For sure the majority of people here, I'm talking about the local people, are kind and compassionate and have many good qualities. They are keen to give to charity, live in large families and show kindness to others and the elderly. I don't doubt any of their good points.
The truth is that there are several 'Qatars' existing simultaneously. Their world is very different to the world of the industrial area. What the former are not made aware of, or maybe they know but don't fully appreciate, is the depth to which the lowest slave class is exploited. This is something that readers on this website know well but it is easy to ignore when the most difficult task of your week is to stroll around Gucci and LV and pick out which four hangbags you are going to buy next.
For the latter, life means to be left out in temperatures that cats and dogs cannot even bear; feeling suicidal or taken to hospital with heatstroke; 'accidental' deaths and insanity kept out of the newspapers, covered up even by their own embassies and the media; sleeping in rotten portacabins with 9 other bodies; no union representation or power to improve their conditions.
Not things you or I would readily experience, or tolerate.
It is not due to the malevolence of any particular social class but only of greedy slavemasters who, having extracted their pound of Asian flesh, don't even want to pay the measly 500 riyals a month to their victims in return.
It is human trafficking and yes it happens in many places but THAT IS IRRELEVANT TO EVERYTHING - it happens here, and *HERE* is the place we are actually discussing.
For example, The fact that slavery existed in the USA does not provide any comfort to these poor victims. (Next time you see one of these poor buggers, drive up to him, roll down your window a bit and say "hey, it sucks, but what those evil imperalist European b*stards did in other countries was far worse!! Oh, and if you don't like it, leave!" You'll be sure to add some moral clarity to their wretched situation.)
Nor does the real estate price of a 2 bedroom house in India matter ONE BIT when discussing this, or arrogantly pretending that 'they' are 'used' to these kind of conditions because in 'their countries' that's how it is. Come to think of it, why aren't they kissing my feet with sheer gratitude?
It is, as a previous poster said, survival of the fittest. Either the contractor makes the profits or he pays his men more. Without the mechanism of unions, an aggressive and assertive media and other factors, he will get do it because he can get away with it. And why shouldn't he? He's backed up by thousands of educated morons spouting the awfully clever justification of how 300QR a month can provide five star comfort if you're living in a Bombay slum etc etc etc
We are all equally complicit in the state of these people. And none of us - not just the contractors - (and, truthfully, myself included) is willing to jeopardise one little iota of what we have to help. We are all equally guilty as we sit around and politely avert our eyes from those yellow school buses that no schoolchild would ever be forced to travel in.
We only slew our collective guilt of the upper classes of society and weaken the argument away from those unfortunates for whom the little gem of 'if you don't like it leave' is of no practical help whatsoever.
For sure the majority of people here, I'm talking about the local people, are kind and compassionate and have many good qualities. They are keen to give to charity, live in large families and show kindness to others and the elderly. I don't doubt any of their good points.
The truth is that there are several 'Qatars' existing simultaneously. Their world is very different to the world of the industrial area. What the former are not made aware of, or maybe they know but don't fully appreciate, is the depth to which the lowest slave class is exploited. This is something that readers on this website know well but it is easy to ignore when the most difficult task of your week is to stroll around Gucci and LV and pick out which four hangbags you are going to buy next.
For the latter, life means to be left out in temperatures that cats and dogs cannot even bear; feeling suicidal or taken to hospital with heatstroke; 'accidental' deaths and insanity kept out of the newspapers, covered up even by their own embassies and the media; sleeping in rotten portacabins with 9 other bodies; no union representation or power to improve their conditions.
Not things you or I would readily experience, or tolerate.
It is not due to the malevolence of any particular social class but only of greedy slavemasters who, having extracted their pound of Asian flesh, don't even want to pay the measly 500 riyals a month to their victims in return.
It is human trafficking and yes it happens in many places but THAT IS IRRELEVANT TO EVERYTHING - it happens here, and *HERE* is the place we are actually discussing.
For example, The fact that slavery existed in the USA does not provide any comfort to these poor victims. (Next time you see one of these poor buggers, drive up to him, roll down your window a bit and say "hey, it sucks, but what those evil imperalist European b*stards did in other countries was far worse!! Oh, and if you don't like it, leave!" You'll be sure to add some moral clarity to their wretched situation.)
Nor does the real estate price of a 2 bedroom house in India matter ONE BIT when discussing this, or arrogantly pretending that 'they' are 'used' to these kind of conditions because in 'their countries' that's how it is. Come to think of it, why aren't they kissing my feet with sheer gratitude?
It is, as a previous poster said, survival of the fittest. Either the contractor makes the profits or he pays his men more. Without the mechanism of unions, an aggressive and assertive media and other factors, he will get do it because he can get away with it. And why shouldn't he? He's backed up by thousands of educated morons spouting the awfully clever justification of how 300QR a month can provide five star comfort if you're living in a Bombay slum etc etc etc
We are all equally complicit in the state of these people. And none of us - not just the contractors - (and, truthfully, myself included) is willing to jeopardise one little iota of what we have to help. We are all equally guilty as we sit around and politely avert our eyes from those yellow school buses that no schoolchild would ever be forced to travel in.
We only slew our collective guilt of the upper classes of society and weaken the argument away from those unfortunates for whom the little gem of 'if you don't like it leave' is of no practical help whatsoever.