breaking the wall of silence

Breaking the wall of silence
Call for justice

There is only one major thing can force people to tolerate what is intolerable : That is need , mostly poverty ; the situation of foreign workers in Saudia Arabia and other Arab Gulf countries is a good proof of this fact . There are millions of human beings who are forced to work for long hours under , what can be best described as , very awful conditions , with only few signs of defense ; this is an odd example of wage slavery . In fact it is a situation where all parts benefit from the sufferings of these poor people , who themselves showed very little resistance . As economic conditions back home go worse and worse they perceive working in the wealthy Arab Gulf countries as the only viable alternative to those conditions at home ; at the same time their own governments consider their work as a source of some extra national income and foreign currency , as well as an easy available solution to reduce the increasing number of unemployed , without affecting the privileges of the ruling elite and class, and for all that , they did not even try to support their own workers , beside that these governments care more , in most cases , about their relationships with Arab Gulf governments than the working conditions of their own people working there . On the other hand , Saudia Arabia and other Arab Gulf countries are very strong allies of Oil multinational corporations and the governments of major capitalist countries , this alliance helped to build a strong wall of silence around all human rights violations committed by Saudi government ; only the actions of Islamic fundamentalists , who were used before against Arab left and national movements and Soviet influence , shed some light on the strong influence and the oppressive practices of conservative religious foundation as an instrument of the ruling monarchy . Still the conditions of foreign workers and other oppressed groups and masses are totally neglected by the "liberal" western press . They welcomed King Abdullah of Saudia Arabia in a total different way from Ahmadinejad of Iran , only because the latter is labeled as an enemy to both US government and Oil multinationals , while the Saudi king is an obedient satellite of the US . Beside this hypocritical position of western governments and press , this is also the position of local human rights activists : Aside from their original weakness , still they are one of the beneficiaries of such exploitation , and as in other regions , they need , at best , stimulation of these workers s struggle to develop sympathy with their cause . These workers are totally deprived of any rights , for example they have their weekly holiday only because the orthodox Islamic teaching prohibits any work before Friday noon pray . Cynically those who work for the multinationals are less abused and better protected than those who work for local bosses . It is a very strange bargain , these young people exchange their lives , muscle and brain power , human dignity and in some cases their own health for the money they received . In a world where there is only one decisive power : the will of the sponsor ( for those who do not know the conditions in Saudia Arabia , the "sponsor" is almost a slave-owner , he is the absolute boss of the worker , he keeps his passport and decides everything about his life ; the funny thing is that the western governments seem to embrace some parts of this system to fully control and intimidate foreign immigrants and guarantee their full obedience ) , and where everything could be sold for some extra money , and where no one has any power to defend himself even when abused verbally or physically , you can imagine what these people have to do in order to survive , you can imagine the beastly immoral situation they are dragged into , they have to steal , to lie and find any possible ways to "adapt" to the inhuman oppression . They are all the time intimidated by the possibility that they will be sent back home where they , and their families , will face dreadful poverty again , this makes them helpless creatures , that cannot resist their exploiters or even torturers . There is a big conspiracy of silence , that managed to keep the misery of these people unnoticed and made it possible for their suffering to continue without any hope . The first mission now is to break that wall of silence , to make their sufferings widely known , and then to seek to install a protective system that must start from the countries of origin to ensure a fair payback and working conditions , it is so important also to make our concerns and support known to these workers that they will understand that resistance is possible , that they can rise up for their rights and that by their own struggle and the support of those who care for human dignity and rights , real change can be done .

Mazen Kamalmaz
An Arab human rights activist

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