had and forwarded to my mailing list...knowing that there must be somebody out there who'd want to help such a decent and honest person as him....Afterall...we were all getting good salaries...surely somebody could afford paying him a decent one...
Here's where my anger kicks in...nobody came through...Mind you, they all said..."laaa...harram..miskeen"...but from all of them out there....not one came back with something....I became so desperate to help that the other day I actually asked an acquaintance who owns a very large cooperation if he needed a mandoob and he answered very politely..."I'm sorry....I have an Egyptian Mandoob who has a masters degree...could he beat that?"...I knew he couldn't...but it still made me angry...
So my friend now still works at McDonald's delivering service with a smile....aint it sad that it had to be an American Company...not that I have anything against them....but why?...Why does it have to be an American Company that is the humanitarian one...why can't it be us...why do we suddenly deny those that speak our language and live within us as though it's not our problem...or worse that it was their fault....my bidoon friend even has Kuwaiti cousins...how ironic...
Coincidently, the other day I got a message from him telling me to check out one of the newspapers 'coz he was in it...the article was about these young boys working at McDonald's..I was so excited to read about it..and as I read and read...there was absolutely no mention of him being bidoon...the reader was to presume that he was Kuwaiti....my blood boiled...why didn't they say the truth...I threw the newspaper and decided to go meditate...my anger was intolerable..
In the end, I feel better having meditated...and happy to live a life of luxury..but unless I get to own my own company to ensure that I find this kid a job I won't feel complete..and worse still I have to humbly say....hats off to you McDonald's...as usual...you're the winner and we're the losers...
posted by MissCosmoKuwait @ 9:10 AM
5 Comments:
The world would definitely be a better palce if everyone was a bit like you...
Excellent post.
This is exactly the way it is for many Bidoon. It is so frustrating for them not to be able to find a decent job; and when they do find a job, they are always insecure because they can be fired at any time. How painful and how unfair for someone born in this country, whose parents were probably also born in this country, yet not have the right to anything- not even to make his own living.
We need to band together and get a campaign going- at least to provide decent jobs for this sector of our society which has been directly and needlessly targeted.
q8sultana...thanks...that is so sweet..
jewaira...the campaign sounds like a great idea...any idea how we can go about this?? I'm in if you're in...:)
I am from Oman and I've always thought of of the bidoon in your country as Kuwaiti people 'bidoom' a passport, it is amusing that you make it clear in your post that they are NOT kuwaitis whatsoever and that they are 'without' anything, thinking about this is very depressing, I mean, did they just come out of nowhere for them to be 'without', in so many countries, if you spend so many years in a country you get they'll give you the passport, the law is so unfair over here, really.
Couldn't have said it better myself!
Notice, no offense, but Kuwaiti's always emphasize on how generous they are. But when you look around, you see that they're only generous to impress others, or towards others like them. Atleast thats my observations, I'm in no denial that most people here claim to be generous while they have no sympathy for anyone who is not possible use to them.
I'm sorry, but when the governemnt treat people ( the "bidoon" ) like they are here, i can't find any place for their so called "generosity" or their care, or the well-being of the country as a whole. I mean no education, no health care, no jobs. NOTHING! wtf? So basically, what Kuwait is doing is actually producing more dead weight on itself. They're raising the rate of "omi" people, and of unemplyment. Generous? Fair? Logical? Smart choices? Indeed!
That's beside that point.
Well done! A great issue to put forward, and I believe more people should do that, hopefully one day, Kuwait would wake up and realize we have far more greater issues than co-education.
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