muslims brotherhood, yeah rite
On Wed, 7 May 2008 08:37:19 -0700 (PDT), "nkdatta2466@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"
<nkdatta2466@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/04/08/news0902.htm
>
>Nation, Dhaka, Bangladesh
>Tuesday, April 8, 2008
>
>Bangladesh image at stake in Saudi Arabia
>Dr. Abdul Momen
>
>It is now an established fact that the Banglade**** Community living in
>Saudi Arabia has lost its image during the last 2-3 years. The image
>of Banglade****s in Saudi Arabia (KSA) was relatively very high ever
>since they started to come here in late seventies. When I landed in
>this holy land in early years, I found in the Saudi Society a sense of
>sympathy and respect towards all Banglade****s. They used to consider
>Banglade****s as obedient, diligent, hard working, sincere and honest.
>Their common expression towards Banglade**** expatriates was-"kullu
>Bangali koyes"- all Bengalis are good souls. Tariq Al-Maeena, a
>reputed Arab News columnist once wrote that if you would like to get
>your automobile fixed at dead of night, just knock the door of a
>Bangali repair shop, they would do it even at odd hours and with a
>smile. Now in 2008, the picture is diametrically opposite. Saudis now
>consider Banglade****s to be "Katir Mushkila"- -great problem. Some
>have gone to the extent that "all Bangalees" should be expelled en-
>masse. How could this happen? How could a whole community lose its
>image so rapidly? If one delves into the issue deeply, he would find
>three major causes: 1. Large scale media campaign against the
>Banglade**** Community that incited hatred in Saudi Society against the
>Banglade****s. 2. Misdeeds committed by a section of Banglade****
>nationals that triggered above hate campaign in the Saudi media, and
>3. Role played by some unscrupulous Recruiting Agencies and officials.
>Media Campaign From 2007, stories on crimes and misdeeds committed by
>Banglade**** nationals started to flood the newspaper pages, both
>English and Arabic. Last month (February 2008), popular Radio Channels
>like MBC-FM and Panorama-FM aired lengthy programs featuring misdeeds
>committed by Banglade****s.
>
>People interviewed in the program overwhelmingly expressed their
>disgust over the Bengali folks and opined for ouster of them as soon
>as possible. There were few who logically opined that a whole
>community should not be blamed for crimes committed by a few, but
>their voice was very dim as compared to overwhelming majority. Along
>with leading Arabic dailies, widely circulated English daily the Arab
>News also took the scope. It went on publi****ng series of horror
>re****ts focusing on "Bengali Crimes" one after another. One of such
>re****ts, compiled by Ms. Razan Baker, goes as follows: "Kuwait
>instituted a ban on Banglade**** recruitment last year, citing crime
>committed by them. "We look forward to the day when we get to
>celebrate the departure of the last Banglade**** here similar to what
>happened in Kuwait," said Khalid Ibrahim, a Saudi teacher. "We could
>then say with a big relief goodbye to ****ography and alcohol, to our
>maid stealers, to the rapists of our children, to the counterfeiters
>of governmental do***ents," said another 40-year-old Saudi government
>employees. (Arab News, 19 Feb 2008). If one carefully scrutinizes the
>above re****t, he could easily detect how cunningly and purposely the
>re****ter had tried to malign Banglade****s! She quotes a previous
>incidence of Kuwait occurred more than a year ago where some
>Banglade**** laborers went on strike for non-payment of their salaries,
>and links it with Saudi situation to get rid of the last Banglade****
>from Saudi soil. The reader would get an impression as if Kuwait had
>got rid of the last Banglade****; so Saudi should also follow the suit.
>Fact of the matter is; Kuwait did not throw them out and in fact,
>there are more Banglade****s working now then previous years in Kuwait.
>Does it not seem like a hate and malicious campaign against
>Banglade****s?
>
>Let us now check other points of the re****t one by one. Rapes- It was
>re****ted that some Banglade**** youths had recently raped a Saudi minor
>girl in Al-Jubail. Rape is an ugly crime hated by all civilized people
>and is not bound to a particular nation. Last year, there had been a
>re****t in the Arab News that a Pakistani father raped his daughter
>Zarna who had to take shelter with Human Rights Commission of KSA.
>This was just an isolated incidence; no way has it proved that all
>Pakistanis are rapists. There had been a re****t in the Arab News on
>May 15, 2005 that 32 cases of ***** had occurred in Saudi Arabia in
>2004 according to the Social Service Department Record. These are also
>isolated incidences committed by perverted people who are found in
>almost all societies. Other than an imbecile, nobody would argue that
>this re****t of the Arab News had proved that all Saudis are rapists.
>
>Almost 2 million Banglade****s work in Saudi Arabia. The Al-Jubail
>incidence was the 1st occurrence of rape committed by a Banglade****
>national so far re****ted by Saudi news media. Question is; is it fair
>to label all Banglade****s as rapists for a single incidence and call
>for ouster of all of them? Alcohol- Liquor of any kind is strictly
>forbidden in Bangladesh as against India where pubs are abundant not
>only in cities but also in rural areas. Drunkards are despised in
>strictly conservative Banglade**** society. You will not find even one
>in a million who has ever seen this material physically. Even in the
>metropolitan Dhaka city, other than a limited number of bars mainly
>meant for foreigners, you won't see much of them. Moreover,
>Banglade**** Muslim is forbidden to drink it. It is difficult to fathom
>as to how the re****ter blames Banglade**** expatriates in KSA as
>alcoholic or dealers of Alcohol en-masse. More so after coming to the
>holy land whereas affluent communities like Indians or Filipinos
>remain far away from this vice although they hail from societies where
>alcohol is culturally admitted! It sounds not only factually untrue
>but malicious as well. Narcotics- Afghanistan and adjoining areas are
>globally known and considered to be the breeding ground of narcotics.
>
>There must be rich and big guys behind drug trafficking to the Middle
>East, not poor Banglade**** cleaners and tea boys that earn around SR
>300 ($80) a month and hardly get any free time to do drug business.
>How would ousting these poor cleaners as media claims would cleanse
>out this vice from Saudi Society? Is it not a very lame excuse and a
>wrong prescription by few media pundits to evade the main issue of
>drug trafficking? Maid Stealers- Stealing a human being from a Saudi
>household is completely a new term to us. There were innumerable
>re****ts in the Arab News on flee-away maids from Saudi households.
>Filipino and Indonesian Embassies had to arrange make-****ft tents for
>these types of distressed maids.
>
>Why does a maid flees or jumps through the window of her Master's
>house is a matter of serious investigation. Unfortunately, the Saudi
>media re****ts ****trayed that the wretched Banglade****s are the real
>players behind all such happenings. What an invention!! It is up to
>the readers to decide whether this accusation is true or well
>orchestrated propaganda construed by a select media. What is the main
>reason behind such malign and false propaganda?
>
>Apart from making further comment on this sensitive issue, we would
>simply say- any individual caught in heinous act of mistreatment and
>flesh trade trafficking must be punished heavily irrespective of his
>or her nationality. **** CDs- This is a Hi-Tech business arena where
>professional IT people are needed to make and market such CDs. To my
>knowledge, microscopic few Banglade**** expatriates in Saudi Arabia
>might have IT capability since 90% of this community is simply
>laborers and cleaners. They may be engaged as vendors to sell the CDs
>to earn few extra Riyals, but the real Godfathers are behind the
>screen. In order to get rid of this filthy business once and for all,
>Saudi Government should take serious effort to detect the real
>Godfathers of this business.
>
>Let them investigate who actually invest in producing, copying and
>marketing such product. Mere blame game to Banglade**** laborers would
>not eradicate this vice at all. Another thing to ponder over this
>issue: actors/ actresses of all **** are invariably of Indian or
>European origin. Does it imply that poor Banglade**** laborers made
>such CDs by hiring non-Bengali actors and actresses at exorbitant
>prices? Definitely the CDs were made somewhere else, smuggled to KSA
>and sold in the Saudi market. Question to the media pundits; how then
>the poor Banglade**** ajmans (foreigners) are held responsible for this
>crime?
>
>Is pirating of CDs, software, watches and the likes are only due to
>poor cleaners? Scrap Collecting- We have seen poor souls (mostly
>Banglade****s) roaming around garbage bins and collecting valuable
>materials like waste cans, metallic garments hangers, etc. and in the
>process, they help preserve the environment. While normal people would
>hesitate to approach the nasty and filthy bin, these people are
>competing with cats to secure a metallic scrap or a can of soda which
>passers-by might have generously thrown into. Such is the condition of
>these hapless people even after coming to their dream land; Saudi
>Arabia. It is not unlikely that some of them might have resorted to
>stealing man-hole covers, and cupper cables out of greed or poverty.
>
>Those that steal such manhole covers must be punished severely.
>However, if the government investigates who are the businessmen that
>collect such covers and bans such business, it would have long lasting
>effect. If the government bans such business, no poor people would go
>near these bins to collect cans and metallic scraps to sell. May we
>expect the Saudi press to uncover the true story behind such business
>instead of blaming these poor expatriates for manhole cover and copper
>scraps loss? Unfortunately, we hear clarion call from the Saudi media
>for ouster of the whole community for roaming around garbage bins.
>
>Is it not a disservice to the Saudi public and the government by
>concealing the truth of the story? Counterfeiting governmental
>do***ents- We agree with this accusation that some Banglade****
>criminals are involved in this activity in parallel with other
>nationals too. These criminals should be dealt with heavy handedly,
>irrespective of his/her national identity. Misdeeds committed by
>Banglade****s Common misdeeds committed by Banglade****s may be summed
>up by the term "collective hooliganism".
>
>There are few organized groups of Banglade**** expatriates under the
>cover of association or samity. Not that all samity or associations
>are bad. However, a few of such Samity have groups of musclemen who
>are re****tedly devoted to prove their strength over a rival group
>which infrequently results in open clashes in streets, breaking of
>glass of parked cars, ransacking shops, and also at times, physical
>assaults.
>
>This type of unruly behavior is never seen in case of other nationals
>such as Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos or Sri Lankan although their
>number is no less than that of Banglade****s in the KSA. Recall the
>killing of a Saudi police by a group of Banglade**** goons in downtown
>Batha (in Riyadh), a concentration of Banglade**** expatriates about a
>year ago.
>
>That earned a bad name for the whole community and the country as
>well. No wonder, most Saudis turned 180 degree with respect to
>Banglade****s since then. It is an irony that that one incident changed
>the mindset of Saudi people. Those who were vocal in praise of
>Banglade**** laborers were deeply shocked and rightfully disappointed.
>We have no knowledge that the Bangladesh Embassy had investigated the
>issue and recommended appropriate measures to both the Saudi and
>Bangladesh governments. The tragedy is, most of these hooligans are
>fugitives from Bangladesh.
>
>They took shelter in KSA from the criminal justice system of
>Bangladesh. Once in KSA, they continue their criminal practice. Normal
>service holders, technicians, salespersons, laborers and cleaners have
>to go to work early in the morning and return at dusk. They don't have
>time to be indulged in such criminal and filthy activities.
>Unfortunately, they become the target and prey of crimes committed by
>a few. The Bangladesh Embassy that should have taken more serious
>effort to identify and weed out criminals, unfortunately, neither have
>expertise, manpower nor resources to play vital role to mitigate such
>problems.
>
>They can make a list of these thugs which presumably would not exceed
>few dozens and handover such list to Saudi Authority to take care of
>them. Should there be any Godfather of these thugs, he/she should also
>be blacklisted and severely punished. Role of unscrupulous Recruiting
>Agencies Consider the story of Judge Miah of Narsingdi, a man of forty
>who came here as a cleaner five years ago. He paid Tk 3.5 lacs to the
>Recruiting Agency in Dhaka to buy a cleaner's work visa. His monthly
>salary was primarily SR 350 ($90) which was increased to SR 500 after
>two years. He was maliciously allured by the Recruiting Agency that he
>could easily earn at least SR 1000 every month additional to his
>regular monthly income of SR 300. At that assurance, Judge Miah was
>very happy. He sold whatever valuables he had at home, and also
>borrowed funds and paid the entire amount to the Agency.
>
>One bright day with glittering hope of making fortune within years he
>landed in KSA, the dream land. His hopes began to fade away within
>months. His salary is not sufficient to meet his daily needs; food,
>clothes, telephone calls to his wife and similar petty but essential
>expenses. He cannot save a single Halalah to sup****t his family back
>home, let alone make good fortune. So one day he left his Company and
>became a free lancer. He works part time as a domestic servant, washes
>cars, cleanses shops, collects scraps from garbage bins and does
>varieties of jobs that he come across.
>
>He does not know what wrong he committed; but as per his host
>country's law, he became an illegal expatriate. There are thousands of
>such Judge Miahs in the streets of Riyadh and other Saudi cities. They
>sell betel leafs and betel nuts in busy market place, some sell ****
>CDs, some work in construction sites. The common feature among them
>is; they all are illegal according to Saudi Law. Thus, due to
>***ulative episodes of hundreds of such Judge Miahs, Banglade****s have
>earned a bad name in Saudi Arabia, in Kuwait, in Malaysia, and in
>other cities. Their national image touched rock bottom. Who is to be
>blamed for such situation? Their government that failed to provide
>them jobs at home or their regulatory agencies that could not
>correctly govern the unscrupulous Agencies or the helpless Judge
>Miahs? Visa for the Philippines is free of cost.
>
>Moreover, the employers in KSA have to pay the Recruiting Agency of
>the Philippines handsome amount as fee plus air-ticket for the
>employee recruited. Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese laborers have to
>pay very little amount for a visa. Question is; why then the price of
>a Banglade**** visa is so sky high? Why then poor Judge Miah has to pay
>17 thousand Riyals for a single work visa? Is it because of unhealthy
>competition of our Recruiting Agencies? We are told that if one bids
>10 thousand Saudi Riyals for a visa with monthly salary of SR 500,
>another would rush to the Saudi employer the next day and would bid 15
>thousand with a reduced salary of SR 300 only! The burden ultimately
>goes to the shoulder of Judge Miahs, who pay the price and roam around
>in the wealthy streets of the Middle East as 21st century modern day
>slaves.
>
>He has no way to return home as he can hardly collect enough money to
>pay off his debt that he borrowed to pay the agencies for a work
>permit. Is he a bonded laborer? And in the process, he loses his wife,
>his children and his family. What a price he has to pay for a living
>and to earn home remittance for his country!! The Bangladesh
>government officials would boast that the state exchequer has earned
>so much billions of remittance. They are happy. But who knows how many
>billions were illegally funneled out of the country in the form of
>Hundi to pay for the visas abroad? Who knows how many families were
>separated or broken to earn such lucrative home remittance?
>
>Who knows how many young blood has gone into oblivion? However, it is
>not true that all Recruiting Agencies are corrupt and immoral.
>Definitely, many are pioneers of the Manpower Industry that generates
>so many billions for the poor country. They transformed burden of
>excess manpower into a national asset. They explored newer and newer
>avenues abroad and ex****ted our youths and manpower earning larger and
>larger foreign cash.
>
>Home remittance is now the major net earner of foreign exchange for
>Bangladesh. But the tragedy is; the glorious achievement made by the
>sector in last two decades is going to be totally damaged by misdeeds
>of a microscopic few unscrupulous greedy Agencies. Who are those
>people is not difficult to identify. In fact, Bangladesh government
>officials know them, the embassy officials know them. Even the BAIRA
>knows them. Will they ever come forward to list and stop the evil
>practices of these demons that are sure to destroy this lucrative
>industry and would hamper the best source of foreign exchange earnings
>of Bangladesh?
>
>Saudis are hard and intelligent people. They are not as forgetful a
>nation as the Bengalis that even basically pardoned their criminals of
>"crime against humanity" and criminals of the liberation war of 1971.
>No wonder, Lord Hastings, the conquer of Bengal in his testimony
>stated that 'Bengalis are the most forgiving nation'. In contrast,
>many jokingly call Saudi people as 'non-erasable memory' that never
>dies or erases.
>
>If anything once entered into their mindset, it is hard to remove. The
>negative image constructed may only be removed by sincere and
>collective effort by all Banglade**** nationals and agencies; the
>Bangladesh government, its embassy officials, its Recruiting Agencies
>and the expatriate Banglade****s living in Saudi Arabia. Unless a
>concerted and vigorous effort is made forthwith by all concerns, Saudi
>Arabia, the home of 2 million Banglade**** expatriates, the main source
>of home remittance could turn into a no man's zone for the
>Banglade****s in near future!
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